XX THE BAKALAHARI 339 



Travels : ** The Bakalahari are traditionally reported 

 to be the oldest of the Bechwana tribes, and they 

 are said to have possessed enormous herds of the 

 large horned cattle mentioned by Bruce, until they 

 were despoiled of them and driven into the desert 

 by a fresh migration of their own nation. Living 

 ever since on the same plains with the Bushmen, 

 subjected to the same influences of climate, endur- 

 ing the same thirst and subsisting on similar food 

 for centuries, they seem to supply a standing proof 

 that locality is not always sufficient of itself to 

 account for difference in races. The Bakalahari 

 retain in undying vigour the Bechwana love for 

 agriculture and domestic animals. They hoe their 

 gardens annually, though often all they can hope 

 for is a supply of melons and pumpkins. And they 

 carefully rear small herds of goats, though I have 

 seen them lift water for them out of small wells with 

 a bit of ostrich egg-shell or by spoonfuls." 



I used to think that the Bakalahari were a 

 mixed race formed by the amalgamation of broken 

 Bechwana tribes with the desert Bushmen. But I 

 believe there is no warrant for this. Though all 

 those I have seen spoke the language of the 

 Bushmen as well as Sechwana, there can be no 

 doubt that Dr. Livingstone was quite right in 

 saying that, although the Bakalahari have lived a 

 life of terrible hardship and privation for centuries 

 in the desert, they still remain in character true 

 Bechwanas, with all the love of that race for agricul- 

 ture and stock-breeding. 



Under the kind and just rule of Khama many 

 Bakalahari have given up their nomadic life and 

 once more become a settled agricultural tribe. 

 They were supplied with seed-corn and given cattle, 

 sheep, and goats to look after, and in 1879 I found 

 large communities of these once miserable outcasts 

 living near the wells of Klabala, cultivating large 



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