The Stone Ages of South Africa. 109 



masters. One of these that I passed on the road, a very old man^ 

 died (as I was told) the day after of weakness and fatigue. Most of 

 these fugitives carried a thick, stout staff, generally headed with a 

 heavy gritstone of 2 lbs. weight or more, rounded oft', and with 

 a hole bored through the middle of it, in order to increase the force 

 of the stick for the purpose of digging up roots and bulbs out of the 

 ground ; and at the same time for piercing the hard clay hillocks, 

 which are formed to the height of 3 or 4 feet, by a kind of ants 

 (Termes), a species of insect of which the Boshiesmen's food in a 

 great measure consists." It gave me no small pain to see the poor 

 old fugitives frequently wasting the remains of their strength on 

 these hardened hillocks in vain, some other animals, that feed on 

 ants, having worked their way into them, and consumed all their 

 provisions beforehand." 



Burchell adds his testimony : — 



"We were visited by two natives, whose kraal, they said, was at 

 some distance eastward, and who being out in search of wild roots 

 happened to observe our track, and had discovered us by following 

 it. One of them wore on the side of his head, as an ornament, and 

 tied close to the hair, a circular plate of shining brass 3 inches in 

 diameter. The other carried, what my Hottentots called a ' graaf- 

 stok ' (a digging-stick) to which there was affixed a heavy stone to 

 increase its force in picking up bulbous roots. The stone, which 

 was 5 inches in diameter, had been cut or ground, very regularly, to 

 a round form, and perforated with a hole large enough to receive the 

 stick and a wedge b}' which it was fixed in its place." 



Livingstone, in his last journal, but quoting from memory, as is 

 plainly discernible by the figure given, states : "In 1841 I saw a 

 Bushwoman in the Cape Colony with a round stone and a hole 

 through it ; on being asked, she showed me how it was used by 

 inserting the top of a digging-stick into it and digging a root. The 

 stone was to give the stick weight." 



In addition to this written evidence I endeavoured to find other 

 testimony with the result that a Mr. Turner, from near Griqua 

 Town, remembered very w^ell Bushmen and Korannas using 

 the " ! kwe." The stone was fastened at the loicei- j)art of the 

 stick. 



Mr. Bodenstein — at whose place Dr. A. W. Eogers, Director of 

 the Cape Geological Survey, found a very large perforated stone 

 made of steatite (an unusual occuri'ence), but cleft in the centre — 



* The Termes workers are, possibly on account of their colour, called still 

 "Bushman's Rice," in Dutch, " Rijs miere." 



