Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/92

68 animals, however, have this faculty, as notably the dove, so that it is not surprising to find the lowest type of man in possession of it.

The life led by these savages was in truth a wretched one, judged from a European standard. They had no contact with people beyond their own little communities, except in war, for they carried on no commerce. If a pestilence had swept them all from the face of the earth, nothing more would have been left to mark where they had once been than the drilled stones, rudely shaped arrowheads, rough pottery, rock paintings, and crude sculptures. Their pleasures were hardly superior to those of dumb animals. But it is not correct to look at them from this standpoint, or to compare them with white people reduced to the same level of poverty. They knew of nothing better, they were all in the same condition and shared alike, so that envy was not felt, their cares were very few, and serious illness was hardly known among them. They probably enjoyed, therefore, more real happiness in life than the destitute class in any European city.

They had a rich stock of traditionary stories, which old women told to little children by evening fires, when food was plentiful and the able-bodied were enjoying themselves in other ways. In Drs. Bleek and L. C. Lloyd's book a number of these folklore tales can be found, and it must be remembered that even the grown-up people believed them to be true narratives, for they were as credulous in such matters as infants could be. But judging from the manner in which Bantu women tell such stories, a great deal of their interest is lost when they are read in print. A Xosa woman when narrating one of them displays all kinds of gestures, alters her voice in the dialogues, and sings the parts capable of such treatment, in short, puts life into the tale. It may be taken for certain that a Bushwoman did the same, and so even the endless repetitions of the same thing would not be wearisome, especially to children. The following are literal translations of two such stories, taken down by Miss Lloyd from the dictation of a Bushman named ǀhanǂkass'ō, and published by her in the Folklore Journal of May 1880: