Page:South Africa (1878 Volume 2).djvu/330

 In November 1869 there appeared a paper in "Once a Week" called "Ethnological Curiosities from South Africa." From whom it was supplied to that periodical neither do I know,—nor does the gentleman by whom the body of the paper was written. The assumed name of "Leyland" is there given to that gentleman, without any authority for the change, and it is told that he had contributed the narrative to the Ethnological Society and had called it a visit to the Cannibal Caves. This is true; but the name of the gentleman was Mr. Bowker who was the first Government Agent in Basutoland. He was not at all sorry to see his paper reappearing in so respectable a periodical, but has never known how it reached "Once a Week," or why he was called Mr. Leyland. This is not of much general interest; but he goes on to describe how he, and a party with him, were taken by guides up the side of a mountain, and by a difficult pathway into a cave. The date is not given, but the visit occurred in 1868. The cavern is then described as being black with the smoke of fires, and the floor as being strewn with the bones of human beings,—chiefly those of women and children. "The marrow bones were split into small pieces, the rounded joints alone being left unbroken. Only a few of these bones were charred by fire, showing that the prevailing taste had been for boiled rather than for roast meat." Again he says, "I saw while at the cavern unmistakeable evidence that the custom has not been altogether abandoned, for among the numerous bones were a few that appeared very recent. They were apparently those of a tall bony individual with a skull hard as bronze. In the joints