The Dread Of Visits From Bechuanas Of Strange Tribes Causes The Bakalahari
To Choose Their Residences Far From Water; And They Not Unfrequently
Hide Their Supplies By Filling The Pits With Sand And Making A Fire
Over The Spot.
When they wish to draw water for use, the women come
with twenty or thirty of their water-vessels
In a bag or net on their backs.
These water-vessels consist of ostrich egg-shells, with a hole
in the end of each, such as would admit one's finger.
The women tie a bunch of grass to one end of a reed about two feet long,
and insert it in a hole dug as deep as the arm will reach;
then ram down the wet sand firmly round it. Applying the mouth
to the free end of the reed, they form a vacuum in the grass beneath,
in which the water collects, and in a short time rises into the mouth.
An egg-shell is placed on the ground alongside the reed,
some inches below the mouth of the sucker. A straw guides the water
into the hole of the vessel, as she draws mouthful after mouthful from below.
The water is made to pass along the outside, not through the straw.
If any one will attempt to squirt water into a bottle
placed some distance below his mouth, he will soon perceive
the wisdom of the Bushwoman's contrivance for giving the stream direction
by means of a straw. The whole stock of water is thus passed
through the woman's mouth as a pump, and, when taken home,
is carefully buried.
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