Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/42

18 when the country was partly occupied by pastoral Hamitic tribes, but before the arrival of Arabs. The outlines of the figures were cut very deep into the rock.

In Southern Algeria many engravings of animals on rocks have recently been discovered by Mr. G. B. Flamand, of the geological survey department, among others some of an extinct buffalo, whose bones are found in that region. These and some others must be of very great age. Mr. F. Foureau found similar engravings on the faces of masses of granite in the Sahara, all of a style and degree of art exactly corresponding to those in South Africa, and all made by punching holes or lines with sharp pieces of hard stone.

From what has been stated it seems certain that at some very remote period not only the whole of Africa, but at least parts of Europe and Asia were inhabited by a race of savages identical with the Bushmen, though differing in colour and some other features in different localities. There must have been some particular locality from which they all spread out, but, as has already been stated, that locality cannot be ascertained with certainty. Dr. Peringuey believes it was in Africa, Professor Sollas thinks it was in Europe, and Monsieur A. de Quatrefages, the eminent French savant, holds that it was in Asia. This seems to me the most