September 7, 1905J 



NA TURE 



477 



owes to India its iron industry and other elements of 

 rulture, as well as the introduction of the ox, pig, and 

 fowl. At all events, we shall probably not be far wrong 

 if we assign a fair degree of antiquity to the knowledge 

 of iron in tropical and southern Africa. 



The characteristic metal of South Africa is gold, and its 

 abundance has had a profound effect on the country, 

 although, strange to say, it was not employed by any of 

 the native races on their own initiative. We cannot tell 

 when it was first discovered or by whom, but the hundreds 

 of ruins scattered over a large extent of country, and the 

 very extensive ancient workings, testify to the importance 

 and the long continuance of this industry ; for there can 

 be no doubt that the builders of these wonderful remains 

 came to this country mainly for the sake of its goldtields, 

 though there must also have been an important trade in 

 ivory, and incidentally in other local produce. Positive 

 demonstration is as yet lacking concerning the nationality 

 of the first gold-workers. This much is certain : they 

 must have come to South Africa originally for some other 

 product, since the aborigines did not work the metal, and 

 it is most probable their quest was for ivory, and it was 

 these hunters and traders who discovered the surface gold. 

 Further, the discoverers must have come from a country 

 where quarrying and metal-smelting were practised, and 

 this implies the organisation of labour, for in early times, 

 as history abundantly proves, mining was always under- 

 taken by means of forced labour. The gold-workers, who 

 probably came from Southern Arabia, belonged to a much 

 higher social order than any of the peoples with whom 

 they came in contact, and with their discipline in war 

 and their industrial training they were able to subdue 

 the Bantu inhabitants over immense tracts between the 

 Zambesi and the Limpopo, to reduce them to slavery, to 

 organise the working of the gold mines, and to establish 

 a chain of forts and a system of communication with the 

 coast. This occupation of the country by foreigners was 

 purely for purposes of exploitation, and when, for reasons 

 at present unknown to us, their hold weakened on the 

 land, the whole enterprise fell to pieces, and the foreigners 

 departed, they left indelible marks of their former presence 

 on the face of the country, but in native industries and 

 customs there is virtually no trace remaining of the rule 

 of the more civilised Semitic overlord. The natives seem, 

 as it were, to have awakened from a nightmare and 

 straightway to have forgotten the hideous dream. Possibly 

 this history may have been repeated more than once. 



It is greatly to be deplored that in the past irresponsible 

 prospectors have been permitted to rifle the ancient ruins 

 for gold, with the result that not only have very numerous 

 specimens of archaeological interest been cast into the 

 melting-pot, but at the same time collateral evidence has 

 been destroyed, and thus valuable data lost to science. 

 Even now the situation is not without its dangers, for the 

 recently awakened interest in the ruins, and appreciation 

 of their historical value, may lead to unconsidered zeal 

 in excavation. After all, there is no especial hurry ; what 

 is perishable has long ago decayed, and so long as the 

 ruins are sealed up by the rubbish that preserves them, 

 no great harm can accrue, but in a few hours, by careless 

 excavation, may be destroyed more archsologicaf evidence 

 than in centuries of neglect. Therefore it would be advisable 

 for those in authority to consider carefully whether it is 

 wise to lay bare new sites, unless proper examination and 

 preservation can be ensured. The number of the ruins in 

 Rhodesia is so great, and the area within which they occur 

 so enormous, that it would be a very large undertaking 

 for the Government systematically to investigate and 

 permanently to conserve them all. Perhaps it would be 

 possible to entrust some of this work to properlv con- 

 stituted local authorities, assisting them by grants and 

 'pecinl facilities, but care would have to be taken to ensure 

 the thorough carrying out of the work. Records of work 

 done should be published, and the specimens preserved in 

 authorised museums only. It is desirable also that every 

 ruin should be scheduled under an Ancient Monuments 

 Protection .\ct, and that an Inspector or Curator of 

 .Ancient Monuments should be appointed, who would be 

 responsible for the excavation and preservation of all the 

 monuments. To a less extent these remarks apply also 



NO. 187I, VOL. 72] 



to other parts of South Africa. All relics of the past, 

 such, for example, as the pictographs in the rock-shelters 

 of the Bushmen, should be jealously preserved and guarded 

 from intentional or unwitting injury. 



I trust my South African colleagues will forgive me if 

 I have appeared too much in the character of a mentor. 

 I have endeavoured to present a general view of the 

 anthropological situation in South Africa, without burden- 

 ing my remarks with details, and at the same time I have 

 made bold to publish some of the conclusions which this 

 survey has suggested ; but there are other points on which 

 I feel constrained to touch. 



Recently Sir Richard Temple delivered an Address on 

 " The Practical Value of Anthropology," in the course 

 of which he said : " We often talk in Greater Britain of 

 a ' good ' magistrate or a ' sympathetic ' judge, meaning 

 thereby that these officials determine the matters before 

 them with insight ; that is, with a working anthropological 

 knowledge of those with whom they have to deal. ... It 

 is, indeed, everything to him to acquire the habit of useful 

 anthropological study before he commences, and to be 

 able to avail himself practically and intelligently of the 

 facts gleaned, and the inferences drawn therefrom, by 

 those who have gone before him. . . . Take the universally 

 delicate questions of revenue and taxation, and consider 

 how very much the successful administration of either 

 depends on a minute acquaintance with the means, habits, 

 customs, manners, institutions, traditions, prejudices, and 

 character of the population. In the making of laws too 

 close a knowledge of the persons to be subjected to them 

 cannot be possessed, and, however wise the laws so made 

 may be, their object can be only too easily frustrated if 

 the rules they authorise are not themselves framed with 

 an equally great knowledge, and they in their turn can 

 be made to be of no avail unless an intimate acquaintance 

 with the population is brought to bear on their adminis- 

 tration. For the administrator an extensive knowledge 

 of those in his charge is an attainment, not only essential 

 to his own success, but beneficial in the highest degree 

 to the country he dwells in, provided it is used with 

 discernment. And discernment is best acquired by the 

 ' anthropological habit.' .... The habit of intelligently 

 examining the peoples among whom his business is cast 

 cannot be overrated by the merchant wishing continuously 

 to widen it to profit ; but the man who has been obliged 

 to acquire this kind of knowledge without any previous 

 training in observation is heavily handicapped in com- 

 parison with him who has acquired the habit of right 

 observation, and, what is of much more importance, has 

 been put in the way of rightly interpreting his observations 

 in his youth." 



In referring to civil-servants, missionaries, merchants, 

 or soldiers. Sir Richard Temple went on to say : " Sym- 

 pathy is one of the chief factors in successful dealings 

 of any kind with human beings, and sympathy can only 

 come with knowledge. And not only does sympathy come 

 of knowledge, but it is knowledge that begets sympathy. 

 In a long experience of alien races, and of those who have 

 had to govern and deal with them, all whom I have known 

 to dislike the aliens about them, or to be unsympathetic, 

 have been those that have been ignorant of them ; and I 

 have never yet come across a man who really knew an 

 alien race that had not, unless actuated by race-jealousy, 

 a strong bond of sympathy with them. Familiarity breeds 

 contempt, but it is knowledge that breeds respect, and it 

 is all the same whether the race be black, white, yellow, 

 or red, or whether it be cultured or ignorant, civilised or 

 semi-civilised, or downright savage." 



I have quoted at length from Sir Richard Temple, as 

 the words of an administrator of his success and experi- 

 ence must carry far greater weight than anything I could 

 say. I can, however, add my personal testimony to the 

 truth of these remarks, as I have seen Britons administer- 

 ing native races on these lines in British New Guinea and 

 in Sarawak, and I doubt not that I shall now have the 

 opportunity of a similar experience in South Africa. 



In this connection I ought to refer to what has been 

 already done in South Africa by the Government. In the 

 year 1880 the Government of Cape Colony, confronted by 



