The Husband On These Occasions
Is Bound To Slaughter For His Lady An Ox, Or Goat, Or Sheep,
According To His Means.
My knowledge in the above line procured for me great fame
in a department in which I could lay no claim to merit.
A woman came a distance of one hundred miles for relief in a complaint
which seemed to have baffled the native doctors; a complete cure
was the result.
Some twelve months after she returned to her husband,
she bore a son. Her husband having previously reproached her
for being barren, she sent me a handsome present, and proclaimed
all over the country that I possessed a medicine for the cure of sterility.
The consequence was, that I was teased with applications
from husbands and wives from all parts of the country.
Some came upward of two hundred miles to purchase the great boon,
and it was in vain for me to explain that I had only cured
the disease of the other case. The more I denied, the higher
their offers rose; they would give any money for the "child medicine";
and it was really heart-rending to hear the earnest entreaty,
and see the tearful eye, which spoke the intense desire for offspring:
"I am getting old; you see gray hairs here and there on my head,
and I have no child; you know how Bechuana husbands cast their old wives away;
what can I do? I have no child to bring water to me when I am sick," etc.
The whole of the country adjacent to the Desert, from Kuruman to Kolobeng,
or Litubaruba, and beyond up to the latitude of Lake Ngami,
is remarkable for its great salubrity of climate. Not only the natives,
but Europeans whose constitutions have been impaired by an Indian climate,
find the tract of country indicated both healthy and restorative.
The health and longevity of the missionaries have always been fair,
though mission-work is not very conducive to either elsewhere. Cases have
been known in which patients have come from the coast with complaints
closely resembling, if they were not actually, those of consumption;
and they have recovered by the influence of the climate alone.
It must always be borne in mind that the climate near the coast, from which
we received such very favorable reports of the health of the British troops,
is actually inferior for persons suffering from pulmonary complaints
to that of any part not subjected to the influence of sea-air.
I have never seen the beneficial effects of the inland climate
on persons of shattered constitutions, nor heard their high praises
of the benefit they have derived from traveling, without wishing
that its bracing effects should become more extensively known in England.
No one who has visited the region I have above mentioned fails
to remember with pleasure the wild, healthful gipsy life of wagon-traveling.
A considerable proportion of animal diet seems requisite here.
Independent of the want of salt, we required meat in as large quantity daily
as we do in England, and no bad effects, in the way of biliousness,
followed the free use of flesh, as in other hot climates.
A vegetable diet causes acidity and heartburn.
Mr. Oswell thought this climate much superior to that of Peru,
as far as pleasure is concerned; the want of instruments unfortunately
prevented my obtaining accurate scientific data for the medical world
on this subject; and were it not for the great expense of such a trip,
I should have no hesitation in recommending the borders of the Kalahari Desert
as admirably suited for all patients having pulmonary complaints.
It is the complete antipodes to our cold, damp, English climate.
The winter is perfectly dry; and as not a drop of rain falls
during that period, namely, from the beginning of May to the end of August,
damp and cold are never combined. However hot the day may have been
at Kolobeng - and the thermometer sometimes rose, previous to a fall of rain,
up to 96 Deg. in the coolest part of our house - yet the atmosphere
never has that steamy feeling nor those debilitating effects
so well known in India and on the coast of Africa itself. In the evenings
the air becomes deliciously cool, and a pleasant refreshing night follows
the hottest day. The greatest heat ever felt is not so oppressive as it is
when there is much humidity in the air; and the great evaporation consequent
on a fall of rain makes the rainy season the most agreeable for traveling.
Nothing can exceed the balmy feeling of the evenings and mornings
during the whole year. You wish for an increase neither of cold nor heat;
and you can sit out of doors till midnight without ever thinking
of colds or rheumatism; or you may sleep out at night, looking up to the moon
till you fall asleep, without a thought or sign of moon-blindness.
Indeed, during many months there is scarcely any dew.
Chapter 7.
Departure from the Country of the Bakwains - Large black Ant -
Land Tortoises - Diseases of wild Animals - Habits of old Lions -
Cowardice of the Lion - Its Dread of a Snare - Major Vardon's Note -
The Roar of the Lion resembles the Cry of the Ostrich -
Seldom attacks full-grown Animals - Buffaloes and Lions -
Mice - Serpents - Treading on one - Venomous and harmless Varieties -
Fascination - Sekomi's Ideas of Honesty - Ceremony of the Sechu for Boys
- The Boyale for young Women - Bamangwato Hills - The Unicorn's Pass -
The Country beyond - Grain - Scarcity of Water - Honorable Conduct
of English Gentlemen - Gordon Cumming's hunting Adventures -
A Word of Advice for young Sportsmen - Bushwomen drawing Water -
Ostrich - Silly Habit - Paces - Eggs - Food.
Having remained five days with the wretched Bakwains,
seeing the effects of war, of which only a very inadequate idea
can ever be formed by those who have not been eye-witnesses of its miseries,
we prepared to depart on the 15th of January, 1853. Several dogs,
in better condition by far than any of the people, had taken up
their residence at the water.
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