412 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



country for fear of surprise either from wild beasts or from man, and 

 I am inclined to imagine that where these enclosures and the 

 sculptures coexist, the spots were selected both by the sculptors and 

 by the recent races on account of their strategic or commanding 

 situation. From the figures illustrating this note one character 

 however is undeniable, especially in the more artistic ones. They 

 are not the luork of a " herd " trying to ivhile aiuay a moment's ennui. 

 They imply a long, assiduous sum of labour and a great dexterity of 

 hand. 



The existence of these semicircular enclosures is not, however, 

 restricted to places where rock-engravings occur. The old colonists 

 that lived on the borders or the neighbourhood of what was at 

 the time called Bushmanland, and is now the fiscal divisions of 

 Kenhardt, Upington, Prieska, &c., in the Cape Colony, distinguished 

 between the " berg " Bushman, who, as his name implies, lived in 

 mountain fastnesses, and the "kraal" Bushman, so called because 

 he built small enclosures or pens in which he slept. These kraal 

 Bushmen may possibly have been stragglers from the Southern 

 Kalahari.''' I had one of these " kraal " Bushmen modelled from life 

 in the Prieska District. He is a very old man. When I showed his 

 bust to the Rev. Westphal he told me that he could produce from his 

 congregation half a dozen old men absolutely similar in every feature 

 to that model. This is very important in view of the Reverend 

 gentleman's statement that the remains of the " Dansters " tribe, 

 i.e., Bushmen and Korannas, are still found in his congregation at 

 Warrenton, which is close to Pniel, and where rock-engravings 

 abound. The old man who sat as a model professed to be totally 

 ignorant of " paintings " or " rock-engravings." He was very closely 

 questioned on that point, and there is no reason to doubt the veracity 

 of his answers. 



Mr. A. du Toit, of the Cape Geological Survey, came across some 

 "ruins" to the north-west of Morokwen (Vryburg), close to the 

 Setaben crown-reserve, which recall to mind these small enclosures. 



* We do not as yet know of any rock-engraving having been recorded from German 

 West Africa, but Eriksson, speaking of the Namas of Great Namaqualand (Lake 

 N'Gami, 1856, 2nd edition, page 327), says : " The natives in these parts have a 

 strange tale of a rock, on which the tracks of all the different animals indigenous to 

 the country are distinctly visible ; moreover, that man and beast lived here in great 

 amity, but one day, from some unknown cause, their Deity appeared unexpectedly 

 and dispersed them. I never had the good fortune to obtain a sight of this 

 marvellous rock." It is not unlikely that the legend arose from an agglomeration 

 of these rock-engravings. The late Eev. Moflfat, according to Anderson, mentions a 

 similar story prevailing among the Bechuanas, in whose country these engravings 

 are occasionally encountered as far as Mafeking. 



