NOTES EELATING TO ABORIGINAL TEIBES OF THE 

 EASTERN PROVINCE. 



By John Hewitt, B.A., 



Alhany Museum, Graltamstown. 



^Ylth Plates XXXI, XXXII. 



Read Juh/ IT, 1920. 



Relics of a Pke-Busii Race? 



On the evidence of stone inii)lenients it seems likely that 

 our historic aboriginals were preceded by another race or races. 

 The former, as we learn from examination of " Bushman " 

 caves, were skilled in making the implements known as " end- 

 scrapers," and various other types less characteristic. But 

 the implements occurring deeply embedded in the ironstone 

 gravel of the subsoil at Grahamstown and elsewdiere are of 

 quite a different type. There are no end-scrapers, nor 

 other inii)lements with secondary trimming, but instead we 

 find an abundance of simple flakes, all large and coarse. Such 

 Hakes are generally regarded as rejected material produced 

 in the making of larger implements of the palaeolithic type. 

 Indeed, typical " bouchers " and other palaeoliths are some- 

 times found in these gravels at Grahamstown. However, 

 regarding the antiquity of such relics, no positive estimate 

 should be made. The gravel in which they occur has been 

 formed in situ, and is not necessarily very old. It contracts 

 during drought and expands in wet seasons, so that overlying 

 objects, if sufficiently heavy, may quickly sink tlierein to 

 considerable depths. But in favour of tlieir antiquity is the 

 fact of their identity with the implements made by primitive 

 man in Europe, during a warm inter-glacial period, estimated 

 by various authorities as at least 150,000 years ago. This was 

 in the time of Neanderthal man, prior to the appearance of 

 Homo sapiens in Europe. Moreover, a very respectable 

 antiquity may be fairly claimed for similar specimens found 

 in ancient river beds on the Yaal River and in the Western 

 Province. 



STRANDLOOrERS . 



Relics of bygone races are plentiful in and near the exten- 

 sive shell-mounds that fringe the coast near the mouths of 

 rivers. The mounds are the accumulated refuse of the so-called 

 strandloopers, who fed on shell fish and other products of the 

 sea. Some idea of the mag-nitude of such coastal middens may 

 be gained from G. R. McKay's paper on the " Antiquity of 

 Man in South Africa." He tells us tliat upwards of 375,000 



