416 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



of ornamenting their "kraals" (pens) or " stads " (towns). The 

 very fact of the existence of these engravings in a barren country 

 destitute of any permanent waters would not permit of the belief 

 that they congregated in communities." 



On the question of graves he writes: "Bushman graves are 

 plentiful in the hills, a range passing within three miles of the 

 Kop (where his engravings occur). Nearer the " Kop " I have 

 never found any grave." " In the Vryburg and Britstown Districts 

 no traces of sepultures have been found where the paintings occur. 

 At Pniel, on the Vaal Eiver, the Eev. Westphal states : " It may 

 be also mentioned that at the foot of this kopje (Bushmanskop) is at 

 present our cemetery. Some years ago in digging a grave the work- 

 men came across a human skeleton at the depth of two feet. Judging 

 from the manner of burial in a sitting position we supposed it to be 

 a Bushman grave." 



It may perhaps be argued that the very fact that these sepultures 

 were very shallow would make it quite possible for animals of prey 

 to disinter the corpses and do away with them. But I have informa- 

 tion and evidence of many of the mortal remains of aborigines, pre- 

 sumably Bushmen, being found together in a "donga," in such a 

 state of decomposition, however, that the " bones are crumbling 

 to pieces if handled," or in grottoes or rock shelters where they 

 never were disturbed. The absence of these graves is important, 

 insomuch that they would not bear out the hypothesis that these 

 graffiti were connected with some funeral rite. It is true, how- 

 ever, that if very ancient, as I believe them to be, the chances 

 of destruction of the bone remains would prove greater than 

 that of their preservation. 



So far, it cannot be said that Stow's assumption of the " rock 

 sculptor Bushmen living as large communities in "towns" is 

 supported by any ascertained fact. 



Let us now examine the possibility of both the engraving and 

 painting arts having been practised at the same time by the same 

 people. 



In the lately discovered caves of Southern France, Spain, Por- 

 tugal, the two arts have been found associated. Prehistoric pictures 

 and engravings are found there together, both depicting unmis- 



* Mr. Connan mentions incidentally that he was told by an old Bushman that 

 it was not the custom to bury the body deep. It was generally put in a sitting- 

 position, the legs being doubled up, pressed against the body, and the head bent 

 forward before rigor mortis set in. I have clear evidence that the corpses of the 

 Strand Loopers living in the caverns or rock shelters of the south-western part of 

 the Cape Colony were tucked up in the same way, but laid on their sides in the 

 manner of the pre-dynastic Egyptians. 



