Observations on the Origin of the Bushmen. 177 



may instance the murderer of the late Mr. Trelfall, who, at 

 the time when the executioners were in front of him, and 

 ready with their weapons to inflict the punishment which his 

 barbarous conduct so imperiously demanded, observed, in re- 

 ference to some part of a person's conduct who was present, 

 and which displeased him, that he only wished he had him — 

 the offensive person — on the other side, (meaning of the 

 Orange River,) and that he would do for him also. 



Cruelty is familiar to the Bushmen in its most shocking 

 forms, and is exercised without remorse upon all such as, 

 under untoward circumstances, fall within their reach. The 

 love of revenge is one of the strongest feelings to which they 

 are obnoxious ; it urges often to the most barbarous proceed- 

 ings, and induces to outrages of the most hideous character, 

 merely to satisfy momentary irritation, or the ranklings of a 

 long-fostered malice. Under such ascendances, pitiable is 

 the individual who falls within their power, as he is certain 

 of being subjected to the most agonizing tortures while life 

 exists, and to mutilations and disfigurations the most intolera- 

 ble to sympathy, and appaling to observation, at the very 

 latest, the moment that has fled. Their eagerness after retri- 

 bution is so urgent, as to render it a matter of indifference 

 on whom it is practised, provided the sufferer be believed to 

 be of the same country as the individual or individuals who 

 may have injured or annoyed them, and in this way the in- 

 nocent are constantly made to suffer for the guilty. _ 



From what I have been able to observe, as to their inclina- 

 tion towards cruelty and revenge, I almost feel disposed to 

 consider such as peculiarly vigorous in the Bushmen, more 

 especially as I have on many occasions seen both of them 

 exercised towards their own relations, with as much rancour 

 as they could be towards strangers; and several instances 

 have come within my own knowledge, where parents were 

 destroyed by their own children, as well as examples of the 

 most decided inhumanity of the former to their offspring, both 

 of which were boasted of by themselves and lauded by their 

 companions*. The passion of anger has amazing influence 



* They take no great care of their children, and never correct them 

 except in a fit of rage, when they almost kill them with severe usage. In a 

 quarrel between father and mother, or the several wives of a husband, the 

 defeated party wreaks his or her revenge on the child of the conqueror, 

 which in general loses its life. Tame Hottentots seldom destroy their off. 

 spring, except in a fit of passion ; but the Boscheman will kill their children 

 without remorse on various occasions ; as when they are ill-shaped ; when 

 they are in want of food ; when the father of a child has forsaken its mother ; 

 or when obliged to flee from the farmers or others, in which case they will 

 strangle them, smother them, cast them away in the desert, or bury them 

 alive. There are instances of parents throwing their tender offspring to the 

 hungry lion, who stands roaring before their cavern, refusing to depart till 

 some peace-offering be made to him.— Kicherer in TramMtions of the Mi* 

 nonary Svcfcty, vol. 2, p. 8. 



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