234 Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
which was not only intended for the parietal paintings of which I am 
going to speak, but also for body decoration. 
Paintings and Graving s. 
The reputation of Bush paintings is generally made. As long, however, 
as no comparison with other paintings of similar style and pigments was 
possible, this display of an artistic disposition of a member of mankind 
that was not looked upon as a remarkable instance of intelligence, was 
coupled with the result of brain power. But after the discovery in the 
shelters of the Aurignacian, Solutrean, Magdalenian epochs of objects 
graved by the men of these periods either on stone, bone, or horn, that of 
representations, often numerous, of animals and divers figures, painted 
and graved, the question arose if the latter especially were perpetrated by 
the men of the Eeindeer Age. One of the most important of these was 
that of the Cave of Altamira in Northern Spain. Further discoveries have 
now settled the point that it is ascribable to Palaeolithic man, and the 
age to the Aurignacian. These caverns number now some thirty, the 
best known being eight in the Dordogne, six in other parts of France, 
and eight in North-Western Spain. The discovery of many more in this 
Cantabrian Eegion of Spain is proceeding apace. The animals often 
represented with as much fidelity as those graved on bone or horn are 
the mammoth, the two races of horses of quaternary age, the bison, 
reindeer, roe-deer, etc. From this enumeration it is seen that all these 
animals are either extinct, or have long ago migrated from the country ; 
and as it is impossible that man could depict an animal he had not seen, 
the contemporaneity of the two is therefore made absolute. 
Here the subjects chosen for our pictoriographs are also those of 
animals — classical scenes they may be termed — but the animals repre- 
sented are still with us, and thus do not give any indication whatever of 
the age of these relics. On the other hand, the large picture here 
exhibited was painted, as in Altamira, on the roof of a cave that stood 
some 25 feet from the floor. More open at the entrance than Altamira it 
would be more exposed than the latter to the destructive effects of the 
elements. But this nine feet fragment of a much ' larger scene fell face 
downwards, and was thereby saved from the destruction that befell 
the remainder, of which no trace could be found. It is therefore per- 
missible to attribute to this piece of evidence as great an age as that of 
Altamira. If you follow my indications, you must recognize that in 
colouring, stumping of shades, and graved and painted technique united, 
the Zaamenkomst Bush painting does not fall below the artistic merit of 
the Altamirian artist. Nor is it all. In the latter cave we find some 
palimpsests, that is to say, animals painted and graved over another 
animal whose fainter outline implies a greater age. Similar palimpsests. 
