xx THE VAALPENS 331 



ing "a Bushman " ought, I should think, to be 

 Li-sar-wa. 



The name " Vaalpens," often applied by the 

 Boers to Bushmen, signifies "grey belly," and has 

 been given to them because, having no huts, but 

 sleeping as they do in the open, they often lie so 

 close to the fire on cold nights that they blister 

 themselves on their shins and abdomens. The 

 skin thus burnt peels off and is replaced by new 

 skin of a lighter colour than that of the rest of the 

 body. Bushmen may often be seen with their legs 

 and bellies covered with such unsightly scars, and 

 it is such blistered patches of skin on their 

 abdomens which has earned them the name of 

 "Vaalpens," or "grey belly." 



Although I have travelled in the Zoutpansberg, 

 Waterberg, and Dwarsberg districts of the Northern 

 Transvaal, I have never met with or heard of the 

 dwarf race spoken of by Professor Keane in his 

 book on The Boer States. These people, Professor 

 Keane says, are the only genuine Vaalpens, and are 

 almost entirely confined to the above-named and 

 adjacent districts of the North Transvaal as far as 

 the banks of the Limpopo. Professor Keane further 

 says that these people call themselves " Kattea," 

 and that they are almost pitch-black in colour, only 

 about four feet high, and quite distinct both from 

 their tall Bantu neighbours and from the yellowish 

 Bushmen. 



It would be interesting to learn where Professor 

 Keane got his information concerning this remark- 

 able race of people. Personally, I find it difficult to 

 believe in their existence, as I have been acquainted 

 with so many Boers who had hunted for years in 

 the very districts in which they are said to exist, or 

 to have existed, and yet have never heard any one 

 of them speak of a dwarf race of black Bushmen. 

 Moreover, I have myself met with Bushmen of the 



