Bladders and paunches.
The bladders, or paunches, of slain animals are very generally used as water vessels. If an animal has drunk recently water may be found in its stomach. We have quenched our thirst with the milk of a blesbok doe as she lay dead, though not yet cold, upon the plain.
We have often seen our followers, when a buffalo or other animal has been killed, take out the paunch, shake out its contents, and hasten with it to the nearest stream, where, with barely a preparatory rinsing, they would fill it with water quite clean enough for their idea of culinary operation; and, calling on the nearest native resident, would invite him to bring his pots with him and assist in cooking the banquet.
Sometimes the paunch scraped thin is suspended by thongs passed through like purse strings. Occasionally two mimosa thorns, which are not unfrequently 4in. or 5in. long, or a couple of skewers, are thrust through and the cord tightened round under them. If a small hole should be found, it may be stopped by putting a somewhat larger pebble upon the place, gathering the skin around it, and then tying the neck firmly with a cord; or the edges may be skewered together with a thorn, and the neck bound tightly with cord.
When a rhinoceros has fallen we have seen the Damara women carefully extract the long intestines, distend them with air, and bring them home coiled round their bodies, to be used thereafter as water vessels.
Waterproof baskets.
The Kafirs on the frontier of the Cape Colony plait baskets of so fine a texture that they employ them for holding milk and even water; but it is better that they should become saturated with the first before they are used for the latter, as, though they swell while wet and are perfectly tight, pure water would dry out with the heat from the fibre of an empty basket, and the consequent shrinking of the texture would make it leaky.
We have seen most elegant and serviceable baskets made in Timor of the leaves of the fan palm. The ends of all the spreading leaflets are gathered together in a point, and a cord of twisted fibre is passed as a handle from this point to the stump of the footstalk. A pair of these baskets, holding two or three gallons each, are slung to the ends of a bamboo, and the bearer taking this across his shoulder carries water, or sometimes palm juice, about the town. The latter refreshing beverage is sold at a doit per cup; the cup itself being made of a smaller palm leaf, and also purchasable for a doit or two.
At Walvisch Bay, in South-West Africa, where rain falls perhaps once in two years, and the river runs with fresh water once in ten, there is a small water hole called Sand Fountain. This is about four miles from the landing place, and the water was, and perhaps still is, brought by two or more Hottentots dragging a cask fitted up like a garden roller, with the pivots set firmly into stout cross-pieces nailed or screwed upon each end of the cask.
Shafts of wood, with holes bored in them to fit upon the pivots, may be used as means of traction, or, if more convenient, ropes with thimbles or grummets turned in the ends for the same purpose; but in this case the trek ropes should be kept apart by a horizontal bar that they may not chafe upon the chine of the cask. It will also be advantageous to fit on felloe-pieces, near each end, so as to form a substitute for wheels, on which the cask may travel, and this will save a great deal of wear and tear should the country be rough or stony.