ABSTRACT
THE Namas of earlier times were not only nomadic stock-farmers but were hunters as well. The land’s enormous wealth of game was itself an invitation to the chase, which provided the family with nourishing food. Besides that, the flocks could be spared when the hunting-grounds provided flesh food. They possessed very few firearms but they had made the acquaintance of the horse, for which they willingly gave fifty oxen when they got one from the east or the south. With a horse it was possible to get close up to the larger wild animals and to deal them deadly wounds with an assegai. The meat was then cut into thin strips on the spot and hung on the bushes to dry in the heat of the sun. It could then be loaded onto pack-oxen and sent to the place where the trekking family had halted with its flocks. A considerable number of men usually took part in these hunting expeditions. Those who had horses undertook the killing of the game, while those who accompanied them on foot cut up the meat, dried it and saw to its transportation. The European hunter made his appearance in their hunting-grounds. As it was ivory that he was after and not meat, the Namas did not regard him as a competitor. Whole villages trekked along with him; the foreigner had a gun and that ensured good results. He set no store on the meat and that made them sure of the booty. It necessarily followed that the game began to be killed off. Giraffes and elephants became much scarcer.
