BUSHMAN ROCK-PICTURES. I33. 



size of the Bushmen,, if not larger still. These, which I 

 irnagine to represent Kaffirs, are apparently unarmed and run- 

 ning away from the red Bushmen. The figures of both men. 

 and beasts mostly face towards the left as one looks at them; 

 they cover a surface of rock some eight feet by five, beginning 

 about five feet from the level of the platform and extending to. 

 nearly twice the height of one Bushman. To draw most of 

 them the Bushman must have stood upon something — either 

 another Bushman or an object, e.g., a trunk of a tree leaning 

 against the protruding rock. The pictures are crude, giving- 

 the impression that they were the w^ork of a novice, and with 

 very little of the detail sometimes seen, e.g., a quiverful of 

 arrows, but here and there the swell of muscles is accurately 

 depicted, and in one woman the characteristic shape of the 

 breast is striking. They are scattered over the face of the- 

 rock without order or sequence, sometimes overlapping, here- 

 and there unfinished, and give the impression of having been 

 added to at various times by different people. The sex of the- 

 figures is unquestionable. In the case of the hartebeeste, the 

 accurately depicted shape of the horns and head determines 

 the genus at once, but the elephant and lion are indistinct and' 

 appear to be unfinished; the former is in red, the latter in black- 

 pigment. These pictures, which at best are not very distinct, 

 have in places been covered with a thin deposit of semi-trans- 

 parent whitish substance which has run down the face of the 

 rock from above. They seem to be very little known, even 

 amongst the numbers of natives in the neighbourhood; but an 

 old native woman, who knew. them, was also acquainted with 

 others of the kind in the same valley and about 25 miles away. 

 She volunteered to guide anyone there who wished to see- 

 them, and pointed out the mountain slope they were on. At 

 Hackney, which w^e had passed on our w^ay about eight miles 

 back, there are other Bushman pictures which I had not time- 

 to visit; they are described as " not so good " as those at 

 D'sjate, and the rock upon which they are having fallen, they 

 are difficult to see. 



The valley in which the drawings I have described are to 

 be seen is securely shut in by high mountains with few exits 

 down other valleys similarly shut in. so that it strikes the 

 visitor as secluded and likely to be a safe retreat; the seclusion 

 is evidenced by the abundance of small game to be seen there- 

 at present, whilst a certain amount of larger game still exists. 

 there, e.g.. Koodoos, Wildebeeste, and Leopards. 



