PALEOLITHIC RACES 685 



order to point out a fact of considerable importance in con- 

 nection with the cave paintings of Europe. We are told l on 

 the authority of the Bushmen themselves that it was not any 

 man of a tribe who was competent to make a painting : it was 

 only those who were specially gifted, and when an artist had 

 adorned the walls of a cave with his polychromes no one would 

 dare to interfere with them so long as he was alive, nor 

 indeed so long as his memory lasted. It was only when his 

 name had passed into oblivion that a new aspirant for fame 

 would venture to make fresh drawings over the old ones. In 

 some caves as many as five distinct series of paintings are to 

 be seen one over the other. 



As regards the interpretation of the paintings, Stow does 

 not attribute a mythical meaning to them, but asserts that they 

 are historical, though he admits that a mythical meaning may 

 have subsequently become attached to them. In no case do 

 they appear to have been concealed from women and the 

 uninitiated. 



A certain amount of government had been established among 

 the Bushmen ; there were head chiefs to the tribes and sub-chiefs 

 to the families or clans ; the hunting-grounds ;of each family 

 were strictly delimited, and the boundaries were faithfully 

 observed. It is said that the head chiefs had their residence in 

 great caves, and that the paintings in these were the emblazon- 

 ment of the symbol of the tribe. 



All that we learn about the Bushmen impresses us with 

 their great intellectual ability. Johnston mentions one in- 

 dividual he met, who conversed fluently in Dutch, spoke 

 more English than many Boers, and was thoroughly conversant 

 with Hottentot, Ochi-herrero, Ochi-mpo, and several Bantu 

 dialects. 2 They were distinguished for their hospitality to 

 strangers, and for the unselfish way in which they divided their 

 food. They loved their country and showed an unfailing 

 devotion to their chiefs ; they possessed all the noblest of the 

 primitive virtues, and, not least, unflinching bravery and un- 

 quenchable love of freedom. It was this last which came to 

 be accounted to them as their greatest crime. They found it 

 impossible to become slaves to strange masters in their own 

 land. Equally impossible was it for a hunting race to maintain 



1 Stow, op. cit. p. 26. 



2 Johnston, Tribes of the Congo, Mem. Anthr. Inst. 1884, xiii. 



