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T54   GHOU DAIIIUP GENEALOGIES.   [CHAP. IX.

Ghou Damup were the aborigines not only of the present Damaraland but also of the whole country to the south of it half-way down to the Orange River, and that they are of a race in every respect kindred to the Ovampo. The Bushmen appear to have invaded and thoroughly conquered the Ghou Damup, for they not only exist as the superior caste of the two, but have also taught them their language, to the entire exclusion of whatever other one they may at some former period have possessed. Those Ghou Damup that I saw have no tradition of any other language than that they used; but the tribes who live on tine lower parts of the Omoramba were described as speaking several languages ; and some of these were said to be ignorant of Hottentot. All these bits of information were derived from very many sources; some I received from persons in Damaraland, some from Ghou Damup among the Namaquas, and the rest from Bushmen who lived far to the east of them. The Ghou Damup are abused and tyrannised over by everybody, but servitude has become their nature, and the very name of Ghou which they themselves adopt and use is far from complimentary. Like many other Hottentot names it is not translatable to ears polite. The missionaries for delicacy's sake call them " Hill " Damaras, because they live on the hills. A standing joke against the Ghou Damup is, that they trace their descent from the monkey-tribe. An old man amongst them gave me the following history of his family ; he worded it very neatly:" My great uncle was a baboon, and lived on excellent terms with the rest of the family, but the following occurrence caused his separation from it. My grandfather had been gambling, and lost all the ornaments, etc., that he had on his person, but wishing to continue the game, requested his brother the baboon to go to my great grandfather, the famous Hadji-Aybib, and beg enough beads from him to form another stake. My great uncle the baboon went, but passing a Hottentot werft by the way, in which were many fierce dogs, before unknown in the country, he became so alarmed at their barking and snapping at him that he ran to the hills, and never dared face man again. Why should not we and the baboons be brothers ? " said the old gentleman. " Everybody persecutes us alike. We both live on the hills, eat the same roots, and `crow' for them with our hands in the same manner ! "

Hadji-Aybib, my friend's great grandfather, married a Bushwoman for his second wife, who annoyed her stepsons by her hauteur, and twitted them on account of their vulgar habits and low connections. Influenced by her, Hadji-Aybib cruelly treated his Damup progeny,