*54 'HEAR CF KAHIKENE'S DEATH. [CHAP: vr,
again, I should invest largely in it, and only use dressed leather when I had nothing better. Wet ruins the latter, for it makes it soppy and extensible; drought makes tanned leather rotten, but not if a very little fat be rubbed in occasionally. All my tanned leather things lasted admirably, and far outwore the rest.
I had, whilst waiting for the Ovampo, some fresh oxen broken in, and among them Kahikene's fine black ox. I did so because news arrived one evening that Kahikend was killed, and I wished to keep a memento of him, and not to eat his present. It appeared that he went to Omagunde's son's werft immediately after we had parted, and made a bold charge. When the fighting was at its thickest, all Kahikend's men dropped off, and ran away, leaving him and his son alone. My old servant, Piet, from Mozambique, remained a little time with him, and shot two men with his gun, but then became frightened, and made his escape. An arrow struck Kahikene; and as he fell to the ground, Omagunde's men speared him through and through with their assegais. His son, a fine intelligent lad, rushed up to him in despair, and was murdered by his side.
As I have brought my narrative to the time when we were about to leave Damaraland behind us ; and as we had already lived five months in it, and of course had seen much of the manners and habits of the people, it will be a good opportunity for me to mention them in order, and more fully than I could have done before, without anticipating or breaking the thread of my story.
To commence with their name. It is in their own language "Ovaherero," or the "Merry People"; but those who are settled towards the interior are always called "Ovampantieru," or the "Deceivers"; for what reason I am totally unable to find out. Damup which is the Namaqua name for the people generally, has been corrupted by the Oerlam.s and Dutch traders into "Damara," and by this title they have always been known to the whites. Like ' the word " Caffre," it is an established name, and also a convenient one; for it supersedes all distinctions of locality and of tribes, which Ovaherero does not; in addition to this it is very pronounceable, and therefore I prefer adhering to established usage, and calling the savages by it, rather than by words in their own language.
Next, as to their jumble of ideas, which, for want of a better name, must be dignified by that of their religion or creed. In the beginning of things there was a tree (but the tree is somehow
