Notes on the Bushmen of Basutoland. 447 



are very close together, badly wanting in perspective, and are about 

 7 in. X 5 in. 



On the road to Machacha near the station of Thaba Bosiu is to 

 be seen one of the finest series of paintings in the whole of Basuto- 

 land. The cave is on a tributary of the Little Caledon Eiver, which 

 there has cut a narrow, winding trench, over 400 feet deep. On the 

 rock-face underneath a huge overhanging cliff, are hundreds of paint- 

 ings, some of them 24 in. x 9 in., representing hartebeest, gnu, rhe- 

 bock, eland, storks, lions, and jackals, most of them in the natural 

 colour of the animals. They are in all sorts of attitudes, grazing, 

 surprised, in flight, &c. The body of the eland is red, the neck, 

 head, and legs white. Mixed with these are scores of men in rows 

 with bows and arrows, evidently fighting. At one place we see a 

 Bushman stealing up to a rhebock grazing in fairly long grass, with 

 his arrow on the string, while immediately alongside we see the hunter 

 charged by the infuriated animal he has just shot, and knocked over. 

 Lions are depicted in their yellow colour, some leaping upon game, 

 others on the qui vive. Then there are rows of jackals following 

 the lions, and curious drawings like snakes, or some kind of mytho- 

 logical rings with a snake inside. 



At another place is an indecent painting, but the indecent addition 

 is probably the recent work of a Basuto herd-boy. 



The question arises, Were the Bushmen always thieves ? There 

 are traditions that the first Bantu tribes found the Bushmen honest 

 enough. Very probably the former had little to steal from, and the 

 Bushmen were never numerous enough to make any stubborn fight 

 for their ancestral hunting grounds. 



The following is a short list of Bushman names of places, &c., and 

 of such as owe their origin to encounters with the Bushmen, with 

 the meanings of those that are known : — 



Place Names :- 



Qeme mountain = I have had enough food. 



Qhoasing = at the water. 



Qhughu mountain, unknown. 



Qoqolosi mountain, unknown. 



Qibing mountain = at the stone. 



Qalabane mountain, unknown. 



Senqu = the Orange Eiver. 



Qudu river, unknown. 



Quthing river, unknown. 



Qoasing river, unknown. 



Leqhoa river = qhoa water. 



