r 



Bock- Engravings of Animals and the Human Figure. 405 



facts that other and less talented sculptors endeavoured to imitate, 

 and this more or less clumsily, the portraiture the evidence of which 

 they had hefore them. A good instance of this is shown in Fig. 2, 

 Plate XIII., which would seem at first sight to represent a fight 

 between a rhinoceros and another quadruped of identity unknown. 

 Now, the rhinoceros is plainly Bhinoceros simus ; it is etched all 

 over, and although not having the finish of the Vryburg engravings 

 and others, is still a fine piece of work. The imitator has entirely 

 failed to give to his reproduction a semblance to any of the 

 quadrupeds met with in South Africa. In his book, ''Aus Nama- 

 land und Kalahari," Jena, 1907, Schultze figures two engravings 

 found in the close neighbourhood of Beaufort West in the Cape 

 Colony. The lower figure, that of the eland, is genuine ; the upper 

 is a miserable attempt at imitation of a nondescript quadruped. "'^ 



Dr. A. W. Eogers, Director of the Cape Geological Survey, saw in 

 places between Kuruman and Tsenin, along the Kuruman Kiver, 

 numerous series of engravings of that type made by the Bechuana 

 herd-boys or others. Eev. G. E. Westphal, of the Berlin Mission 

 Society, and stationed at Pniel on the Vaal Eiver, was very careful 

 ia selecting for the South African Museum old original engravings 

 from the numerous carvings perpetrated by the school-going 

 children of the Station, which are of Koranna, Bechuana, and 

 Griqua mixed origin. 



Some of these imitations are so crude that they cannot deceive 

 any one ; but in some cases it is difficult to decide as to the 

 authenticity of the etchings, that is to say if we assume that 

 the most perfect are very ancient. 



Fig. 1 of Plate XV., traced and photographed by Dr. A. W. 

 Eogers, is on a quartzite rock and is covered with a distinct 

 patina, but the lines of the engraving are not patinated. It is 

 thus likely of comparatively recent origin, like most of the obscene 

 representations met with ; but in Plate XII., the very uncouth 

 Fig. 18 is as well patinated as the elephants on Plate VIII. 



II. 



Age of the Eock-Engeavings. 



I have in my first note pointed to the great similarity between the 

 rock-engravings of the southern part of Africa and those occurring 

 in Southern Algeria and the Sudan. The great antiquity of the 



* I am informed that in the same district most of the Bushman paintings are 

 disfigured by additions such as waggon and drivers, to the original figures of 

 antelopes, &c. 



