Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/149

 THE BUSHMEN. Ill HuKliineii i*eprt'»eiit u debusetl or dogenenito people beloug^ing to tlie same 8tock an their neighbours, and are not an independent race, much leuth eastern Katirs, the BuMhmen have in their phonetic system a group of peculiar consonants, the so-called " clicks," which are all but unpronounceable by Kumpeann, but which are also found in a somewhat moem reducible to four fundamental dicks : the dental, resembling the smuck of a nurse's kiss ; the palatfi/, like the tap of a woo<lpecker on the stem of a tree ; the crirhrfi/, analogous to the pop of a cork drawn from a bottle; the lateral, which, according to M. Hahn, resembles nothing so much as the quack of a duck. At the same time these clicks would ^^eem to be ultnost inherent in the soil, for they are found not only in the Hushman and Hottentot languages, but also in all those of the southern Kafirs, except the Se-Tlapi (language of the Ba-Tlapis) and the Se-Rjlong (language of the Ba- Rolongs). They have even invaded the local Dutch dialect, the Boers adding these eccentric sounds to certain words of their jxitoix. In the alphabets introduced by the missionaries, the various clicks are represented by ]>oints of exclamation crosses, and such like orthographic devices. Like the Indo- Chinese, the Bushman and Hottentot are toned languages, the woids acquiring different meanings according to the more or less elevated tone with which they are uttered. Owing to their nomad and fugitive existence, the Suns have developed scarcely any local industries. In the districts where they have not yet acquired a know- ledge of firearms, their weapons still are the bow and arrow tipped with poisoned iron points, or even sharpened stones, glu.ss, and chipped flints. They wear little clothing, even the rich restricting themselves to the knross or .'*hrepskin. But all are fond of decorating the head and body with bone necklaces, arrows, and ostrich plumes, to which the Kalahari tribes add little bits of wood inserted in the cartilage of the nostrils. Very few have learnt to build huts, most of the tribes dwelling in caves or the dens of wild beasts, pa8>iiig the night round the smouldering embers of a fire, and sheltering themselves from the wind by mats suspended on stakes. But their life of hardships and adventures has developed in these aborigines a surprising degree of sagacity, and those who are captured in their youth and brought up in the domestic state readily learn everything they are taught. They become skilful fishers, and as shepherds are most highly valued. But the impulse is at times irresistible to forsake the abodes of civili8e<l men, where they had at least sufficient nutriment, and again resume their sa-age indej)endence, their nomad ways, and life of endless hardships. But, however wretched their existence, they still possess a greater flow of spirits and vitality than their neighbours, expending it in the dance, songs, and extempore recitals. They are also artists, and on the rocky walls of their caves have in many places been discovered life-like represent!! tions in red ochre, and even ptdychromo pictures of