AFRICAN NATURE NOTES 



African languages, and may remark that I have 

 sometimes represented the Masarwa Bushmen as 

 speaking in the Sechwana language, and at others 

 in the dialect spoken by the Matabele, it may 

 perhaps be as well to explain that whilst the greater 

 part of the Bushmen living between the Limpopo 

 and the Zambesi were the serfs of Bechwana 

 masters, a few of those living near the western 

 border of Matabeleland had become the vassals of 

 certain Matabele headmen, by whom they were 

 employed as hunters and trappers. Besides their 

 own language — which is almost impossible of 

 acquirement by a European — all the Bushmen I 

 ever met spoke that of their masters as well. This 

 was usually Sechwana, but sometimes Sintabele — 

 the language of the Matabele people. 



F. C SELOUS. 



WoRPLESDON, Surrey, 

 Dec. 31, 1907. 



