The Stone Agc^ of South Africa. 113 



Fortunately, we have proofs that in South Africa the ! kwe was 

 not only used for weighting digging-sticks but also as club-head, 

 and this proof is afforded by Bushman paintings from the Orange 

 River Colony, which through the kindness of Professor B. Young, of 

 the Transvaal University College, I am able to reproduce here.* 



These parietal paintings represent Bush people or Koran nas going 

 a-digging. The women hold the stick with the ! kwe in position 

 (text-fig. 13). 



In text-fig. 14, men are seen carrying the same, but in some 

 figures the stick is there, but not the stone.! 



The third scene, text-fig. 15, shows another use for the ! kwe. 

 It is now a club-head ; the stick is short ; the stone is affixed to 

 tlie top, and the stick protrudes for a short distance. 



Fig 1.5. 



This scene is plainly a mythical one, and as such is difficult 

 of explanation, but there can be no doubt in this case as to the 

 purpose of the ! kwe. 



It is now very evident that these implements served the purpose 

 of adding weight to the digging-sticks, and were used as well as heads 

 to clubs.]: 



* 'Sir. .J. P. Johnston has also published these vei-y interesting scenes. 



t Kolben says in speaking of the Hottentots : " Every morning, excepting when 

 the husband goes a-hunting or fishing, which happens not often, the Hottentot 

 woman goes to gather certain roots and milk the cow for the sustenance of the 

 family. These roots . . . she digs up with a stick of iron or olive-wood, pointed." 

 There is here no mention of a perforated stone to add weight to the stick. But as 

 the perforated stones are far from uncommon in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Cape Town, I found several in the precincts of the town, either Kolben quoted 

 from memory, with the inevitable result, or these stones were possibly discarded at 

 the time of his visit (1715). 



I In New Guinea stones perforated seemingh- in the same manner as our South 

 African examples are mostly used for heading clubs ; some are sharpened at each 

 end. A few of these are natural stones ; the greater part are, however, undoubtedly 

 worked. See Haddon's " Classification of the Stone Clubs of British New Guinea," 

 Journ. Anthr. Instit., xxx., 1900. 



8 



