164 Report S.A.A. Advancement ov Science. 



of the bureau would in great measure depend. Under him should 

 be a staff of field ethnologists, the number of whom would, of course, 

 be determined by financial considerations. Probably a good start 

 could be made with two senior and two or four junior men. The 

 former should be men with some field experience, the latter could 

 probably be chosen from among the young graduates of our Colonial 

 colleges. The knowledge of native languages and customs which 

 these men would possess would greatly facilitate the field work of 

 the bureau, while, for taking down traditions and folklore in the 

 native tongue, as practised by the American Bureau, their services 

 would be invaluable. After a time each of these men could be placed 

 in charge of a whole ethnographic division of the country, including 

 the conservations of its prehistoric remains, such as Bushman drawings, 

 etc. From time to time it would be efficient to increase the depart- 

 ment's staff", and this could be done entirely by drafting the best ' 

 students from the college on graduation, as, given a thoroughly 

 good ethnographical school, the Colonial born man would be infinitely 

 more efficient than the young graduate imported from the schools of 

 Europe and America, thoroughly ignorant of the native languages, 

 and of the conditions of life in South Africa. It is easy 

 to suggest many ways in which, by judicious division of 

 labour, the work of our bureau could be rendered more and more 

 efficient, such as the allotment of special subjects to individuals, one 

 being told off to visit some surviving outlier of the Bushman race, 

 another specialising in native music, another perhaps, making a 

 study of the Vaalpens, and so forth. Details of this kind are, 

 however, beyond the scope of this paper. 



The department would, in addition to conducting actual researches, 

 keep in close touch with missionaries, magistrates and others who 

 were able to make observations and collect information, and when 

 the returns of these amateurs contained matter requiring investigation 

 by an expert, a district ethnologist would go down and study the 

 matter personally. An immense amount of work could be done in this 

 way, the bureau co-ordinating and directing the work of volunteers. 

 The amount of work that has already been done by amateurs is ample 

 proof that there would be many willing to forward the work of a 

 bureau. In many cases it would even be found practicable to place 

 a set of anthropometric instruments at the disposal of a mission 

 station, police camp or native school, and to send a field ethnologist 

 down for a week or so to give instructions in the use of these, and 

 in the recording of measurements. More work could be achieved 

 by one ethnologist who was in close and friendly touch with the 

 amateurs in his district than by half-a-dozen men working on theii 

 own account, and out of touch with the local students of native life. 



It may also be pointed out that the bureau would probably receive 

 .some assistance from time to time through the visits of specialists 

 from Europe and America, men collecting information on native 

 art, folklore, etc., and anxious to obtain first-hand information con- 

 cerning the peoples about whom thev write, aided, perhaps, by grants 



