The Stone Ages of South Africa. 163 



know now regarding the position in which skeletons lay, it is per- 

 haps permissible to consider the scene as not men dancing, but men 

 inhumed or going to be inhumed. 



For a long time this example of the troglodytic art remained 

 unique, and it was necessary to wait for new discoveries before 

 asserting that the dwellers in caves and those living in the open had 

 the same artistic temperament and the same ability to express it. 

 The fact may be said to be clearly established now. 



In the Coldstream cave were found three charcoal paintings. The 

 first Fig. 200, figured in PL XXVII. , may have been parietal, yet it 

 is difficult to accept the theory that the fragment fell from the rock 

 as it now stands. But the doubt is not permissible as far as Fig. 199 

 is concerned. This is not a parietal painting. The scene is executed 

 on what was once a quern or mortar, with only a moderately deep 

 artificial depression. I know of no other such occurrence here, but 

 Mr. J. M. Bain informs me that near the mouth of the Orange 

 Eiver he found a scene painted on the shoulder-blade of what must 

 have been a very large seal. 



Both these representations were found in the stratification of the 

 Coldstream cave ; there is evidence, now, that they were laid 

 on the skeletons. They are fading so rapidly that we had a great 

 deal of difficulty in reproducing them, and the " touching " of the 

 negatives however skilfully made by Mr. A. E. Walker, one of our 

 Museum assistants, may prove to be very slightly inaccurate. Mr. 

 Henkel reports that the third one became obliterated as soon as 

 exposed to light The representation on this quern (Fig. 199) is that 

 of a dance executed by women. The steatopygia, the extremely 

 swollen calf of the legs,''' and the hanging mammae go to prove it. 

 The head of the child and his position are somewhat realistic. There 

 is another feature which is of extreme importance ; it is the half- 

 moon-like circle surmounting the heads of the dancers.! In a large 

 • hunting scene from the Cedar Mountains (Cape Colony) a similar 

 half-moon, or rather crescent, surmounts the head of the hunters 

 who, armed with a club, go to attack a herd of elephants. 



The same head-dress is also to be found on rock-paintings in the 

 Piquetberg District of the Cape Colony. Could this be a " totem " ? 

 But that it is a distinctive badge, there can, I think, be no doubt. 



• I have good reason to believe that this extraordinarily large representation of 

 the legs is due to the leather or grass rings worn formerly by these natives, 

 especially the females. 



t I must, however, explain that on the partly obliterated original these crescents 

 are not quite so plain as shown in the illustration, but after a very careful examina- 

 tion I am satisfied that they were meant to be as now represented. 



