Carl Gotthilf Büttner

“ The lord of the well, when he is asked for water, will generally order his people to wait upon the one making the request, so that he does not get paid for the water, but for the attendance; and, if he does not choose to permit the well to be used for another man's cattle, the argument that he did not create the water has no effect upon him. When any one finds a piece of land suitable for a garden, he can fence it and till it, and the crop will belong to him ”

“ The custom is the same with regard to that which the earth conceals: every one takes of its treasures wherever he finds them. All, from all directions, fetch iron and copper ores from those parts of the land where the mines have been known to exist from time immemorial; and the people who ordinarily live near the mines have never on that account thought of assuming any right of proprietorship over them. ”

“ THE traveler, coming fresh from Europe into Damaraland, is struck by the complete communistic freedom with which every man appropriates the land and its natural products. Roads have been worn through the thickets by foot-men and the heavy ox-wagons, and the chief villages are connected by a kind of highway, but no one is obliged to keep the roads if he does not want to. ”

“ Whoever settles in any particular spot must, however, expect that other persons, finding it well supplied with water and pasturage, will bring their herds there too; and it is the practice of the Herero, when they wish to get rid of an unwelcome neighbor, notwithstanding their communism, to bring up so many herds and establish so many cattle-ranges about his house that he becomes disgusted with the frequent intrusions, and is obliged to go away from the exhausted tract. ”

“ There are but few salt-licks in the land; and, as soon after the rainy season as the ground becomes passable, the herders from all quarters drive their cattle across the pasture-lands indifferently to the springs. The dwellers around these places look on quietly, while the cattle and the sheep, flocking up by thousands from all the regions around, tread down and destroy the grass of their pastures. They may complain to themselves about the destruction, but it never occurs to them to drive the strangers away. ”

“ The chiefs have, however, a tolerably secure possession in their retainers; and the feudal and patriarchal relation in which the men stand to each other is in strong contrast with the community of title to the land and soil. Theoretically, the function of head of the family descends to the eldest son; practically, it is exercised by the strongest member of the family—who is most likely an uncle of the heir—around whom the other members group themselves as dependents. The position of the women is not essentially different from that of the women of the working-classes in Europe. ”

“ The hunter who has to make the first shot is in that case the real hunter, and the others are only his helpers; but, if he misses, the right passes over to the next one.
Any one can cut down a tree who wishes to, but another is not allowed to appropriate the wood after it has been taken possession of. Any one may dig a well for his cattle wherever there is hope of finding water, but no one can drink out of the well which another has dug without the permission of the owner. ”

“ If any objection is made to the stranger, nothing worse happens than that something unreasonable is demanded of him, in the same way that people in other parts of the world are not ashamed to overreach strangers: this is not so easily done, however, if the intruder is a native or a member of the same tribe; and even a stranger, if he does not allow himself to be scared away, is at last permitted to remain undisturbed. ”

“ The most wealthy cattle-owners number their herds by the thousand head. It is impossible to keep them all in one place, and they are therefore distributed at different stations under the charge of particular herdsmen. The herdsman's position is a considerable one, and brings with it privileges enough to make it desirable. The cattle are not distinguished by any specific marks, and the owner's only means of recognizing them is by his personal acquaintance with them. ”

“ The herdsmen must likewise bring up all the cattle from the various stations, that they may be identified according to their pedigrees. The division of all these animals and the adjudication of the claims of all the pretendants who appear, sometimes consumes months of time, with discussions which are often carried on in the midst of great excitement. The dying man may himself give directions respecting the division of his property, which are then implicitly carried out, otherwise the man who disregards them may be troubled by his ghost. ”

“ The people are not disposed to grudge a stranger the particular spot of land he occupies, but they wish to drive foreigners out of the country altogether. An incident from Damara history will help to illustrate the extent to which this sense of communism goes. When the Hereros had succeeded, after nine years of warfare, in shaking off the domination of the Namaquas, to whom they had previously been subjected, the Namaqua chief, Jan Afrikaner, asked the missionaries to help him make a peace with them. ”

“ The tract again becomes free for the first comer to occupy.
A kind of property in personal goods is theoretically recognized, but the right is, in practice, one that rather appertains to the family than to the individual. A general principle seems to prevail that it is not right to refuse a gift to one who asks it, particularly if he is a relative or a friend, or is powerful or rich. ”

“ The Hereros will even resist, in every way, any one conceding, by sale, a particular right to any person to hold any piece of land. The Roman Catholic missionaries, who recently sought to gain a footing in Damaraland, made themselves suspected more than in any other way by representing to the people that they would do better by them than the Protestant missionaries had done, for they would buy land for their churches, schools, and dwellings, while the Protestant missionaries were occupying land for those purposes free. ”

“ One of the results of the system is that the rich and powerful grow more wealthy and influential the longer they live, while the children and younger members of the family receive nothing as of right. ”

“ The natural result of this communism is, that no one has a personal care for the land, but gets all he can out of it, and then leaves it waste to go to a new spot. Hence the language of the Hereros has no terms for home, fatherland, or boundary-lines. ”

“ The provisions of matrimonial alliances are carefully considered and guarded, so that each family may receive all the honor it is entitled to, and neither shall get the advantage of the other. Slavery exists in a mild form, but the sale of slaves seldom occurs. Children are taken into the council of their parents, and are consulted about important matters from a very early age ”

“ The people, however, exercise without scruple the right to appropriate their relative's goods to their own use, if he is not there to prevent it; and this state of public opinion leads to some comical scenes. A wealthy old chief, who had hundreds of dependents, possessed numerous articles of European clothing, without owning a complete suit ”

“ The work is divided between the two sexes about as it is in Europe, and the women are not called upon to do men's work, except in case of need, while the men are willing enough to help in the peculiar women's work whenever they can make themselves useful and have nothing better to do, provided no strangers are in sight. ”

“ People of this class have no hesitation in begging, and the stranger may be sure that the ragged fellow who asks him for a new shirt in place of his worn-out one is a person of wealth who thinks he is doing him honor, and is according him the recognition he would give to his lord or his father. ”

“ It has, however, become customary for the children to be given particular animals as their own, their right to which, with the increase, is regularly and formally recognized; and with these and what additions to their stock they may acquire in one way or another, they are able gradually to accumulate a considerable property as they grow up. ”

“ Particular animals are sometimes milked for each member of the family, into a vessel set apart for him, and then it is wrong for any one to touch the dish without the owner's permission. The master's dish is filled even when he is absent, and must not be used by any one else under penalty of bad luck ”

“ The denial of the first request does not generally give offense; but, if the request is granted, the asker will demand more and greater things, and will expect to get them; and, if a person gives to one of a number of beggars, he must give to all the rest, or they will think he is dishonoring them. ”

“ The division, or the fact that it is to take place, brings all the connections of the family from far and wide around the bed of the lord when he has died or is expected to die, for each claimant must be present in person to assert his claim, or it will be overlooked or overpowered. ”

“ It would be decidedly foreign to the Damara mind for any one to undertake, as Europeans are accustomed to do, to monopolize the salt-springs and charge a higher price for the use of them as they become more indispensable to others. ”

“ They are of no more significance than the zebra or rhinoceros tracks which led to the drinking-places before man appeared in the country; and there is no reason why the traveler should not make a new road at pleasure. ”

“ A custom of this kind has prevailed from antiquity with reference to cattle and milk-vessels. Frequently, also, the head of the house has the right to the first use of things; among the Hottentots they are his so long as they are whole, but as soon as they are damaged the relatives are at liberty to get them if they can. ”

“ This requires him to be continually on the watch, and to go frequently the round of the stations to inspect them, else his herdsmen might make some of them their own. Most owners become extremely skillful in noticing and recognizing the individual peculiarities of their animals. ”