340 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



areas of ground, and growing so much Kafir corn 

 and maize that, except in seasons of severe drought, 

 they would never again have been Hkely to suffer 

 from the famine against which their immediate 

 ancestors had constantly struggled. These people, 

 too, were tending considerable herds of cattle, 

 sheep, and goats belonging to Khama, a portion of 

 the increase of which was given to them every year. 



I do not think there is any instance on record 

 of a tribe or family of the aboriginal yellow Bush- 

 men having given up their wild free life in the 

 desert and taken to agricultural or pastoral pursuits. 



In habits and mode of life true Bushmen seem 

 to be the same wherever they are met with, and 

 the Masarwa — the Bushmen of the interior of South 

 Africa — certainly resemble very closely in these 

 respects the descriptions I have read of their now 

 almost extinct kinsmen of the Cape Colony. They 

 build no huts, but merely erect temporary small 

 shelters of boughs with a little dry grass thrown 

 on the top. They neither sow nor reap any kind 

 of grain, nor do they possess any kind of domestic 

 animals, except small jackal-like dogs, which cannot 

 bark. They obtain fire very rapidly with two pieces 

 of wood. One of these is held fiat on the ground 

 by the feet of a man sitting down, whilst the other, 

 the end of which has been placed in a small notch 

 cut for its reception, is whirled rapidly round 

 between the open hands, until the fine wood dust 

 produced by the friction begins to smoulder, when 

 it is placed amongst some dry grass and blown 

 into flame. 



The dress for men, women, and girls amongst 

 the Masarwa is the same as that which used to 

 be worn by the Bechwana and Makalaka tribes 

 before these latter had come in contact with 

 Europeans. They obtain iron-headed spears and 

 earthenware cooking pots from the neighbouring 



