Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/686

668 journeys far beyond the northern limits of the Transvaal, makes frequent mention of them and discriminates four distinct types, noticing especially a very light-colored variety only found in the Drakensberg Mountains and the ranges west of them. There seems to be a tradition of hostility between the Bushmen and Hottentots, and the difference between them in pursuits and habits has always been sharply marked; but the fact of their affinity has seldom or never been questioned. Moffat distinctly states his belief (supported by the analogy of the Balala or outcast Bechuanas) that they are the descendants of Hottentots driven by want and the hostility of stronger neighbors into the desert. Generations of perpetual living on the edge of starvation have made of them the gauntest and skinniest of shapes—seemingly designed by Nature to show what human beings can endure in that line and live—and developed in them, in spite or because of their physical weakness and insignificance, a cunning and an intimate knowledge of nature that to the savage mind seems little short of superhuman. Some of the Kafirs believe that the Bushmen can understand the language of the baboons, and countless instances of their skill in tracking game and finding water are on record. They possess a wonderful gift of mimicry, can imitate to the life the action of any man or animal, and have a passionate love of music. They can evolve from their primitive instruments—the gorah, with its catgut and quill, or the hollow gourd-shell, with strings stretched across it—plaintive melodies of a surprising sweetness, very different from the hideous tinta-marre of horns and tomtoms which delights the heart of the average African. Moreover, having a quick ear and a retentive memory, they will pick up and repeat any civilized tune once heard—whether the Chorales of the German Mission or the more secular ditty sung by the wandering traders. Their poisoned arrows, and their noiseless, furtive ways of coming and going, inspire the stronger races with a vague dread of them, strengthened no doubt by that uncanny something which, as Mr. F. Boyle remarks, "makes a Bush-boy resemble a bird the more, the more he shows a simian intelligence."

We have thus, in a hasty and imperfect manner, surveyed the known fragments of the aboriginal African race. We have seen that they resemble each other to a great extent in physical conformation and in manners and customs; the differences being for the most part due (like the extremely poor development and degraded way of life of the Bushmen) to differences in habitat and environment. The Hottentot and San or Saab (Bushman) languages we have seen to be related, though distinct; and they are radically different from every known Bantu tongue. Some have even denied that they are articulate speech at all. The peculiarity