eastern Bechuanaland are perennial streams, lose their water by evaporation and percolation on their way westward through the Kalahari. The Molopo, a very imposing river on the map, is dry in its lower stretches. The annual rainfall does not exceed 10 in. It occurs in the summer months, September to March, and chiefly in thunderstorms. The country is suffering from progressive desiccation, but there is good evidence of an abundant supply of water not far beneath the surface. In the water-melon season a few white farmers living on the edge of the desert send their herds thither to graze. Such few spots as have been under cultivation by artificial irrigation yield excellent returns to the farmer; but the chief commercial products of the desert are the skins of animals.
The Kalahari is the home of wandering Bushmen (q.v.), who live entirely by the chase, killing their prey with poisoned arrows, of Ba-Kalahari, and along the western border of Hottentots, who are both hunters and cattle-rearers. The Ba-Kalahari (men of the Kalahari), who constitute the majority of the inhabitants, appear to belong to the Batau tribe of the Bechuanas, now no longer having separate tribal existence, and traditionally reported to be the oldest of the Bechuana tribes. Their features are markedly negroid, though their skin is less black than that of many negro peoples. They have thin legs and arms. The Ba-Kalahari are said to have possessed enormous herds of large horned cattle until deprived of them and driven into the desert by a fresh migration of more powerful Bechuana tribes. Unlike the Bushmen, and in spite of desert life, the Ba-Kalahari have a true passion for agriculture and cattle-breeding. They carefully cultivate their gardens, though in many cases all they can grow is a scanty supply of melons and pumpkins, and they rear small herds of goats. They are also clever hunters, and from the neighbouring Bechuana chiefs obtain spears, knives, tobacco and dogs in exchange for the skins of the animals they kill. In disposition they are peaceful to timidity, grave and almost morose. Livingstone states that he never saw Ba-Kalahari children at play. An ingenious method is employed to obtain water where there is no open well or running stream. To one end of a reed about 2 ft. long a bunch of grass is tied, and this end of the reed is inserted in a hole dug at a spot where water is known to exist underground, the wet sand being rammed down firmly round it. An ostrich egg-shell, the usual water vessel, is placed on the ground alongside the reed. The water-drawer, generally a woman, then sucks up the water through the reed, dexterously squirting it into the adjacent egg-shell. To aid her aim she places between her lips a straw, the other end of which is inserted in the shell. The shells, when filled, are buried, the object of the Ba-Kalahari being to preserve their supplies from any sudden raid by Bushmen or other foe. Early travellers stated that no amount of bullying or hunting in a Ba-Kalahari village would result in a find of water; but that on friendly relations being established the natives would bring a supply, however arid the district. The British government has since sunk wells in one or two districts. Though the Ba-Kalahari have no religion in the strict sense of the word, they show traces of totemism, and as Batau, i.e. “men of the lion,” revere rather than fear that beast.
The Kalahari was first crossed to Lake Ngami by David Livingstone, accompanied by William C. Oswell, in 1849. In 1878–1879 a party of Boers, with about three hundred wagons, trekked from the Transvaal across the Kalahari to Ngami and thence to the hinterland of Angola. Many of the party, men, women and children, perished of thirst during the journey. Survivors stated that in all some 250 people and 9000 cattle died.
See Bechuanaland. Die Kalahari, by Dr Siegfried Passarge (Berlin, 1904), is a valuable treatise on the geology, topography, hydrography, climate and flora of the desert, with maps and bibliography. The author spent two years (1896–1898) in the Kalahari. See also Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, &c., by David Livingstone (London, 1857).
KALAMATA (officially Καλάμαι, from an ancient town near the site), chief town of the modern Greek nomarchy of Messenia in the Morea, situated on the left bank of the Nedon, about 1 m. from the sea. Pop. (1907), 13,123. There is a suburb on the right bank of the stream. On a hill behind the town are the ruins of a medieval castle, but no ancient Greek remains have been discovered, although some travellers have identified the site with that of the classical Pharae or Pherae. It is the seat of a court of justice and of an archbishop. During the middle ages it was for a time a fief of the Villehardouins. In 1685 Kalamata was captured by the Venetians; in 1770, and again in 1821, it was the revolutionary headquarters in the Morea. In 1825 it was sacked by Ibrahim Pasha. Kalamata is situated in a very fruitful district, of which it is the emporium. The harbour, though recently improved, offers little shelter to shipping. Vessels load and discharge by means of lighters, the outer harbour having a depth at entrance of 24 ft. and inside of 14 ft. The inner harbour has a depth of 15 ft. and is sheltered by a breakwater 1640 ft. in length; in the winter months the fishing craft take shelter in the haven of Armyro. The silk industry, formerly important, still employs about 300 women and girls in four spinning establishments. Olive oil and silk are the chief exports.
KALAMAZOO, a city and the county-seat of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Kalamazoo River, about 49 m. S. of Grand Rapids and 144 m. W. of Detroit. Pop. (1900) 24,404, of whom 4710 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 39,437. It is served by the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Grand Rapids & Indiana, the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago, and the Chicago, Kalamazoo & Saginaw railways, and by interurban electric lines. The city has a public library, and is the seat of Kalamazoo college (Baptist), which grew out of the Kalamazoo literary institute (1833) and was chartered under its present name in 1855; the Michigan female seminary (Presbyterian), established in 1866; the Western State normal school (1904); Nazareth Academy (1897), for girls; Barbour Hall (1899), a school for boys; two private schools for the feeble-minded; and the Michigan asylum for the insane, opened in 1859. The surrounding country is famous for its celery, and the city is an important manufacturing centre, ranking third among the cities of the state in the value of its factory products in 1904. The value of the factory product in 1904 was $13,141,767, an increase of 82.9% since 1900. The waterworks and electric-lighting plant are owned and operated by the municipality. Kalamazoo was settled in 1829, was known as Bronson (in honour of Titus Bronson, an early settler) until 1836, was incorporated as the village of Kalamazoo in 1838, and in 1884 became a city under a charter granted in the preceding year.
KALAPUYA, or Callapooya, a tribe and stock of North-American Indians, whose former range was the valley of the Willamette River, Oregon. They now number little more than a hundred, on a reservation on Grande Ronde reservation, Oregon.
KALAT, the capital of Baluchistan, situated in 29° 2′ N. and 66° 35′ E., about 6780 ft. above sea-level, 88 m. from Quetta. The town gives its name also to a native state with an area, including Makran and Kharan, of 71,593 m. and a population (1901) of 470,336. The word Kalat is derived from kala—a fortress; and Kalat is the most picturesque fortress in the Baluch highlands. It crowns a low hill, round the base of which clusters the closely built mass of flat-roofed mud houses which form the insignificant town. A miri or citadel, having an imposing appearance, dominates the town, and contains within its walls the palace of the khan. It was in an upper room of this residence that Mehrab Khan, ruler of Baluchistan, was killed during the storming of the town and citadel by the British troops at the close of the first Afghan War in 1839. In 1901 it had a population of only 2000. The valleys immediately surrounding the fortress are well cultivated and thickly inhabited, in spite of their elevation and the extremes of temperature to which they are exposed. Recent surveys of Baluchistan have determined the position of Hozdar or Khozdar (27° 48′ N., 66° 38′ E.) to be about 50 m. S. of Kalat. Khozdar was the former capital of Baluchistan, and is as directly connected with the southern branches of the Mulla Pass as Kalat is with the northern, the Mulla being the ancient trade route to Gandava (Kandabe) and Sind. In spite of the rugged and barren nature of the mountain districts of the Kalat highlands, the main routes through them (concentrating on Khozdar rather than on Kalat) are comparatively easy. The old “Pathan vat,” the trade highway between Kalat and Karachi by the Hab valley, passes through Khozdar. From Khozdar another route strikes a little west of south to Wad, and then passes easily into Las Bela. This is the “Kohan vat.” A third route runs to Nal, and leads to the head of the Kolwa valley (meeting with no great physical obstruction), and then strikes into the open high road to Persia. Some of the
