Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/112

88 and Hottentot women, either before or after this period. Their arrival at the southern shore of Africa must have preceded that of the first Portuguese explorers by only a very few centuries, certainly not more than two or three at most, and probably even less.

At different stages between the mouth of the Orange river and Table Bay sections of the horde were left behind, each of which took a tribal name, and thereafter carried on war with its nearest neighbours on its own account. As the majority of the Bushmen who had lived at these localities were either exterminated or forced to retreat farther inland, the incorporation of girls necessarily almost ceased, so that each tribe of Hottentots from north to south was of purer blood than the next in advance. Nearly all of the former dwellers on the coast, the people who raised the great shell heaps that cannot now be distinguished from natural mounds unless the materials of which they are composed are discovered by accident, must have been cut off at this time. A few only may have survived in situations favourable for concealment, and at a distance from localities where the invaders settled. All the others disappeared, and then dust and sand accumulated on the mounds, and plants began to grow upon them, and when centuries went by all traces of them were lost to view.

When the southern point of the continent was reached, the migratory movement did not end, but, turning eastward, a portion of the horde continued its march, still keeping close to the shore of the sea. At no point except the one mentioned on the long journey, which may have occupied several centuries, was any attempt made to penetrate the interior country. Yet these people did not possess the skill to make even a rough canoe, and only when they were without cattle resorted to catching fish for food. It was therefore not from any attachment to the ocean or from any benefit derived directly from it that they continued their course along its margin, but from the pastures, owing to the greater rainfall, being more luxuriant in its neighbourhood than farther inland.

The character of the country had now entirely changed. The south-east wind sweeping over the Indian ocean reached the land