406 HITTITES IN AFRICA. 



and although they no doubt would have endeavoured to stimulate 

 the production of gold by the natives, it seems very unlikely that 

 they would have penetrated hundreds of miles inland and ex- 

 ploited the mines themselves, and it is difficult to see whence they 

 could have obtained the number of miners necessary to carry on 

 the mining. ^ 



I think it probable that on the disintegration and submergence 

 of the Hittite empire, the Phoenicians may have continued to 

 trade in gold with such of the Hittites and their half-breed 

 descendants, as may have been left in Africa, and that these may 

 have continued to carry on mining operations for some consider- 

 able time, slowly degenerating as seems evident from the decad- 

 ence we find in the later type of buildings, until finallv, Hke their 

 compatriots in Asia Mmor, they also were submerged beneath a 

 tide of barbaric — in this case Bantu — invasion, or possibly were 

 driven by the Bantu to the South and West, when any extensive 

 and systematic mining in South Africa came to an end ; although 

 no doubt some knowledge of gold winning survived, handed down 

 from generation to generation and from tribe to tribe, and a 

 certain amount of gold, sometimes more, sometimes less, was 

 won and found its way to the coast through all the centuries, 

 right down to recent tnnes. 



It was my intention to have discussed the possibility of finding 

 traces of the ancient miners in the native populations of South 

 Africa to-day, as it seems probable that these ancient miners 

 would have left some trace of their long and wide occupation of 

 the country in the language and even in the physical type of its 

 original inhabitants. Owing to lack of time and opportunity, 

 however, I have not been able to gather together such information 

 as would justify me in discussing this side of the subject at any 

 length. It may do no harm, however, if I notice briefly some 

 points which had occurred to me. 



The possession by the Makalanga and other Bantu peoples of 

 South-East Africa of certain customs which are suggestive of 

 Semitic influence, and the occasional occurrence among them of a 

 Semitic type of Physiognomy, has often been noted. So far as 

 these customs are concerned, however, they are not, generally 

 speaking, peculiar to the Makalanga or any other tribe, but are 

 found among Bantu peoples throughout Africa, and if they be 

 derived from Semitic peoples, this Semitic influence must pro- 

 bably have been encountered in very remote times when the 

 Bantu were less dispersed ; probably at a time when they were in 

 contact with Semitic peoples in North-East Equatorial Africa. So 

 far as the prevalence of these customs may be greater in South- 

 East Africa, and the undoubtedly more frequent occurrence there 

 of a Semitic type require explanation, I think that they are easily 

 accounted for by the constant presence of traders of^ Semitic 

 origin on the coasts of South-East Africa, both in ancient and 

 modern times. 



When we consider the migratory habits of the Bantu peoples, 

 and that the general trend of their migratory movements has been 

 from North to South, it seems to me that the part of South-East 

 Africa where we are least likely to find the descendants of the 



