94 Annals of the South African Museum. 



primary purpose is the paring and boring, in a word, the making 

 of ostrich egg-shell discoidal beads. Few rock-shelters of inland 

 districts are without them. The specimens in Fig. 149 are from 

 the Orange Free State; in Fig. 145 from the northern parts of 

 the Cape Colony, &c. 



In the enormously wide stretches of sand which form the 

 coastal belt of German South-West Africa, the Bushman has still, 

 among his most restricted belongings, borers like those of Fig. 147. 

 Made of an almost intractable chalcedony rock, like that from which 

 the Zambesi Eiver scrapers, Figs. 119, 121, 122 in PI. XV., and 

 even palaeoliths, are manufactured, he has with infinite pains suc- 

 ceeded in turning them roughly, perhaps, but effectually neverthe- 

 less, into a drill for boring the egg-shell bead. 



But these borers are not always so uncouth. From Conception 

 Bay, and round Walfish Bay, we have finished drills, some of jasper, 

 some silicious, as perfect as any in Fig. 144 of PI. XIX. Exposed, 

 however, to periodical wdnds, that blow without intermission in the 

 same direction and with the greatest violence for several months of 

 the year, these tools have been reduced in spite of their minute size 

 to the wind-worn shape known to Geologists as " Drei Kanter." 

 Yet this wind-w'orn shape does not afford any clue as to the age, 

 because the violence and the duration of the wind is such that the 

 process might take only one year to produce." 



But it is not there only that the violent winds smooth the faces of 

 these small borers. Fig. 148 represent similar implements from the 

 sand-dunes of Mossel Bay which have also been turned into 

 " Dreikanters." 



And thus, these "pygmy" implements of South Africa are con- 

 nected with two industries, the one for tipping poisoned arrows, the 

 other for ostrich egg-shell bead-making. 



As burins they might have also been used, but it must be remem- 

 bered that the only ornamented bones or bone tools found hitherto 

 are Cuts 1 and 2 of Fig. 194 in PI. XXVI. This seems to indicate 

 that graving on bone was not often resorted to. 



The problem presented by these "pygmy" tools occasionally 

 with, but often also without, the secondary chipping is as much 

 complicated as that of the palaeolithic bouchers. They are found in 



* It is in these sands that diamonds are found. Mr. W. M. Adrey, who pre- 

 sented these specimens to the Museum, tells me that the noise produced by the 

 small pebbles displaced by this wind is quite audible. It is not only the imple- 

 ments which are reduced to the Dreikanter shape, but also all the jasper, apiate, 

 and other pebbles. 



