April 2-^, 1 8 74 J 



NATURE 



481 



being 73-8, against a height of 70-2, which gives about 

 double the difference of the Hottentot. 



The elaborate anatomical data amassed by Dr. Fritsch 

 may afford the means of more fully working out the eth- 

 nological problems of the South African races. The 

 evidence here brought forward of the more extreme cha- 

 racters of the Bushman type as compared with the Hot- 

 tentot, seems to tell in favour of the view put forward by 

 Prof Huxley some years ago, that the Hottentots are the 

 result of crossing between the Bushman and the Negroid 

 tribes. Beyond this, there naturally arises another ques- 

 tion : do the Kafir tribes, with their complexions varying 

 from dark-brown to blue-black, owe their bodily differ- 

 ences from the Negro of Equatorial Africa to an inter- 

 mixture of Bushman blood during a long course of ages. 

 The evidence of language is here important. So far as it 

 is concerned, the Kafir of South Africa is essentially a 

 Negro, for his dialects belong to the great series of pre- 

 fixing languages, the peculiar character of which is so 



well shown in the formation of the plural. Just as the 

 Mpongwe language of the Gaboon makes the plural of 

 omamba, snake ; imamba, snakes ; and farther east the 

 individual inhabitant of Unyatuwezi is a Mnyainwezi, 

 and the people as a whole are Wanyamwezi : — so in Zulu- 

 land iimuntu is a man ; abantii, men ; and Amasnlu is 

 the plural name of the nation of whom an individual is 

 Uzidii. The Bushman- Hottentot, or Koi-koin group of 

 languages, are on the other hand distinguished by their ten- 

 dency to monosyllabic words,theirsuflixes, and the "clicks" 

 which to so extraordinary an extent are used as conso- 

 nants. According to Dr. Bleek'sclassification, this family of 

 languages has also relations farther north on both sides 

 of the Continent ; but this is a point which requires further 

 examination. Now, though the fundamental types of the 

 Kafir and Bushman languages are so absolutely dis- 

 tinct, it has come to pass that certain of the Kafir tribes, 

 notably the Zulus, use to some extent in their speech 

 clicks of the Hottentot type, whereas nothing of the kind 



Fig 4 — Bushmsn of Orange River Republic 



appears in the languages of their Negro kinsfolk of the 

 equator. Did they catch this habit by mere imitation 

 from the Hottentots and Bushmen, or, as seems more in 

 accordance with experience, did Hottentot mothers in 

 past generations teach it to children of a mixed race ? 

 This line of argument, it seems to me, may possibly lead 

 to more definite results. 



Dr. Fritsch gives a valuable summary of information 

 as tD the industrial, social, and intellectual condition of 

 the South African races. The latter is not, however, of 

 such special excellence as the descriptions of physical 

 race-characters. Indeed, Dr. Fritsch is on the whole a 

 better judge of bodies than of minds. His account of 

 the native religions is below his general level, as may be 

 judged from his describing the Zulu religion without 

 mention or apparently knowledge of the remarkable 

 native documents collected by Dr. (now Bishop) Calla- 

 way, which throw such clear light not only on the religious 

 ideas of these barbarians, but on the origin and develop- 

 ment of religion among mankind at large. That savage 

 theologies show representative stages in the evolution of 



Fic. 5.— Ell .hman of West Colony. 



human thought, and as such deserve and repay the most 

 careful study of their inmost meanings, is a fact which 

 is daily coming into clearer view among ethnologists, but 

 it seems hardly to have entered Dr. Fritsch's mind. 

 While mentioning this weak point of his, it is worth while 

 to notice that a much fuller dissertation on the native 

 languages, such, for instance, as Prof Steinthal might 

 have drawn up, would have been of interest to students 

 whose wants arc only partially supplied by the meagre 

 though valuable classiflcatory sketch here given, mostly 

 on the authority of Dr. Bleek. Our author also shows 

 glimpses of ill-temper in dealing with authors he dis- 

 likes, such as Mr. J. G. Wood, whom he falls upon in 

 season and out of season. An instance of the latter kind 

 of attack is seen where Mr. Wood, speaking in perhaps 

 too enthusiastic terms of the physical beauty of youthf^ul 

 savages, naturally introduced the well-known story of 

 Benjamin West, the Quaker painter, comparing the Apollo 

 Belvedere to a young Mohawk warrior. Dr. Fritsch, 

 quite missing the point of the story, solemnly quotes Mr. 

 Wood as asserting, in proof of the classical beauty of the 



