180 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
of the ancient empire and ending with the Ptolemies and Cwsars. Some are mere 
autographs. Others run to a considerable length. Many are headed with figures of 
gods and worshippers. These, however, are for the most part mere graffiti, ill 
drawn and carelessly sculptured. The records they illustrate are chiefly votive. 
The passer-by adores the gods of the cataract, implores their protection, registers 
his name, and states the object of his journey. The votaries are of various ranks, 
periods, and nationalities; but the formula in most instances is pretty much the 
same. Now it is a citizen of Thebes performing the pilgrimage to Phil, or a gen- 
eral at the head of his troops returning from a foray in Ethiopia, or a tributary 
prince doing homage to Rameses the Great and associating his suzerain with the 
divinities of the place. 
SOUTH AFRICA. 
Dr. Richard Andree, in Zeichen bei den Naturvélkern (a), presents 
well-considered remarks, thus translated: 
The Hottentots and the Bantu peoples of South Africa produce no drawings, 
though the latter accomplish something in indifferent sculptures. The draftsmep 
= 
* 
le 
Viexs 
GE 
ct 
FiG, 141.—Petroglyphs at Moghar, Algeria. 
and painters of South Africa are the Bushmen, who in this way, as well as by many 
other striking ethnic traits, testify to their independent ethnic position. The ex- 
traordinary multitude of figures of men and animals drawn by this people within 
its whole area, now greatly reduced, from the cape at the south to the lands and 
deserts north of the Orange river, and which they still draw at this day in gaudy 
colors, testify to an uncommonly firm hand, a keenly observing eye, and a very 
effective characterization. The Bushman artist mostly selects the surfaces of the 
countless rock bowlders, the walls of caves, or rock walls protected by overhanging 
crags, to serve as the canvas whereon to practice his art. He either painted his fig- 
ures with colors or chiseled them with a hard sharp stone on the rock wall, so that 
they appear in intaglio, The number of these figures may be judged from the fact 
that Fritsch at Hopetown found ‘‘ thousands” of them, often twenty or more on one 
block; Hubner, at “Gestoppte Fontein,” in Transvaal, saw two hundred to three 
hundred together, carved in a soft slate. The earth colors employed are red, ochre, 
white, black, mixed with fat or also with blood. What instrument (brush?) is em- 
ployed in applying the colors has not yet been ascertained, since, so far as I know. 
no Bushman artist has yet been observed at his work. As regards the paintings 
