IV.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO: II. 125 



It is this love of independence which made him prefer the 

 wandering life of a hunter to that of a peaceful agriculturist or 

 shepherd, as the Hottentot. He rarely builds a hut, but prefers 

 for abode the natural caves he finds in the rocks. In other 

 localities he forms a kind of nest in the bush- hence his name of 

 Bushman or digs with his nails subterranean caves, from which 

 he has received the name of ' Earthman.' His garments consist 

 only of a small skin. His weapons are still the spear, arrow and 

 bow in their most rudimentary form. The spear is a mere branch 

 of a tree, to which is tied a piece of bone or flint ; the arrow is 

 only a reed treated in the same way. The arrow and spear-heads 

 are always poisoned, to render mortal the slight wounds they 

 inflict. He gathers no flocks, which would impede his movements, 

 and only accepts the help of dogs as wild as himself. The 

 Bushmen have, however, one implement, a rounded stone per- 

 forated in the middle, in which is inserted a piece of wood ; with 

 this instrument, which carries us back to the first age of man. 

 they dig up a few edible roots growing wild in the desert. To 

 produce fire, he still retains the primitive system of rubbing two 

 pieces of wood another prehistoric survival." 



Touching their name, it is obvious that these scattered groups, 

 without hereditary chiefs or social organisation of 

 any kind, could have no collective designation. 

 The term Khuai, of uncertain meaning, but pro- 

 bably to be equated with the Hottentot Khoi^ " Men," is the 

 name only of a single group, though often applied to the whole 

 race. Saan, their Hottentot name, is the plural of Sa, a term 

 also of uncertain origin ; Ba-roa, current amongst the Bechuanas, 

 has not been explained, while the Zulu Abatwa would seem to 

 connect them even by name with Wolfs and Stanley's Batwa of 

 the Congo forest region. Other so-called tribal names (there are 

 no " tribes " in the strict sense of the word) are either nicknames 

 imposed upon them by their neighbours, or else terms taken from 

 the localities, as amongst the Fuegians 1 . 



1 Eth. p. 9. 



