Boch-Engravings of Animals and the Human Figure. 417 



takably the animals of the period, i.e., the reindeer, bison, 

 mammoth, horse, &c. ; seriated dots, patterns not unhke some 

 found in Bushman paintings, &c. 



In my first note (Trans. S. Afric, xvi., p. Ill) I have quoted the 

 discovery by Mr. J. M. Bain in the Humansdorp District of the 

 Cape Colony of a "rock-engraving" painted over with red ochre. 

 In the same narrow gorge where this daubed sculpture occurs are 

 still to be found the game pits with stakes at the bottom, and in 

 a very good state of preservation. 



Miss Wilman, of the Kimberley Museum, in a letter just received, 

 informs me that at Warrenton, on the Vaal Eiver, where rock- 

 engravings are found, these sculptures, according to the people 

 that took her there, ''used to be coloured. This might account 

 for the habit people have in these parts of speaking of the 

 engravings as paintings." 



A cursory examination of some of the figures illustrating this 

 article is sufficient to prove that sculpture, and sculpture alone, 

 was the aim of the makers of the better-finished class of engravings. 

 Look at the corrugated hide of the elephant figured in Plate VIII., 

 the rehef work of the giraffes in Plate XIV., of the buffalo in 

 Plate IX. ; notice the slits on the sides of the rhinoceros in 

 Plate XV., meant evidently to indicate the ribs and to give an idea 

 of the rotund form of the animals. Is it likely that all this patient 

 labour, skill, and dexterity would have been lavished on the pro- 

 duction of a figure that was to be painted over in order to obtain a 

 monochrome effect like that of Humansdorp, and one which could 

 have been effected by the much simpler process of painting direct 

 on the surface of the rock ? 



Warrenton was not inhabited by whites half a century ago, except 

 by the Berlin missionaries. They knew the rock-engravings, and 

 they do not confirm the statement that they '* used to be coloured." 

 On the other hand, the Kats-Korannas, comprising as they did 

 Bushmen among their numbers, might very well have tried their 

 hand at daubing these pictures, in the same manner as they are still 

 trying their hand at producing engravings on stone. The want of 

 stability of the pigment used would bear out that they were novices, 

 however, at that kind of work," since the colouring has disappeared 

 within a very short period indeed. 



* In 1837 Sir Jas. Alexander published in his book, "Narrative of a Voyage of 

 Observation among the Colonies of Western Africa," &c., coloured figures of Bush 

 paintings found near George, in the Cape Colony. In 1907 Miss Wilman, at my 

 request, retraced and carefully copied the colour of some of these pictures. On 

 comparison with the original publication neither the outlines nor the colour of 

 the pigments had altered in the least. 



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