(135) 



CHAPTER XV. 

 The Shell-mounds ob Middens of the Littobal. 



In South Africa, kitchen middens, which are often of a con- 

 siderable extent, are to be found all along the coast from Walfish 

 Bay on the west, to past Natal, and probably as far as Delagoa Bay 

 on the east. 



Shell-mounds would appear to be a good designation for some, if 

 not most of them, and undoubtedly shell-fish was the main if not 

 the sole staple food of the occupiers. 



These middens are also found at no very great distance from the 

 seashore, especially where fresh water in the shape of a " vlei" or 

 lagoon is obtainable for a part of, if not during the whole year. 

 Such places are very numerous. 



It is quite possible that wandering tribes, clans, or families of 

 aborigines did descend periodically to the coast to collect or fare on 

 shell-fish, in the manner of the Kafirs of the present day on the 

 coasts of Natal and Pondoland. 



The presence of shells of the bivalve, fresh-water mollusc Unio in 

 some of the up-country rock-shelters very remote from the coast, 

 seems to indicate that the aborigines were partial to molluscs as an 

 article of food. " 



In these shell-mounds we meet with the remnants of a very 

 primitive culture in the shape of ornaments, utensils for domestic 

 use, and also pottery. 



When the middens are in the open, these relics are not always as 

 well preserved as when occurring in the cave-shelters, which the 

 occupiers turned into shell-mounds. f 



The makers of these mounds, whether in the open, under rock- 

 shelters, or in caves, were in all likelihood coast-dwellers, but it is 



* Eemains of sea-shells (PdffJZa and Hdlioth) were discovered in a rock-shelter 

 in the Beaufort West District of the Cape Colony, far removed from the sea. 



t In the Tzitzikama District of the Cape Colony, the farmers are in the habit of 

 carting away this shell-guano, so called, as manure for their lands. 



