PRIMITIVE PAINTINGS 127 



script — the groups of short, diagonal lines 

 crossing each other at various angles. What 

 did they indicate ; was nothing to be read from 

 them even by those who deciphered the graven 

 edict, five-and-twenty centuries old, of Mesha 

 the Sheepmaster? 



Why was it that one did not find at Kanxas 

 pictures of the eland, the oryx and the rhino- 

 ceros; why were there no perspectiveless bat- 

 tle-pieces depicting the successful defence of 

 some cave-stronghold, with the baffled invaders 

 being hurled down precipices? Such pictures 

 are found distributed over vast areas of South 

 Eastern Africa ; it seemed remarkable that none 

 exist, so far as I am aware, in Bushmanland. 



Perhaps the plants from which the neces- 

 sary pigments had to be extracted do not grow 

 on that side of South Africa. But, deep in 

 the Orange River gorge is a continuous strip 

 of rich and varied woodland, in which mos? of 

 the South African forest flora is represented. 

 Moreover, on the islands which gem the river's 

 course near its mouth are to be found myriads 

 of eastern plants, the progeny of seeds carried 

 down by the annual flood from far-off Basuto- 

 land and its environs, — and it is precisely in 

 lhat vicinity "that Bushman paintings are most 

 plentiful. The thing remains a puzzle. 



