Minutes of Proceedings. xvii 



manner of finding honey by following up the droppings of the bees. 

 The missionary, the chief, and under captain, in fact every one on 

 Warmbad knows the fellow. 



"Now, if a Bushman has found honey, and has not skinbags of 

 a leguan or any other utensils in which he can take the honey home, 

 he will take a small piece of wood, break it and bend it into a certain 

 form, and put it into the ground alongside the honey. And should 

 any one else attempt to take that honey so marked away it would 

 mean war to the knife. The same when a Bushman has killed game, 

 and had to leave it covered to fetch assistance. 



"Once two Bushmen, brothers, got a rock rabbit, and the elder 

 one who killed it made a fire, and put it into the hot ashes to cook 

 it. He then went to look for some gum (heira) on the mimosa trees. 

 The younger brother, almost famishing, ventured to take a bit of the 

 roasted rabbit during the absence of the elder. The elder on his 

 return simply held the hand of the younger into the fire and burnt 

 it, as he had taken a bit of meat without his permission. The poor 

 fellow is one of the late chief of Bethany's herds, and as far as I 

 know still alive." 



Mr. Peeinguey observed that without wishing to underrate the 

 acumen of Bushmen it was more likely that the droppings of the bee 

 were small drops of water expectorated by the insect when reaching 

 the hive. This expectoration consists of the superfluous moisture 

 elaborated in the gizzard of the bee in the honey-making process, 

 and is got rid of when approaching the hive. These drops of 

 water would thus denote the vicinity of the bee-hive to the 

 Bushman. 



The Secretary further said that, so far as he knew, nothing was 

 known how long the stone age had lasted in South Africa. He had 

 brought for exhibition specimens which went, he thought, far to show 

 that stone implements had been used by Bushmen up to a compara- 

 tively recent period. In the museum they had the skeleton of a 

 Bushman, or perhaps a " Strand Looper," that had been found 

 wrapped up in a bushbuck-skin, and having alongside a stone 

 implement fixed by some rosin to a short wooden handle, somewhat 

 in the manner of the Australian aborigines. The skeleton was fairly 

 preserved, and had been found buried, with the shell of a tortoise 

 under its head and feet. The wooden handle was very much decayed, 

 and the implement, perhaps on account of the mode of burial, might 

 have belonged to a wizard, and been a token of authority or craft, 

 and might have been much older than its owner. He was, however, 

 exhibiting now fragments of pottery, two stone scrapers, a bone 



2 



