crrar. V.] OMANBONDE 97
we should arrive there in three days. We still were perfectly unable to understand how large the water was, as no two people said the same thing.
Aril 3rd.-Six hours took us to another werft. After the first two hours we left our old friend, the Vley River, as we called it; and the bushes being more open, and fewer thorn-trees among them, we followed our guide across the country. The captain of this werft was a very shrewd fellow, and a jolly, humorous sort of man. He was convinced that we were Hottentot spies ; but for all that, we became great friends.
At about the point where we now were Omuvereoom was identified with the plain. There were no thorns at all about here, but the country was covered with high green-leaved bushes; the wood was very brittle, so that the waggon crashed through trees whose stem was as thick as a man's thigh, and we had not to use the axes. Indeed, we have very seldom had occasion to employ them, considering the country that we have pushed through. The captain told us all sorts of tales about the Ovampo and their king, Nangoro. He had visited them two or three times. Nangoro, he said, was the fattest man in the world, and larger than either of my waggons. His size has made a great impression upon the sparely-built Damaras, for whenever I talk about him they allude to it. Every man I have talked to about the Ovampo speaks well of them.
Aril 4th.-We started in company with our tall guide, travelling three and a half hours-slept without water. The next day we were to reach our goal. Infinite were the conjectures on the size and appearance of Omanbonde. We had looked over my mackintosh boat to see that it was in good order, and agreed to settle on its hanks and Lave a fortnight or three weeks pleasant shooting in return for all the trouble and annoyance that we had undergone. We tried not to expect very much of a lake for fear of disappointment, but agreed that it could not be less than fifteen miles by eight. Five hours' travelling over undulating ground brought us on the brow of a hill, below which lay a broad grassy river bed five hundred yards across-this was the Omoramba; up it was a projecting rock, and round that Omanbonde. On a hill-top in front was a cluster of camelthorn trees (Omanbonde means camelthorn trees), and below that the lake was said to lie. Forwards we went with our nerves strung to the highest pitch of excitement; we rattled the waggon on as fast as we could walk,
