KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[JULV, 1905. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 1905. 



President. 



PROFESSOR G. H. DARWIN. M.A., LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. 



.Vice-Presldenls. 



HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF SELBORNE, 



G.C.M.G., High Commissioner for Souih Africi. 

 THE RIGHT HON. LORD MILNER. G.C.B.. G.C.M.G., lale High Ccm- 



missioner for South Africa. 

 THE HON. SIR WALTER F. HELY-HUTCHINSON, G.C.M.G., Governor 



of Cape Colony. 

 COLONEL SIR HENRY E. McCALLUM, G.C.M.G.,R.E., Govemorof Natal. 

 CAPTAIN THE HON. SIR ARTHfR L.WVLEY, K.C.M.G., Lieulenani- 



Govemor, Transvaal. 

 MAJOR SIR H. J. r.OOLD-ADAMS, K.C.M.G., Lieutenant-Governor, Orange 



River Colony. 

 SIR W. H. MILTON. K.C.M.G., Administrator of Southern Rhodesia. 

 SIR DAVID GILL, K.C B.. LL.D.. F.R.S. , H.M. Astronomer, Cape Colony. 

 SIR CHARLES H. T. MtTCALFE. Bart., M.A. 

 THEODORE REINERT. M.Inst.C.E. 

 THE .MAYOR OF CAl'E TOWN. 

 THE MAYOR OF JOHANNESBURG. 



THE PRESIDENT. PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

 THE MAYOR OF Dl'RBAN. 'THE .MAYOR OF MARITZBIRG. 



THE MAYOR OF BLOEMFONTEIN. ! THE MAYOR OF PRETORIA. 

 THE MAYOR OF KIMBERLEY. | THE MAYOR OF BULAWAYO. 



Qeneral Treasurer. 



PROFESSOR JOHN F'ERRY, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Qeneral Secretaries. 



MAJOR P. A. MACMAHON, R.A., D.Sc, F.R S. 

 PROFESSOR W. A. HliRDMAN, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Central Organising Committee for South Africa. 



SIR DAVID GILL, K.C. B., F.R.S., Chairman. 



]. D. F. GILCHRIST, M.A., Ph.D., B.Sc, Stcrelary.- 



A. SILVA WHITE, AssOtanI Secretary. 



H. C. STEWARDSON, ChicJ Clerk and Astislant Treoiurer. 



Races of 



The 



SovitK Africa. 



1 iiREE m.iin r.ircs ni:iy be distinguished in the south of 

 the African continent : the Bushmen, the Hottentots, 

 and the Bantu-speaking peoples. Xone of these 

 possess any written records, and the only materials for 

 their history consist in native traditions and folk-lore, 

 and the reports of travellers of the past hundred years 

 or so. From these sources of information an attempt 

 has been made to trace the origins and early relation- 

 ships of the indigenous tribes, but much work remains 

 to be done before any definite ethnological grouping can 

 be verified. 



Bushmen. — When the early travellers landed at 

 the Cape, the first peoples with whom they came in 

 contact were the .San and Khoikhoi, better known re- 

 spectively as the Bushmen and the Hottentots. The 

 former were the aboriginal inhabitants of the south of 

 the continent, and there is evidence to show that before 

 the era of the Bantu migrations from the north-east, 

 they occupied the land south of the equatorial lakes. 



The Bushmen were a hunting people, living on the 

 abundant game, owning no lords, and possessing no 

 political organisation. But at the very beginnings of 

 -South African history we see their doom foreshadowed, 

 for this aboriginal hunting folk could make no stand 

 against the steady migration of the Bantu-.speaking 

 tribes pouring down from the north-east, and in the 

 17th century they were being gradually driven out of 

 the more fertile lands into the south and west. The 

 settlers proved an even more d.mgerous enemy on the 

 south, for by the Kuropeans these aboriginal owners 

 of the land were treated, not as men, but as wild 

 animals, to be exterminated. The extermination 

 would have proceeded more rapidly had not the 

 Bushmen been possessed of one admirable mc.ins 

 of defence. Their only weapons were bows and 

 arrows; the bows usually very poor and the arrows often 

 merely made of reeds, but the piece of bone, flint, or 



iron forming the tip was dipped in deadly poison, which 

 rendered a slight wound mortal; and the colonists learnt 

 to mingle fear with their contempt. .Sentries wtjre 

 practically useless against these wary attackers, and 

 one Bushman could keep a whole Kuropean settlement 

 in a state of constant alarm. Owing to his diminutive 

 size and his extraordinary ability for taking cover, he 

 could make himself almost invisible, and the skill and 

 cunning of the born hunter were preternaturally 

 sharpened when he himself became the quarry. Much 

 of the disafforesting of .South Africa was due to the fear 

 of the Bushmen, for the colonists cleared all the bush 

 near their dwellings to guard against stealthy attacks. 



Between the dense masses of Bantu peoples sweep- 

 ing down from the north-east, and the cver-cncroaching 

 colonists on the south, the Bushmen were forced to 

 retreat, and they sought refuge \\\ the fastnesses of the 

 mountains and in the deserts, where they are still to 

 be met with, still living in the primitive method, by 

 hunting, still using the same rude weapons, the bow 

 and arrow; still in the stone age of culture from which 

 our ancestors emerged some few thousands of years 

 ago, and still making fire by friction, like prehistoric 

 man and savages all over the world. 



In physical characteristics they differ considerably 

 from their Bantu neighbours. The skin colour is 

 naturally a fawn yellow, and even when obscured by 

 layers of grease and dirt, it is distinctly lighter than the 

 prevailing tint in the Dark Continent. 'J'hc black hair 

 has earned by its method of growth the name of " pep- 

 per-corns," for though it is distributed normally and 

 evenly over the surface of the head, the little short black 

 tufts cling together in tight spirals, leaving bare spaces 

 between, and suggesting a sprinkling of pepper-corns 

 over the scalp. The avcr.ige stature is i.^jgni. 

 (5 ft. o\ in.). The head is low and moderately narrow, 

 the face straight, without projecting jaws, the nose ex- 

 tremely low and broad. 



Hottentots. — While the Bushmen were nomadic 

 hunters, the Hottentots were nomadic herdsmen, and 

 they are generally assumed to represent an early blend 

 in another part of the continent of Bushmen and Bantu 

 stocks. In skin colour, in the nature of the hair, in 

 certain physical characteristics and in speech they show 

 considerable affinities with the Bushmen, but they are 

 distinguished by a taller stature, 1.639m. (5 ft. 4! in.), 

 a narrower head, and pronounced projection of the jaws. 



They formerly extended from Namaqualand on the 

 west to beyond the Limpopo, and traces of their occu- 

 pation are recognised in the heaps of stones or cairns 

 which mark the graves of their warriors. The true 

 Hottentots are now mainly confined to Namaqualand 

 on the west, but tribal groups of the Korannas 

 (Koraqua) of the middle and upper Orange ;in(l 

 \'aal rivers, and I lottcntot-B.intu or IIottcnlot-Bocr 

 half-breeds, such as the Ciric|uas of ( iriqu.il.ind 

 K. and the Gonaquas, are relics of lliis once 

 powerful race. Their extinction is due to many 

 causes. B.intu inv.isions on the north-east, and 

 the encroachment of the colonists on the south, 

 deprived them of the more fertile lands, which 

 want of organisation prevented them from protecting. 

 Like the Dinka of the Upper Nile, and the Todas of 

 the Nilghiris, they have a passionate devotion for their 

 cattle, and it was on account of their herds that they 

 first came in conflict with the Dutch settlers, whose 

 farms threatened their pasturelands. As these were 



