A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 



their males and about four feet among their women. 

 In common with all the South African races their 

 primeval home would seem to have- been in North 

 or North-East Africa. It is probable that the three 

 principal native races now inhabiting Southern Africa 

 originally dwelt somewhere in the direction of Egypt 

 or the Nile. Indications, whether in the case of the 

 Bushmen, the Hottentots, or the great Bantu race — 

 in which are included the Kaffirs, Zulus, Bechuanas, 

 Basutos, and others — point irresistibly to this con- 

 clusion. The Bechuanas, even to this day, bury 

 their dead with their faces turned in the direction of 

 Egypt, and the huts of the Abyssinians bear singu- 

 larly striking resemblance to those of the Bechuanas 

 and Basutos. Herr Merensky, in his " Beitrage," 

 asserts that " Many of the usages of the Kaffir tribes 

 would seem to indicate an Egyptian origin or 

 influence. . . . the brown people who are painted 

 on the walls, as in battle with the Egyptians, or as 

 prisoners, bear throughout the stamp of the Kaffirs. 

 Weapons — the form of the shield — of ox-hide, the 

 clothing, the type of race, are surprisingly like those 

 of South Africa." 



Barth and Schweinfurth have found very similar 

 races to the Bushmen in North Africa. Herodotus 

 speaks of a race in that country using a language 

 apparently resembling their curious clicking of 

 speech. Barrow has well pointed out their strong 

 similarity to the Pigmys and Troglodytes of the 

 Nile ; and he further, with strong show of reason, 

 identifies them with some of the Ethiopian nations 

 depicted by Diodorus Siculus. The voices of these 

 Ethiops were shrill, dissonant, and scarcely human ; 

 their language almost inarticulate ; and they wore no 



