;i6 



NJTURE 



[November 20, 1.9 19 



years or so ago. These scarcely Negroid Strand- 

 ioopers, according to F6ringuey, were the earliest 

 humans in South Africa, so far as our very slight 

 evidence can be applied to the making of theories. 

 But apparently, though they brought with them 

 the European arts of their' time, and especially 



Ku.. J, — .-V pinjiMi;iaplj ot the Nile Delta pygniy type ot \:) ooon yenr< .tgo 

 from a pie-dynastic "slate palate." 



their gift of drawing, they imparted some of 

 these to the Bushmaij mind and then died out. 



Another question hinted at, but not adequately 

 discussed, in Dr. McCall Theal's book is that of 

 the different physical types of Bushmen. There 

 is a Bushman language and culture common to 

 all these (degraded or primitive) peoples, but the 



tlii. 3.— A photograph of a very old Cape Bushman. 



shape of the head differs considerably. Some — 

 Dr. Theal gives a photograph of a woman — 

 exhibit a greater degree of prognathism than any 

 other known human race. I could supplement 

 Dr. Theal's example by several others, not, un- 

 fortunately, at my disposal for reproduction at 

 this miment. The North Kalahari Bushmen have 

 NO. 2612, VOL. 104] 



sometimes. projecting brows! ; the Cape Bushmen, 

 on the other hand, are usually neither pro- 

 gnathous nor prominent-browed. Some Bushmen 

 have fairly long skulls ; others have head-forms 

 markedly round and brachicephalic. Possibly 

 these varieties in the shape of the skull may 

 indicate a fusion of Negroid types, .some of which 

 stood low in the scale of humanity, especially in 

 language. There are apparently two features 

 (besides steatopygy) characteristic of the Bush 

 race which all these varying types hold in 

 common : one is the configuration of the ear, 

 and the other is peculiarities in both the male 

 and female external genitalia. I do not know 

 whether the " Bushman ear " has been definitely 

 noted in other Negro or Negroid races, but the 

 peculiarities of the genitalia can be noted here 

 and there up the eastern side of Africa until the 

 eastern Mediterranean is reached. 



The Bushmen, indeed, seem to have ente 



Fig. . 



-Head ofa North Kalahari Bushman. 



Africa — no doubt very anciently — from the direc- 

 tion of Arabia or Syria, and to have wandered 

 down the eastern side of the continent until they 

 settled in South-east and South-west Africa. 



The Hottentots came very much later — the 

 forest Negroes and the Nilotics may have pre- 

 ceded them in East and South-west Africa. They 

 arose probably from a blending somewhere in 

 eastern equatorial Africa between the Bushman 

 type, the Hamitic or Nilotic Negroids, and the 

 forest Negroes. Their push southwards seems 

 to have been diagonal, first from the regions 

 south of the \'ictoria Nyanza to the Nyasa-Tan- 

 ganyika plateau, and thence to South-west Africa. 

 Finally, they advanced along the coast of South- 

 west Africa to the lands south of the Orange 

 River. Like the Bushmen, they formed tribes 

 that differed much in facial appearance. Those 

 that the Portuguese and Dutch found established 



