BUSHMAN RELICS NEAR MODDERPOORT. 243' 



Age man in South Africa. The Bantu have, of course, been iron- 

 workers from time immemorial ; indeed some say their cousin 

 the negro was the first. 



The Bushmen paintings need to be seen, to make one reahse 

 the extraordinary vigour and advance of this pigmy race. To- 

 say that they drew as children do is to slander them. Contrast 

 those heads drawn by Leicestershire peasant boys, if I remember 

 right, with the extraordinary vigour of these Bushman copies. 

 But what does our picture* represent ? At first I thought, a 

 raid on the cattle of another village, but our little herdboys tell 

 me that they are not cattle but wild animals, probably elands 

 again, the bushman's best favoured game. I stand corrected, 

 and we must take it as a hunt, though I am still puzzled by the 

 familiar relations of the small figures at the bottom with their' 

 prey. The beast at the side or end they say is a lion, and on 

 mature consideration I think they are right (witness the tail). 

 This would account for the special excitement of the figures tO' 

 its right which I have not had room to put in ; and the verdict on 

 the whole picture will be the piquant one that it represents the 

 Bushman poachers of the lion's preserves interrupted by his 

 majesty himself ! The weapons — large shields, broad assegais 

 and their quivers seems to shew that it is not Bushmen but Kafirs 

 (from their shields, of Zulu sort) who are presented. The frail 

 and often solitary Bushman seems to have been quieter in approach 

 to the game, than the racing five and thirty figures of the picture 

 imply. 



Another hunting scene represents, on a long frieze-like strip of 

 smooth rock, a number of blackmen (apparently Bantu again) sur- 

 rounding some large bok, which are browsing, it seems, on the leaves 

 of a tree. Beside the tall blackman, one of whom is shooting with 

 a bow, and is therefore probably one of the Bataung, the allies 

 of the Bushmen in possession of Modderpoort, there are two small 

 red figures, probably Bushmen, one of which is pointing to the 

 game. The picture seems to represent the stage at which the 

 black folk were glad to avail themselves of the Bushman's hunt- 

 ing skill. Just above are two red lions, one magnificently drawn, 

 in another place a black monkey, very lifelike. 



Here is another picture,! the best of the collection for colour, 

 crimson, orange, yellow and white. In the centre are two elands 

 fighting; in the background (there is an idea of perspective)^ 

 human figures with curious white taches, very hard to explain. 



There are other groups representing the incoming Bantu, and 

 these are to my mind the chief interest of our caves. The pictures 

 are thus proved to be comparatively recent ; from the uniform 

 of white caps, ostrich feathers, &c., which appear, they would 

 seem to be subsequent to the organisation of the Zulu army by 

 Dingiswayo, &c., after the middle of the i8th century. Zulu 

 tribes, e.g. the Amahlubi, came to get ostrich feathers, probably 

 before the great incursions of 1822. The ligures have long keries, 



* Plate 7. t Plate 8. 



