PALEOLITHIC RACES 68 1 



from this population, it was forced southwards and finally 

 driven out of Europe. 



The Negroid race of pre-dynastic age which has left 

 steatopygous figures of baked earthenware in the Thebaid 

 may be one offshoot from it. Its direct descendants, who 

 retained most fully its culture, habits, and disposition, were the 

 Bushmen as we first knew them. 



The Bushmen thus acquire a very peculiar interest for us, 

 and we may therefore conclude with a short account of them, 

 though here again we have to lament many deficiencies in our 

 knowledge, a vast amount of precious information having been 

 irretrievably lost owing to the indifference of civilised govern- 

 ments, and of so-called civilised people, to the history and 

 welfare of the primitive races with which they have been 

 brought into contact. 1 



The physical features of the Bushmen may be gathered from 

 the accompanying photographs (figs. 8 and 9), which I owe to 

 the kindness of Prof. Haddon. The habit of the hair to grow 

 curled in pellet-like tufts is well shown in fig. 9. 



The Bushman was pre-eminently a hunter. His hunting- 

 ground, which up to the time of the advent of the white man 

 included a large part of South Africa, abounded in game : 

 gemsbocks, gnus, elands, antelopes, giraffes, bison, elephants, 

 rhinoceroses, quaggas, zebras, ostriches, and the wild boar 

 afforded him a rich booty. The weapon he depended on most, 

 both in the chase and war, was the bow and arrow : the bow 

 usually short and the arrows small, but deadly in their effects, 

 since they were invariably poisoned. Different kinds of poison 

 were used, some stronger, some weaker, according to the size 

 and vitality of the intended victim. Scorpions and centipedes 

 ground up into powder and mixed with the poisonous juice of 

 the amaryllis provided one kind ; another was prepared from the 

 trap-door spider, a creature of such venom that its bite is said 

 to kill a frog in less than a minute ; but the most fatal of all was 

 obtained from the N'Gwa, a little caterpillar about half an 



1 The most comprehensive work we possess on the subject is by G. W. Stow, 

 The Native Races of South Africa, London, 1905. A graphic and at the same 

 time scientific account of the last poverty-stricken remnants of the race is given 

 by Prof. S. Passarge, Die Buschmanner dcr Kalahari, Berlin, 1907. See also 

 J. T. Bent, The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, London, 1892 ; F. C. Selous, 

 Travels and Adventures in South-east Africa, London, 1893 ; and C. Warren, On 

 the Veldt in the 'Seventies, London, 1902. 



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