XX FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF MAN 347 



cool and self-possessed in any emergency, but the 

 quickness of their eyesight, and their intimate 

 knowledge of the animals we were pursuing, gave 

 them a great advantage over the staunchest of 

 gun-carriers drawn from any Kafir tribe. 



Although the wives and children of Bushmen 

 lead very hard lives, especially when food is scarce, 

 and have always to keep the encampment supplied 

 with water no matter how far it has to be carried, 

 I have never seen them ill-treated, and I have seen 

 both the men and the women show affection for 

 their children. In fact, the Bushmen of South 

 Africa, although they have never advanced beyond 

 the primitive stage of culture attained to by their 

 distant ancestors at a very remote period of the 

 world's history, are ethically much the same on the 

 average as the members of all other races of man- 

 kind, which shows how little the fundamental nature 

 of man has changed throughout the ages, and 

 during the evolution and destruction of many 

 civilisations. I have known Bushmen to be very 

 grasping and avaricious, and to show an utter want 

 of sympathy or kindness towards a fellow-man in 

 distress ; but has civilisation eliminated such defects 

 of character in all members of the most highly 

 cultured societies ? Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, 

 are crimes against the Bushman's code of morals, 

 just as they are with more civilised peoples, and 

 they are probably less frequently practised amongst 

 primitive than amongst civilised races. A Bush- 

 man will resent an injury and be grateful for a 

 kindness just like an Englishman, a Hindu, or a 

 Red Indian. Whenever I was told, as I often was 

 in South Africa, that all natives were black brutes 

 who could not understand kindness and were in- 

 capable of gratitude, I always knew that the master- 

 ful gentleman or fair lady who was speaking to me 

 had no kindness in their own natures, and that 



