220 THE STONE AGE — PAST AND PRESENT. 



ore of theii' country. At Saldanha Bay^ in 1598^ John Davis 

 could get fat-tailed sheep and bullocks for bits of old iron and 

 nails^ and in 1604 a great bullock was still to be bought for a 

 piece of an old iron hoop. But only seven years later^ Nicho- 

 las Dountouj " Captaine of the Pepper-Come/' begins to write 

 ruefully of the change in this delightful state of things. " Sal- 

 dania having in former time been comfortable to all our nation 

 travelling this way, both outwards and homewards^ yeelding 

 them abundance of flesh, as sheepe and beeves brought downe 

 by the saluage inhabitants^ and sold for trifles^ as a beife for a 

 piece of an iron hoope of foureteene inches long^ and a sheepe 

 for a lesser piece ;'' but now this is at an end, spoilt perhaps 

 by the Dutchmen, " who use to spojde all places where they 

 come (onely respecting their owne present occasions) by their 

 ouer much liberalitie,^' etc. etc.^ 



Specimens of stone implements from South Africa have been 

 brought to Europe. A double-flat stone adze mounted in a 

 very peculiar way in a withe handle^ brought from Little Fish 

 Bay, about 15° S. Lat., has been described and figured,^ and 

 Mr. Christy has an ordinary small spear- or large arrow-head 

 found among the Hottentots, a,nd ticketed " poisoned/' and a 

 lance-head from Fish River. Lastly, a native Damara story 

 clearly preserves a recollection of the time, possibly several 

 generations ago, when stone axes were used to cut down trees. 

 The tale is a sort of " House that Jack built," in which a little 

 girl's mother gives her a needle, and she goes and finds her 

 father sewing thongs with thorns, so she gives him the needle 

 and he breaks it and gives her an axe. " Going farther on 

 she met the lads who were in charge of the cattle. They were 

 busy taking out honey, and in order to get at it they were 

 obliged to cut down the trees with stones." She addressed 

 them : — " Our sons, how is it that you use stones in order to 

 get at the honey ? Why do you not say,. Our first-borUj give 

 us the axe V and so on.^ 



1 Purchas, vol. i. pp. 118, 133, 275, 417. 



- G. V. du Noyer, in 'Archaeological Journal,' 1847. A drawing in Klennn, 

 C. W., part ii. p. 71, vrould seem to be from this, or one almost absolutely Hke it. 

 3 Bleek, ' Keynard in Africa,' p. 90. 



