216 ON THE OEIGINj &C. OF THE NATIVE BAGES 
have for horse-flesh as an article of diet, preferring it to 
every other sort of food ; they strictly merit the appellation 
of HippopJiagi: lastly, in the acuteness of their vision, 
which almost exceeds belief. I have found their sight to 
be equal to that of most Europeans when aided by excel- 
lent hand-telescopes of the best construction. The Bosje- 
man is ingenious, clever, and neat-handed ; his powers of 
mimickry are great, his understanding good. He readily 
acquires languages, and his speed of foot is almost prover- 
bial. 
The origin of the race, by which I mean the mode of 
their descent, and separation from one or other of the more 
extended varieties of the human race, is one of the most 
interesting inquiries which the natural history of Man pre- 
sents. To connect the Bosjeman with tlie Mongolin variety, 
we must step at once from the Peninsula of Southern Afri- 
ca, to the great central deserts of Asia ; the intermediate 
links are lost,— -the intervening races unknown. History, 
thou2:h not altof^ether to be depended on in the considera- 
tion of events so remote, must not in the present instance 
be despised. Though surcharged and disfigured with fable, 
there is one fact to which such constant allusion is made, 
as almost to put it beyond a doubt, — I allude to the fre- 
quent descents of the northern Asiatic races on the south- 
ern states of Europe and Asia. The valuable monuments 
of antiquity, still preserved in the Cave of Elephantina, in 
Peninsular India_, attest the predominating presence of the 
Mongol race, at a period removed from the birth of our 
Saviour by more than 2000 years *, and that, at that time, 
• Compare the annexed drawing (Plate VII.) of the female figure sculp- 
tured in the Cave of Elephantina, and copied from the *' Recherches snr 
rOrigine des Arts," with the beautiful and expressive portraits of the Boe- 
Jeman and Hottentot races hy Mr Daniells in his " African Scenery." 
