On the death of a person, some of his cattle (the richer the deceased, the more numerous the animals) are killed, and a banquet is given to his relations and friends. On these occasions the poor beasts are suffocated. Ordinarily, and when intended for food alone, animals are dispatched by some sharp-cutting instrument. The flesh, never eaten raw, and not often when roasted, is usually served up when boiled.
The ideas of a Namaqua as to the formation and rotary motion of the heavenly bodies, if not very profound, are unquestionably very original. “The sun, by some of the people of this benighted land,” says an enterprising traveler, “is considered to be a mass of fat, which descends nightly to the sea, where it is laid hold of by the chief of a white man’s ship, who cuts away a portion of tallow, and, giving the rest a kick, it bounds away, sinks under the wave, goes round below, and then comes up again in the east.”
When a man feels a desire to enter the matrimonial state, he goes to the father of the woman on whom he has settled his affection, and demands her in marriage. If the parent be favorable to the match, the affair may be considered as settled. An ox or a cow is then killed outside the door of the bride’s home, and the ceremony is over.
Polygamy is practiced without limitation. If a man become tired of his wife, he unceremoniously returns her to the parental roof, and however much she (or the parents) may object to so summary a proceeding, there is no remedy.
Widows are left to shift for themselves.
They neither cradle nor circumcise their children, which they are said to name in the following singular manner. No man nor woman has more than one name, which is retained even after marriage. If a daughter be born, she assumes the name of her father, while a boy would be called after his mother, with very little alteration. I never could understand the reason of this.
Within the memory of the present generation, a barbarous practice prevailed of leaving old and disabled people to perish far away from the dwellings of men. A slight fence was raised round the “living-dead,” and a small supply of water was placed at his side, when he was abandoned to his fate. Mr. Moffat, during his wanderings in Namaqua-land, saw one of these wretches (a woman), and on inquiring the cause of her being thus deserted, she replied, “I am old, you see, and no longer able to serve them (referring to her grown-up children). When they kill game, I am too feeble to help in carrying home the flesh; I am incapable of gathering wood to make fire; and I can not carry their children on my back, as I used to do.”
The Namaquas may be said to be long-lived, for individuals have been known to reach the advanced age of ninety, and even one hundred years. This is the more remarkable, when the very wretched life they lead is taken into consideration.
The Namaquas have a singular custom both among themselves and with regard to strangers, which consists in the adoption of a “father” and a “mother.” This practice is so widely observed, that few who come in contact with the several tribes are able to avoid it. Almost every European trader, indeed, possesses in each village which he is in the habit of frequenting either a so-called “father” or “mother.” But the custom is a most inconvenient one, to the traveler at least, for he may be pretty sure that, as soon as this near degree of consanguinity is established between himself and a Namaqua, he will be asked for a horse or an ox, or it may be for the very coat upon his back, which, as in duty bound, he is expected to hand over to “papa” or “mamma,” as the case may be. The poor son, it is true, has also the privilege of demanding any thing that may captivate his fancy; but since a native is usually more forward and importunate than a European, the bargain, as a rule, is generally a losing one to the latter.