A straw guides the water into the hole of the vessel, as she draws mouthful after mouthful from below.

The water is made to pass along the outside, not through the straw.

If any one will attempt to squirt water into a bottle placed some distance below his mouth, he will soon perceive the wisdom of the Bushwoman's contrivance for giving the stream direction by means of a straw.

The whole stock of water is thus passed through the woman's mouth as a pump, and, when taken home, is carefully buried.

I have come into villages where, had we acted a domineering part, and rummaged every hut, we should have found nothing; but by sitting down quietly, and waiting with patience until the villagers were led to form a favorable opinion of us, a woman would bring out a shellful of the precious fluid from I know not where.
The so-called Desert, it may be observed, is by no means a useless tract of country.