THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA

Post Reply
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA

Post posted by VED »

header #

Image

Image

THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA
by
GEORGE W. STOW, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.

Along with a Commentary by
VED from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS


VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS
Aaradhana, DEVERKOVIL 673508 India
www.victoriainstitutions.com
admn@victoriainstitutions.com
Telegram


Image
Image
Last edited by VED on Sat Feb 03, 2024 4:32 am, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

CONTENTS

Post posted by VED »

Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:03 am, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

Commentary

Post posted by VED »

co #


COMMENTARY
1. Intro

2. Comparative stance

3. Lowering of the native-English mental stamina

4. What has been missed

5. A most terrific observation

6. How the Bushmen was treated by the native tribes of Africa and by the Boers

7. Serpent worship

8. Irish Link

9. The invisible spirit of Dutch colonial endeavours

10. Islamic demeanour

11. Satanism in feudal languages

12. India overrunning England

13. Slavery in South Asia

14. Native English versus the Boers

15. Bushmen and the Boers

16. Shamanistic spiritual system

17. Bushmen Butchered

18. Bushmen - Refined character

19. Bushmen versus the native African encroachers

20. Effect of language codes

21. BOERS and Hottentots

22. English intervention

23. The entry of various other populations into South Africa

24. African social situation

25. Colonial effect

26. London Missionary Society

27. Miscellaneous

28. Social Engineering

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:32 pm, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

1

Post posted by VED »

c1 #
Intro


I had made some observations on what was in the offing with regard to South Africa, in my ancient book March of the Evil Empires; English versus the feudal languages! The initial drafting of this book had been done in the ending months of 1989. However, the book was rewritten and made into its final form only in 2002.

My information on South Africa was quite of the abysmal level in those days. However, I wrote from my own basic perspectives and information on feudal languages. My posture was simply that if the native South African languages do have the codes of pejorative versus ennobling in them, then the nation would move into a diseased state when the nation gets handed over to the native blacks.

Even though what I had claimed was quite powerful, and more or less plausible, the fact remained that my information on Boers, various South African native tribes, their languages &c. was quite minimal. Even though I was aware that it was the native-English who initially had the upper-hand, it seemed a kind of absurdity that the Boers were handed over the political power.

Even now my information on Afrikaans language is an absolute zero. Since most of my writings are connected to what may be mentioned as language codes, feudal languages, pristine-English, codes of reality &c., it is a grave failing in me that I do not know anything about Afrikaans. Especially when I am embarking on a commentary such as this.

At the moment of this writing, I do not know what the popular language among the Whites in South Africa was, whether it was English or Afrikaans. Why I am harping upon language so much is that it has been my observation that language systems are the most powerful encoding that designs a social system. What pristine-English can design would be entirely different from what Afrikaans, Afrikaans-English mixture, native-African languages &c. can design.

When speaking these things about languages in English, if the reader is a native-English individual, he would not get a head or tail of what is being mentioned. However, the fact remains that the native-Englishman does not know what the emotional and thinking process content is, in feudal languages. The very fact that there is such a thing which can be defined as feudal language is there in existence is not seen mentioned in English much.

I cannot deal with the subject of feudal language here. For it is a very huge theme. However, the interested reader can peruse some of my books in this regard:

1. March of the Evil Empires; English versus the feudal languages!

2. Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages!

3. Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c.

4. An Impressionistic History of the South Asian Subcontinent

The original writing of item no.4 👆 is in a vernacular of South Asia, for the local people there to read. So, there can be no duplicity about what I am writing in English.

5. What is entering? (into England)

I have done very deep studies on a few books, written during the English colonial rule period in South Asia. They include Malabar Manual by William Logan, Travancore State Manual by V Nagam Aiya, Native Life in Travancore by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER, Castes and tribes of Southern India Vol 1 by Edgar Thurston and Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston. On the first four of them I have written commentaries.

I have also done a study of Adolf Hilter’s Mein Kampf and written a commentary plus annotation on this book and brought it out in the name: MEIN KAMPF by Adolf Hitler. - A demystification!

I have mentioned this much to mention that I am not new to these kinds of books and writings. However, this is the first book I have touched upon about Africa or, rather to be precise, about South Africa. There might not be much need to mention that I have had certain impressions about the native peoples of Africa and South Africa in a very vague manner. I was aware of various items like Zanzibar, Slave Trade, West African Squadron of the British Royal Navy, Bushmen, cannibals &c. and such other things. However, there was not much of an information on how the native peoples lived.

I did not have the least bit of idea as to what would come out from this book when I started reading it. Now about this book itself, I need to mention this much. I selected this book for my study due to no specific reason. There were a few others. However, somehow this was the book file (PDF) that appeared at that time to be easy to convert into an editable version in MS Word.

The selection of the book was propitious in one sense. It was that this book literally took me straight into the depths of the Native races’ life experiences. However, the defect with this selection was that it did not deal at all with the Boers versus native-English confrontations in South Africa. It was a location which I was keenly interested in. In fact, I wanted to view how the verbal codes of Dutch language and those of pristine English confronted each other.

When I speak about such a linguistic confrontation, the reader might not understand what I am speaking about. I can easily explain that.

If there is a confrontation between a group of Frenchmen and a group of Englishmen, the simple fact is that it is a confrontation between two groups of human beings. Moreover, they are both White-skinned persons. However, there is a wider defining content in each group. One group speaks and thinks in French. The other in English. This is the vital location where the two groups, though both are human beings, differ. The same is the case when a group of Irishmen or Scots or Welsh persons confront with a group of native-English.

A number of native South African / African tribes or races have been mentioned in this book. From a comprehensive perspective, this book is pro-Bushmen. In fact, South Africa is seen belonging to the Bushmen by ancestral claims. All other claims, both White as well as black stands demolished, as per the information given in this book.

As to the veracity of the contents in this book, I did not find any reason to doubt it.

What is described in this book is terrific and if visualised mentally, the various scenes of barbarity that continuously gets enacted and repeated throughout the book, might given a mental shock to the reader and also appear in his or her dreams as some kind of nightmare scenarios. However, it is doubtful if any reader would try to imagine the incidences in his or her mind.

Talking about barbarity, the fact remains that most of the current-day world is still barbarian. In fact, if one were to remove the luxuries that technology had given to mankind in the last 100 years or so, only the few nations connected to native-English speakers and a few other nations would be seen to be above the social standards of barbarianism.

For instance, if English and the technological devices of the modern ages are removed from South Asia, the population would have not much of a difference from many of the semi-barbarian populations in the world. If English is not there in South Asia, then what would remain would be languages which are very carnivorous. That is, languages which would be used by the stronger class or individual to prey upon or impale the weaker group or individual by mere verbal codes.
Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

2

Post posted by VED »

c2 #
Comparative stance


After reading this book, my mind has become loaded with a lot of historical information with regard to mankind and living beings in general and to South Africa in particular. I am not sure as to how I going to use them in this commentary. I need to take a comparative stance. That is to make comparisons with the various incidences and information I have read, with those of South Asia, and with native-English global experiences.

I need to very categorically mention that the native-English, though secluded from very many negative emotional traps and sinister social encodings, are a very foolish and gullible lot in the sense that they are being fooled by the cunning fake affability of the others. They do not have much information on what the world is just beyond the borders of the pristine-English world. They have been led and misled by others on various items to terrific historic traps.

South Africa, the place, is entirely new to me. I have come across a number of population / tribe / races names in this book. See these: The Hottentot tribes, Korana, Bachoana and Basutu tribes, Batlapin, Kaffirs, the Amaxosa, the Abatembu and Amampondo tribes, the Amazulu, Matabli, and Natal tribes, Cochoqua, Chainouqua, Namaqua, Africaander, Berg-Damaras, Ovaherero, Damara, Leghoya, Griqua, Mantatees, Bergenaars, Bakuena &c.

All of them are new to me, and most of them do not connect my mind to any specific imagination of any population. I do not have much clear chronological order in my mind with regard to them.

In a similar manner, a lot of new places names have also come into my notice. Almost all are new to me. Without referring to the text in book, I would find it difficult to connect any of the populations to any of the places.

After having confessed that much, I need to think of what the imagination of the whole book creates in my mind. It is a powerful book, no doubt. A lot of sociological and historical events have been recorded or collected in this book. From this perspective, it is a good book.

There is another perspective also that needs to be mentioned. It is that neither this book nor its author has been able to penetrate into the mindset, emotional triggers, cravings, inhibitions, restrictions, strictures, immunities etc. that are encoded in the languages or communication codes of the native tribes or races. This is actually a very vital point fit for elaboration.

It is like this: I am reasonably good in English, have some reading experience in English Classics, have read a number of Enid Blyton books, have lived at times in an English-only social ambience inside South Asia and I can understand the various communication freedoms and mental stature that English can give. I can understand the huge benefits a native-English population would have derived by merely living inside a pristine-English ambience. Moreover, I do have a reasonable amount of understanding of the mood of a native-English individual, commoner or from the nobility. Beyond that I do have some information on how the native-English are different from their own Celtic language countrymen. I do even have some information on the difference that the English have from the Continental Europeans.

I cannot elaborate on these claims of mine here. However, the interested reader can check certain of my other books.

However, I am not a native-Englishman. I am by heredity and ethnicity from current-day South Asia, even though by antiquity I can be connected to some other geographical location. For, many of the South Asian populations are really from various geographical locations in the world, who by some tragic twist of fate had got entrapped in the South Asian social shackles.

When I read books written by the officials of the erstwhile English rule in South Asia, I find them quite profound. Many of the writers have taken a lot of pain to study their subject matter in great detail. Yet, all of the writings and assertions remain very superficial, from my own perspective. This is just because I understand the language codes of the local populations, in their various complexities or lack of it.

This is one defect that all ancient-time studies done by the native-English have. They have no information on the existence of a different human imagination system, quite different from English. The emotions, imaginations, human relationships designed by mere word-codes, the powerful hierarchies that get build up when certain words are used, the loyalties and commitments that get powerfully laid down, the verbal codes that can be used to place terrific hold on certain others, the emotions of worship and hate different form of words with the same meaning can create &c. are totally unknown to the native-English writers. They can only see the effect of the codes or the working of the social machinery. But they have no information on the various verbal codes that creates the actions or the emotions.

Even though I do not want to pursue the feudal language theme here, I can give a minute illustrative example to show what it is all about.

The Indian army as well as the Pakistani army are actually the continuation of the British-Indian army. So, both of them do retain a lot of conventions, procedures, uniforms, parade systems etc. which they had inherited from the erstwhile English army. The senior army officers who are designated as Commissioned Officers (this term itself is connected to the English Monarch) do try to copy and imitate the English army officer class in demeanour, grooming, table manners, sitting postures etc. During the officer training period they are generally mentioned as the Gentlemen Cadets. Some of the senior Indian army officers do don hats and other paraphernalia which might make the common man in India think that they are on the same level as or even superior to an English army officer. In fact, it might seem quite easy to imagine that the senior Indian army officers are more or less of the same mental standards as an English army officer. A few of them might even speak good quality English.

However, there are acute differences between a senior Indian army officer and an English army officer. The major difference is that the Indian officers are at home in Hindi. They address the subordinate ordinary soldiers in Hindi. They address them as the lower slot You in Hindi, that is, Thoo. The ordinary soldier would address them back with an Aap or Saab. This is, the highest level of You. In the Indian army, the Thoo-Aap ladder-step like hierarchy starts from the top Aap level and reaches down to the lowest Thoo level.

Other words like he, his, him, she, her, hers &c. also change into the corresponding form of the selected You. This slotted version of communication would encompass not only the officers and soldiers, but even their family members, relatives, companions &c.

In the English army, this terrific compressing of human self-esteem does not take place in the military hierarchy. So, even when the Indian senior army officers and the English army officers might seem similar, there is actually a total difference in what they are part of and how their mental encoding works.

To illustrate the extreme power of the verbal codes of South Asia, I will give one more illustration, again from the South-Asian armies.

Recently one of India’s Air force pilots was captured by Pakistan. He had been shot down during a bombing mission inside Pakistan. The people who caught him would have bashed him up to death. However, he was saved by the Pakistani military officers. Moreover, he was literally given a royal treatment by the Pakistani military officers. There can be a number of reasons as to why he was saved. Beyond the generally discussed themes, there can even be the possibility that someone in his family had connection with the pan-national arms dealer network, which has connection with the military brass on both sides. They can very easily put in word to the other side to see that the captured person’s skin is saved.

That all is however irrelevant here. What is of relevance here is the verbal codes that was used in all conversations between the Pakistani Military side and the captured person. The conversations were in English. Why?

It is a very pertinent question. For both sides of the fight are at home in Hindi. Yet they preferred to speak in English.

Whatever might be the answer given, the real fact is that English is used to avoid the feudal language encoding issues that would crop up. The Pakistani military would be compelled to use Thoo (lowest You) and the captive person would be under compulsion to use ‘Aap’ (highest You). When this is done, a lot of other verbal codes in Hindi would divide spontaneously into higher and lower attributes. The captured person would sink into the level of a diminutive personality.

In a way, the Pakistani Military officers protected a counterpart of theirs, from a very necessary personality degrading by simply using English. This point has not been appreciated by the Indian side. Even if it was understood, it was not publicly acknowledged. For, such an admission would have brought into the open various hidden issues, including the fact that Hindi is a very carnivorous language.

If the war had continued, these kinds of mutual support by the officer classes would not have continued. Things would have dropped down to the traditional barbarian communication codes. The captured officers on both sides would be addressed and questioned by the lower-placed ordinary soldiers at the Thoo (lowest you) level.

Even a very friendly interaction by the ordinary soldiers with the captive officer from the other side would have been a terribly traumatic experience for the captive officer. For, they, in a pose of extreme friendliness, would have addressed the captive officer by his mere name, Thoo &c. and used the USS (lowest he/him) to refer to him.

The explosive level of personality degradation that would come about from this friendly pose cannot be understood by a native-English person. In fact, when there was the shooting of an engineer from South Asia in the US by a person named Adam Purinton, I did have a conversation with the South Asian side about the verbal code issue. Even though that side was quite abusive and cantankerous, it did ultimately emerge that the dead engineer’s side did use the explosive verbal codes on Adam Purinton. These are things that are quite easily understood in South Asia. And these mental explosions can be very easily demonstrated. That is, the homicidal mania that gets ignited can be demonstrated for any kind of research into this effect. However, the Adam Purinton’s legal defence side had no inkling at all of all these things.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

3

Post posted by VED »

c3 #
Lowering of the native-English mental stamina


I mentioned so much to mention that native-English colonial officials and writers never did get to understand the exact content of barbarianism deeply encoded inside the barbarian and semi-barbarian areas which they got to administer and improve.

The modern English citizen in England is not the original native-English citizens of yore. The modern specimen is a corrupted and low grade individual, when compared to the original native-English individuals. This lowliness comes from having achieved a level of equality with the feudal language speaking persons who have barged into England. Many of these persons, who have swarmed in, are mostly the children of corrupt-to-the-core officials of other nations. Others can be the lowly-placed persons’ children. Feudal languages actually give a very satanic power to the lowly placed persons, if they are allowed to grow up and address the social seniors as equals. This danger also, England does not understand.

Equality with the feudal language individuals is an equality with an entity that can oscillate another being between stinking dirt and fragrant gold. Those persons can literally clasp another person and get him attached to the stinking dirt layer of human existence or to the golden layers. These are things that cannot be made understood in English. The easiest way to demonstrate this is to simply show the extreme urge of these individuals to get out of their own nations and to sink their teeth into the vital interiors of native-English nations.

Even a simple question in English as, Where are you going? can be asked using various and varying verbal codes in feudal languages. These shifting or changing of verbal codes can literally swing a person across different social levels, or display various kinds of attachments to other persons. Each of these shifts can powerfully place the person in various kinds of social or positional shackles. Or they can place him in positions of power over others. Each of these positions can very directly affect his own equation with many other individuals including his own subordinates, superiors, wife, children etc. His own position can affect his children, wife, parents and even his superiors and subordinates, in their own spheres of activity and socialising.

All these terrific information get hidden in English. And this is the great tragedy that is entering into native-English nations, when multiculture is being given the go-ahead. No one over there seems to understand that they have no information on the exact amplitude and ambit of the term ‘multiculture’. Or why exactly all these multiculture individuals are running out of their own cultural lands, and would go suicidal or homicidal if forced to relocate back to their homeland.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

4

Post posted by VED »

c4 #
What has been missed


This book, THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA written by GEORGE W. STOW, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. does suffer from this defect. That is, the writer of this book has written this book containing a huge content of details. However, everything does sort of skim over the surface. The hidden codes and their machine-work have been totally missed. Or rather, there is not even a thought that such hidden things, non-tangible to a native-English mind, would be there in existence.

A population group is studied. Their strange or bizarre actions or social conventions are detailed. However, there is no information on why the persons behave in such a strange manner. This is an insight that I did have when I was reading the books written by the officials of the erstwhile English East India Company or by the British officials of British-India. They detail the social system, conventions, inhibitions, strictures, repulsions &c. Beyond that they have no more information of the social machinery. However, when I read them, in many cases, I can very easily visualise the verbal codes that acted upon the persons to create the social effect.

That much is the defect. However, as mentioned earlier, it is not a rare defect in native-English writers.

Speaking about what the book contains, it may be admitted that it does contain a lot of information, for a person who knows what to look for. This again is a very profound statement. It is like a native-Englishman coming to South Asia and finding everyone quite friendly, welcoming and affectionate. However, if the person knows something about the sinister sides of feudal languages, then he or she can know what to look for. A very friendly and affable outward demeanour is a powerful way to trap or allure a wary or unwary antagonist or someone they want to subdue. In feudal languages, there are actually two extremely opposite poses possible.

In this book, one or two such incidences have been mentioned wherein these kinds of mentalities are exhibited.

It may be mentioned here that the native-English colonial behaviour was exemplary and totally opposite to that of the Continental Europeans. However that cannot be expected anymore, because the native-English are now in close contact with the feudal language speakers and many of them are being taught by feudal language teachers. I hope to write about this later in this book. However, interested persons can read my book: The tragic consequences of teaching Hindi in Australia!

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

5

Post posted by VED »

c5 #
A most terrific observation


There are a number of observations that I have made from the contents of this book. I need to go through them in a systematic manner, as much as possible.

The most terrific observation is that human beings are actually another kind of animals. And also that human beings might not actually be one single kind of animals, but a variety of animals, who anatomically might seem quite close to each other. The wider point for elaboration might be that most of the peoples of the world currently seem to be alike only due to the influence of English.

If there was no English, then it is quite possible that many human races would find it quite difficult to arrive at a similarity in thoughts and conventions, that might give a feel that they are all actually of the same type of living beings. This is a very tall claim and the reader might not be quite amused by this. However, I do not intend to pursue this line of thoughts here. If after reading the full commentary, the reader gets to acknowledge the veracity of this claim, well and good. Otherwise also, it does not matter. May be I should mention that animals also have many thoughts and emotions quite similar to that of mankind.

I need to commence from the Bushmen. Actually when I read about them, I did find that they had an attribute which I had mentioned in my earlier writing in my book ‘Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages’. It about what would come about when human beings speak animal languages. Since most the animals do not seem to have a verbal communication as understood as with audible sounds, it is simply that they communicate with each other using other physical and mental features they have or might have.

If human beings can develop the physical capabilities of dogs, carnivorous animals, snakes, fishes etc. what would be the change seen in them? Would they have superior attributes? Well, it is possible that in such an eventuality, the individual might seem to possess animal features. And when this is combined with human capacities of speech, writing, computer & Smartphone use, vehicle driving, speaking standing on a podium, videography etc., the individual would indeed be quite a superior individual or a superman.

However, the exact issue is that the individual will have animal features. If these features are of a living being that is considered to be dangerous, then that individual can very well be seen as a dangerous being.

This might be the exact situation in which the Bushmen might have arrived or lived in. They literally had capabilities which were way beyond that of an ordinary human being. However, they lived in the wild in close proximity with the wild animals. In the various locations of areas which later became South Africa, and beyond, they occupied the place in a manner in which their presence was not detected or acknowledged by the human being populations that entered the location or occupied it.

QUOTE 1:
The Hottentots and Bushmen had two remarkable faculties in common : that of quickness of sight and power of endurance in withstanding the cravings of hunger. It was remarked that they could distinguish objects scarcely visible to other men. This faculty was well illustrated in their expertness in watching the flight of bees through the air, and by this means discovering their nest, although at a considerable distance ; the certainty also with which they followed the spoor or trail of animals through a difficult tract of country was another illustration of the same fact, they being frequently able to follow the pursuit at a full run, tiring out horse and rider who accompanied them.


QUOTE 2:
Other tribal traditions, again, state that when their forefathers migrated to the south, they found the land without inhabitants, and that only the wild game and the Bushmen were living in it, evidently classing the Bushmen and the game in the same category as wild animals.


QUOTE 3:
In such a country, and endowed with the activity which it is known they possessed, it is not at all likely that the Bushmen would be the starving miserable people which some have delighted to depict them, before the stronger races invaded their hunting-grounds. Their powers of vision were extraordinary. They were able not only to descry, but to describe, objects at a distance, which were almost invisible to Europeans except with the aid of a telescope.


QUOTE 4:
The country was then stated to be uninhabited, that is, merely in the occupation of wild game and tribes of the Bushman race, whose sole means of subsistence was the chase. Hence their presence was always ignored, although there is overwhelming evidence that the country was then, and for a long period afterwards, thickly populated by them.


QUOTE 5:
They run like a horse, and in broken rocky ground no horse has a chance of overtaking them. They bound along, and when once among the rocks are like the klipspringers or baboons ; they spring from rock to rock without fear of falling.

He believes that to become an expert naturalist one ought to turn Bushman and conquer the language, when one would learn more about the natural history of many things than from books and years of study and experiment.


The above statement has a limited bit of merit. However, it cannot go beyond that. For, if the living being who has been living in the natural ambience as much as a wild animal can acquire a great expertise and information on Nature and such things, well then, animals would be great Naturalists.

Actually what could create an individual with super information across the living being fences is a combination of certain very specific attributes. I cannot divulge more about this here.

It is seen mentioned all along the writing that the Bushmen were not seen as human beings, but some kind of semi-humans. One of their special features that led to their total destruction was their unique capability to create poisoned arrows. Even though this was a very wonderful item of defence and offence for them, it more or less got them identified with the poisonous beings that live in the borrows.

Even if the arrow they send did not make much of a physical damage in a person, the poison would work and the person would die. This was so terrific an experience that they became a terror. However, the fact that they were initially not at all with any kind of hostile aims can be understood by the way they treated the others who came to occupy their traditional lands. Even the term ‘their traditional lands’ becomes an issue. For, it was like saying that the land traditionally belonged to the poisonous beings in the locality.

They had also a most useful ally and assistant in carrying out this work in the honey-bird — the " Bee-cuckoo " — (Cuculus indicator), of Sparrman, and called " honing wijzer," the honey- guide, by the Hottentots and Dutch. As soon as a Bushman heard its well-known and alluring cry of " cherr, cherr, cherr," he was immediately on the alert, as he knew by experience that the bird was desirous of attracting attention. Finding that it had been successful in doing this, it flew a short distance in front, repeating the cry.

As the Bushman followed, it again went a little farther, slowly and by degrees towards the quarter where the swarm of bees had taken up their abode, all the while repeating its cry of " cherr, cherr." The Bushman answered it now and then with a low gentle whistle, to let the bird know that its call was attended to. Approaching the bees' nest, it flew shorter distances, and repeated its note with greater earnestness. On arriving at the cleft of the rock, the hollow tree, or cavity in the ground, it hovered over the spot for a few seconds, and then perched in silence on some neighbouring tree or bush, awaiting results. A small piece of comb containing young bees was generally left on the ground as a reward to the bird for its information. Bushmen searching for honey say that the bee-hunter must not be too generous at first, but merely give enough to stimulate the bird's appetite, when the shrewd little thing will show a second hive if there be another in the neighbourhood.


The above might be a very clear illustration of the fact that animals are also individuals. It is only a matter of being able to communicate with them. Bushmen could comprehend a bit of the bird communication towards them. Even though they might have had the capability to decode or understand the communication between or among the birds.

QUOTE 1:
When we come to study the nature of some of their dances, their funeral rites, and some of their leading myths, we find that they possessed a traditionary belief that at some remote period the connexion between man and the lower animals was much closer and far more intimate than at present,...


QUOTE 2:
" That they are," continues the doctor, " to some extent like baboons is true, just as these are in some points frightfully human.”


The above words are quite evocative of the fact that they were very close to the animals, in that they could sort of read or sense their intentions, track them, sort of communicative with some of them, and could even live in some kind of symbiotic relationship with a few of them. In fact, they were human beings who had the capability to exist as a sort of link between the animal world and that of the human world. After all, animals are apart from human beings only because of the communication problem. In fact, even in South Asia, many human populations had been treated or defined or considered as half animal or semi-human.

These were the lower caste populations such as the Pulaya, Pariah and such others. However, with the advent of the English rule in the subcontinent, all of them were liberated from their semi-human state. However, it was an act for which the higher castes of the location still cannot forgive the English. In fact, there is one rascal member of these higher caste populations who has made a mark on the national psyche by demanding that Britain should pay adequate compensation for what it had done in the Subcontinent.

If the English rule had taken the effort to bring in communication ability in some of the shackled animals of the subcontinent, such as the elephant etc. they too would have entered into close proximity with the human races.

when, as they believed, men and animals consorted on more equal terms than they themselves, and used a kindred speech understood by all!


One cannot say if these kinds of talk are insane talk. For, it is possible that some thousands of years back the ancestors of the Bushmen might have had better living standards. How they came to be entrapped in a forest region, and all such things would have very complicated history. The state of the animals also might have been different in a social system where in technical skills were different. In fact, in days to come when software technology improves to such a level that it is possible to communicate with many kinds of animals, those animal stature will change. Many may even enter into the capability of using sophisticated gadgetry.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

6

Post posted by VED »

c6 #
How the Bushmen was treated by the native tribes of Africa and by the Boers

QUOTE: These unhappy fugitives at last became so terrified at the sight of any human being that there were portions of the country where they concealed themselves so effectually that a traveller might pass through its length and breadth without seeing a single soul, or even, if he were not aware of the fact, suspecting that it was inhabited.
END OF QUOTE

In this book, the Bushmen are mentioned as the entity which has been wronged by the others. Here the others are not the Boers alone, but almost all the native populations of Africa who came to occupy the traditional lands of the Bushmen. Every one of them has been quite wicked in the way their dealt with the Bushmen. In fact, they were treated in the same manner as gathering of poisonous snakes in a locality near to human habitation.

QUOTE 1: The Bushmen of Southern Africa have been described by their enemies, not only as being " the lowest of the low," but as the most treacherous, vindictive, and untameable savages on the face of the earth : a race void of all generous impulses, and little removed from the wild beasts with which they associated, one only fitted to be exterminated like noxious vermin, as a blot upon nature, upon whom kindness and forbearance were equally misplaced and thrown away.

QUOTE 2: On the one hand the Basutus slew them without mercy, whenever any of the marauders fell into their hands. The Baphuti chief Morosi, who was himself a half caste by his mother's side, destroyed the men of entire clans in order that he and his people might possess the women and girls, and only a few years before his death he made a grand final raid upon their remaining strongholds, when some hundreds of them perished, all the surviving females were captured, and the remnant of the unhappy fugitives was forcibly amalgamated into his tribe.

QUOTE 3: The massacre of many hundreds of these miserable creatures, and the carrying away of their children into servitude, seemed to be considered by him and his companions as perfectly lawful, just, and necessary, and as meritorious service done to the public, of which they had no more cause to be ashamed than a brave soldier of having distinguished himself against the enemies of his country

QUOTE 4: A war of extermination was commenced against them by the Koranas. Many of the Bushmen, he said, were shot

QUOTE 5: when closely pursued they would take refuge in dens and caves, in which their enemies have sometimes smothered scores to death, blocking up the entrance with brushwood, and setting it on fire.

QUOTE 6: The government apparently, without any further examination, acceded to the strong representations, and recklessly issued orders which proved the death-warrant of several hundred unhappy wretches, many of whom must have been perfectly innocent of the crime so sweepingly ascribed to them.

QUOTE 7: In this report it is stated that the Griquas have been accused, and with much probability of truth, of having whilst in a savage state treated the Bushmen with barbarity, and expelled them from the greater part of their country.

QUOTE 8: " These coverts enable the Bushmen to lurk here, in spite of all the efforts of the Griquas to root them out. They are a great annoyance to the latter, as well as to the other pastoral tribes in their vicinity, and they are consequently pursued by them, equally as by the Boers, with the utmost animosity."

QUOTE 9: that the Bastaards perpetrated the most horrid cruelties upon his nation, that when they had overpowered a Bushman kraal they would make a large fire and throw in all the children and lambs and kids they could not take away with them, and if they could by any chance lay hands on a grown-up Bushman they would cut his throat ;

QUOTE 10: " A party of Bushmen who had taken refuge in a cave refused to surrender ; they were destroyed," says Mr. Backhouse, " by setting on fire fuel collected at the cave's mouth ! "

QUOTE 11: One was not prepared to meet with such a display of genuine feeling as this among people who have been looked upon and treated as such untamably vicious animals as this doomed race are said to be.

QUOTE 12: In the same locality two or three villages of Bachoana Bushmen were found, "a people greatly despised by all the surrounding tribes."

QUOTE 13: When the Batlapin attack a Bushman kraal to revenge robberies of cattle, they kill without distinction men, women, and children ; women, they say, to prevent them breeding more thieves, and children to prevent them from becoming like their parents !
END OF QUOTEs

The Boers were also quite terrible towards the Bushmen. In fact, they treated them like snakes and killed them remorselessly.

Here it might be correct to delve upon the emerging White race versus other races issue. Historically as well as actually the native-English were different from most other white populations. In fact, they were different from almost all other human populations. The reason for this can be traced into the verbal codes inside pristine-English.

However, there is this information that might be needed to be mentioned here. The Boers and the native populations of Africa saw the Bushmen as some kind of poisonous beings. There are hints in this book that the native-English side did have a more benign attitude to them. Since I have not yet read about the later years, I cannot say anything more here with any level of certitude.



Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:35 pm, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

7

Post posted by VED »

c7 #
Serpent worship


However, British-India did have a similar issue. However, this was with regard to real poisonous snakes. There were many locations inside the subcontinent wherein serpents were worshipped as divinities, propitiation of which could give benevolent results. I do not want to give any feeling that I find these kinds of attitude foolish. For, one can mention anything with certainty only if one is actually aware of such things as the Codes of reality, and the software codes of life. Interested readers are requested to read my book: Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c.

In Travancore kingdom in the southern most end of the South Asian subcontinent, serpents were worshipped. Usually it is the cobra which is worshipped, even though the term Naga might or might not be the divine serpent. In many medium level higher caste households, a plot of land is kept apart for their worship. In some houses, cobra families used to live.

REV. SAMUEL MATEER mentions them as quite dangerous, even though he says thus also:

Quote: In parts of the country where these dangerous reptiles are regarded with most veneration, it is possible that the danger to human life arising from the great abundance of snakes is slightly diminished by the comparative tameness of the creatures, though of course this would not lessen the risk from inadvertently treading on them in the dark, or turning over them in sleep, and thus forcing them to bite. Serpents, happily, do not chase men, or seek to attack them, but rather try to escape; they only bite when trodden upon or driven to bay. End of Quote

In many property documents of Travancore, residential rights of the cobra family residing inside the house were given written down in very clear and unambiguous words.

Yet, the British officials in the next door British official had the perspective that all poisonous snakes in general were dangerous to the human beings. They took expedient steps to exterminate them.

See these words of REV. SAMUEL MATEER in NATIVE LIFE IN TRAVANCORE:

Quote: The contrast between British India and Travancore as regards the offer of rewards for the destruction of venomous serpents is very marked, and is often referred to by those who take an interest in the subject.

In a little corner of the territory, Tangacherry, which belongs to the British, two annas are paid per head; and in the Cantonment of Quilon, considerate British officers frequently offer rewards and take a great interest in the protection of the lives of their people; while in Travancore nothing of this kind is ever done. The missionaries endeavour to help in a good cause by offering small rewards, but, from the scanty means at their disposal, their efforts are scarcely worth mentioning in view of the importance of the whole subject. End of Quote

It may be mentioned in passing that the native populations of Africa and the Boers had the same kind of policy, which the British-Indian government had towards the serpents, towards the Bushmen.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

8

Post posted by VED »

c8 #
Irish Link


Great Britain, which was generally associated with England, was not England alone. It consisted of Celtic language speakers also. Celtic languages might have very erroneous social and communication codes. Maybe they are feudal languages. Since I do not know these languages, I can only speak in a postulating manner.

I cannot mention the complete reasons that I have had for assuming that the languages do have terrific communication negativities. However, I may quote here the words of Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet on the Irish famine:

"The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the (Irish) people".


Sir Charles Trevelyan had worked as the Governor of Madras Presidency during the English rule period in South Asia. He is reputed to have stood for the emancipation of the slave populations in the Travancore kingdom. Travancore kingdom was an independent kingdom just outside British-India, at the southernmost end of the subcontinent.

There is this other description about the Irish written by a contemporary native author of South Asia. I do not know how he came to have so much in-depth information on the inner social codes of the Irish hinterland. However, in those days, there were many learned natives of the subcontinent who were on very intimate terms with the English individuals.

Quote from Malabar and its folks by: T. K. Gopal Panikkar with an introduction by the REV. F. W. KELLETT, M. A, (of the Madras Christian College)

Ireland and Irish history present similar and not less striking points of resemblance to Malabar and its history. Ireland is essentially a priest-ridden country. Its people, the great bulk of them, are immersed in the darkest depths of ignorance and superstition. With the exception of the Protestant county of Ulster, Ireland is a Roman Catholic country dominated by Roman Catholic priests who hold in their hands the keys of all social and political powers.

It is, said that even parliamentary elections are surreptitiously controlled by the mystic influence which they wield over the souls of a people given over to the worst forms of superstition; and this was put forward as one of the main grounds against the late Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule Schemes during their progress through Parliament. The superstitious Irish are terrorised into obedience to the will of these priests, who actually stand at the gates of the unlettered and slavish electors calling down the wrath of Heaven upon those who dared to disobey their superhuman mandates. Thus even Irish Politics are under the control of these Roman Catholic priests. Such is the power which the priestly classes wield over the minds and deeds of the Irish people.

The Irish Land Question is another instance of history repeating itself in an alien clime. The land in Ireland is owned by large proprietors who tease and oppress their tenants to the uttermost. Evictions are sadly too numerous ; and the lamentations of the poor Grubstreet author in the Deserted Village about a century and a quarter ago, really though not ostensibly directed against Irish landlordism, are too true even in our own day. Hack-renting has been one of the main features of the Irish Land Question.

The Irish tenants have all along been a down-trodden class and the problem of the Irish land has always remained a knotty and intricate one baffling the political skill of England’s greatest statesmen. All the various Land Acts passed from time to time for the amelioration of the condition of the landholding classes in the country have proved of little or no avail; and a workable and satisfactory scheme yet remains to be devised. The Irish tenant is often fleeced to more than the annual yield of the land in the shape of rent.

Suffice it to say, that the Irish tenants are under the oppressive control of their landlords.

As an inevitable consequence of the atrocities to which the Irish landholders are subjected at the hands of the landed aristocracy we see repeated instances of plebeian uprisings in vindication of humanity and justice. The Irish are a bold and reckless class to whose unquenchable thirst of revenge are due the various outbreaks that have from time to time tarnished the pages of their national history.

Precious lives have often been sacrificed at the sacred altar of social and political wrongs. People have been locked up within the prison walls for breaches of the peace; and the country has had to be constantly brought into subjection by the Coercion Acts which Parliament had to enforce against these dangerous ebullitions of fanaticism. These Coercion Acts, though aimed at in the direction of Order and Reform, have always remained, in the estimation of many a politician, a standing blot upon the fair fame and prestige of Britain’s sway over Ireland. In all these various outbreaks the Land Question has figured prominently as one of the essential and pre-disposing causes.

In these aspects of its social life, Malabar stands level with the “tortured” land of Erin. With regard to the sacerdotal supremacy detailed above it may be surmised that Malabar is equally a priest-ridden country even from its origin. The traditional history of the land is put forward justification of the plea that it belongs in exclusive monopoly

END OF QUOTE.

It is my observation that the Irish people, had they not been connected to the native-English and had been in close proximity to South Asia, would have had a social resemblance to some of the erstwhile social systems of South Asia. However, as of now, they do not have this look or feel about them. It may be pointed out here that neither do the England-domiciled natives of South Asia have much of a South-Asian demeanour.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

9

Post posted by VED »

c9 #
The invisible spirit of Dutch colonial endeavours


The Dutch colonial endeavours globally would have been quite different from that of the English colonial enterprise in spirit and content. Moreover, I think Boers might have had enough and more of Germanic elements.

QUOTE 1: He says that when at the Zwartkops, he was overtaken by a Boer, an old German named Kock, who was on his way to this portion of Bushmanland, and who was well acquainted with the country and the manners of the natives.

QUOTE 2: During this early period the formidable character of the Koranas was augmented by the accession to their ranks of a powerful ally in the person of a fugitive or outlaw from the Cape Colony named Jan Bloem, variously described as a German and a fugitive Dutchman
END OF QUOTEs

See this QUOTE from Wikipedia:
The Maritz Rebellion occurred in 1914 at the start of World War I, in which men who supported the re-creation of the old Boer republics rose up against the government of the Union of South Africa because they did not want to side with the British against Germany so soon after a long bloody war with the British.

Many Boers had German ancestry and many members of the government were themselves former Boer military leaders who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War. END OF QUOTE

It is my gut feeling that the German language is slightly or even more feudal in its coding. I have mentioned this feeling in my ancient book: March of the Evil Empires: English versus the feudal languages.

I sort of got a lot of confirmatory signals from Adolf Hilter’s great book of Anglophila, Mein Kampf. In this book he has written a lot of ingenious disparagements about German social, military and political establishments, in between radiating a lot of hints that the German communication system is riddled with feudal language codes. Please check my book: MEIN KAMPF by Adolf Hitler - A demystification!

I also remember a few very interesting rejoinders that came upon my posts in a GB forum pages, way back in the 2004 - 05 period: I have quoted these lines in my book: My online writings 2004-07.

Rich (European Union)
QUOTE 1
I would say the Dutch are allot more allike to us than the Germans, having lived and travelled extensively through both countries. I speak both german and english, and I find it interesting that when I speak german in Holland I am ussually met with a certain amount of hostillity. The moment I start speaking english, smiles appear, and I instantly feel more accepted. Interesting how much difference a language makes. End of Quote

Rich(European Union)
QUOTE 2
The ideas you are putting forward are quite interesting. I would like to know how you came to the conclusions you did.

Although I don’t know allot about them, I have always been interested in the orrigins of language. I find it interesting that what you infered is so accurate in real terms.

Germans (and this is a very general statement) are still a fairly insular poeple as far as I can tell. Where ever I visit I find German society based very heavily on connections. The idea is you’ll do fine if you know the local mayor, policeman and teacher. Not much thought is given to what goes on in the next Kreis (county) let allone in the country as a whole.

This has probably got something to do with the fact that the Germans have been a group of fairly insular tribes, or dukedoms far longer than they have been a nation. The issue of nationallity is very low key. There is also a more relaxed attitude to obaying laws, and a general feeling that there is no point in voicing oppinions on a national scale, since no one ever listens anyway.
END OF QUOTE

Cricket
QUOTE 3
I think Ved has a point. I am not sure how I know that he may be correct, but I feel it.
END OF QUOTE

It may be mentioned that it is not possible to convey what I am saying to a native-English individual. Moreover, there is always the issue of misinterpreting my intentions by persons who have an innate competitive attitude to English. See this.

Welshman (Feudal Languages)
QUOTE 4
If you have no ‘real’ knowledge of language, how can you possibly dream up such a strange, unconnected theory of the origin and import of language? Unless it’s sole purpose is to try and justify a strange idea of racial superiority, such as was attepted by the nazi regime of Hitler prior to his losing the European war.
END OF QUOTE

When I speak about a certain quality of certain languages, it is akin to mentioning similar things about various software. Some of the features of a software might be good and some bad, in certain contexts. For instance, for a feudal language social system to function retaining the various oppressive and ennobling hierarchies, English is a misfit. In fact, English would act as a sort of virus in this set up.

At the same time, in a planar social system, feudal languages would acts as a virus.

There is no contention that one is better than the other, or worse. Quality basically depends upon what it is used for. Creating a highly regimented social set or a liberal one.

Why I wrote about these things is to convey the idea that the native-English do not understand much about the realities of the world. There is the issue of whether the native-English are superior or not. If the verbal codes are examined in detail, it would be seen that actually the English languages do not have any codes of human superiority. At the same time, if the codes inside feudal languages are checked, it would be seen that there are very specific codes that define and designate extreme superiority to certain individual and it exact opposite to others.

This absence of these superiority codes is what actually places the English speaking races superior to the others. Almost all their seeming superior attributes can be attributed to this lack of Superiority versus Pejorative codes inside pristine-English. I cannot go more into these things here, for this book is a commentary on another book connected to South Africa.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

10

Post posted by VED »

c10 #
Islamic demeanour


Look that current-day understanding of Islam in native-English nations. It is seen as a terrible religion, judging from the behaviour of the Muslims. Many years ago, when I received a rare opportunity to read about Prophet Muhammad, I was impressed by the fact that he did not seem to be like the Muslims as seen all around me, at all. In fact, a very curious thought came into my mind that he had the attributes of a native-Englishman.

I do not want to go into what this attribute of his was that made him seem like an Englishman. However, whatever it was, it was an attribute that none of the Muslims in India or Pakistan or any other feudal language nations did seem to have. From this perspective, none of the so-called Muslims who speak and think in feudal languages are actually Islam.

But then, when Islam spread among the feudal language speaking populations, it did do a lot of good among them. For, basically feudal language speaking populations are carnivorous kind of populations. Islam did bring in a particular kind of brotherhood among the people in the barbarian and semi-barbarian social systems. However, the brotherhood was created among these mutually back-stabbing populations.

So whatever unity that Islam brought in was a unity among feudal language speaking populations. It is this unity and capacity for united action among feudal language speaking populations that has made Islam a very dangerous entity. Not Islam the religion, per se.

At the same time, the non-Islam feudal language speaking populations are also quite dangerous for native-English social systems. But then, they cannot present the same kind of unity and a common front that their Islamic counterparts can.

These are all quite complicated themes, about which most academic studies have not much information on.

However, when I first noticed the above-mentioned attribute about Prophet Muhammad, I was a bit perplexed and mystified. It was that there was no tangible supporting evidence that I could find on what I seemed to have noticed. However, around 15 years later when I was doing a study on a very big book titled Malabar Manual, written by William Logan, I came upon a very curious statement inside it.

This book is an official manual of the erstwhile Malabar District of the erstwhile Madras Presidency of the English rule period in South Asia. As to William Logan, he was a British citizen and the district administrator of Malabar district. There is a very specific reason why I mentioned the words ‘British citizen’. He was of Scottish ethnicity. So, though a Briton, he was not a native-Englishman.

However see what he has written:

QUOTE: Genuine Arabs, of whom many families of pure blood are settled on the coast, .............. have a great regard for the truth, and in their finer feelings they approach nearer to the standard of English gentlemen than any other class of persons in Malabar. END OF QUOTE

There is actually more than one quite remarkable item in the above quote. One is that William Logan, a Scottish individual is acknowledging the presence of some kind of higher refinement in the native-English. Second, he perceives the same of kind of higher refinement in the Genuine Arabs who are Muslims as well as settlers from Arabia on the Malabar coast. He mentions the similarity.

At this point, I did have to check up on Arabic. On enquiry, I received the information that pristine Arabic is not feudal in its verbal coding. However, there can be complicated issues inside the social system, which has been in existence in very close proximity with the feudal language populations for many centuries.

Naturally verbal codes and very many social moods and emotions develop to contain many kinds of unsavoury social equations which this close association can bring in. I cannot say much more about Arabic or the Arabians. However, I have been informed that the Arabs higher classes in the Middle East do keep a very non-tangible detachment from the feudal language speaking Muslim populations, who enter their nations as workers.

In fact, I do know that when the Arabian Muslims came in close social proximity with the social systems in Malabar, they did insist that their own side should be protected from the assaults that common words in the Malabari and Malayalam languages could heap upon them. These are minute bits of information, about which the native-English side would not know anything.

I remember another curious bit of information about South Asia, found in the Native Life of Travancore, written by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER, F.L.S.: QUOTE: that “where the severe Mussulman Government most prevailed, the condition of the slave was the easiest; while his condition is the most abject in those countries where the ancient institutions of the Hindus have been least disturbed, END of QUOTE

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

11

Post posted by VED »

c11 #
Satanism in feudal languages


There are minute information behind these kinds of quotes which get lost in the general off-hand manner of giving sweeping statements and definitions about human populations which speak feudal languages.

I need to take up one of the quotes I have mentioned earlier:

Rich (European Union)
QUOTE
I would say the Dutch are allot more allike to us than the Germans, having lived and travelled extensively through both countries. I speak both german and english, and I find it interesting that when I speak german in Holland I am ussually met with a certain amount of hostillity. The moment I start speaking english, smiles appear, and I instantly feel more accepted. Interesting how much difference a language makes. END OF QUOTE

The about quote is a comparison between German and English. Not about German and Dutch. Whatever it is, when the German language is used with the same freedom of speech that can be practised in English, the verbal codes might become quite offensive and brutal. A lot of bruises would perch upon the persons who experience the verbal assault. However, when the same speech is done in English, there is no assault.

For conveying the idea of the verbal assault, I need to use this video. It is a video showing the lower grade Indian soldiers questioning a couple of Kashmiri youths. The youths have their hands tied up. That exactly is not the assault location. The assault is in the communication code. The lower grade soldiers are using the Thoo (lowest You) on the captives. The captives necessarily have to use the highest ennobling You (Aap / Saab) in return. If instead they also use the Thoo word, in most situations, they would be mercilessly shot or otherwise traumatised.

Did the reader understand that if the same lower You is used by an inferiorly placed individual, it becomes a most horrendous assault, which the other side will not condone?

QUOTE: He sent therefore an invitation to them, informing them that on a certain day he intended to give this great feast, desiring them to be present. Not having the slightest suspicion of any sinister design, the proffered hospitality was accepted without hesitation ; and on the appointed day the whole of both the clans attended. Their host was lavish both in demonstrations of friendship and in supplies of beer.

Not suspecting the least evil or danger, they gave themselves up to conviviality and the indulgences of the banquet ; feasting and dancing were the order of the day, but when his too confident guests, whom he plied steadily for that purpose, were muddled with the heavy potations or lying helpless with the intoxication which followed, suddenly, without notice, at a given signal — a shrill whistle — the entertainers with assagai and shield sprang upon their unsuspecting victims, and murdered men, women, and children without mercy. Not a soul escaped !
END OF QUOTE

Generally in feudal languages, affable friendliness is a weapon of conquest. In fact, as of now, almost all native English nations have been ensnared by the lure of deliberately acted out friendliness. In fact, even when neat planning is being done to devour up the native-English nations, extremely alluring friendliness is protruded out.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

12

Post posted by VED »

c12 #
India overrunning England


Here, I am take a brief detour and take up the possibility of Indian military over-running England. Actually the real possibility of such an eventuality is illustrated in this book in one or two locations. I will mention them later.

The moment India takeover any part of England, there will be a very concerted effort to compulsorily teach Hindi or any other terrific feudal languages to the populace there, especially the younger generation. Once this is achieved, all that the Indian side has to do to shackle the captive English population into a level of nitwits would be to shift the communication to the feudal language.

These are ideas and information on which the native-English mind has no ken. After all it was native-Britain that made Robert Clive commit suicide. Clive did know things which he did not have right words to explain in English. After all, the concept of software came only quite recently.

Even though in South Africa, the native-English has come to a most inglorious connection with the Continental Europeans as of now, the truth is that over the centuries, the native-English did keep a distance from the Continental Europeans, both culturally as well as attitudinal-wise.

In my own Commentary on Malabar Manual, I did write the following words about the Dutch.

QUOTE: It is possible that the Dutch language is comparatively of a lesser feudal content than German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. This is my own summarisation based slightly on the fact that they were more sane and soft in many of their historical activities when compared to that of the German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. It must be admitted that I do not know much about the Dutch, or even about the mentioned other four nations, here.

It is just a gut feeling, that this is so. May be it is due to the fact that they could collaborate with the English people to create a wonderful nation in South Africa. END OF QUOTE.

I must admit that the above words of mine might not be true or correct. My summarisations about the Dutch language as well as about the collaboration with the English could be wrong. In fact almost all that I wrote about the Dutch could be wrong. For, I had simply summarised that the Dutch language was soft. This wrong impression came upon me from the words I had quoted. However, on closer inspection now, I see that the comparison had been between German and English and not between Dutch and German.

In South Asia, the Dutch did try to follow a policy of military attacks and territorial occupation using force. Their aim was not mere trade, but empire building.

See this QUOTE from Malabar Manual: From a very early period in its history the English Company had set its face against martial enterprises. And Sir Thomas Roe, the Ambassador to the Great Mogul, had given the Company some invaluable advice which they took well to heart.

“The Portugueses”, he wrote, "notwithstanding their many rich residences are beggared by keeping of soldiers, and yet their garrisons are but mean. They never made advantage of the Indies since they defended them. Observe this well. It has also been the error of the Dutch who seek plantations here by the sword. They turn a wonderful stock; they prole in all places ; they possess some of the best, yet their dead pays consume all the gain." END OF QUOTE

The English policy was quite the opposite. See the words from Malabar Manual:

QUOTE 1: From a very early period in its history the English Company had set its face against martial enterprises.

QUOTE 2: So far indeed did the English Company carry this policy that they even forbade at times an appeal to arms by the factors for their own defence ; and the annoyances experienced in consequence of this were occasionally almost intolerable. But the strength of the Company lay in the admirable arrangements whereby they encouraged trade at their fortified settlements.

QUOTE 3: They established manufactures ; they attracted spinners and weavers and wealthy men to settle in their limits ; the settlers were liberally treated and their religious prejudices were tolerated ; the privacy of houses were respected by all classes and creeds; settlers were allowed to burn their dead and to observe their peculiar wedding ceremonies ;
no compulsory efforts were made to spread Christianity, nor were the settlers set to uncongenial tasks ; shipping facilities were afforded ; armed vessels protected the shipping ; all manufactured goods were at first exempted from payment of duty ; the Company coined their own money ; and courts of justice were established ; security for life and property in short reigned within their limits END OF QUOTEs

Actually the real reason that the English held on was the planar quality of their language.

In South Africa, it is tragic that England had to collaborate with the Dutch, at last.

In fact, parts of South Asia came under the English rule, not due to any concerted Empire building programme on the part of the English East India Company, but rather the French went on encouraging the native kings and other rulers to attack the Company. However, at the end of each of the confrontations, the French side would be vanquished and the English side would extend their territory.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

13

Post posted by VED »

c13 #
Slavery in South Asia


Dutch were also the exact opposite of England in its global endeavours. When slave trade was abolished by England all over British Empire, it gave the English East India Company a very fabulous chance and courage to dismantle the traditional slavery in South Asia. In fact, it was the original direction given to them by the Company governors at the very dawn of the Company’s setting up of power in South Asia.

QUOTEs from Malabar Manual: 1. The questions of slavery and the slave trade attracted the early attention of the Honourable Company’s Government. So early as 1702, the year in which British rule commenced, a proclamation was issued by the Commissioners against dealing in slaves. A person offering a slave for sale was to be considered as a thief. The slave was to be forfeited and the person offering him for sale was to be fined five times his value. The purchaser was to be similarly treated. The houses of suspected slave traders were to be well watched and entered and searched on the smallest suspicion, ................. END OF QUOTE.

QUOTE 2: on the 23rd December of that year the Principal Collector received orders desiring “that the practice of selling slaves for arrears of revenue may be immediately discontinued.” END OF QUOTE.

QUOTE 3: The matter in this and other ways reached the ears of the Court of Directors, and in their despatch of 12th December 1821 they expressed considerable dissatisfaction at the lack of precise information which had been vouchsafed to them regarding the cultivators in general, and in particular said : We are told, indeed, that part of them (an article of very unwelcome intelligence) are held as slaves ; that they are attached to the soil and marketable property.

You are directed to obtain and to communicate to us all the useful information with respect to this latter class of persons which you possibly can; the treatment to which they are liable, the habits of their masters with respect to them, the kind of life to which they are doomed, the sort of title by which the property of them is claimed, the price which they bear and more especially the surest and safest means of ultimately effecting their emancipation.

We also desire to know whether those occupants, 150,000 in number, cultivate immediately the whole of the lands by their slaves and hired servants, or whether there is a class of inferior tenants to whom they let or sub-let a portion of their lands. If there is such an interior class of lessees, you will inform us under what conditions they cultivate, what are their circumstances, and what measures, if any, have been employed for their protection END OF QUOTEs

The above quotes very amply display the general attitude the native-English had about the practise of human slavery. However, the local population in South Asia did try to continue their age-old practise of maintain slaves, in a clandestine manner.

The French and the Dutch did try to continue their slave trade business in a sly manner from their small-time outposts on the subcontinent. However, the English rule did take a very severe attitude towards this.

See this QUOTE from the Native Life in Travancore written Rev. Samuel Mateer of the London Missionary Society:

QUOTE: Colonel Munro had also discovered, in 1812, a number of halfstarved and naked natives in irons as slaves at the Dutch settlement at Chunganicherry. The proprietor was a Pondicherry man, and the inhabitants of Chunganicherry persisted in the traffic in slaves in defiance of the proclamation of Government. END of QUOTE

See this quote from Malabar Manual by William Logan:

QUOTE: This practice was kept alive by the facility with which the slaves could be sold on the coast to the agents of vessels engaged in the trade sailing from the French settlement at Mahe and from the Dutch settlement at Cochin. These ships “in general carried them (the slaves) to the French Islands.” END of QUOTE


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

14

Post posted by VED »

c14 #
Native English versus the Boers


Even though this book, THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA, does not move into the location of the historical experiences of the native-English entry into the South African regions, other than in minute hints, I think I must make the assertion that the native English would have been an entity totally opposite to Boers / Afrikaners.

Boers / Afrikaners are seen from this book as a very insidious population who more or less practised the same kind of fiendish devilry that was the hallmark of the various native population groups of the South Africa and thereabouts. This book more or less gives very supportive words about the Bushmen. Physically very capable, very honest, committed, loyal, extremely brave, non-treacherous, keeping words of promise, demonstrating sense of fair-play, able to demonstrate a high level of standards even under very stressful circumstances &c.

I will presently give ample quotes from this book to illustrative these gallant qualities of the Bushmen. However, the reader should notice that the above-mentioned mental features were also those that were seen displayed by the native-English in South Asia. It is quite curious that a population group which has been generally described as the lowest in terms of civilisation has features comparable with a population group that has been historically seen as the highest in civilisation.

The writer of this book is a native Englishman. It is curious that he has sensed mental faculties similar to his own native population in the Bushmen.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

15

Post posted by VED »

c15 #
Bushmen and the Boers


The Bushmen were ultimately exterminated in almost all locations, where they existed. Well, here a very curious thought appears in my mind as to whether the higher mental qualities of the native-English are moving along the same pathway of extermination from this earth.

It is true that in Europe, the Continental Europeans had tried for centuries to over-run the native English lands in Great Britain. However, they could hold their own. In the same manner, the Bushmen could hold on for a long time, being unconquerable in their unassailable strongholds. However, they were ultimately overwhelmed by the same route that multiculture has paved inside England. That of outsiders with inimical intentions walking inside with false demeanour of affable friendliness

I will speak more about these things later. Now, let us have a look at how the Boers treated the Bushmen.

QUOTE: The Koranas, finding that they could exchange them for guns, ammunition, and brandy with the old colonists, commenced kidnapping their children ; and a few years after the commencement of this traffic, some of the wandering Boers, following the example of their fathers along the Bushman borders of the Old Colony, made forays upon them for this express purpose, seizing almost all their children, dishonouring them if they were girls, and sometimes making eunuchs of the lads ; and thus it was that the Bushmen became greatly exasperated.
END OF QUOTE

In the above quote, Koranas are one of the native populations of Africa that slowly started moving into the traditional homelands of the Bushmen. They kidnapped the Bushmen children and sold them as slaves to the Boers, who gave them guns, ammunition and brandy in exchange. This same business was commenced by the wandering Boers also. So it appears that the others were treating the Bushmen like some kind of animal population which could be tamed for domestic and agricultural work purposes.

QUOTE: The old man still retained his bow and arrows, together with a number of other Bushman implements. He was very proud to show how he worked with his bone awls, etc. His wife was very intelligent, and was evidently well versed in the folklore of her tribe. Unfortunately the time was too short to permit the writer to avail himself of the knowledge she possessed ; and such was the dread of the Boers which animated these unfortunates, that no offer that could be made would induce them to stay even for a short time within the Free State border.
END OF QUOTE.

The above quote is about GEORGE W. STOW’s attempt to enter into a conversation with a Bushmen couple. Their terror of the Boers is what is mentioned above.

QUOTE: Thompson, who visited these tribes nearly twenty years later, says that after the larger game was driven out of the country by the guns of the Boers and the Griquas, the Bushmen were reduced to the most wretched shifts to obtain a precarious subsistence, living chiefly on wild roots, locusts, and the larvae of insects.
END OF QUOTE.

Griquas was the major African mixed group which received the best in terms of cultural and intellectual enhancement from the London Missionary Society. Both they and the Boers had reduced the Bushmen in one locality to the most wretched straits.

QUOTE: He stated that many years before his father's kraal, without the least provocation, had been suddenly attacked by a party of Boers from the Colony ;
and that his father and many hundreds of his people, men, women, and children, had been killed ; that afterwards ten waggons were laden with the surviving children and driven off to the colony by the attacking party ;
that since that time many commandos had come against his people, that multitudes of them had been shot, and the children carried away ; that when the missionary came he ploughed and sowed land for them, and when the harvest was ripe, he taught them how to cut down the corn, and divided it among them ;
and they were happy, for no more commandos came upon them ; that some moons after the missionary had left them the Boers came and took possession of the fountains and chased them from the land of Tooverberg, the land of their fathers, and made them go and herd their sheep and forced their children into perpetual servitude ;
and that he, without people, with only his wife and four children, was hiding amongst the mountains and subsisting on roots and locusts ;
that whenever sheep or goats or cattle strayed, or were stolen, the Boers said that the Bushmen had stolen them, and they were flogged and shot on suspicion only, for the cattle and sheep which had been taken by others or destroyed by hyenas, lions, or panthers.
END OF QUOTE.

The terror that was the Boers. The African populations also were a terror for the Bushmen. However, till the advent of the guns, they could hold on against the local attacking populations.

QUOTE: The only Europeans who then visited it came for the ostensible purpose of elephant hunting, and also, according to the evidence obtained by Sparrman, to indulge in their old and favourite amusement of kidnapping Bushman children whenever a favourable opportunity offered.
END OF QUOTE.

This again can be about the Boers, who could consist of more than one Continental European population mix.

QUOTE: On these occasions the unhappy victims of their attack were generally surprised in their villages at night, the men were shot, and the surviving women and children, together with the cattle, were captured. When these commandos were undertaken, the practice was for a few Boers to unite their separate strength, and the principal part of the booty was divided among themselves, a fractional share only being given to the slaves or Hottentots who were in their service. There were at that time a few Boers in that district who were noted for the cruelties and murders they committed upon the defenceless natives in these marauding and plundering expeditions, and among these the name of Pienaar was not the least notorious.
END OF QUOTE.

The Boers were totally different from the native-English in all their basic attributes.

Image

QUOTE 1: At that time the Bastaard population was spread along the banks of the 'Gariep for an extent of at least 600 miles. Their numbers, estimated altogether, amounted to about five thousand souls, and they had in their possession at least seven hundred muskets.
They readily obtained constant supplies of ammunition, notwithstanding all the proclamations to the contrary, from the Boers, whom great profits tempted to carry on this traffic in defiance of the colonial regulations and the claims of humanity. The profits of this smuggling traffic were immense, as for every pound of powder sold to the banditti an ox or a cow was given in exchange. Such then was the chaotic state of affairs in 1823, and it was only around the contracted centre of Griquatown, under the immediate control of Mr. Melvill and the missionaries that any signs of peace could be found.

QUOTE 2: They were something in the position of the Boers in Namaqualand whose case we have just noticed ; first their modest requirements were merely to sit still and sow a little corn, then to build a mill, ending however in a dictatorial demand for the entire country.
END OF QUOTEs.

This is an attitude about which native England has to be very wary of. All outsiders, white, black, yellow & brown, who barge into England, have this mental attitude.

QUOTE 1: In earlier times missions among the Bushmen had been established at Tooverbjerg and Hephzibah on the southern side of the 'Nu-'Gariep. They were afterwards most unjustifiably suppressed, and the country in which they were was given to the Boers.

QUOTE 2: Their leader fixed upon this locality as his headquarters or great-place, at a spot called Mamakoa, in the neighbourhood of which are two great caverns, which afterwards became famous in the annals of their tribe for the terrible siege they endured when beleaguered in them by the Boers.
END OF QUOTEs

Boers were just another wild population let loose inside the South African location.

In this book, the next items to take up for inspection are the various native African populations. It is seen mentioned that none of them were the traditional owner population of the locations that is currently known as South Africa. The traditional owners were the Bushmen. However, they were not treated as fully human beings.

For, they had the capabilities of the baboon, could easily compete with a horse in running across the rocky wilderness and had the technical skill to replicate the offensive capability of the serpent. However, they are mentioned as a set of population groups who were in possession of remarkably great sense of justice and commitment.

In the African location discussed in this book, the various native African populations that slowly entered the Bushman areas are all seen to be quite of a savage description. There is one exception mentioned.

Before going into the attributes of the other native populations, let me take some quotes from the book to denote certain features of the Bushmen.

QUOTE: All the farmers along the border had Bushman servants, principally, however, women and children.
END OF QUOTE

This taking of the natives of a place as servants is a very complicated issue, which can be interpreted in various manners. In British-India (around half of Asian Subcontinent), many lower classes did work as servants of the English as well of the Celtic individuals. These things are currently mentioned as the exploitation of the ‘Indians’ by the British. However, the larger fact is that these were the populations kept at various levels of oppression by the native land owners. In fact, in their hands these populations were treated like dirt. When these oppressed classes escaped from these ‘Indian’ brutes, and joined as the workers of the native-English, actually they escaped from a hell in which their families had lived for centuries.

The wider fact is the being under the feudal language speaking ‘Indians’ is a very terrible thing. In fact, if one were to go to the newly cleared forest areas of India, one might find a lot of forest people forced into Indian citizenship and kept at the excrement levels in the Indian feudal language verbal codes by the Indian rich and the Indian officialdom. They are usually addressed in the meanest levels of You, Your, Yours, He, His, Him, She, Her, Hers &c. in the feudal languages of India.

As to the Bushmen working as servants of the Boers, it is not a very ideal situation. May be being with the English would have been better or even the best. This is just because of the planar language quality of English.

QUOTE: My ideas, however, upon this point underwent a considerable change as my notes accumulated, for as I gained more and more information regarding the native tribes, I became gradually impressed with a firm conviction that the Bushmen alone were the true aborigines of the country, and that all the stronger races, without exception, were mere intruders.
END OF QUOTE

If what the writer contends is true, there ends the issue of who traditionally owns the geography of the lands currently inside South Africa. However, if this is true, it does not automatically mean that South Africa - the nation is owned by the Bushmen. That is a different question. I will not take it up for inspection.

QUOTE: as they imagined there must be some ulterior motive in seeking for information with regard to their early movements, having no idea that such a thing could be done from a simple desire of acquiring historical knowledge. On many such occasions, therefore, they feigned profound ignorance and obliviousness, while the younger men of the rising generation, instead of troubling themselves about the ancient traditions of their tribes, seem, as a rule, desirous of forgetting and even obliterating, if possible, the recollection of the antecedents of their savage forefathers.
END OF QUOTE

Viewing the above quote from my South Asian English colonial time book reading experience, I find that two different items have been twined together in the words above.

One is the sense of suspicion about the ulterior motives of such un-understood aspirations of outsiders. See these words from the Native Life in Travancore by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER, of the London Missionary Society.

QUOTE: The report on the Census of Travancore, taken on May 18, 1875, supplies valuable details respecting the population of the State, and their social and religious condition. The enumeration itself caused considerable commotion amongst the people, especially the lower castes. For some months previously the rural population were in a state of complete ferment, dreading that advantage would be taken of the occasion to impose some new tax or to exercise some bitter oppression, as was often done on various occasions in the old times of cruelty and injustice.

This opportunity was seized by some Muhammadans and others, to despoil the poor slave-castes of their fowls and other domestic animals, by telling them that the Sirkar was about to seize everything of the kind, and to exact a similar amount annually, so that they had better sell them off at once at any price than lose them altogether. The Sudras also sought to frighten them by the report that the Christians were to be carried off in ships to foreign parts, in which the missionaries and their native helpers would assist. When numbers were stamped upon all the houses, people thought that soon they themselves would be branded and seized by the Sirkar. Absurd reports were raised.

Some said the Maharajah had promised to supply inhabitants for a country which had been desolated by famine. Others said that a certain number were to be shipped off on the 18th May. Till that date the people were whispering “Today or tomorrow we shall be caught.” For example, an old woman having shut up her grandson in her house for safety, went to call her son, weeping all the way and beating her breast. One who met her comforted her and went back with her to the house, where the child was found half-dead with fright.

Many of the people left their gardens uncultivated during the panic, ate up the seed corn, sold their cattle and sheep. One man had ten fowls, and, taking them to a river, he cut off their heads, and threw them away. So dreadful is the ignorance of the people through want of education. It was even reported that the missionaries had prepared a building on the sea-coast, where a great meeting was to be held, immediately after which the people would be caught and shipped off. Many of the uneducated Sudras also in distant localities were much afraid. END OF QUOTE.

The second item is the response of the modern generations to what had happened in the past in the families of their own ancestors. No one is happy to mention or see mentioned the realities of their past. For instance, in Travancore there was a huge section of very low castes, by names such as Pulaya, Pariah, Vedan &c. and some low caste such as Ezhava etc.

A particular section of these individuals were converted into Christianity by the efforts of such organisations such as the London Missionary Society. Many of these converted persons became rich by various means, including government jobs, occupying forest lands in the erstwhile Malabar district in the Madras Presidency in British-India and setting up huge plantations there and such other ways. Currently none of them want to mention anything about their ancestry. Such a mention would connect them to the various lower castes under the Hindus. The very fact that England had a hand in emancipating them is not known to many of them.

Image

QUOTE: Even those native authorities of the present day who profess that they have preserved some portion of the history of their tribes have so mutilated and adulterated the traditions, modifying them to suit the altered conditions of the nation or tribe to which they belong, that the originality and authenticity of these narrations have at length in many instances become so completely obscured or destroyed that they are rendered nearly valueless as affording material whereon to build a reliable and veracious tribal history. END OF QUOTE

This again has a very interesting sync with what has happened in South Asia. In South Asia, as of now there are three nations, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The actual history of the subcontinent is that of an immensity of minute kingdoms lying scattered all over the place. Each of these locations would not be a particular nation as currently understood by the word ‘nation’. Instead, each such location would be a series of populations one upon the other in a ladder-like manner, the top one oppressive to the bottom one, and the bottom one revering the top one. The various locations had nothing in common from the northern parts to the southern parts. The populations inside each location were different across the ladder-like set up. As the same time, across the subcontinent also, the populations were different. The languages were different. The cultures were different. And there was no historical, social or family-link connection between the different locations.

Even though it is generally currently mentioned that Hinduism was the common religion across the land, the fact remains that the Hindu religion was confined to the Brahmins only. A few lower to the Brahmin populations in the social hierarchy in each of the locations were much connected to the Hindus, but the vast others were not. The only common link across the lands might be the presence of some group who claimed to be Brahmins. The claim in itself has many problems in that there might not be any family links between the Brahmins across the locations. Even between such closely connected locations like Travancore and Madras Presidency or between Travanore and Malabar or between Malabar and Madras Presidency, there was historically not much of a family-link-wise or social connections. The only link that sprang up periodically was the pillaging, massacring and molesting raids that came in the guise of warfare.

This might be the factual gist of the real history of South Asia. However, that is not the way the history is seen as of now. As of now, India is a great nation with traditions, conventions, systems, legal codes &c. &c. extending backwards over the centuries.

QUOTE: That these Bushmen were susceptible of the feelings of jealousy was illustrated by a tragical incident which took place amongst some of them about this time.
END OF QUOTE

I cannot say anything about how it was with the Bushmen before their land was occupied by others. Their innate emotional triggers and reactions change when they are dispersed among peoples who speak in language systems which are evil. For instance, the native-English people’s emotional reactions will slowly change as England gets filled with the feudal language speakers. Feudal languages can induce terrible emotional disturbances inside the native-English, if and when they get to feel or understand the evil codes inside these evil languages.

Native-English husband-wife relationships can go into disarray in the presence of feudal language speakers. For, these evil language can relocate both the husband as well as the wife to weird locations inside the virtual software arena that exists behind physical reality. Their relationship can get distorted. These are things that require huge information. Interested readers are requested to follow this link.

QUOTE: This is but another proof of the determination of their resistance ; they rallied at the point of greatest danger, as it was doubtless this cause which occasioned them to collect in large bodies, in order to be the better able to withstand the encroachments of the colonists, who had already taken away their best dwelling and hunting places. END OF QUOTE

The above is about Bushmen. However, it could even be about the native-English, as they make a desperate last stand in England in years to come.

QUOTE: Several farmers, who perceived that they were not able to get at the Bushmen by the usual methods, shot a sea-cow, and took only the prime part of it for themselves, leaving the rest by way of bait ; they themselves in the meantime lying in ambush. The Bushmen with their wives and children now came down from their hiding-places, with the intention of feasting sumptuously on the sea-cow that had been shot ; but the farmers, who came back again very unexpectedly, turned the feast into a scene of blood and slaughter.

Pregnant women and children in their tenderest years were not at this time, neither indeed were they ever, exempt from the effects of the hatred and spirit of vengeance constantly harboured by the colonists with respect to the Bushman nation, excepting such indeed as were marked out to be carried away into bondage. END OF QUOTE

The native-English are also headed the same way. To see how the scenario would look like, see what is happening in Indian occupied Kashmir. If the native-English are in the same plight as the Kashmiris at any moment in history, the same experience of the Kashmiris would befall upon the native-English. The only solace would be that the native-English cannot understand the Hindi. This could save them from the hammer blows of the pejorative verbal form that are there in Hindi. However, the Indian side would take all steps to see that the native-English kids learn Hindi, either by force or by cajoling.

QUOTE: Of all the nations, he adds, who have been ill-treated by the Europeans, none remembered their wrongs with so much bitterness. They never forgot the treachery of the colonists or the infamous return made for the many signal services they had rendered them, and such, he says, was the resentment of these people, that the terrible cry of vengeance was ever in their mouths.
END OF QUOTE

The terribleness in the above words is in the callous use of the word ‘European’. This word is seen used in many colonial period writings of South Asia also. The careless use of this word has created a confusion. Actually there was the need to very carefully delineate the definite difference that was there between the native-English and the rest of the white folks who had arrived on the South Asian geographical area. One was quite opposite of the other in every aspect of human quality and refinement. However, in these books they were mentioned in a very slipshod manner, that the negative features of both sides get added up on the native-English side.

QUOTE: The clans which inhabited De Bruyn's and Achter De Bruyn's Hoogte lived peace-ably with the first Christians who migrated there. The latter were then few in number, and doubtless found it expedient to adopt, as all isolated voortrekkers ever did, a conciliatory policy towards the aborigines, instead of the arrogant and overbearing treatment meted out as soon as their number was sufficiently augmented to enable them to dictate terms to those who in the first instance had welcomed them as friends.

In the days of their weakness the Bushmen were accustomed to perform the kindest offices for them, and would frequently go unasked in search of a stray lamb or the like belonging to the Christians, and take it home to them ; but at length, after their countrymen had been harried by the relentless commandos, and massacred in their caves, they withdrew themselves and lived concealed in the holes and crevices of the rocks in different parts of the country, like the other Bushmen.
END OF QUOTE.

Actually all feudal language speakers use the technique of affability, friendliness etc. to deceive another entity whom they want to entrap, conquer or shackle. In fact, just after the 2nd World War the Japanese side used this very scheme to defraud and deceive the gullible US officials. Even women were made available to the US side. They were honoured and shown ‘respect’. And at the end of the day, the US economy and market were opened for the Japanese conquerors to takeover. Even now the US policymakers have not detected this.

The same is the case with the Germans and Italians. However, I may speak about them in some other context.

The issue with persons who come for conquering with no arms or munitions, other than extreme obsequiousness, servitude, servility, affableness, worshipful eyes etc. is that the moment they get the upper hand, they would demand these very same things from the populations which had given them the shelter and the space inside their nation.

See these words a Chinese man who made it big England. It was a conversation with me:

QUOTE: My parents came from Hong Kong which was a former British colony. It was basically a territory Britain won from China so she could sell drugs to Chinese and get them addicted. China was defeated and had to pay reparations as well as cede Hong Kong. This was to correct Britains trade deficit due to her love of tea, silk and porcelain. This caused untold misery to China, devastating families, emptying the coffers (this was one of many incidents where Britain forced reparations on China and seized territory).

There are some very wealthy yes. But immigrants are diverse and many came here poor. My parents came with £20 in their pocket and worked till they built up a business. We lived in an area with many pakistani and indian immigrants who were poor.

Hong Kong government operates at a profit, Britain used to take all of that. Now that she is gone there is more welfare for the people and some years the surplus is shared with the people – last time people got £4-500 each.

That must be why the fought a war of independence to be free of England. They won that war with the help of slaves and non english immigrants. It was a prussian general that trained them into a force that was finally able to defeat the superior trained British army of the time.

It was natives that taught them how to survive in the early days. It was many nationalities that built the railroads. It was slaves that were the backbone of alot of their exports. America still has an edge over other economies because she can absorb ideas and talent the world over.

What is that exactly? All great powers borrow extensively from other cultures. The law was greatly influenced by Romans. The religion was not english. Many common food crops came from the New World. Many medications come from abroad. Things like tea, gunpowder came from China.

North Korea is what you end up looking like if you want to reject foreign things. END OF QUOTE.

Just see the rank backstabbing attitude of this rascal, whose parents arrived in England, in a different mood. The un-understood item in the above quote would be that the moment the Chinese man is pushed back to China, the native-Chinese will take care of his arrogance. When he remains in England, it is the native-English who have to bear it.

Also, the reader should note that if this type of fiends is pushed out of current-day England, the nation will not convert into North Korea. Instead it would revert back to pristine-England.

QUOTE from the above words: this was to correct Britains trade deficit due to her love of tea, silk and porcelain. END OF QUOTE

Only a silly gullible England would believe all this nonsense mouthed by a person who has barged into England. He has no more right to sit inside England than any other Chinese individual. He speaks of tea, silk and porcelain as if they had been stolen from the seabed. China sold it to England and reaped a profit. In India, the opposite is mentioned. England sold Manchester made textiles to India and thus looted India! The fact is that there was no India then and trade is not looting. Looting is what takes place when a common man of India enters an Indian government office. The Indian officials are literally pickpockets.

For more on the above Chinese man’s words, check my book: An urgent appeal for ENGLISH RACISM – Chapter three.

QUOTE: This disagreement became the pretext for the suppression of the missions ; the fieldcomet Van der Walt was against the missions, and had reported unfavourably about them to the landdrost. No specific charges appear to have been made, nor was any investigation instituted. A kind of general assertion was advanced that the collection of so many savages so near the colonial border was a menace to the peace of the colony.
END OF QUOTE

Here we see the general attitude of the Boers – Dutch and German.

QUOTE 1: We can imagine this unfortunate Bushman, surrounded by armed men, signing away of his own free will the birthright of his tribe for a riding horse and some threescore sheep !

QUOTE 2: Yes ! purchased, a riding horse and seventy fat-tailed sheep, valued in those days at some four shillings and six-pence each, for upwards of two and a quarter millions of acres of land ! What a premium for fraud and forgery !
END OF QUOTEs

It is a sample of how the Boers and the Griquas slowly pushed out the Bushmen, with a semblance of legality.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

16

Post posted by VED »

c16 #
Shamanistic spiritual system


QUOTE 1: the Bushman mind, for, struck with their unexplainable smoothness, he has covered the space with mystic symbols
QUOTE 2:

Figures of this kind were frequently represented in their paintings, which have led some to imagine that they were representations of supernatural personages who shadowed forth an ancient tribal myth.
END OF QUOTEs

This is a location where the native-English writers to be totally at sea. The mention item may or may not belong to what might currently be mentioned as Shamanistic spiritual system. This is something that has links worldwide, even in Europe. Even though not much information is there on what is therein or what is happening, the fact might be that these symbols might have definite code meaning or they might be akin to what can be mentioned for the time being as something similar to the QR Codes. A QR code is more or less a meaningless and incomprehensible picture. However, when scanned using the right scanner, it can do various things, including establishing connections between various things.



I have noticed that neither Edgar Thurston nor SAMUEL MATEER had any profound information on the Shamanistic practise in vogue in the southern parts of South Asia. The same shallowness is there in this book also. However, that is quite understandable in the circumstance. This shallowness would not reflect on the overall quality of these person’s writings.

QUOTE: As it is quite certain that the custom of representing various deities with the heads and coverings of birds and animals must date back to a very remote antiquity, such a misconception is suggestive that all elaborations of this description had their origin in the fact that among the primitive hunter tribes disguises of this kind were constantly used
END OF QUOTE

It might be true that GEORGE W. STOW has missed much. Even such profoundly observant researchers like Edgar Thurston as well as The REV. SAMUEL MATEER &c. have misrepresented the Shamanistic spiritual practises of South Asia as Devil worship. The fact was that the Hindus (Brahmins) did keep a distance with the spiritual practises of the lower castes and classes of those times. However, as of now, all these spiritual practises have been forcefully added into the Hindu religious antiquity.

QUOTE 1: 'Qing informed Mr. J. Orpen that there were certain dances which only certain men were allowed to dance : men who had been initiated, and understood the meaning of them.

QUOTE 2: The initiated who know secret things are 'Qogn'qe ;

QUOTE 3: Having stated that 'Kaang was the first being, and that his wife's name was Coti, he was asked where Coti came from, when he replied, " I don't know, perhaps from those who brought the sun ; but," he added, " you are now asking secrets that are not spoken of," secrets with which he asserted he was not acquainted, and which were only known to the initiated men of that particular dance.

QUOTE 4: that they preserved among their tribes certain mysteries and mystic rites which were revealed to none but a privileged class called the initiated, who alone were allowed to join in certain dances whose hidden meaning was jealously withheld from those who were uninitiated, or the profane vulgar among them.
END OF QUOTEs

The above-mentioned words do point to some kind of Shamanistic spiritual practise in vogue among them in the hoary past. The common people of the society would not know much about these things. For, the practice is done and maintained by certain households, who would not divulge the secrets to others. For instance, in the northern parts of the erstwhile Malabar district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency of the English rule period, (currently Cannanore district in Kerala state of India), there is a shamanistic spiritualism connected to a deity called Muthappan locally.

The social group which is traditionally connected to this is the Matriarchal Thiyyas of North Malabar. However, if any ordinary member of this population group is asked the intimate details of this spiritual practise, he or she will be able to mention only what is commonly known. The inner ecclesiastical secrets are held by those who conduct the practise, and it is not divulged to others.

QUOTE: Such individuals generally belonged to the ruling family or its branches, and thus a kind of caste or rank was recognised, among whose members all the secret mysteries of the tribe were jealously preserved.
END OF QUOTE

The above words can point to both Shamanistic cult and also to the presence of some verbal coding that created a class of individuals among the Bushmen who stood above the common mass.

QUOTE 1: This discovery was an important one with regard to our present subject, for it unmistakably proves that a certain amount of religious belief was connected with some of their dances ; and that, in the painting here described, we are furnished with a positive representation of their fancied deities ;

QUOTE 2: Some writers have suggested that a large number of Bushman paintings are merely, especially where the Bushmen are shown in their hunting disguises, the pictorial representations of some hidden myth.
END OF QUOTE

I feel that in Shamanistic spiritualism and also in various other kinds of rituals wherein the mind is being made to connect to some other sphere of reality, such as in Tantra, Witchcraft, Voodoo &c. dance is a very important ingredient. In fact, I have heard that in Tantra, which is a sort of mystical spiritual art traditionally mentioned as connected to the geographical regions near Tibet, Central Asia &c., in historical times, there are five essential ‘m’ factors: Matysam (fish), Mamsam (meat), Maidunam (sexual intercourse), Madyam (liquor) and Mudra (dance & symbols).

QUOTE: The cross singly, or in groups of three, was one of the most ancient of the Bushman symbols
END OF QUOTE

This is a very curious bit of information. I cannot say more than simply mention that there are many unknown items in the various religions. A cross when seen as a mere placing of two sticks might not have much extra meaning physically. However, when pondered upon this item from the world of the Codes of reality, it might have powers that are currently unknown. It might in the same manner in which I had mentioned the QR code.

Beyond that there is historical fact that Christianity is not an England or Continental European religion. It is practically an Asian / Middle-East religion.

QUOTE: Hence it seems as if through the despised Bushman we obtain a knowledge of the true germ whence the more elaborate, yet fabulous and symbolic animal-headed deities of the more polished nations of antiquity were developed.
END OF QUOTE

I do feel that GEORGE W. STOW did not get to obtain any knowledge in the above mentioned things. The problem would be that he would not be able to know what to look for. For one thing, the concept of language and words having powerful codes encrypted within them, which can interact not only with the social and physical realities of an individual as well the population, but also with the codes of reality and that of life and living body would be a concept, he would not have been able to imagine. Another thing that he would not know about would be about the concept of Software. This is an entity which is not physical or within the realm of any physical sciences.

Image

QUOTE 1: some Bushman of the present day, deeply learned in the folklore of his tribe, may upon examining them imagine that he can detect a similarity between some myth with which he is acquainted and the pictorial representation before him, and he forthwith may cleverly join the one with the other.

QUOTE 2: Unfortunately whole tribes have been annihilated by the stronger races which seized their hunting grounds, and the wise men of their race perished with them,
END OF QUOTE

I do not think that any ordinary member of the Bushmen populations would be able to decode or decipher the hidden mystical symbols of the hoary past. In fact, even among the current-day Hindus (Brahmins) of South Asia, I do not think that there is anyone who has any information on how the Vedic literature and Mantras were created, or anything about the machinery which could activate the Matras or work them from behind the physical reality, if at all they do work.

QUOTE: a place memorable to their race, where thousands of square feet of the highly polished rock surface are covered with innumerable mystic devices, intermingled with comparatively few animal figures. This must have been a palace residence of the most highly mystic of their race, of men who held something more than the mere chieftainship of a tribe.
END OF QUOTE

Possibly something to do with Shamanistic worship. Bushmen antiquity.

QUOTE 1: Sometimes several musicians would perform on the 'Goura together, raising an unmelodious and unearthly din which however delightful it might prove to a native audience, would certainly be more suggestive of a dance of witches round an infernal cauldron, to ears more refined and cultivated, than anything else.

QUOTE 2: On these occasions the 'Gariep Bushmen made great outcries, accompanied with dancing and playing upon their drums
END OF QUOTE

In the above two quotes, the boisterous activities connected to some kind of ritualistic festivity is being described. However, Mr. GEORGE W. STOW seems to note only the sound, and the din and bustle that is being heard and seen. There is no mention that some kind of a spiritual ritual is also being enacted. However, I am not able to say anything more about this. For, I do not have any information in this regard. But then, in many of the Shamanistic rituals that get enacted in the north Malabar area of South Asia, very many similar things can be seen. In fact, the clatter that the chenda (native drums) create as part of the Shamanistic rituals could very well be described as an ‘unearthly din’.

QUOTE: the Master of all things, who according to their expression one does not see with the eyes but knows him with the heart, and who is to be propitiated in times of famine and before going to war, and that throughout the whole night by performing a certain dance. From this we seem to learn something of the primitive ideas, which became more and more elaborated until dancing was looked upon as a religious ceremony, which, however licentious we may deem the greater portion of these ancient religious performances to have been, were nevertheless at the time earnestly entered into with a view of propitiating some fancied deity.
END OF QUOTE

The above words are not deep. They are just shallow information and based on flimsy information on what is actually going in the Bushmen head. It is like my experience many years ago of asking some spiritual information from a lower class woman in a remote village in South Asia. Her ideas and explanations were based on her own level of spiritual enlightenment. Though interesting, they were not deep enough. If I were to write a book on the spirituality of the location based on her words, it would not amount to much.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

17

Post posted by VED »

c17 #
Bushmen Butchered


QUOTE: Many instances might be mentioned where a few wretched fugitives, after their tribe had been mercilessly butchered, have, after hopelessly wandering about for a time, stealthily returned to their ancestral cave, hiding themselves among the rocks by day and stealing out in the early morning and evening to gather a few roots and tubers to prolong their wretched existence, obtaining a little water from a neighbouring spring, and occasionally a little honey from some wild bees' nest among the fissures of their rocky asylum ;
and have thus existed for years, tenaciously clinging to the spot, until feeble and tottering with age, they have sunk from sheer exhaustion and passed away in some hidden nook near where they were born ;
or too feeble to defend themselves, they have been torn to pieces by the ravenous beasts which had made their lairs amid the romantic retreats which had once resounded with the noise of revelry and moonlight dancings of their forefathers.
END OF QUOTE.

The above is one of the graphic depictions of what the stronger races of Africa and the Boers did to the Bushmen.

QUOTE: In judging of their character, there are unfortunately few records left of them in their undisturbed state, and most of the intelligent writers who have treated of this subject visited them after the fierce and cruel crusade had commenced against them, and which, having once been taken in hand, was not allowed to cease until their extermination was rendered a certainty.
END OF QUOTE

The above quote is about the Bushmen. The same might be the situation about pristine-England also. Pristine-England has vanished from the earth. What is left on earth is an England that is being deceived by almost everyone. The top one on this list of deceivers could be the BBC, once considered as the hallmark of English refinement and quality. However as of now, BBC has become a sort of gathering den of the stinks from South-Asia and the rest of the world.

QUOTE: They were driven out of their own country, the vast herds of game which once afforded them abundance of food were ruthlessly destroyed, their children were seized and carried into slavery by the people upon whom they subsequently committed their depredations, and on whom they almost naturally took every occasion for exercising revenge.
END OF QUOTE.

Again the above narration is about the Bushmen. I do however have fears that unless the fools who are ruling England are not kicked out of office, the same kind of events are in store for the posterity of England. The nation has handed itself to the same kind of cunning crooks who had enslaved millions in South Asia for centuries. And the top terror is that even now England has no inkling of what is actually going on.

QUOTE: As we proceed with our investigation we shall discover that they showed a devotion to their chief (a feeling which appeared to be almost entirely wanting among the purely Hottentot tribes) which could not be excelled, as they invariably gathered round him in the hour of danger, and fell to a man rather than desert him in his extremity. Nor was it only for their attachment and loyalty to their chiefs that they were distinguished, but for an almost passionate fondness for the rocks and glens in whose caves they and their fathers had lived probably for generations.
END OF QUOTE

There are some hints of commitment of a very high order encrypted in the above mentioned qualities. They can be connected to certain specific codes in the Bushman communication codes.

QUOTE: On the contrary, during the murderous native wars, when so many of the Bachoana and other tribes were half annihilated and scattered, in many instances the few unhappy outcasts that escaped destruction fled into Bushman territory, where they not only received protection and an asylum, but conforming to the Bushmen's habits and customs, wives were given to them and their daughters intermarried again with the Bushmen, and it was doubtless such infusions of foreign blood which gave a different physical character to some of the families of their leading captains, in contradistinction to those of pure Bushman type.

This good understanding continued until these refugees, increasing in numbers, and some, at last, bringing the remnants of their herds of cattle with them, began to band together and assume a sovereignty over portions of the country. Then, as they grew in strength, they turned upon those who had first given shelter to them when they were helpless and miserable fugitives, and strove by every means in their power to dislodge the ancient owners, who were at once deemed wild and untameable animals when they attempted to prevent the invaders from doing so.
END OF QUOTE

If in the above quote, if the word Bushmen is changed into the ‘native-English’, it would depict the tragic events in store for England, unless some terrific drastic remedies are sort. None of the England politicians seem to know what it is that has entered the nation, by way of feudal languages and feudal language speakers.

QUOTE: As soon as the Bushmen saw these strangers beginning to intrude themselves in large bodies in every direction, with a determination to make permanent settlements, a spirit of opposition was aroused within them. The game, which was as precious to the old hunters as herds of tame cattle were to their aggressors, was destroyed or driven away ; and cattle-lifting almost as a natural consequence took the place of stalking the eland, the quagga, or the elephant. Capture and recapture, injuries and retaliation, soon grew into a war of extermination against the weaker and smaller race, whose unconquerable spirit might be crushed and annihilated, but seldom taught to submit to the trammels which the invading and conquering races were desirous of imposing upon them.
END OF QUOTE

It is possible that the reader can see the definite sameness of events happening in England. People from strange lands entering England with a facial expression of extreme gratitude and affability. They slowly set up beachheads inside the vital areas of England. Even though they seem quite feeble and lonely, they are actually the advance troop of a huge mass of populations who are waiting in their native nations. They have powerful armies ready to show their power and prestige. Once the native English are captives to these outsiders, it will be a terrific scene. For the native English do not know the verbal codes of obsequiousness and servitude. For, pristine-English has no pejorative codes in communication. It would the sweet endeavour of the conquering populations to teach the lessons of obsequiousness to the native-English kids.

QUOTE 1: But that men who had adopted " the rights of the Aborigines " for their watchword should have been so obtuse as not to be able to distinguish who were the true aborigines to whom those rights belonged, seems certainly rather surprising.

QUOTE 2: Much has been said and written about one hundred and fifty rixdollars given as purchase money to the said Bushman, on account of which the claim to the so-called Campbell Lands, a tract of country extending many miles, has been built up ; as if this one man could dispose of the independent rights of his countrymen, men living in different portions of the wonderful range of the 'Kaap, and of clans different from his own.

QUOTE 3: The journey of Mr. Campbell along the valley of this river has a very important bearing upon the subject of our investigation, as it firmly establishes the fact that even up to 1813 the Bushmen were the sole proprietors of this tract of country, and that land claims had not been extended so far by the mission party of Griquatown. END OF QUOTEs

The information in the above statement is that the land of South Africa belongs traditionally to the Bushmen. All the others there have come from elsewhere.

QUOTE 1: Had these men belonged to a more civilised race, the determined struggle which they made for their country and their freedom would have been deemed heroic,

QUOTE 2: He defended himself desperately ; but his determined courage availed him nothing, he and his people fell to a man. Men, women, and children were alike shot down, not one was spared, not a soul escaped.
END OF QUOTEs

Actually, these kinds of experiences might be there in the offing for the native-English also, if they are not too careful about protecting their native land. They have no other place in the world where their natural stature of high personal individuality can be practised. In all other nations, their high stature communication codes and body language would be found to be too arrogant and provocative. In fact, in most feudal language nations, if an ordinary citizen communicates with the officialdom or his or her boss with the same level of refined stature that the native-English does, he or she will be beaten to a pulp or dismissed forthwith. If the native-English land is over-run by others, the same fate that the Bushmen faced will be faced by the native-English.

QUOTE: " A party of Bushmen who had taken refuge in a cave refused to surrender ; they were destroyed," says Mr. Backhouse, " by setting on fire fuel collected at the cave's mouth ! "
END OF QUOTE.

This is what happens when native populations are handed power over other native populations. See what Indian uniformed forces are doing in the various locations inside the subcontinent, where the oppressed people are fighting to escape from Indian official enslavement. In India, almost the total of the governmental revenue is being swallowed by the officialdom.

QUOTE: And this we shall find has ever been the case at all points where the stronger races have come in contact with the Bushmen, and as long as the latter remained in the ascendency fraternisation and intermarriage ensued, but the case was reversed as soon as the intruders gained the upper hand, when persecution and annihilation followed.
END OF QUOTE

This is again a scenario that poignantly points to an England which has been taken over by outsiders.

QUOTE: The law of might was the law of right, and no one retained his property longer than he had the power of defending it successfully.
END OF QUOTE

Actually this was the state of events even in South Asia, until the English East India Company came and set up written codes of law, law enforcement machinery, judicial courts, public administration etc.

QUOTE 1: His country was proclaimed to be within the bounds of the Cape Colony. He pleaded that the land belonged to his forefathers, and that the Tembus were intruders who had forcibly taken possession of a large portion of it. His remonstrances were unavailing, his country was absorbed, without the slightest reservation being made for the ancient owners, and instead of encouragement to induce them to settle down to the peaceful occupations of quiet citizens, a demand of one pound a year was made upon the head of each family as a quitrent !

They were not a conquered people, they were living in a country which, as Madura said, had belonged to Bushmen from time immemorial. They had not made war upon the Colony as the frontier tribes of Kaffirs had done, on the contrary they had done good service in defence of colonial territory and in retaking cattle and other stock which had been captured by the enemy, and now they were rewarded for those services, in what way let the old chief Madura describe. He said the land was the land of his fathers, and that now, although he and his people had served the government for three years, they were told they must pay for living upon it ! Where was the money to come from ?

QUOTE 2: To the colonists he always behaved as a true and faithful ally, and in return for the tobacco and other articles which they presented to him, used to help them to make slaves of such straggling Bushmen as did not live under his jurisdiction.
END OF QUOTE

A sample of Continental European attitude. When the English also get mixed up with the Continental Europeans, they stood sullied.

QUOTE: This is one of the remarkable instances of the astonishing recklessness and daring which some of the old colonial voortrekkers displayed in their determination to find new homes for themselves in the unknown Interior.
END OF QUOTE

In the instance given in this regard - Quote: He trekked on, he knew not whither ! the first of his race to pass through those mysterious wilds, whose river banks, wooded and reed covered, were the haunts of the python and the crocodile, travelling with his family through a perfect terra incognita swarming with ferocious beasts of prey, and passing scattered habitations of savage men, yet moving onward, although single-handed, like a conqueror, arrogantly levying blackmail from the trembling inhabitants, and retaining his prey after he had once seized it, in spite of all their efforts to prevent him. Such acts, however much they may be censured, shewed a determination of purpose, which may have been equalled, but never surpassed. End of Quote.

– actually points to some kind of desperation in this particular man’s disposition. Leaving Continental Europe and making such a terrific effort to go into the deep jungles of Africa does point to something wrong in his native land. The spirit that drove him and his family is actually totally different from the adventurous spirit of the native-English that made them go forth. The English were not so arrogant and murderous like this man. Even in the New World, it might be the piggyback ridding done by the Continental Europeans upon the English settlers that would have created much bitterness among the native folks there. In fact, in the ultimate count, the native-folks stood by the native-English, when the rascal George Washington took to renegade work for the Continental Europeans.

Image

QUOTE: In favour of an earlier Hottentot occupation, it has been advanced that these natives make a sort of general declaration that the country was theirs. Such claims were afterwards set up for Waterboer, Moshesh, and others, to the exclusion of the aboriginal Bushman owners.
END OF QUOTE

It is seen that the Bushmen are slowly being edged out of all rights to their traditional land.

QUOTE: There were also a number of minor groups intervening between the larger ones which we have mentioned, but of which little now is known except that they once existed, and that most of them were shot down by those who seized their country, because they resented the unjustifiable wrong and attempted to resist.

Such was the fate of those who once inhabited the rocks of Thaba Nchu and the caves in the surrounding mountains. Harris, when passing through this country, found the slope of a hill near the present site of Bloemfontein besprinkled with the mouldering bones of Bushmen, and a few years ago there were numerous spots in the Free State which told the same melancholy tale of the fate of the aborigines.

These unhappy fugitives at last became so terrified at the sight of any human being that there were portions of the country where they concealed themselves so effectually that a traveller might pass through its length and breadth without seeing a single soul, or even, if he were not aware of the fact, suspecting that it was inhabited. Harris informs us that when he passed through the 'Kolong basin, once the home of a powerful group of tribes, such had become their general distrust of visitors that the males would never approach them, except when forced to do so, and then always evincing great trepidation, no object being more unwelcome to their sight than a troop of horsemen on the plain.
END OF QUOTE

As per the above words, the original owners of the land of South Africa are the Bushmen. Boer colonisation was simply like the encroachment done by the other native African populations into that land, in that all of them set out to destroy the Bushmen.

QUOTE 1: Every race of man, savage or civilised, that came in contact with them, appropriated their land without a single pretext of justification, and waged a war of extermination against them as soon as they resisted or resented the wrong that was done to them.

QUOTE 2: she replied, " We know nothing of our grandfathers, we do not know who painted our pictures ; the Dutchmen shot them all down at the great slaughter, and carried us, the children, away. I was a little girl, six or seven years old, at the time.”
END OF QUOTEs.

The Bushmen could hold on against the others till the advent of the Continental Europeans. When they brought in guns and gunpowder, the equations changed. Whatever superiority the Bushmen had in terms of their natural abilities were of no more avail. Indeed the Continental Europeans that arrived there were only a tip of the iceberg. They had a huge nation in Europe which could send them any quantity of ammunition and soldiers.

The same logic should be understood by current-day England. England is now being filled by outsides. These outsiders are only an advance scouting team. They would use all kinds of affable friendliness to set up a beachhead right inside England. When they feel that they have gained a solid foothold, they demeanour will change. They have their native nations behind them, which can supply them with men and munitions.

QUOTE 1: until at last the miserable remnants of their once numerous race had to struggle for a precarious existence in a few almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses or in the wilds of the Kalahari desert.

QUOTE 2: But in this case, as in every other, with the honourable exception of the Leghoya, the true aborigines of the country were never for a moment taken into consideration when an eligible spring or fountain was required by the intruders of the stronger races into their territories.
END OF QUOTEs

It is a moot question as to where the native-English will move to hide when their nation is taken-over. All native-English nations are going multi-culture. The multi-culturists would enjoy feasting upon native-English nations.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:39 pm, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

18

Post posted by VED »

c18 #
Bushmen - Refined character


QUOTE 1: Notwithstanding their forbidding appearance, they possessed a number of savage virtues, which showed that they were not so utterly worthless as many have delighted in depicting them. Not the least noteworthy of these was their implicit faithfulness in any trust imposed upon them. We have already noticed their loyalty to their chiefs, their strong attachment to the place of their birth, their hospitality to strangers, their unselfishness in their division of food, their self-sacrifice and devotion in their attempts to rescue their wives and children from a life of bondage which they abhorred, their unflinching bravery, and their love of freedom.

QUOTE 2:
Mr. Baines in his description of them added that he had not a little pleasure in being able to state that the behaviour of the Bushmen who visited them was civil and respectful, and they were not annoyed by the constant attempts at theft so common whilst they were travelling through a country occupied by other native tribes.

QUOTE 3: Facts of this kind prove not only the individual honesty of the Bushman thus trusted, but also the general honesty of all those of his race with whom he must have, of necessity, come in contact during the long period of his wanderings

QUOTE 4: This fact illustrates at the same time that these wild Bushmen could not have been the remorseless and bloodthirsty creatures they have been so frequently depictured, seeing that we find them not only in this case, but in numerous other instances, affording an asylum to many fugitives under similar circumstances.

QUOTE 5:
Between this last place and the Karee mountains these travellers met no more Koranas, but several hordes of Bushmen, some of whom, as their sugar was consumed, supplied them with beautiful honey. The travellers thus gained their confidence and some of them followed the waggons, a fact which showed that even at that time, when they were most maligned, a fair reward would secure the willing services of these wild huntsmen.

QUOTE 6: It is worthy of remark, however, that no instance of cannibalism was heard of, either among the Hottentots or the Bushmen, even in their direst extremities.

QUOTE 7: Mr. Campbell, however, who saw much of these Bushmen during the course of his journeys and is certainly no mean authority upon the subject, considers, notwithstanding all the charges brought against them, that these Bushmen, wild as they undoubtedly are, are nevertheless more docile than any of the other native nations, and more grateful for kindness shewn to them.

QUOTE 8: but the honour of having first pleaded the cause of these Bushmen certainly belongs to the Rev. A. Faure, a minister of the Dutch Reformed church, who had long resided on the exposed frontier of Graaff Reinet. His evidence is both valuable and conclusive on the character of these Bushmen for fidelity in any trust imposed upon them. The farmers, he writes, are entirely dependent on the Bushmen for their welfare.

Few, if any, have either slaves or Hottentots, consequently they have no means of getting their cattle properly tended without their assistance. Such farmers as possess Bushmen have been in the habit of committing to them the charge of their flocks, and they have proved such faithful shepherds that the farmers have not hesitated to give them some hundreds of ewes and other cattle to sojourn with them beyond the limits of the Colony.
END OF QUOTEs

Most of the high quality attributes and refinement mentioned above can also be listed out in the historical attributes of the native-English of the pristine-English times. However, when the feudal language speakers spread out as a sort of disease in the English hinterlands, how can the native-English stand up to protect their nation and social system? They would not understand what is happening. It is like the fish in the sea being made captive inside nylon nets. In most probability, the fish would not be able to see the nets.

The same is the situation of the native-English. Their own native legal systems will weave non-see-able net like strings all around them. Only when suddenly they find themselves entangled in the webs of the legal system would they know its power. The power would be in the hands of the outsiders who would be casting the net across the nation.

Again, there is this to be mentioned. The Bushmen were seen as the lowest of the native-African populations. Yet, when cannibalism is taken into account, the Bushmen seems to be far above that disposition, while many of the higher native populations had no qualms in practising this culinary art.

Image

QUOTE: It was, therefore, in the never-ending war of races which ensued, where all, however much they differed from one another, were against the Bushman, that it merged into one of the fiercest intensity, in which an irrepressible determination was shown, on the one hand, to maintain, at whatever cost, and by every means their untutored minds dictated to them, the lands they considered unquestionably their own ;

while, on the other hand, as the old race were stumbling blocks to the coveted possession, an equal determination was exhibited to exterminate, if possible, the last vestige of those who so resolutely opposed their unjustifiable usurpation. The struggle ended, as all such conflicts ever do, in the ultimate triumph of the strongest, while in its course little forbearance or mercy was shown on either side.
END OF QUOTE

It was like different human populations competing with each other to takeover a forest land. Everyone of them would endeavour individually as well as collectively to exterminate living beings who they considered poisonous and hence dangerous, despite the fact that these living beings were the original possessors of the forest land.

QUOTE: while their very enemies acknowledge them to have been, when left to themselves, a merry, cheerful race.
END OF QUOTE.

This might be a defining words about the native-English in years to come, they have all be exterminated by the feudal language speaking outsiders who are slowly, and yet steadily encroaching into the far interiors of the English hinterlands.

QUOTE: Their incomprehensible attachment to their original mode of life, their strong love of the wild freedom they had ever possessed, were considered as unquestionable evidence of their unimprovable nature, and the members of the formidable expeditions that were from time to time launched against them seemed impressed with the idea that the cause of humanity would be best served by annihilating a race with such peculiar tendencies
END OF QUOTE

‘strong love of the wild freedom’ is something that the native-English possess in its most pristine form. This in spite of them having so many restraining conventions, manners, spontaneous politeness &c. Their freedom is encoded in the planar language codes of English. The moment a feudal language speaker perceives these things in someone whom he or she understands to be a subordinate, his or her mind can sparkle with hate and mood for oppression. These are things which the native English cannot understand or foresee. For, they have no information on how the feudal language speakers have maintained their subordinates over the centuries as slaves shackled with mere words and verbal codes. The feudal language speakers would definitely like to annihilate populations which display ‘peculiar tendencies’ connected to planar language communication codes.

QUOTE: This improvement in their condition we shall discover as we proceed was mainly, if not entirely, attributable to the friendly intercourse that had existed for a considerable time between themselves and the Leghoya, the only tribe which ever intruded itself into Bushman territory that from the very commencement of their intercourse attempted to establish just and friendly relations between themselves and the aborigines.
END OF QUOTE

However, despite all kinds of nefarious details about them, there were people who knew to connect with the quaint refinement of the Bushmen.

QUOTE: The case however was altered when, either to escape the grip of the law or the oppressive restrictions of their own government, or from a desire to live a free and untrammelled life in the wilderness with an unlimited extent of land around them, the colonists began to cross the great mountain ranges in considerable and ever-increasing numbers, carrying their numerous flocks and herds with them, invading the Bokkeveld, seizing the fountains, making permanent settlements, destroying or driving away the game, the Bushmen's means of subsistence, treating the inhabitants, the " zwarte schepsels," with menace and contumely, and reducing all those who fell into their grasp to a condition of abject slavery.
END OF QUOTE

The Continental European colonialists were not at all a refined group anywhere in the world, I feel. They did not treat the Red Indians in a nice manner in South America. In fact, they trampled over them for more than two centuries, I think. it was the arrival of the native-English that ultimately gave them some respite. However, the negative information that had spread about the White skin-coloured colonialist did affect the native-English also to some extent that the Red Indians did go in for a fight with them. However, ultimately most of them supported the native-English against the rank renegade and super fool George Washington. It may also be mentioned that in the US, which was a nation created upon a framework of native-English settlements in the New World, the Red Indians did get a lot of securities, which were not available in the Continental European colonial areas.

The same sort of issues did take place in Africa also. The Continental Europeans were known to go buying black slaves from the Zanzibar coast and elsewhere. When the British West African Squadron arrived on the Zanzibar and such other coasts, to save the slaves from the slave traders, many of the native black got the impression that they were also slave catchers. This kind of wrong information did lead to many tragic events.

In South Asia also, the Continental Europeans did not create any quality history. They did buy the local slaves and sell them elsewhere including South Africa. However, the lot of the indentured slaves of South Asia definitely got a better deal as slaves in South Africa. In the former case, they were treated something like worms that live on the soil. In the latter case, they were treated like slaves brought for work. Naturally they got better dressing standards, and better living conditions. However, when they were seen in quality areas in a comparative manner, they had a lot of grievances. But then returning them to their native living experiences would have been equivalent to throwing them into a stinking cesspool.

QUOTE: Suffice it here to say the Bushmen were pursued and destroyed with a relentless and almost savage ferocity, clan after clan was annihilated, the men were shot down without mercy, and the surviving women and children were dragged into a state worse than slavery. Sometimes they were destroyed in their caves, and no survivors were left ; all, men, women, and children, perished in a heap ; and men, nominally Christians, boasted, as if they had been engaged in some meritorious act, of the active part they had taken in these scenes of slaughter.
END OF QUOTE

The only Christianity that was refined, cultured and promoting the Good Samaritan theme were the English Christians. However, the native-English do not have any information that they should not try to get associated with various other global populations that have the Christian tag. For instance, the Christians of South Asian. There are a number of groups here, with various kinds of history behind them. Actually they are not one group, but different population groups, currently speaking the same local language.

Take the case of the Syrian Christians of the south-western part of the Subcontinent. They came from Syria. When they arrived, they had the presence of mind and social information that they need to be above the various slave castes of the place. For this purpose, they entered into a treaty with the local king. As per this treaty they were able to acquire a lot of social powers. See what is mentioned in one of the treaties (around 774 AD) :

Quoted from Malabar Manual written by William Logan:
We have given to Iravi Corttan of Mahodeverpattnam [henceforth to be called Grand Merchant of the Cheraman world (Kerala)], the lordship of Manigramam. We also have given to him (the right of) the feast-cloth(?), house-pillars (or pictured rooms ?), all the, revenue, the curved sword (or dagger), and in (or with) the sword the sovereign merchant-ship, the right of proclamation, the privilege of having forerunners, the five musical instruments, the conch, the light (or torch burning) by day, the spreading cloth, litter, royal umbrella, Vaduca drum (drum of the Telugu’s or of Bhairava?), the gateway with seats and ornamental arches, and the sovereign merchant-ship over the four classe (or streets), also the oil-makers and the five kinds of artificers we have subjected to him (or given as slaves to him)

We have given as eternal (literally, ‘‘water”) possession to Iravi Corttan, the lord of the town, the brokerage and due customs of all that may be measured by the para, weighed by the balance, stretched by the line, of all that may be counted or carried, contained within salt sugar, musk, and lamp-oil, or whatever it be, viz., within the river-mouth of Codungalur and the tower, or between the four Talis (temples of the deputy Brahmans) and the gramams belonging to them. We have given it by an unreserved tenure to Iravi Corttan, Grand Merchant of the Cheraman world, and to his sons and sons' sons in proper succession. END OF QUOTE

The gist of the above treaty is the right to possess the local slaves under them. And the right to use all the paraphernalia of power and social prestige. The same kind of treaty was entered into by the Jews also with the local king, when they came to settle in South Asia.

The English colonialists were the only people in the recorded history of the subcontinent who strived to liberate the location slave populations and to educate them. However, when English colonialism is mentioned in India, people combine Continental European colonialisms, including Portuguese, Dutch, French etc. with English colonialism. And then the whole lot of negative deeds of the Continental Europeans are quietly heaped upon the native-English.

Image

QUOTE: Every fountain and every stream had been appropriated by the insatiable greed of the intruders, and a piece of ground upon which none of them could live themselves was allotted for the regeneration of the owners of the soil. How could they learn the advantages of a more settled life on a spot where nothing could be cultivated, and scarcely a sufficient supply of their own primitive roots and tubers could be obtained ?
END OF QUOTE

This might actually be a standard sample of Continental European colonial actions. The English colonialism was not at all like this. However, as of now, no one is bothered to find the difference. For, all native-English nations are crumpling down with the rapid spread of a social disease called Multi-culture.

QUOTE 1: The burgher Coetzee van Reenen had an overseer who kept his flocks near the Zak river, this man was of a brutal and insolent disposition and a great tyrant over the Bushmen ; he had shot some of them at times out of mere wantonness. The Bushmen submissively endured the oppression of this petty tyrant for a long period, but at length their patience was worn out, and one day when he was cruelly maltreating one of their nation another struck him through with his assagai. This act was represented in the Colony as a horrible murder.

QUOTE 2: Thompson, who visited these tribes nearly twenty years later, says that after the larger game was driven out of the country by the guns of the Boers and the Griquas, the Bushmen were reduced to the most wretched shifts to obtain a precarious subsistence, living chiefly on wild roots, locusts, and the larvae of insects.
END OF QUOTE

The above again is not native-English colonial action, but that of the Boers. However, being entwined with the Continental Europeans can misguide the native-English and also make them accomplices to such actions. Even now this danger is there. For England is as of now entrapped by the Continental Europeans. In the second quote, the Griquas are seen mentioned. This is part of the long-terms issue when the native-English movements and organisations work in close collaboration with Continental Europeans and others. The essential Englishness of the organisation gets somewhat hazy.

QUOTE: In defence of these aggressions, they maintained that the Bushmen were a nation of robbers, who, as they neither cultivated the soil nor pastured cattle, were incapable of occupying the country advantageously ; that they would live much more comfortably by becoming the herdsmen and household servants of the Christians than they did on their own precarious resources, and finally that they were incapable of being civilised by any other means.
END OF QUOTE

The above is the Boer arguments for territorial aggrandisements into the native lands of the Bushmen. The next item for introspection is the word ‘Christian’. Continental European Christianity is basking in the halo of native-English Christianity. After all, the actual Christian religion is not European, but an Asian religion.

There is another large item to be noted down. When the feudal language speaking outsiders fill England, the native-English would find it quite irksome to work with them, work under them or to work above them. For, each of these connections will change the inner fabric of a native-Englishman’s soul and innate dispositions.

Actually I do find a very powerful parallel in this, in something that happened in South Asia during the English rule period.

The English government in Madras Presidency in British-India used to keep a watch over the native kingdom of Travancore. This was mainly due to the activities of the London Missionary Society inside the kingdom. This society was on a mad enterprise of unshackling the lower class bound-to-the-land slave populations of the kingdom. The Missionary Society had the opinion that the kingdom was wasting its financial resources by giving various amenities to the Brahmans. See this Quote from Native Life in Travancore:

It is also detrimental to the Brahmans, for it encourages idleness. END OF QUOTE.

Actually there are very powerful reasons inside the language codes that insist that the higher positioned persons should not mingle or mix with the lower placed persons, other than with a cloak of ‘respect’.

In England, if the native-English start working under the feudal language speaking outsiders, their innate native-English refinement would get erased in a very slow, but exponential manner.

From this perspective and information, the fact that the Bushmen had their own lifestyle which they were not willing to forego easily can be mentioned as having more powerful reasons inside it, than can be understood by a native-English speaker.

QUOTE: The hundreds of whom he speaks had been most unceremoniously dispossessed of their country, and all their mountain streams had been appropriated to gratify the territorial greed of a few score men, who called themselves civilised because they had guns in their hands.
END OF QUOTE.

The above words are about the Boers. However, it can be about any group which is armed better than the others. Only the native-English were different. But then the activities of the London Missionary Society did create something similar to happen in the southern parts of South Asia. In Travancore kingdom they improved the enslaved classes and gave them all kinds of technical knowhow, including that of making guns. When the English rule departed from the subcontinent and India was created in the location, these very same classes encroached into next door Malabar forest locations and literally exterminated huge populations of various kinds of animals, which had been living there in relative peace for centuries. These animals include monkeys, deer, porcupines, mountain goats, wild boar etc.

This much is the effect of sharing technical knowhow with other populations who are desperate to get a possession. The affect was more or less same as that of the London Missionary Society arming the Griquas with technical knowledge and skills. The Bushmen suffered in this lopsided societal development inside South Africa, in which only section of the various populations were given terrific technical prowess.

sides in the fight, only takes the social system to more social and civic pains, none of which would be understandable to the native-English as of now.

QUOTE: thus it was that in a short lime a controversy arose between the two rival Societies, the London and the Wesleyan, as to which had the right of teaching at Daniel's Kuil.
END OF QUOTE

This is actually a most unwelcome development. Two missions with the same mission, in the same area.

QUOTE: I beg to recommend that twelve miles along the Vaal river and six towards the Middle Veld, adjoining the country allotted to David Danser and the Korana captain Goliath, be given to the Bushman 'Kousopp." END OF QUOTE

This is the mess in which England has landed itself in collaborating with Continental Europe. They have to make amends for the brutality of the Boers. However, when everyone are defined as ‘Whites’, a part of the blame of the treacherous actions get to fall upon the English also, in the long run.

QUOTE: for if we calmly and dispassionately ask the question, what have been the results ? there can be but one truthful reply, failure, utter failure !
END OF QUOTE

The above statement is about the total end result of the English Colonialism, even though in this book it is about the Christian missionary efforts at improving the savage populations of Africa. However, when speaking about the English endeavour to improve the quality of life in the various barbarian and semi-barbarian locations all around the world, there are certain things to be borne in mind. One is that the stay-at-home England and Britain had a very contorted view and information about English colonial efforts.

Many stay-at-home Britons really had a feeling that English colonialists were literally trampling the rights of the various native population and capturing the colonies. The actual fact is that in many of these locations, the English colonial efforts were directed in emancipating the populations which had been kept in a state of slavery for centuries, by the local feudal landlords. England was in many ways acting against the actions of the colonial English officials. It was a case of both sides, England and the colonial English, acting at cross purposes

Second was the fact that English colonialism was mixed up with the Celtic language speaking populations. These populations were literally the same semi-barbarian populations that were to be seen in the various colonial locations. The only difference might be that they were white-skinned. And that they had lived in close proximity to the English for centuries. This last mentioned item is a very fabulous social experience, which if South Asia had experienced for a similar period of time would have transformed South Asia into a wonderful social location.

The third item to mention is that the British Labour Party and many of the leftist idiots in Britain were actually collaborating with the social enslavers of the various colonies. For instance, Nehru, Gandhi, Subashchandran and many others from South Asia were actually part of the feudal landlord classes which had run roughshod over the lower classes of the subcontinent for centuries. British Labour Party and its super fiend Clement Atlee literally handed over the populations of South Asia to such terrible characters again.

QUOTE: We have already expressed astonishment that men who could speak so pathetically of " the poor natives " could not see the inconsistency of upholding the fictitious rights of their protégés at the expense of another race, whose land had been coolly appropriated because it was weaker than themselves.
END OF QUOTE

Even though the above statement is about South Africa, the same argument shall stand in the case of South Asia also. It is about the handing over of the various populations of South Asia to the ancient or newer feudal language exploiter classes of the subcontinent by Great Britain. Actually, the lower class populations have stood by the English rule through thick and thin. Yet, they were handed over to the same brutes who would use the feudal language pejorative words upon them again, when they have them in their clutches.

QUOTE: All the most eminent students of philology inform us that such must have been the condition of the speech of primeval man, and all history demonstrates to us, if we will but read it rightly, that all the modes of thought, and even religious beliefs, of the present day are but the elaborations and development of others more ancient.
END OF QUOTE

I need to take the above statement away from the content of this book. The fact is that almost all modern age technological progress, systems, ideas &c. can be connected to England or proximity to England over the centuries. In the present century, many US based businessmen, entrepreneurs and such other persons have been literally taking and giving it for free to all the other competing economic entities all around the world, with no qualms that they are cheating their own countrymen of their antique property. If the citizens of any other nation like China were seen distributing their national property to others, they would be in prison or experiencing something worse.

QUOTE: but with an intimation that in the event of a battle being inevitable, the Bachoana must strictly refrain from the slaughter of women and children (as was their barbarous practice), and that all the enemy who laid down their arms should receive quarter as prisoners of war.
END OF QUOTE

The above is very obviously a native-English intervention. What has been mentioned would never dawn in the minds of feudal languages speaking populations, even if they are from Continental Europe.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

19

Post posted by VED »

c19 #
Bushmen versus the native African encroachers


QUOTE: As in every instance where the stronger races have come in contact with these aboriginal hunters, the Koranas, Griquas, and Batlapin displayed the utmost vindictiveness towards them. It seemed a strange perversion of ideas in all these tribes, which were accustomed to condemn the Bushmen with such vehemency as rogues, that they should themselves be professional thieves whenever they had an opportunity.
The only difference between them as to roguery was that the Bushmen stole in small companies and the others in large parties like an army. The same way of judging, however, is as common in Europe, the crime and the charge seem both lost where the perpetrators are numerous.
END OF QUOTE

Native-English colonialism was built up by very miniscule number of Englishmen. However, they were supported by the lower class of the colonial areas. But then even the higher classes of the colonial areas also supported them. For, it was quite plainly seen that they were the only population group who were honest and committed to their word.

See these Quotes from Travancore State Manual by V Nagam Aiya, a native of South Asia:

QUOTE 1: In 1750 A.D. the French attempted to form a settlement at Colachel. It does not appear that they were successful. In the next year the Rajah of Travancore wrote to the King of Colastria ‘advising him not to put any confidence in the French, but to assist the English as much as he could’”.

QUOTE 2: Ever since the death of the faithful Dalawa, the Maharajah (Marthanada Varma, king of Travancore) was slowly pining away. On the 27th Mithunam 933 M.E (July 1758), he knew his end was approaching and so called his nephew the Elaya Rajah to his bed-side and gave him the following advice: —
.............
.............

“That, above all, the friendship existing between the English East India Company and Travancore should be maintained at any risk, and that full confidence should always be placed in the support and aid of that honourable association.
END OF QUOTEs from Travancore State Manual.

QUOTE: Harassed and driven from one part of their ancient hunting-grounds to another, they seemed as if, finding that they could not drive the intruders back again, a wild and uncontrollable spirit of revenge was taking possession of them, while the greater portion of their enemies appeared to have formed the determination to extirpate them from the face of the earth.
END OF QUOTE

I do have fears that in the coming centuries, the native-English posterity would also behave in a ‘wild and uncontrollable spirit of revenge’.

Image

QUOTE: The quiet he speaks of was the quiet of annihilation. It was the peace of death !
END OF QUOTE

The outsiders who have barged into England would in later centuries engage themselves in bringing in peace inside England by the extermination of the native-English race.

QUOTE: the Koranas had been engaged from time immemorial in the most rancorous hostilities with the Bushmen, and it was a long time before they could be persuaded to look at a Bushman without attempting to murder him, so deep was the inveterate hatred between the two races.
END OF QUOTE

This was the way the native-Africans viewed the Bushmen, who had been the actual owners of the lands of South Africa.

Queen VICTORIA

QUOTE: In his later years' he added to his former declarations that as soon as he possessed the means he would go to Victoria and show her how unjustly he and his father had been dispossessed of their lands.
END OF QUOTE

It is wonderful to see the above lines. Even though in most modern academic studies, England has been decried in very many ways, the fact remains that for huge sections of traumatised populations all around the world, England was the only source of solace. Even in South Asia this was the truth. I have indeed seen words similar to what has been mentioned above in other places.

Below is an excerpt from Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman written by Bradford, Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins). It is a true life story detailing a scene of slaves escaping from the US to Canada.

Quote: The fugitives were on the bottom of the wagons, the bricklayers on the seats, still singing and shouting; and so they passed by the guards, who were entirely unsuspicious of the nature of the load the wagons contained, or of the amount of property thus escaping their hands. And so they made their way to New York. When they entered the anti-slavery office there, Joe was recognized at once by the description in the advertisement.

"Well," said Mr. Oliver Johnson, "I am glad to see the man whose head is worth fifteen hundred dollars."

At this, Joe's heart sank. If the advertisement had got to New York {See map}, that place which it had taken them so many days and nights to reach, he thought he was in danger still. "And how far is it now to Canada?" he asked. When told how many miles, for they were to come through New York State, and cross the Suspension Bridge, he was ready to give up.

"From dat time Joe was silent," said Harriet; "he sang no more, he talked no more; he sat wid his head on his hand, and nobody could 'muse him or make him take any interest in anyting." They passed along in safety, and at length found themselves in the cars, approaching Suspension Bridge. The rest were very joyous and happy, but Joe sat silent and sad. Their fellow-passengers all seemed interested in and for them, and listened with tears, as Harriet and all their party lifted up their voices and sang:

I'm on my way to Canada,
That cold and dreary land;
The sad effects of slavery,
I can't no longer stand.

I've served my master all my days,
Widout a dime's reward;
And now I'm forced to run away,
To flee the lash abroad.

Farewell, ole master, don't think hard of me,
I'll travel on to Canada, where all the slaves are free.
The hounds are baying on my track,
Ole master comes behind.

Resolved that he will bring me back,
Before I cross de line;
I'm now embarked for yonder shore,
There a man's a man by law;

The iron horse will bear me o'er,
To shake de lion's paw.
Oh, righteous Father, wilt thou not pity me,
And aid me on to Canada where all the slaves are free.

Oh, I heard Queen Victoria say,
That if we would forsake
Our native land of slavery,
And come across the lake;

That she was standin' on de shore,
Wid arms extended wide,
To give us all a peaceful home
Beyond de rolling tide.
Farewell, ole master, etc.

END OF QUOTE from Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman

However, the black slaves of the US are speaking to each other in English. And not in their varied native languages of Africa. This being so, actually the slaves life in the US would not be any kind of slavery if it is compared with what was the state of life of the lower classes of the South Asia in those days. If the US blacks were slaves then, then the lower classes of South Asia were worms tied to the soil.

Image

There is another instance of Queen Victoria being addressed by the people of Africa, which I have with me.

The book Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria written by Kyra E. Hicks is the true story of Martha Ann, who is 12 years old, when her Papa finally purchases her freedom from slavery and moves the family from Tennessee to Liberia. On Market Days, Martha Ann watches the British navy patrolling the Liberian coast to stop slave catchers from kidnapping family and friends and forcing them back into slavery.

Martha Ann decides to thank Queen Victoria in person for sending the navy. But first, she has to save money for the voyage, find a suitable gift for the queen, and withstand the ridicule of those who learn of her impossible dream to meet the Queen of England. Her knowledge of Queen Victoria comes from reading a Liberian Newspaper. Source:

However, going back from the US to Liberia does not seem to have been a sensible action, retrospectively.

In my own maternal side, there was my mother’s grandfather who used to sing praise of Queen Victoria in his evening hours, mentioning her as Amma Maharani (Great Queen mother). These are emotions that would not be found in the decrepit Indian history written by rank fiends, who are wallowing in huge government salaries of astronomical size.

QUOTE 1: Even when surrounded and borne down by a host of enemies, the Bushman seldom or never asked for mercy from his hated foes. Wounded and bleeding as he might be, he continued obstinately fighting to the last. Shot through one arm, he would instantly use his knee or foot to enable him to draw his bow with the one remaining uninjured.

QUOTE 2: All the available evidence, however, with regard to the vindictiveness of the Bushmen proves that it was not a part of their natural character, but rather a developed feeling which gradually took possession of their breasts

QUOTE 3: His last arrow was on the string. A slight feeling of compassion seemed at length to animate the hostile multitude that hemmed him in ; they called to him that his life should be spared if he would surrender. He let fly his last arrow in scorn at the speaker, as he replied that " a chief knew how to die, but never to surrender to the race who had despoiled him ! " Then with a wild shout of bitter defiance he turned round, and leaping headlong into the deep abyss was dashed to pieces on the rocks beneath. Thus died, with a Spartan-like intrepidity, the last of the clan. and with his death his tribe ceased to exist.
END OF QUOTEs

The above-mentioned qualities of the Bushmen actually required someone of the right quality to appreciate it. The Dutch were not the persons to do it.

QUOTE: On each occasion he allowed the interpreter, Du Plessis, then a boy of fourteen years of age, to enter his rock-fort to deliver his message, and then depart unharmed, without any attempt to molest him. It is well worthy of notice that the Bushmen, wild and untamed savages as they were considered, almost in every instance respected the person of an envoy sent to them
END OF QUOTE

Actually these were the kind of qualities that held up the English East India Company as a group of individuals who would keep their word and would also be fair in their dealings. This stance is good only if they are in a strong position. For, when dealing with populations who are untrustworthy, their stance of fair-play would not be appreciated.

QUOTE 1: but the chief, although told by the messenger that to ensure his safety they would walk hand in hand until they came into the presence of the commandant, had no confidence in the promises made to him. At last, becoming impatient, he said, " Go ! be gone ! Tell your commandant that I am not a child, and that (striking his hand upon his breast) I have a strong heart here ! Go ! be gone ! My eyes cannot bear the sight of you longer ; and tell your 'Gousa my last words are that not only is my quiver full of arrows, but they are filleted also round my head, and that I shall resist and defend myself as long as I have life left ! 'Kamans ! Go ! be gone ! "

The envoy departed, and was allowed to return to the commandant in safety.

QUOTE 2: At length, probably from the diminishing number of his arrows, and under strong assurances that his life would be spared, he consented to capitulate. He left his cover, and advanced amongst them ; but immediately he was in their power, in utter violation of the promises that had been made, one of his enraged captors treacherously shot him through the head, and a heap of stones was hastily thrown over his body. Thus ended the career of the last of the Bok-poort Bushmen.
END OF QUOTEs

In the first quote, the Bushmen chief has no faith in the promises offered. However, he himself is quite fair in his dealings. The envoy is allowed to leave safely.

In the second Quote, the Bushman trusts the words of the Dutch attackers. He surrenders. But he is killed. Actually, this is the way it is when dealing with the uniformed forces of South Asia. I mean, India. If and when a person surrenders to them, he immediately is reduced to the lower grade Thoo / Nee level of addressing. Once this is done, he is mere cattle to them.

QUOTE 1: The undying attachment which many of these people displayed to localities where they and their fathers had lived has been too frequently and clearly demonstrated to admit of refutation.

QUOTE 2: Had they been men of any race except that of the despised and often falsely maligned Bushman, the wrongs which were heaped upon them, the sufferings they endured, their daring and intrepidity, their unconquerable spirit, and the length of the hopeless struggle they maintained when every other race was arrayed against them, coveting their land and thirsting for their blood, would have placed them, notwithstanding the excesses into which they were betrayed, in the rank of heroes and patriots of no mean order.

QUOTE 3: Their greatest crime being that they were the original possessors of the soil, a war of extermination was waged against them, until at last the miserable remnants of their once numerous race had to struggle for a precarious
END OF QUOTEs

It is quite curious that I find some strange resonances in the above statements with the tragic state of the native-English as of now. They are on their last stand, so to say. Even though they feel that they are quite strong, the fact is that everything that they have traditionally possessed is in danger of being taken-over by outsiders. Even their military would slowly transform into something eerie and monstrous, reflecting the new persons who would be the personnel inside.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

20

Post posted by VED »

c20 #
EFFECT OF LANGUAGE CODES


QUOTE 1: The photographs of Bushmen were supplied by Miss Lloyd from her large collection. They show the striking features of the people of this race : the hollow back, the lobeless ear, the receding chin, the sunken eye, the lowness of the root of the nose, the scanty covering of the head with little knots of wiry wool, and the low angle of prognathism as compared with negroes.

QUOTE 2: It seems somewhat surprising that so many writers have continued to class these people with the negroes and other dark-skinned, woolly-haired species of men ; whereas if we are to judge from their physical appearance, with the solitary exception of the hair, no two sections of the human race could be more divergent.

QUOTE 3: It is possible that the character of the hair may point to the fact that they hold a kind of intermediate station, a kind of connecting link, but still one more nearly related to the men of the north than the splay-footed, swarthy races of Central Africa.

QUOTE 4: Even the bones of the Bushmen show a marked difference from those of a large number of the negro type.
END OF QUOTEs

It is curious that a similar kind of ethnographic study had been done on a vast scale by Edger Thurston in South Asia. In his book, Castes and tribes of Southern India, he does describe how he went around measuring the dimensions of the skulls of different caste individuals, and tried to arrive at some powerful connection between caste and human skull design.

However, I personally think that he was on a very erroneous track. The real human and social designing is done by the powerful language codes. The language codes act upon a human being mind and body powerfully to chisel and hammer down the various anatomical parts. It also does the same action on the human mind.

However this is a phenomenon not understandable in pristine-English. And as of now, this has turned out to a very dangerous piece of ignorance, which literally is gnawing at the very vitals of all native English nations and social systems.

As to the Bushman looks, these things can be studied in relationship to their own native language codes, the language codes of the others around them, and even from the communication codes of the animals with whom they were in daily contact. However, only a researcher who knows what to look for can do this. A native-English researcher would not know what to look for. And a multiculture, multilingual swarmed-into-England researcher would not like to divulge what he or she knows.

QUOTE: while a noticeable alteration had taken place in their physical development. They were no longer tribes of diminutive dwarfs, but they had become a taller race of men, although still inferior to the more robust and manly Kaffir.
END OF QUOTE.

As to the above words, I think the gist has some connection to the affect of language codes, when they shift from one location to another. Interested readers are requested to check my book: Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages. See this Quote also:

QUOTE: One very striking feature in the pure Bushman race is their remarkably dwarfish stature
END OF QUOTE

A very pointed enquiry can be initiated upon the Bushmen tribe persons who are currently US citizens, descendents of Bushmen individuals who had arrived there as ‘slaves’. It would be quite interesting to see the way the English language has redesigned their body features and facial demeanour.

QUOTE 1: Baines states that some of these Bushmen in the immediate vicinity of the Lake were fine fellows, six feet high..

QUOTE 2: He met them at Rapesh, under a captain named Haroye. " He and some others were at least six feet high, and of a darker complexion than the Bushmen of the south. They frequented the Zouga, and had always plenty of food and water. They were a merry laughing set."
END OF QUOTE

The quality of the language, whether it is feudal or not, as well as the exact position of the individual inside the language would have a significant effect on the overall mental and physical stature of the individual. A merry laughing set would mean a mentally liberated group. This could reflect upon the physical stature also. My expression ‘exact position of the individual inside the language’ is also not an attempt at shallow verbal acrobatic. I

n feudal languages, there are heights and depths, and even their trigonometric components, wherein a person will be positioned according to his or level of ‘respect’. Even a very minute change in this precise position, can change the various links and strings and the powers of the uplifting, downgrading, pulling, pushing, hammering, chiselling etc. all of which will be continually bearing upon the individual. These are things about which a native-English individual has no information on.

Image

QUOTE: The explanation of this apparent divergence is doubtless to be traced, as in other well-authenticated cases, to an admixture of foreign blood, rather than to mere variations of climatical conditions upon such nomads as some of the branches of this old hunter race, especially as we find such an admixture taking place upon other border lines, where other Bushman tribes have been thrown in contact with the stronger races that were being impelled upon them.
END OF QUOTE

The effect of admixture of different ethnicities would no doubt have its affect. However, a change in the language system or mixture of language codes also would affect the looks. How much depends on many factors.

QUOTE: a grave of a Bushman captain or chief, which consisted of a large cairn of stones and branches of trees ; and every " Bushman on passing the pile was in the habit of adding a stone to the heap, as a mark of respect for the deceased."
END OF QUOTE

The above mentioned ‘respect’ is actually a part and parcel of many feudal languages. In fact, this respect is can actually be a sort of exhibition of ‘obsequiousness’ and need not be any kind of ‘respect’ as understood in English.

QUOTE: The huntsmen of the Kalahari constructed great lines of fences and a continuous series of pitfalls, which, when we consider the primitive and imperfect tools at their disposal to carry out such extensive works, requiring so large an amount of labour to accomplish, must excite our wonder, if it does not arouse our admiration of their perseverance and enduring energy, which such achievements unquestionably demonstrate.
END OF QUOTE

Civic activities of each specific social systems can be based on its language systems. In a planar language system like that of English, there is a fetterless communication across the neighbourhood. This would lead to the creation of splendid social infrastructure of great quality. However, in a feudal language system, there is an element of forced labour and regimentation of labour. In fact, in South Asia most of the grand forts, palaces, waterways etc. would have been created by the use of forced labour. If this regimentation can be enforced very forcefully, the location would look quite spic and span. However, the place would be populated with a few percent of superior human beings and a huge percent of enfeebled ones.

QUOTE: Chapman states that there was a sociability about these Bushmen which was not always found among the members of tribes of other native races, thus when the larger game was scarce they would hunt all day for roots, bulbs, tortoises, etc., and then in the evening meet together to share and devour the spoils.
END OF QUOTE

This again can point to some very specific language code that induces the sociability or it could point to some social machine like that seen in Christian churches and Islamic systems. These kinds of social machines can override the splintering codes of feudal languages to some extent.

QUOTE: They lived comparatively chaste lives, and their women were not at all flattered by the attention of their Bachoana lords. Instead of an honour, they looked upon intercourse with any one out of their tribe, no matter how superior, as a degradation.
END OF QUOTE

This can be due to a terrific coding in the language codes. Usually in feudal languages, there is always a great aura of divinity that is seen to enwrap the superior person or group of persons. Women naturally sense it. In many social systems having feudal languages, the verbal codes of ennobling acts as a sort of aphrodisiac. However, in the above-mentioned case, the female seems to above the tugs of these verbal codes. The language code location might need inspection to find out as how this is affected.

QUOTE: from the writer's experience some of their simple refrains had as much effect upon their feelings as our own more perfect and elaborate compositions have upon civilised men.
END OF QUOTE

Without knowing the verbal structure of the Bushmen language it would not be possible to make any conclusive assertions. However, when speaking about the feudal languages of South Asia, it may be declared here that a definite beauty can be created in the songs and poems, by talented lyricists. The words have a 3-D ambit in the way it interacts with reality in the virtual software arena that exists behind physical reality. This is an information about which I cannot give more details. Interested reader can read my book: Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c. for more information on this.

Inside feudal languages, emotions that get entwined to the words and verbal codes can be pulled up and down, from the level of despicable levels to that of extremely fragrant golden areas. This is an information that the native English have no information on. See these Quotes from Native Life in Travancore written by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER:

QUOTE 1: QUOTE All singing and playing are in unison : harmony and part singing seem to be almost unknown in India, which causes their music to be generally uninteresting, if not repellent, to European ears. END of QUOTE

Now see the below Quote:

QUOTE 2: Sir W. Ouseley, in his “Oriental Collections,” says:- “A considerable difficulty is found in setting to music the Hindu ragas as, as our system does not supply notes or signs sufficiently expressive of the almost imperceptible elevations and depressions of the voice in these melodies, of which the time is broken and irregular, and the modulations frequent and very wild. END of QUOTE

Now see this Quote:

QUOTE 3: Many of the Hindu melodies possess the plaintive simplicity of the Scotch and Irish, and others a wild originality pleasing beyond description. END of QUOTE

In the first quote, Mateer mentions the general uninteresting nature of the South Asian music. However, in the third quote, he mentions the mystic beauty that the melodies can possess. Along with that comes the more interesting part that the melodies of South Asia do have qualities quite near to that of Celtic language melodies. I do remember proposing that the Celtic languages of Britain could have feudal language structure or something quite near to it.

See this quote also on the effect of verbal codes. In feudal languages, the affect is of the celestial levels.

QUOTE: Whilst 'Kouke was singing the upper line, the old man became visibly affected, and kept continually touching her arm, saying, " Don't ! Don't !
END OF QUOTE

However, there is this refrain to be mentioned. In feudal language melodies, even a non-decrepit low-grade human personality can be swung momentarily right into the hallowed locations of high grade ennoblement by mere verbal acrobatics.

This is a phenomenon that cannot be replicated in planar languages like English. However this relocation is only transient and has no material basis. The moment the music is stopped, the mind of the low-grade person comes slowly swinging back to his or her original low-grade personality in the feudal language. But then, the experience of the emotional swing is so high that the person literally has experienced a kind of hallucination. This can give a feeling that the feudal language, which actually degrades him or her, is a wonderful language.

QUOTE 1: This feasting and revelry was continued for three or four days, or until all their provisions were exhausted, during which time the lady visitors abandoned themselves to every species of licence, and had no cause for missing the absence of their husbands.

QUOTE 2: In this the women formed themselves into a circle similar to the preceding one, the chief took up his position in the centre, and frequently hopped and sprang round on all fours like some animal, the women in the meanwhile dancing and placing themselves in every possible lascivious position, until the great man in the centre pounced upon one of those who had most distinguished themselves and performed that in the sight of all which in more civilised communities is reserved for the strictest privacy, amid the applauding clatter of the excited dancers forming the enclosing circle.
END OF QUOTEs

When speaking about sexual morality, there are many things that might need to be understood. For instance, in the southern tip of South Asia, there is a caste known as Nair / Nayar, who in the earlier centuries were described as a kind of local Sudras. However, they were not the lower castes, but rather a middle level caste, just on the third rung of the social hierarchy under the Brahmins.

In those days, Nair households and women were accessible for the local Brahmin caste members. Even though as of now, this social custom might be described as bad, the full truth is much wider than that. In feudal languages, there are persons on the higher levels of the verbal codes whose presence, association, touch, viewing &c. can be understood as a very positive item. At the same time, the same things done by a person positioned lower in the verbal codes, would be of the most drastic negative impact.

It would not be easy for a native Englishman to understand precisely how the verbal codes act to create such drastic effects.

Apart from the above, there is this sentence to be noted: ‘performed that in the sight of all which in more civilised communities is reserved for the strictest privacy’. Multi-culture inside native-English nations have literally replicated this scene over there. In the earlier days, the youthful mood had been captivated by the English classical literature and movies of that genre. As of now, multicultural porn businessmen have become the new social trainers.

Image

QUOTE: We have learnt also something of their government, their character and domestic habits, their means of subsistence, their weapons and modes of hunting.
END OF QUOTE

Actually the above claim might be quite shallow. It is similar to or reminiscent of the claims of the academic subject called Politics and International Studies, that it is able to understand nations across the globe. The fact is that native-English cannot understand feudal language nations. The whole social machinery is quite different from anything that is known to a native-English individual. The afore-mentioned academic subject is next to nonsense, and if the foolish technical words are removed from it, it might be quite near to zero in profundity.

QUOTE 1: but before doing so treacherously watched an opportunity, after they had been treated with so much hospitality, of seizing the Barolong cattle whilst they were grazing away from the town, and having two or three guns compelled the owners to flee.

QUOTE 2:
Whilst here, a chief of the Batlokua, or the men of Ma-Intatisi, sent messengers to them, telling them they were to build walls round their kraals. This mission was to throw them off their guard, and the Bakuena, believing them, fell into the trap.
END OF QUOTE

Actually treachery is encoded in feudal languages. However, whether this had an influence in the above instances might need to be studied.

QUOTE: The Baratlou, as we have already seen, had many contentions among themselves, each struggling for supremacy.
END OF QUOTE

Might point to the presence of feudal language

QUOTE 1: The great happiness of the Bushman was however in his honey harvest, when the combs of the wild bees' nests were dropping with honey. It was then that he brewed his primitive mead, with which a certain root was mixed which rendered the beverage more intoxicating. This root however was kept a profound secret, except to a few chosen members of the ruling family..

QUOTE 2: From the researches of the writer, he is convinced that there were certain secrets among many of the tribes which were not known to every member of them, but which were kept as heirlooms in a certain branch or family, and which gave them a superiority over the rest, thus laying the first foundations of " caste."................................. This exclusive knowledge naturally gave rise to an amount of reticence on the part of those who were the guardians of these special secrets, that was most difficult to overcome.

QUOTE 3: until they became reverenced as the special keepers of those traditions which were ultimately deemed as possessing some mysterious and sacred authority, thus giving rise to the germ and the development of a priestly caste.

QUOTE 4:
It is said that the safety of the Bushmen depended upon a certain powder, long kept as a most profound secret, which they sprinkled at night upon their camp fires, and to which the lions showed such an antipathy that they would not approach the spot.
END OF QUOTEs

See the above four Quotes. Whenever I see such exclusive attitudes, I suspect the existence of certain kinds of verbal codes in the language. May be it is some kind of feudal language codes, in which the Bushmen are at variance from the pristine-English stances. Or it can even be something akin to the Nobility as seen in Great Britain, wherein a particular kind of class system has managed to find a space and slot inside a planar language social system.

Even though I cannot speak in a very categorical manner, I feel that any kind of class distinctions can be maintained only if there are some verbal codes that hold it in place. Even though English is a planar language, at the location where the nobility as well as the monarchy exists, the language codes do display some feeble kind of feudal language codes.

QUOTE: even among the Bushmen the truth of the axiom was recognised that " Knowledge is Power."
END OF QUTOE

The above quote is actually, I think a maxim that is generally used by the native-English. The words are attributed to Francis Bacon, and from there to Thomas Hobbes words in Levianthan : scientia potentia est (Latin).

I am not sure as to how much the native English really understood this phrase. If they had understood its gist, I am sure they would not have gone around the world spreading English and various kinds of technical skill and professional acumen, including that of Medical education and computer using skills.

The real fact is that in feudal languages, it is not knowledge per se, that is power, but the higher position in the verbal codes in a language. Among the lower class technically skilled persons, the issue of knowledge converting into power exists. For this reason, among the working persons in India, there is a terrible kind of mutual competitiveness and jealousy with regard to knowledge.

That is, no one who has a technical or other kind of information or skill will share it with others. Even the language English is not allowed to be learned by others. For, English is a communication software that can literally erase a lot of communication blocks in individuals. Allowing a competing person to learn English is akin to letting loose a dangerous adversary who had been held captive.

QUOTE: those near his great place were held in a state of abject servitude, and subjected to the greatest cruelty.

On one occasion, two horses having been suffocated in a quagmire, he ordered the two Bushmen who had charge of them to be bound to them and thrust back again into the morass, with an injunction not to lose the horses again.
END OF QUOTE

The above words can be taken as evidence of some kind of feudal language codes in the communication system in this specific location. It need not be a common feature among all the Bushmen. In fact, in South Asia, I have found that different languages in neighbouring areas do have different social hierarchy encrypted in them. This can be detected only by a person who knows the languages, and does know what to seek for.

Image

QUOTE: They were members of distinct tribes, having different languages, customs, and grades of honour, from that of the descendant of the colonial farmer to the very lowest state of degradation in the Bushmen.
END OF QUOTE.

The above statement is about the formation of Griquatown, with the active intervention of the London Missionary Society. The presence of social hierarchy which is akin to a caste system can point to the existence of feudal language or feudal languages in action among the native Africans and the Boers. English language cannot erase this effect unless the feudal languages are wiped out from the social system.

QUOTE: Again, in 1854, when this chief was attacked by Sekeletu, the son of Sebitoane, and the last of the Makololo chiefs, the Bushmen on this side thought it was a good chance to sweep off a lot of his cattle. His people could neither pursue, nor dare engage these " black serpents " of the desert, so after a while he dropped a hint that he supposed they thought he was dead and the cattle without a master, that they were hungry, and that now the affair was forgotten. He then sent a man with tobacco to buy skins of them, and having by a long course of deceitful kindness lulled their suspicions, he proclaimed a grand battue.

Of course the quarry was the Bushmen themselves, who were surprised, disarmed, and brought before him where he was sitting on his veld-stool. He superintended the deliberate cutting of their throats, embittering their last moments by every taunt and sarcasm his imagination could supply. One of the actors in this bloody drama was afterwards in Chapman's service, and " related with great gusto the part he had sustained in it."
END OF QUOTE

This kind of deceitful attitude is a hallmark sign of the presence of feudal languages if practised among human beings. For in South Asia, these kinds of terrific deceits are commonly practised by the higher classes upon the lower class individuals with no mental qualms. And the lower classes themselves practise such things amongst themselves, upon the weaker sections or individuals.

QUOTE: With these unfortunates, the cunning and treacherous Koranas, in order to deceive them and their pursuers, whom they supposed were now close upon their heels, left some of their plunder. The Matabili, overtaking the unsuspecting Basutu, and finding a portion of the stolen cattle in their possession, butchered in cold blood some ten to twelve hundred of these wretched victims to the baseness of the Koranas, and returned in triumph with the recaptured cattle and the spoils of the annihilated tribe to the great place of their master.
END OF QUOTE

This is oriental cunning at its best. However, here it has been enacted by an African native tribe. The Continental European colonialists also must have been quite cunning.

QUOTE: Most probably the other names would be found to possess equally significant meanings, could they be rightly interpreted.
END OF QUOTE

This again is a very pertinent point. Languages of South Asia are absolutely different from English. Whatever meanings, senses and interpretations that can be given to names, sentences and words in such languages in English, are just the narrow view and perspective from English. It is akin to understanding a carnivorous beast as a deer or something similar. Even names have specific social stature codes that come encrypted with various social rights, right to command and also duty to obey.

Whatever English can understand of my statement can only be something that English can imagine. It will not come anywhere near to what the reality is. These are things to be known before native-English nations are declared as multi-culture. For, the other side consists of populations and peoples who have been able to keep huge number of populations under them as bound-to-the-soil slaves, with no chains or shackles, but only with mere verbal codes.

There is this statement in a report send by Col. Munro when he was the Diwan (Chief administrator) of Travancore for a few years. QUOTE: The influence of names is considerable, and the discontinuance of the title of karigars will be attended with advantage. END OF QUOTE.

However, the powerful load of information he intimated to England was not understood over there.

QUOTE: Their language was so different from that of the Cochoqua that they could only communicate through Chainouqua interpreters END OF QUOTE

Language is the vital encoding that design the social system.

QUOTE: Thus, whilst they possess the physical characteristics of the Bantu nations, and are as a rule even blacker than the Ovaherero, and although they are as different in colour and stature from the Hottentots as it is possible for two races to be, still we find the remarkable fact that one language is common to both peoples.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very curious statement. In that two different populations have the same language. Even in South Asia, different looking populations do currently speak the same language. However, in many cases on close observation, one might spy the fact that each of the different populations does occupy different hierarchical slots in the same feudal language.

Image

QUOTE: The meaning of the word is equivalent to the expression, You showed us no mercy.
END OF QUOTE

Verbal codes can encompass a huge amount of emotional content.

QUOTE: men of more robust build and of a fiercer and more warlike appearance, speaking a language altogether different in its construction, and therefore indicating an independent origin from that of the Bushman branch of the human family.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement in the context of this book might be okay. However from a wider perspective, it is a very shallow statement. Just consider a native of South Asia born and bred in England, living totally secluded from all his or her antique linguistic culture. The only pristine-English ambience since birth will definitely create an individual who is totally different from his or her own family relations back in South Asia.

QUOTE: The farther north the traveller goes, the rougher and more rugged he finds the language ; the nearer he approaches the southern coast the more musical it becomes, the Sesuto being more musical than the Serolong, and the Kaffir more musical than the Sesuto.
END OF QUOTE

Actually there will be a huge content of information in these things. However, as of now, the native-English has no means of even being aware of such a thing. The main issue is that they have been kept in the dark about various things connected to feudal and other kinds of languages. There is need to understand that languages are actually very powerful software applications, with myriad abilities.

QUOTE: the general name Bachoana signifies the men who are equals, those who are all the same, and seems to have arisen from the belief that they are all offshoots of one common stem.
END OF QUOTE

It is not known as to how truthful the above statement is. The term ‘equals’ in various languages, is a very complicated word. The complexity is not easily understood in English. This is one very terrible issue facing the native-English population. Their concept of equality is not a concept different or apart from the general mood and codes of pristine-English. However, in other languages, the word ‘equal’, ‘equality’ &c. are mentioned in a very deliberate manner. I cannot mention more here. For, it is a huge content connected to language codes.

QUOTE: The infant progeny, some of whom are beginning to lisp, while others can just master a whole sentence, and those still further advanced, romping and playing together, the children of nature, through the livelong day, become habituated to a language of their own ; and thus from this infant Babel proceeds a dialect composed of a host of mongrel words and phrases joined together without rule, and in the course of a generation the entire character of the language is changed.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very enlightening scenario. How languages were formed. However, actually languages are very powerful software, into which the brain software inputs a lot of terrific codes.

QUOTE: from constant intercourse with beasts of prey and serpents in their path, as well as exposure to harsh treatment, they appear shy and have a wild and frequently quick suspicious look.
END OF QUOTE

Actually this so-mentioned ‘a wild and frequently quick suspicious look’ might have some connection to their language, and the location inside which they exist in mutual relationship to each other.

QUOTE: The old Korana captain, thinking they had come in the same friendly manner as before, hastened to meet them, and offered to the chief, according to their custom, sundry articles of food for himself and his people.
END OF QUOTE

Feudal language speakers use affable friendliness as a weapon of conquest. There are indeed different word codes for pretended friendliness, which would abruptly change the moment, the mood changes to that of offence and attack. England has to watch out.

QUOTE: From the only reliable evidence which can now be obtained, it would appear that the title Hottentot is not of native origin, but a sobriquet given to them by the early Dutch traders from the almost unpronounceable character of their language.
END OF QUOTE

Being unable to pronounce the words in the feudal languages of South-Asia was indeed a great blessing for the English East India Company in South Asia. For, this inability kept them safe from being made part and parcel of the barbarian social emotions of the feudal language speaking land.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:43 pm, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

21

Post posted by VED »

c21 #
BOERS and Hottentots


QUOTE 1: That the Hottentots were treated with great cruelty by many of the old colonists few will be prepared to deny, outrage begat outrage, and atrocity atrocity, but on the other hand many abhorred the treatment which these miserable people received, and did what was in their power to ameliorate the condition of compulsory servitude to which all those who lived within the pale of the law were reduced.

QUOTE 2:
The state of unrest which ensued from the vain endeavours of the vanquished Hottentots to regain a portion of their cherished cattle, caused the governor Goske to issue in 1675, three years after their defeat, orders that every male of the tribe who fell into the hands of the Dutch was to be destroyed.
END OF QUOTEs

The Hottentots are not mentioned as Bushmen, but something quite near to them, I think. Boer attitude towards them was also equally cruel.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

22

Post posted by VED »

c22 #
ENGLISH INTERVENTION



QUOTE: Bearing upon this subject, Colonel Collins, in his report (1809) upon the native tribes, recommended that the Bushmen should be introduced into the colony, collected and instructed in institutions, and then dispersed among the colonists. He pointed out such positions as he considered most eligible for the formation of stations under proper regulations. The Bushmen, he stated, often suffered extreme misery, but seldom robbed except to satisfy their wants, and afforded the fairest hope of becoming in time useful to themselves and to the colony.
END OF QUOTE

I should assume that the above mentioned Colonel Collins might be a native-Englishman or at least a Briton. If so, his aspirations are in sync with the general native-English postures all around the world. Check MALABAR MANUAL written by William Logan.

Image

QUOTE: How it could be for a moment imagined that this arbitrary and continual seizure of land, without the slightest reservation being made for the unfortunate outcasts whose fathers had occupied it unchallenged from time immemorial, could be carried into effect without outraging every sense of justice, seems almost marvellous ;

yet still more so on our finding that when a hapless Bushman, not only deprived of his ancient country but also of the very game which had been to him as much his means of subsistence as the flocks and herds of the intruders who were superseding him were of theirs, happened to steal a sheep to keep himself and his family from starving, if apprehended and taken alive, he was publicly flogged under the scaffold, branded with a hot iron, put in irons, and condemned to hard labour.
END OF QUOTE

There is something that needs to be mentioned about the mood of the writer here. He is obviously echoing the mood of English colonialism in various locations, where they did see the local stronger populations pressing down upon the lower placed populations. This statement of mine might seem quite unintelligent to those who have formally studied that English colonialism was exploitative &c.

However, it would not take much intelligence to understand that such kind of ‘history’ has been promoted by the very same stronger populations in whose hand the lands have been given back by the stupid stay-at-home Britons. Just to illustrate the point, let me simply mention that a huge percentage of the Indian population cannot afford a bank account. They do not have any experience with digital currency and such other things.

No one in India of the stronger populations (I mean the officialdom and the rich) would love to see these downtrodden populations come up. Yet, many of these very downtrodden populations literally worship their oppressive master classes. That is how the feudal language communication works.

Yet, the English colonial rule was very much aware of the existence of the lower classes who they tried their best to bring up. However, the moment the lower class man comes up, his next endeavour would be to see that others of his own class do not come up. That is also encoded in the feudal languages.

QUOTE: His brother Nicholas Barends is described by Mr. Moffat as being a very superior man, both in appearance and intellect, with an excellent memory, and good descriptive powers
END OF QUOTE

I do not know how it was in Africa. However, in South Asia, there were a huge percent of population who looked and lived like feeble minded cattle. However, at the other end of the social spectrum, there were the individuals who were quite intelligent, cunning and shrewd. The native-English living in England did not understand that South Asia was a mix of both elements.

The latter was quite a dangerous population group, which had kept the former in a state of slavery by means of mere verbal codes. All endeavours by the leftist groups to give entrance to the individuals from such cunning populations into native-English nations were fraught with acute danger for the native-English populations. For, they understood the entering entities only in their translated into English form. They real savagery was encoded in their satanic native feudal languages.

Image

QUOTE: The missionaries who were leading the way were probably in their simplicity and ignorance dreaming of conducting their proselytes far away from the haunts of wicked men, and founding a place of eternal peace and quiet in the depths of the wilderness.
END OF QUOTE

This is about the Griquas whom the London Missionary Society was promoting. Whatever social reformation is being envisaged, it should be borne in mind that the most powerful location is that of the language codes. Without removing or erasing the evil feudal languages from the mind, thoughts and speech of the individuals in the society, no social reform will have permanence. This is the same thing that happened in South Asia also.

QUOTE: Upon receipt of this report, the lieutenant-governor General Dundas promptly authorised a commando to pursue the murderers, but recommended cautious treatment and forbearance to be shewn to the Hottentots, so as not to cause aversion by uncalled for severity to make them dangerous enemies instead of useful servants.
END OF QUOTE

This is the exact complication that should arise when the native-English mingle their actions with that of the Continental Europeans or with their own Celtic language populations. The native-English mood is to go through the route of fair-play. However, that route has no meaning for the Continental Europeans and the Celtic populations.

QUOTE: One is surprised to learn from a letter from the Rev. Dr. Philip to Lieutenant-Colonel Wade, that after all the agitation about Griqua claims the missionaries Anderson and Kramer took possession of the springs, not in the name of any individuals, but in that of the London Missionary Society, thus assuming to themselves the power of ejecting any person from their infant dominion who was not subservient to their rule.
END OF QUOTE

This is a location where everything becomes hazy. The missionary society naturally does not want any interference in their activities, which definitely are altruistic, but possibly foolish.

QUOTE: Under the powerful patronage of the London Missionary Society, whose members in those days could do no wrong, the power of annexation displayed by their Griqua protégés seems to have been amazing.
END OF QUOTE

The wider insight in this statement is the power that accrues on any population that gets English national support in those days when England was pristine.

Image

QUOTE: It was also during this visit, and at Mr. Campbell's earnest recommendation, that they agreed to adopt certain fixed laws for the protection of life and property, and that judges or magistrates should be chosen to put them in execution.
END OF QUOTE

Wherever in the world, the English colonial empire was established, or where the native English had any say in the matter, they went ahead to create fabulous social, administrative, judicial as well as police system, based on written codes of law. However, these things functioned in perfection only when the native-English were in charge. The moment they left the charge to the local feudal language speakers, these systems went corrupt.

In Travancore kingdom, where these things had been copied from British-India, everything worked in a most corrupt manner. In fact, the lower classes were more frightened of the officials and the police than anything else. Even in current-day India, the officialdom and the police are a terror for the lower classes. The higher classes know that this is how it should be. For they are also quite wary of the lower classes, whom they keep suppressed by keep their children forced into compulsory formal education, where they are treated like dirt and kept in slavery for around 10 years, teaching utterly useless things.

QUOTE 1: The Bushmen," he says, " inhabited the country about Philippolis. We exterminated the Bushmen, and Dr. Philip gave us the country. We exterminated the Bushmen and the Koranas between the Hart and Vaal rivers, and occupied the country." That this was no mere figure of speech appears plainly from the following extracts taken from the Graham's Town Journal, written by the Hon. Robert Godlonton, M.L.C., from which we shall find that these unfortunate Bushmen suffered great atrocities not only at the hands of the Koranas, but equally from those of the Griquas who followed them. In one portion of the country where two or three thousand of these people formerly lived, in 1843 but five small kraals of them were left.

QUOTE 2: We must confess that it seems remarkably strange that an agent of a Society, the members of which have ever set themselves up as champions of the poor oppressed aborigines, could thus coolly annex a piece of territory for the behoof of another set of natives under their charge, without mentioning a single word about the Bushman proprietors, who we now know were living there.
END OF QUOTE

This is the wider effect of London Missionary Society equipping one population with arms, ammunition, technical knowledge, military systems etc. inside a social location where every population are to destroy each other, or to crush the most refined among them.

In fact, even in modern times, England as well as other native-English nations has interfered in many Asian and African nations’ internal internecine fights, favouring one of the parties in the fights. The problem here is that the native-English as of now, cannot understand what is or are the exact provocations that has spurred the fight. Intervention to correct any social error should be accompanied by an understanding the error in the first place. And apart from that handing the location back to one the

QUOTE: These operations were sometimes carried out under the personal superintendence of the British Resident.
END OF QUOTE

It is tragic that the name of Great Britain got entwined in these incidences. These things are caused by collaborating with non-English populations. Also there is the issue of Celtic languages speakers inside Britain. They are not English. Some of them are rank anti-English.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

23

Post posted by VED »

c23 #
The entry of various other populations into South Africa


QUOTE 1: Here tribe followed tribe, the stronger as in every other case pressing the weaker before it ; again they were like successive waves, the one behind urging forward the one immediately in front, the Abatembu, the Amaxosa, the Amampondo, and the Amazulu, ever advancing from the eastward.

QUOTE 2: For a long series of years after this collision the nomadic clans indulged their love of plunder, in making forays and raids upon one another, or, as restless as the Arabs of the desert, they attacked any other tribe in the neighbourhood that they considered sufficiently weak to fall an easy prey to their lawlessness.
END OF QUOTEs

This is the savage of state of the location.

QUOTE: No tribe in their vicinity enjoyed a moment's repose, and after they were furnished with firearms and mounted on good horses, they pillaged all the tribes around them in succession, until their chiefs inspired their neighbours with such terror that they spoke of them as wolves. They even reduced some of the fragmentary Bachoana and Basutu tribes to a state of vassalage, obliging them to become herdsmen and servants.
END OF QUOTE

The real state of Africa and Asia, and many other feudal language locations, till the advent of the English colonial rule.




Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:45 pm, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

24

Post posted by VED »

c24 #
African social situation

QUOTE: but robbed from the Cochoqua and others, who on that account pursued them on every opportunity, and on coming up with them put them to death without mercy. They also plundered many people, not only of their cattle, but of their women, which robbery and abduction were much practised in war by all these tribes.
END OF QUOTE

If this was South Africa, South Asia was not much different in those days, with regard to periodic barbarity.

QUOTE: Their wars generally originated in disputes about cattle, in which their chief wealth consisted, and frequently in one tribe boasting its superiority over another, which rousing the pride and rage of the party insulted, they flew to arms to ascertain which tribe was the strongest.
END OF QUOTE

It is quite curious as to how quite like South Asian history, the above words sound. In South Asia, the native feudal language codes were entwined with the emotions of honour, respect to be extracted in the form of obsequiousness and words of servility from the other side. A very minute disinclination to exhibit it in the verbal codes could create uncontrollable emotional shock in the other side.

QUOTE: The sufferings however which the Namaqua endured both on this and on previous occasions had no effect in teaching them forbearance to those whom they found weaker than themselves, and whom they attacked in their turn ; and it cannot be questioned but that they were guilty of acts of equal barbarity, not only upon the Bushmen, but also upon the Ovaherero, or Damara clans, living to the north of them.
END OF QUOTE

In feudal language social systems, there is actually no oppressor and no oppressed, in black and white. Anyone with the upper-hand will oppress the side which is weak. In the verbal codes, there is no space for politeness, rectitude etc. to be exhibited to the weaker side. Being weak itself will change the verbal codes.

In fact, in feudal languages, a solitary individual is markedly different from a person who has one or more subordinates. The very words You, He, She &c. will change in form.

QUOTE: Their modes of attack, the disguises they had worn, their appearance and their arms, the great achievements they had accomplished, and the mighty victories they had won, would be again and again recited. According to the descriptive powers of the ancient narrator, would the recital of their prowess be more and more elaborated and intensified, until the magnitude of their reported deeds would be considered something more than human, proving, as it would be said, the degeneracy of the men of their race then living.
END OF QUOTE

Though the above words are about African Bushmen, the fact is that in most of the locations in South Asia, this is exactly one of the most prominently used routes to find out history. In fact, formal history is being corrected and rewritten by the film world and other media geniuses by glorifying events and persons beyond the defining qualities of the populations of the location.

QUOTE: the Bushmen shew in their paintings the earliest stages of the process of exaltation ; while the sculptured and pictured remains of the ancient Hindus, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians display, among the other creeds, its highest elaboration and development.
END OF QUOTE.

The above quote might be quite shallow in that, it might have been written without any deep information on various things mentioned.

QUOTE: An instance has been given in the reminiscences of another tribe of an old reclaimed cannibal, whose mouth watered as he was conversing in his old age with a too tempting individual.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement goes to show some of the native emotions and cravings of some of the native folks of Africa.

QUOTE: At Barmen Baines saw several hapless women, who had been mercilessly crippled in some of these cattle raids by the same inhuman wretches, who had cut off their feet as the easiest way of obtaining their iron anklets !
END OF QUOTE

Feudal language speakers are generally savages akin to wild animals. I should categorically mention that not only many Asians, and African populations, but even some of the Continental European populations are of the same content. However being near to England might have subdued their savageness over the centuries.

That has happened all over the world, including in South Asia, when the native-English came near them. However the pristine-English population of yore might have vanished from even England as of now. For, pristine-English populations are those who are born and bred among native-English people. They are not individuals who have feudal language speakers all around them. Nor are they the persons who have had education under the feudal language speakers.

QUOTE: The Ovaherero like the Namaqua despise the Berg-Damara as heartily as possible. These, they declare, stand quite on a level with the baboons which inhabit the rocks, and dig up uintjes like the Berg-Damara. Nothing excites the laughter of the Ovaherero so much as to say that the Berg-Damara are as good men as themselves.
END OF QUOTE

There is repulsions to certain other populations. It is just like in South Asia. People do take pain to convey the information that they are different from certain others. And in many cases, this would be true also. However, the slender difference might not be detectable to an outsider to the language system.

Image

QUOTE: They were often at war with the Namaqua, generally in consequence of their stealing women from each other.
END OF QUOTE

This is just another provocation for war. There are no specific civilised codes for national or international or social interaction. All these civilised and polite codes appeared in many locations only after the English colonial rule arrived.

QUOTE: Heaven knows some of us are bad enough, but the utter want of decency, and even of common humanity, apparent here seems to be the rule, and not the exception.
END OF QUOTE

Here worthy of remark is the word ‘us’. Nowadays it is a fashion to speak of all human beings as a single ‘we’ or ‘us’. Actually human beings are not one single ‘entity’. Human beings are very dangerous to other human beings. Actually the only human being population which might be seen as different and good were the native-English only. All others were worse than wild animals to each other.

I am quoting from two sections in Malabar Manual written by William Logan. The incidences are connected to fights in which the native-English were in charge of one side. Their main soldiery were the native soldiery from the local population group known as ‘Nayars’. See the native SouthAsian brutality against the natives of the same subcontinent:

Quote 1: Captain Lane bombarded it at pistol-shot distance from 6A.M. to 3A.M. After its surrender, the whole of the garrison, men, women and children, were Captain Lane reported, “cruelly—shamefully— and in violation of all laws divine and humane, most barbarously butchered” by the Nayars, notwithstanding the exertions of the English officers to save them. End of Quote

Quote 2: A large body (300) of the enemy, after giving up their arms and while proceeding to Cannanore, were barbarously massacred by the Nayars. By the Chief’s exertions 600 or 700 more were saved and taken to Tellicherry. A third body of 200 horse and foot, while trying to escape inland, was cut off by the Nayars. The loss of the allies was not very great, the English lost five natives killed and 8 wounded. End of Quote from MALABAR MANUAL.

QUOTE: before they were plundered by the Namaqua Hottentots — a rich and industrious nation, capable not only of working in metals, but also of undertaking works of no small importance, such as sinking wells of ninety or a hundred feet in depth, with a spiral path cut round the sides to enable people to descend to the water.
END OF QUOTE

There is something to be said about the above words. In South Asia, there were traditional blacksmiths, potters, carpenters of fabulous skills who could design huge buildings &c. However, they were not the upper classes in the social system, but were more or less the relatively lower castes and classes. The upper classes who were the standard bearers of the social system treated them with disdain in body language as well as in language codes.

At the same time, they were bereft of most technical skills. In a very cunning contorted projection of reality, it is the higher classes and castes who are currently promoted in the insipid Indian academic history book as having had remarkable intellectual and technical acumen. To support this idea, mention is made of Vedic text &c. which actually have very feeble connection with current-day India and Indian populations No one really knows who created the Vedic texts with what software machinery.

QUOTE: we have the industrious Ovambo, skilled in the working of metals, displaying an energy in overcoming the difficulties of nature unparalleled in any other native tribe of South Africa, exhibiting also in the neatness and extent of their dwellings and in their passionate love for agricultural pursuits, all the characteristic traits of the most advanced of the Basutu tribes, such as the Bakuena, the Bamangwato, and others.
END OF QUOTE

Africa is a very big continent. Populations having various levels of social standards would have been in existence over there. However, the ease by which the swarming in other populations can come in can spell disaster to these refined social systems. The same was the danger that the pristine-England of yore faced.

QUOTE: ; moreover, these Koranas were also unacquainted with the use of poison to render their arrows more efficacious and fatal, until they acquired this knowledge from the Bushmen, from whom they first obtained their supplies, but who for a long period retained the secret of its manufacture ;
END OF QUOTE

There might be a mighty lesson in the above lines for England. Their technical skills, communication software English, sophisticated machinery etc. are all now in the hands of populations who have no love for them. Anyone can see the acute danger that England faces. Yet, very few native-Englishmen seem to be bothered.

QUOTE: Like the Bushmen, the Koranas exposed the aged to be devoured by wild beasts
END OF QUOTE

No comment

Image

QUOTE: They bore an inveterate animosity towards the Bushmen, on account of continual depredations on their flocks and herds. Their wars with the Bushmen were prosecuted with so much rancour that quarter was seldom given on either side, either to old or young. Though possessing similar weapons to the Bushmen, those of the Koranas were superior in size and workmanship, and their poisoned arrows were occasionally feathered.
END OF QUOTE

Here again, there are an immensity of lessons for pristine-England. When the outsiders slowly takeover the economy, they will find the native-English quite non-corporative, and lazy. Moreover, some of the lazy Englishmen would be seen to be engaging in stealing and such other things. The new occupants of the nation will come over them with a terrific vengeance. Even though the terror of these actions might seem new in England, actually there are everyday events in nations in South Asia and elsewhere.

Apart from the above, there is another quite remarkable thing also in the above quoted words. The Koranas learned the technique of making poisoned arrows from the Bushmen. However, they improved upon it and created a weapon which was far superior to that of the Bushmen. The same thing can happen in England. The outsiders will learn the basics from the native-English and then create machines and weapons which are far superior to what the native-English can make. For, they have innumerable lowly paid and lowly kept populations under them.

QUOTE: The countenances of the Koranas exhibited a total absence of mind, combined with an indescribable habit of drowsiness.
END OF QUOTE

It would be quite nice to check the language codes within their own communication.

QUOTE: Though very good friends among each other while poor, the moment they obtained a quantity of cattle by plunder they began to quarrel about the division of the spoil. On some of these occasions this was carried to such an excess that they continued to fight and massacre each other till very few remained on the field.
END OF QUOTE

It might be interesting to check the language codes. There would be very specific verbal codes that create a mood of affinity and consideration when poor, and quite the opposite when rich.

QUOTE: He stated that when he was a child the Bushmen of that part believed that the only people in the world were Bushmen and Lions.
END OF QUOTE

Actually this feeling was there in many locations in the world till the advent of the European colonisation. However, please note this also: If England had been near to South Asia, even South Asian nations would have embarked upon global pursuits.

QUOTE 1: A large number of the disaffected had removed to the mountains east of the Zeekoe river, and had betaken themselves once more to the lawless and bandit life from which the missionaries after years of danger and difficulty had happily reformed them.

QUOTE 2: but no sooner had he passed from the scene than among his late followers years of painful missionary labour appeared thrown to the winds in a moment, and they returned apparently with renewed zest and eagerness to their old occupation of plunder and violence, which would have appeared astonishing, did not history teach us that such a sudden revulsion is but a natural reaction in the untutored mind of the savage when he finds himself released from a control the beneficial effects of which he can neither appreciate nor understand.
END OF QUOTE

A population’s various innate dispositions are encoded inside their native languages in the form various codes for triggers, switches, expressions, obligations, compulsions, craving for respect, requirement for extending servility in words and body language and so many other very minute items. Social engineering by the native-English without any information on these things would actually amount to letting loose powerful populations who would have no qualms about devouring the very group who lend them liberty.

QUOTE 1: They were accompanied by their wives and children, and finally they were confidently affirmed to be cannibals.

QUOTE 2: they had laid Kurrichane in ruins and scattered the Barolong, and in addition were said to be cannibals !

QUOTE 3: they rapidly disappeared, and it was subsequently discovered that whole clans of them were seized and devoured by the cannibals of the mountains.

Cannibalism was also a reality in Africa. However in the US, this mention might be seen as ‘hate speech’!

QUOTE: but the most skilful smiths of all South Africa
END OF QUOTE

It may be noted that in South Asia, the smiths and carpenters who were quite skilled, belonged to the lower caste stature. However, if they had been allowed entry into the US or England, they would have most surely taken-over the local trades in their respective skills. For the cost benefit was astronomically in their favour. However, in the South Asian locality, the higher classes who know what is what do not give them this advantage.

Verbal codes hold them powerfully in demeaned slots, from which their very attempt to communicate on a level of equality with stature with the social and governmental higher-ups would smack of great impertinence, and much more. At the same time, the higher ups are also part of the same mental codes. Their long-term ambition would be to cast the same strangling net among the native-English posterity.

QUOTE 1: They were evidently in a far more defenceless state than the stronger tribes, and generally in a more degraded condition, many of them being reduced to such a state of abject serfdom that they were perfectly at the command of their exacting and more powerful neighbours. Such a condition would appear to indicate that they are the descendants of a conquered race

QUOTE 2: we shall find that they fraternised more closely with the aboriginal occupiers of the soil, who extended to them a sort of rude hospitality and showed towards them a friendliness of disposition in marked contrast to the hostile and vindictive feelings which were subsequently aroused by the monopolising and grasping appropriation of the finest portions of their country by the formidable multitudes of armed warriors who followed with their numerous herds upon the trail of the pioneers.
END OF QUOTE

England has to be careful that its posterity does not get converted into the descendants of a conquered race.

The pioneer invaders from other nations who have arrived in England ‘fraternised more closely with the aboriginal occupiers’ of England. There are ‘formidable multitudes of armed warriors who will follow with their numerous herds upon the trail of the pioneers’ into England. Once this happens, the native-English will be dealing with another kind of population/s which they never had the experience of dealing with before.

Image

QUOTE: they seem to supply a proof that locality is not always sufficient to account for difference in races.
END OF QUOTEs

In South Asia also, in the same geographical setting, various different populations groups of unknown origin and homelands did live in close physical proximity, with various kinds of emotions to each other, including those of repulsion as well as reverence.

QUOTE 1: If they killed an elephant, the tusks had to be carried to their feudal masters.

QUOTE 2: They were not permitted to wear jackals' skins, or any dress which indicated rank or fortune ; they could only use such skins as were not worn by the rich.

QUOTE 3: but also that of two well-marked grades — they might almost be termed castes, so clearly and so strongly defined are these two divisions — into which the members of the various tribes are separated, that distinctly indicate the presence of the descendants of not only a conquering but a conquered race also amongst them. Natives of the lower grade were despised by those of the higher, and one of the latter intermarrying with one of the former would certainly have lost caste in the eyes of his more exclusive countrymen.
END OF QUOTEs

The above-mentioned information can point to a feudal language social ambience and the presence of powerful caste systems. However, there can be other regimentations also. However, the emotions and sense given in the above words are strikingly similar to that in South Asia.

QUOTE: There are, he writes, two grades, the rich, who are hereditary chiefs, and the poor. The latter continue in the same condition, and their lot is a comparatively easy kind of vassalage. Their lives are something like those of their dogs, hunger and idleness, but they are the property of their respective chiefs, and their forefathers have from time immemorial been at the mercy of their lords.
END OF QUOTE

It is easy to say that these things were there in England also, on simply hearing that England also had a feudal system. The fact is, English feudalism is not what was experienced in Celtic language areas of Britain. Nor was it similar to the feudalism in Continental Europe. In a similar way, the feudalism in Asia and Africa also was quite different from that of English feudalism.

English feudalism will be very, very refined and bearable compared to what was the state of feudalism in other locations. Wherever feudal languages were spoken, the feudalism will be terrible. And where the feudal codes very terrible, the feudalism will also be quite terrible. Moreover, in all locations where the communication is in feudal languages, even if the place is democratic and liberal in statutory terms, the people would live under terribly oppressive hierarchies.

QUOTE: Preferring the liberty of the desert, they would make any sacrifice to please their often distant superiors rather than be confined to the irksomeness of a town life, to which such is their aversion that, as Mr. Moffat states, he has known chiefs take armed men and travel a hundred miles into desert places, in order to bring back Balala whom they wished to assist in watching and harvesting the gardens of their wives.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement literally displays the desperate desire of the underclass people/s to escape from the clutches of their landlord oppressors. In a way, when England ditched the peoples of South Asia and handed them back to the likes of fiends like Nehru, Gandhi etc. they were being handed back to the same social system, wherein a huge section of the populations lived like slaves of officialdom and the landlord classes. For more on this, Click here.

QUOTE: During the chieftainship of Mokgosi, the Barolong chief demanded from him the breast of every ox killed by his people, the brisket being considered among the native races as food which ought to be set apart for the special use of chiefs, a demand, therefore, which if complied with would have been a virtual acknowledgment of the dependence of himself and his people on the Barolong. It being persisted in, the indignant Mokgosi at length replied, "Am I then your servant ? "
END OF QUOTE

What is worth mentioning here is not the obvious caste system and possible presence of feudal languages, but the fact that inside feudal languages, there are minute hints that enforce powerful social regimentation and acknowledge explicit domination.

QUOTE 1: but no sooner had they arrived there and made the discovery that there were other tribes not only rich in cattle, but also less warlike than themselves, than they at once made an attempt to commence the same system of strife and spoliation from which they themselves had attempted to escape.

QUOTE 2: broke away from the sanguinary yoke of Tshaka to commence for themselves a career which was to be marked, like that of the master whom they had deserted, with atrocious cruelties and remorseless bloodshedding.
END OF QUOTEs

There is a statement in The REV. SAMUEL MATEER’s NATIVE LIFE IN TRAVANCORE: ‘Yet Ilavars and Chogans were, and still are in most parts, similarly driven out of the way by Brahmans. Missionaries have pleaded the cause of all classes alike, and to a large extent succeeded in procuring the emancipation of Shanars and Ilavars from such bonds, but as soon as one caste has somewhat risen from their degradation they inflict similar indignities upon their inferiors,.......’

This again could be a sign of the presence of feudal languages in the local communication system.

QUOTE: The Bushmen of the country had, according to Moffat, kept up a constant predatory warfare with the Bachoana from time immemorial, upon whom they wreaked their vengeance whenever an occasion offered.
END OF QUOTE

No COMMENT

QUOTE: tame Bushmen in their service,
END OF QUOTE

The word ‘tame’ literally points to the feeling that the Bushmen were some kind of animals, which could be domesticated.

QUOTE: On returning from the slaughter, all the circumstances attending it were related at a pitso, or general meeting, after which men and women dispersed over the town, imitating the screams of those persons who had been killed, repeating their expressions of terror, and representing their actions when begging for their lives.
END OF QUOTE

I feel that this is an evidence of the basic brutal nature of the social system and its people. I have seen similar behaviour in India, even though the incidences were not connected to outright murder or massacre.

QUOTE 1: This was evidently the natural effect or reaction of the inherent cowardice of these untutored savages, great in courage when they found they had an enemy weaker than themselves, and whom they had overpowered by stratagem or surprise, when nothing but dabbling in the blood of their helpless victims, women and children, seemed to satisfy them.

QUOTE 2: I know you, ye Batlapin, at home and in the face of women ye are men, but in the face of an enemy ye are women, ever ready to flee when ye should stand firm.
END OF QUOTE

Again the evidence of low quality human populations. In South Asia, the nations are extraordinarily brave when dealing with adversaries who are militarily weak.

QUOTE: At the conclusion of this speech the air was rent with acclamations, the whole assembly occasionally joining in the dance, the women frequently taking the weapons out of the hands of the men and brandishing them in the most violent manner ; and people of all ages continued using the most extravagant and frantic gestures for nearly two hours. Notwithstanding this sudden outburst of popular enthusiasm, however, great uneasiness prevailed, and everything was prepared for instant flight if it should be necessary.
END OF QUOTE

Cruel to those who are weak, but quite weaklings when they have to face a tough adversary!

QUOTE: The women were seen in little groups surrounded by these barbarians, who were tearing away beads and brass rings from their necks and arms. A woman was holding out her arms to one of these ruffians, in order that the bracelets might be taken off, but not being able to effect his purpose quickly, the savage cut off both her arms with a battle-axe, and then dispatched her.
END OF QUOTE

Non-English military endeavours are full of similar actions. Looting and molesting of the civil population is the norm. This has taken place during the Indo-Pak war in East Pakistan (currently Bangladesh). The Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka was also mentioned as indulging in similar actions on the Sri Lankan Tamils.

QUOTE: Thus numerous as the Bachoana had become, they fell an easy prey to every enemy who chose to invade their country, while their accumulated herds afforded the most insatiate marauders ample spoil.
END OF QUOTE

More or less the state of current-day England with regard to outsiders and what was inside the nation for them to spoil.

Image

QUOTE 1: Many of the Mantatees were suffering dreadfully from want ; even in the heat of the battle the poorer class seized pieces of meat and devoured them raw.

QUOTE 2: Some were found literally feasting on the dead bodies of their companions.
END OF QUOTE

The basic savagery of the social system, in which the poor were deprived of everything they required to subsist upon decently.

QUOTE: An immense precipice, which crested a hill near his great-place, became the terror of all those who excited his displeasure, the Tarpeian rock over which his victims were hurled, and these not in isolated cases, but frequently, in considerable numbers. His victims, without distinction of either sex or age, were driven shrieking in a crowd over the dizzy edge, while a heap of bleaching bones accumulated at its foot, to mark the implacability of his wrath.
END OF QUOTE

Barbarity as an effective tool of disciplining inside feudal language social systems.

QUOTE 1: The greater number of these unfortunate wretches appeared in a most miserable plight for want of food. They were reduced to eat their dogs, cowdung, and, in fact, what could no longer be a matter of doubt, they were found devouring their own dead

QUOTE 2: The horrid extremities to which some of these retreating fugitives were reduced is related by Mr. Hodgson, when he describes how horror-struck he was upon discovering two women and a man concealed in a bush in the act of cooking a human leg ; near them was found the skeleton of a full-grown man and part of the body of another, of which a leg and an arm had been cut off, the head opened, the bowels drawn out, and the internal parts of the body exposed to view. One of the women was roasting part of the leg upon the coals, and the other was engaged with the man in eating with savage greediness the portion which had just been cooked, the man breaking the bones with a stone, and sucking them with apparent delight.
END OF QUOTE

No comment

QUOTE: At this time another terror was growing upon them, and they were living in fear lest Moselekatze should one day make them captives.
END OF QUOTE

The terror of local slavery is everywhere there in this book.

QUOTE: They were no sooner rid of their great common enemy, than the former system of never-ending raids and petty wars and struggles for the possession of cattle once more commenced among them, and continued without intermission until the Boers, pressing in from the south, forcibly subjected all those who came within their reach, and occupied the country.
END OF QUOTE

The Boers were just another barbarian tribe. But then they had centuries of experience of being in close proximity to England. That does change their mental demeanour.

QUOTE: A living child, frightfully emaciated, with a large wound in her left side, was found crouching near a door of a hut. The wound had been made by ravens attacking her. She was a girl of about seven years of age. A bare skeleton lay near her, the bones of her sister, who had died of starvation. She had survived for eighteen days, when she was found contending with three hungry dogs and some crows picking bones ! This was the town where Sabbedere and his people were attacked.
END OF QUOTE

The realities of savage locations. More or less similar things have had happened in South Asia, till the advent of the English East India Company establishments in the location. Burning to ashes of live women, human sacrifices, burying alive of little children, impaling of human beings on high structures, wooden stocking, imprisoning of lower caste men and women in animal cages for days and on &c. The issue in South Asia was that human cruelty was so common that till the English rule arrived, no one really cared about these everyday events. If and when similar things happened in England, they were treated as so shocking that they became historical records.

QUOTE: While these latter have always considered themselves Griquas, the larger portion of those now included under this designation were formerly called Bastaards, a name which, however distasteful to European notions, was one of which they were originally particularly proud.
END OF QUOTE

To the downtrodden populations, these kinds of connections might have had the effect social up-lifting.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

25

Post posted by VED »

c25 #
COLONIAL EFFECT


QUOTE: The same one-sided way of bartering appears to have continued until 1685, when the Governor, Van der Stel, visited the Namaqua clans himself, hoping in his progress to discover gold or silver, and to reach Vigiti Magna. But he failed to attain either of these objects. He displayed such an amount of overbearing cruelty towards the victimised Namaqua that they rose in self-defence, and he was forced to make a somewhat hasty retreat..
END OF QUOTE

Continental European attitude in the colonial times were markedly different from that of the native-English. However, the native-English were entwined with the Celtic language speakers. To this extent, the British colonial rule had this negativity.

QUOTE: In less than a century the original inhabitants had dwindled to four hordes, who were in a great measure subservient to the Dutch.
END OF QUOTE

Connecting to Continental Europeans was not a very good idea. England should have borne this in mind before connecting itself to Europe. After fighting two huge wars to keep out Europe, only an utter foolish British policymaker would have allowed this to happen.

Image

QUOTE: In the same manner, should we meet a Kaffir priding himself in the name of Klaas, Piet, or Jantje, we should imagine that either he or his friends who gave him the cognomen had been in the service of the Dutch ; whereas if he were known as Tom, Dick, John, or Jim, we should say that he must have been at one time under an influence decidedly English.
END OF QUOTE

In the South Asian subcontinent also, the natives who got connected to the various Continental European trade endeavours and Christianity, and to the English rule and English Christianity, did display similar kind of name changes and additions. The curious issue here is the native feudal higher classes never allowed their subordinated classes to assume their name. In fact, they would take much effort to see that the children of their serfs and slaves got terrible, ugly and stinking names. There are certain other things also worth mentioning in this context.

The many lower castes converted into Christianity under the aegis of the London Missionary Society and such others in Travancore. They changed their names to Christian ones. However, the local upper classes did not allow them to forgo their traditional lower caste identity, which was to be appended to their new names. However, the London Missionary Society was able to force the government to remove this stigma.

In a way it was a great removal of a social shackle. But then, the other side of the event was that the new generations of such Christians do not know that they are the descendants of the erstwhile very low castes. If at all they are aware of it, they do not want to have it mentioned. Their social emancipation happened through the endeavours of the native-English government in British-India, which continually had exerted pressure upon the Travancore kingdom give liberty to the lower classes. However, as of now, they all have full belief that the ‘nation’ had been exploited by the English. That is what the current-day social, political and academic leaders teach them.

There are plenty of these Christians who have immigrated to native-English nations, as various kinds of workers, including nurses and doctors. It is doubtful if anyone of them would be mentioning the gratitude their families need to have for England. Instead of that, what would mostly come out of their mouths would be that the English are racists, and that they need to be taught a lesson.

QUOTE: We have already noticed the repeated onslaughts made upon them by the Bangwaketse and other tribes, when they, in their turn, retaliated by making reprisals, until they became comparatively a warlike people.
END OF QUOTE

The same is the change in the offing for the native-English. Actually they were the most refined people in the world. However, as of now, their land is filled with people from all over the world. These people who have swarmed in are not at all any kind of refined people, even though they might act in a holier-than-thou attitude over there. For instance, the peoples who have swarmed in from South Asia. In their native lands, they cannot even stand in a queue. Their languages are feudal and contain terrific pejorative words, for various kinds of professions which are basically decent jobs in England.

When the native-English go on reacting to these sinister double and multiple minded outsiders, they will also change slowly. They will change from their innate soft features to that of rude ruffians. Indeed, current-day native-English females would find it quite difficult to adopt their original feminine qualities. For, in the presence of feudal language speakers in the social system, all softness becomes a weakness. Women will adopt into rough demeanour.

QUOTE: Hordes of whose existence they had been previously ignorant burst suddenly upon them, completely annihilating many of their numerous clans, and driving the remainder a mingled crowd of wretched panic-stricken fugitives headlong from the country.
END OF QUOTE

When the populations of Asia, South Asia, Continental Europe, Africa, South America &c. burst into England in their full native demeanour, what the native-English would experience would be somewhat similar to what has been described above.

Image

QUOTE: The Matabili, he writes, were not satisfied with simply capturing cattle, nothing less than the entire subjugation or destruction of the vanquished could quench their insatiable thirst for power. Thus whenever they captured a town, the terrified inhabitants were driven in a mass to the outskirts, when the parents and all the married women were slaughtered on the spot. Such as had dared to be brave in the defence of their town with their wives and their children were reserved for a still more terrible death : dry grass saturated with fat was tied round their naked bodies, and then set on fire.

The youths and girls were loaded as beasts of burden with the spoils of the town, to be marched to the home of the victors. If the town were in an isolated position, the helpless infants were left to perish either with hunger or to be devoured by beasts of prey. On such an event the lions scented the slain, and left their lair. The hyenas and jackals emerged from their lurking places in broad day, and revelled in the carnage, while clouds of vultures were to be seen descending on the living and the dead, and holding a carnival on human flesh.

Should a suspicion arise in the savage breast that there was a chance that the helpless infants might possibly fall into the hands of some of their friends, they prevented this by collecting them into a fold, and after raising over them a pile of brushwood applied the flaming torch to it, when the fold, the town, and all it contained, so lately a scene of mirth, became a heap of ashes.
END OF QUOTE

If at any tragic time in history, England is over run by the feudal language speaking national armies, it would be quite foolish to expect the encroachers to act as per the tenets of the Geneva Convention. When the Tamil nation in north Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was over-run by the Sri Lankan army, it is more or less certain that the Tamil leaders were tortured to death, after the surrendered. Even the women folks who were captured were sexually used and murdered.

Indian armed forces do not follow the Geneva Convention rules when it captures the various rebel forces who are seeking freedom from India, or fighting for social rights. Men are generally tortured and the women would naturally be used otherwise. Even from inside India, no one would dare to take up these things to any judicial authority, nor would Indian officials allow it.

Basically the tenets of the Geneva Conventions fetter only native-English nations. For, their own citizens do not have much fear of their own uniformed services. However, in feudal language nations, the people cannot even address a government official as an equal.

QUOTE: has assured the writer that during that trip for six weeks he never met a single living human being ; nothing was to be seen but the charred remains of numerous towns or kraals, strewn with skulls and other human bones, while for long distances thickly-spread lines of bleaching bones were frequently met with, marking the spots where the wretched fugitives had been overtaken by their savage and pitiless pursuers, to whom mercy was unknown.
END OF QUOTE

It might be good for England to bear in mind that the basic native instincts of the various populations of all skin colours that enter into their lands are similar to what has been described above – ‘savage and pitiless, to whom mercy was unknown’. It would be quite unwise to focus just upon one single religious entity.

QUOTE: The Namaqua, like the rest of their race, were divided into a variety of separate clans governed by a chief whose authority was very circumscribed and precarious. The existence of such a number of subdivisions to the north of the Orange river would suggest the idea that in addition to those who managed to escape from the pressure of the advancing Europeans by recrossing it, some portion of them had in all probability always remained there, and thus preserved the herds of cattle which were so much coveted by the Dutch. In the south, those who had remained behind in the kraals bordering on the Colony had been long ago exterminated or reduced into servitude by the Boers.
END OF QUOTE

The Dutch and the Germans who might most probably make up the Boers were typically like the rest of the Continental European colonialists. They were bent upon empire building. It is quite funny that England was not on any empire building pursuits, but still ended up creating the best Empire, this earth has seen in recorded history of human beings.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

26

Post posted by VED »

c26 #
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY


QUOTE: In 1800, when their first missionary, Mr. Anderson, went among them, they were a horde of wandering naked savages, subsisting by plunder and the chase. Their bodies were daubed with red paint, their heads loaded with grease and shining powder, with no covering but the filthy kaross over their shoulders. Without knowledge, without morals, or any trace of civilisation, they were wholly abandoned to witchcraft, drunkenness, licentiousness, and all the consequences which arise from the unchecked growth of such vices.
END OF QUOTE

This might be what the London Missionary Society saw in Africa. What these missionaries saw and experienced over there cannot be fully understood unless the exact social structure as designed by the language codes is understood. In Travancore kingdom, just outside British-India in South Asia, the London Missionary Society did experience something similar. However, in that location, it was the lower castes who were kept as some kind of cattle class by the land owning feudal higher classes.

QUOTE: They were in many instances little above the brutes. It is a fact that we were among them at the hazard of our lives. This became evident to us from their own acknowledgment to us afterwards, they having confessed that they had frequently premeditated to take away our lives, and were prevented only from executing their purposes by what they now consider an Almighty power.
END OF QUOTE

The above is the words of missionary Anderson, probably of the London Missionary Society. It is curious that almost the same thing is happening in England and all other native-English nations. The feudal language populations who have barged in are uttering totally carnivorous verbal codes upon the native-English populations. And the latter have no information of this. For, they cannot conceive of a possibility that language codes or words have such demonic powers. Actually, I have mentioned almost the very same ideas that missionary Anderson has said in my book Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages, published in 2013. See these Quotes from that book:

QUOTE from Shrouded Satanism 1: Now, what about the issue of what these dogs are having in their mind? Well, what they do translate into English is understandable. However what they leave out in the translation, no human being can understand.

What they plan among themselves will and, despoil and ennoble humans within the creepy confines of their own mental process would remain hidden from the human beings of England. For most of these emotions won’t have any equivalent in human emotions. Like the word eda and edi in Tamil / Malayalam. They cannot be translated into English. For such beastly emotions are not there in English language and social intelligence. END OF QUOTE

QUOTE from Shrouded Satanism 2: When speaking about the affectionate stance of the feudal language speaking teachers, the experience would be confounding due to the extremely warm and affectionate posture they put on. It would be quite disarming. Yet, the exterior posture of affection is just a veneer and a facade. It is like the action of the butchers patting and fondling the cows as they wait for the sharpened knives to slice them.

In fact, feudal language-speakers do slice the individuality of the native-English kids in private conversations in their native languages. The society also gets sliced and splintered into various pieces and packed and positioned in various locations in the virtual arena. END OF QUOTE

QUOTE: This of course cannot be wondered at when we take into consideration the diverse and almost antagonistic elements of which this tribe was composed.
END OF QUOTE

The above words are about the Griquas, whom the London Missionary Society was creating into a population group.

QUOTE: while, from a negrophilist point of view, it afforded the long desired opportunity to start a politico-religious community freed from the trammels of outside control, to build up a separate national existence under purely missionary influences under the patronage of a Society, whose well-meaning but frequently, through ignorance and inexperience, misguided interference has entailed an unmitigated increase of evil in almost every portion of the globe where they have intermeddled.
END OF QUOTE

It was the London Missionary Society, which took up pioneering work in the Travancore kingdom in South Asia, to liberate the various lower caste populations from the slavery. Many of these slave populations had been kept like the cattle in the households and agricultural areas of the landlord populations.

When these slave classes were improved, the question arose as to what to do with them. They were not liked in Travancore much and they could not be given social freedom, which would definitely disturb the higher class families, their females and children. Moreover, the traditional upper class Christian group which had arrived many centuries ago from Syria, did not want to get connected to this lower caste Christians.

The new Christian religious leadership took to deliberate planning to get the new Christians to encroach upon the forest lands of Malabar which was in the nation of British-India. In the initial years, this was done in a very slow manner, for the British-Indian forest department was quite efficient. However, in the breakdown of official machinery in the immediate aftermath of the formation of India, these new Christians moved in huge numbers into the forests of Malabar.

When this issue was to become a law and order issue, due to the fact that people from another state was encroaching and occupying forest lands in the Madras state, a huge political conspiracy was enacted and Malabar district of Madras State was connected to Travancore state and a new Indian state was formed. So that now, the encroachment was now by people from the same state.

These new settlers were well-equipped in various kinds of knowledge given to them by the London Missionary Society as well as their own church. They had the knowledge of making guns and use of gunpowder. They came into the Malabar forests, burned down the trees and created fabulous plantations. At the same time, the local peoples of Malabar were shackled by their own respect for British-Indian rule of law.

Animals in the forest such as deer, porcupine, wild boar, monkey etc. were shot down and literally exterminated from the location. The traditional forest populations in these areas also faced regular bouts of molestation from these encroachers.

So in the ultimate count, the actions of London Missionary Society had a double edge. But then, the blame should not to be placed upon them, in this case. The fiends who created the mess called India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was Clement Atlee and his Labour Party.

Image

QUOTE: To attempt to establish a history for a race which, from the remotest ages, has been unable to build up a history for itself, must, one is inclined to believe, always prove a failure ; and to expect to turn men who have just been emancipated from the oppressions of generations, and from the debasement and degradation of serfdom and slavery, suddenly into a race of noble-minded patriots, can be an idea entertained only by enthusiastic visionaries, who hope for miracles in utter defiance of all the experience of past history.
END OF QUOTE

The above words are about London Missionary Society actions to improve the Griquas. However, the same words can be said about various other locations and peoples who had been improved by the English colonial activities. Improving them all a bit and then letting them loose into the hands of their own traditional feudal language speaking low-quality political leaders was a very horrible thing to do. In Africa, London Missionary Society collaborating with non-English European agencies and populations was also a very horrible thing.

QUOTE 1: The name Kok, i.e. Cook, was said to have been derived from the circumstance of one of the progenitors of the family having served as a cook to one of the old Dutch governors.

QUOTE 2: Barend Barends was in those days so far a chief that he had received a staff of office, similar to that bestowed upon the Koks and other native captains, showing that his position was recognised by the constituted authorities of the period.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very curious statement. For, I have seen more or less similar things that happened in British-Malabar in South Asia. Some individuals of the lower caste Matriarchal Thiyya population in Tellicherry worked as cooks and other household servants inside English households. Some used the title of ‘Butler’ as a suffix to their names. Naturally a suffix in the local feudal language becomes a title of ‘respect’, which others have to express with their own servility. This title naturally became social positions and these title holders naturally became social leaders and rich persons.

QUOTE: Although of mixed descent, he was originally a slave, but by dint of industry he was able to collect a sufficient sum to purchase his freedom and subsequently to procure a farm among the colonists of the Cape.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very interesting statement about the slavery over there. In the South Asian subcontinent, usually the slave classes cannot come out of their slavery by any means. They were treated as semi-humans or half-animals, or as cattle. However, in the rich Muslim households, who buy and bring in slaves from elsewhere the slaves not treated as totally lowly. Many of them become close associates of their masters. However, these slaves are different from low caste traditional slaves, who remain as cattle, even to the rich Muslim households also, unless they are converted into Islam.

Another thing to note is that in the traditional slavery of South Asia, no records are kept about the traditional slaves. They are treated as cattle, and when their ownership is transferred from one owner to another, it is just like cattle being transferred. As such, it is very difficult to find any written records of any specific slave or slaves, to be found in Travancore or Malabar, or elsewhere in South Asia.

QUOTE: He was acknowledged by the existing government as the successor of his father, and thus entrusted with the staff of office, possessing horses and firearms and flocks of almost patriarchal size, one of the primitive tokens of immense wealth, he must undoubtedly have appeared as a great man in the eyes of the natives among whom he travelled.
END OF QUOTE.

This is about Cornelius Kok. In feudal languages, even though the social system can be quite divisive, cunning and mutually antagonistic, the appearance of a commonly accepted leader can create a very powerful focal point inside the social machinery. This is a very critical information to be borne in mind, when moving along the lines of social engineering.

QUOTE: We are assured that the Griqua chiefs of the infant settlement always treated the Bushmen with consideration and kindness. Of this we shall have better means of judging as we proceed, and shall discover that this kindness was strikingly exemplified by depriving the latter of the last vestige of their lands and giving them in exchange a few cattle to live upon, as if the men of this wild hunter-race, who rejoiced m the untrammelled freedom of the mighty plains by which they were surrounded, could be suddenly turned, by a feat akin to legerdemain, into mere cattle-herds !
END OF QUOTE

This is a very powerful information, generally about all social systems, wherein the English colonial rule handed over the power to the local politicians. In India, a huge percent of the populations cannot afford a bank savings account. A business account is too expensive. Very few can use the digital technology. The classes who have all this, would not like to see the currently deprived classes to get these capabilities. For, in a feudal language social system, it would be quite dangerous.

The most funny thing is that it is these very fiendish upper classes of South Asia who are populating the native-English nations. Once they get the upper hand over there, God save the native-English populations! Otherwise they are doomed to be the under classes of the feudal language speakers.

Image

QUOTE: If we unhesitatingly condemn the Boer for his unprincipled conduct in dispossessing a kraal of Hottentots, how can we heap praise upon the Griquas and their supporters, who in an equally unjustifiable manner despoiled a considerable number of independent clans of the aborigines of their ancient territorial possessions.

At the commencement they merely took possession of the localities they positively occupied, they felt that others had still some right to occupy the intervening tracts of country. It was only as they began to feel the strength which their superior weapons gave them, that more ambitious ideas dawned upon the minds of the Griquatown authorities, and they began to lord it over the territories and persons of their weaker neighbours.?
END OF QUOTE

The above words are actually for the native-English to ponder upon. The outsiders, Continental Europeans, the Asians, the South Asians, the South Americans, the African blacks &c. arrive in England with a most affable demeanour. They know their limits and they appreciate their luck to be in England or in any other native-English nation. However, the moment they get the information that they are established inside, then they are another team of people. In their native language codes, the native-English go down in each of the verbal codes.

QUOTE: In the present instance, Waterboer's previous missionary training and proclivities evidently marked him as a man fit to carry out the missionary Utopian idea of laying the foundation, under their own special priestly guidance, of a model kingdom of “regenerated natives."
END OF QUOTE

It is not easy to find fault with the aims of the London Missionary Society. However, unless the regenerated natives are slowly brought out of their native feudal languages and converted into pristine-English of the Victorian-age times, the regenerated natives will return back to their native savagery in no time. For their savagery would be encoded inside their language codes.

Moreover, it would be a very healthy thing to keep the administration under the native-English. Fair-play would work out, if this native-English is given an apartheid in the sense that they have some place where they are among themselves. Into this place, even the Continental Europeans should not be allowed in. If they are allowed, the whole idea would fall down.

QUOTE: some of Waterboer's principal men disregarded the injunction and plundered some Korana villages. He seized six of the ringleaders, summoned his council, and tried, condemned, and publicly executed them all. This produced an insurrection, and the insurgents twice attacked Griquatown.
END OF QUOTE

The fact is that inside feudal languages, powerful loyalties build up in a kind of pyramid manner. These loyalties are beyond the realm of any sensible reasoning, or thoughts of a wider good. This is an essential item that cannot be understood by the native-English. It is not that the native-English do not have loyalties, but that there are no loyalties created by feudal language codes.

In the above instance, one cannot be judgemental about anything. For, there might be very powerful verbal code information that has not entered into the text.

QUOTE: but constantly gave evidence of crumbling to pieces from its own inherent weakness.
END OF QUOTE.

The above statement is about Griquas. However, the deeper issue is that in feudal languages, there are various routes and pathways of obeisance, respect, servility, command and obedience &c. In social engineering, this aspect should be very carefully understood. However, in native-English lands, this information is not there.

For, the moment a population speaks good quality English (not the feudal English, spoken in India &c.), the various mutually unacceptable loyalty routes &c. gets erased. Communication becomes straight, direct and planar. Most of the irksome human emotional triggers vanish. But always beware a bilingual multiculture individual, unless the other language is also planar.

QUOTE: To this a rider was added that he should also protect the Bushmen.
END OF QUOTE.

This was the agreement that Dr. Philip had with Kok, the ex-chief of Griquatown, on his being allowed to settle with his people at the mission station of Philippolis. It is continuously seen that the native-English had a wider vision for South Africa. In that they wanted to protect the original natives of the land.

QUOTE: the bond of union was the appearance of a common enemy, which forced all those threatened to act in unison.
END OF QUOTE.

This is mentioned in regard to the Griquas. However, this is something that can be mentioned about many other nationalities. Even Europe is going through this phase in pieces as of now. The so-called threat of Islam is one item that is uniting the peoples across the national borders. Even nationalists from England and their traditional Continental European enemy nations are getting united in this issue. There is no other logic for this unity.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

27

Post posted by VED »

c27 #
MISCELLANEOUS


QUOTE: From this description, the people alluded to would appear to have belonged to one of the Portuguese settlements, and the articles named were such as the Portuguese might have introduced from India.
END OF QUOTE

The use of the word India does create a lot of problems nowadays. When this word was used in this book, it must have been intended to mean a place inside a geographical location – the South Asian Subcontinent. However, as of now, this word simply creates confusion.

For, there is indeed a new nation called India, which is very cunningly trying to grab all the antiquities that come with the word ‘India’. The word ‘India’ is itself not a native word in the subcontinent. May be it must have been used by various maritime merchants to mean a location. However, it was the Continental Europeans who went around trying to create a well-defined location to connect to the word ‘India’. As a historical fact, they did create four different ‘Indias’, I think.

If this word India is not there in the local epics (puranas), Vedic literature dating back some more than four thousand years (not exactly connected to the current-day peoples of India, Pakistan or Bangladesh), histories of the Mogul kings, and various other kingdoms of the location, then what is the other word that was used locally to mean the whole of the subcontinent?

Well, even though the current-day jingoistic historians of India would be ready to produce a few words that they would claim did define the whole of the subcontinent, it might be true that there was no such national feeling that connected the whole of the Subcontinent as one nation or population.

It is indeed true that the peoples were different from each other, not only between the different locations, but also amongst the different population groups, right inside each minor kingdom inside the subcontinent. It was the handiwork of the English East India Company that created a single nation feeling in around half of the subcontinent and beyond.

QUOTE: during the whole time continually pronouncing, or rather singing, the following words, Hei pruah pr'hari'ka, 'hei fruah fhei, 'hei pruah 'ha. Of the words they did not know the meaning, but said that some of their tribe, together with the game, had learnt them from the tribes a great way to the north."
END OF QUOTE

I have personally seen and taken part in interior village games (in South Asia) similar to these games, in which the words recited, would have verbal meanings, but would not have any great sensible meanings for the whole sentence.

QUOTE:
Notes: Since writing the above, Miss Lucy C. Lloyd has given the following description of a game of skill played by the Bushmen living to the north-east of Damaraland : " It is played with a kind of shuttlecock, i.e. with a short stick with two or three feathers tied to its upper end, and weighted at its lower extremity by a berry or a button attached to it. This is thrown into the air, and beaten with another stick, to keep it up, time after time, much as a shuttlecock should be kept up (in the game of battledore and shuttlecock)."

Miss Lloyd's Bushman authorities assured her that this is one of the old games played by members of their tribe in their own land. This discovery is an interesting one, as tending to prove that this popular game of English children is probably one (by being thus known to so primitive a race as the Bushmen) of high antiquity.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very curious instance. In my schooldays in South Asia, the teachers and certain others used to make categorical mentions that the English game of Cricket was actually a modernisation of a game using sticks which was played in the villages hereabout. However, the wider information that the great attraction of Cricket is a set of rules and etiquettes of behaviour that makes it a Gentlemen’s game. Off course, there is the other unmentionable attraction that playing this game would immediately connect the players to Englishmen in a mental ambience.

England was off course insane to continue to play this game with the low class nations of the Commonwealth, who are generally teaching their citizens that England was a very bad nation. In India, people are very wary of playing with or getting connected to persons of questionable or dubious, or low social standards, even if they come dressed in finery and pretended refinement. The issue of ‘pretension’ is a very active one in feudal languages. Persons can don different stances in an artificial manner. However this facade gets erased the moment the requirement for the pretence vanishes.

QUOTE: Although since 1813 the whole of them have adopted the appellation of Griqua, a large majority of them were not only descendants of the Hottentot tribe we have mentioned but of the Dutch colonists also.
END OF QUOTE
No comment

QUOTE: many old cattle enclosures built of stone, some parts as neatly done as if they had been erected by European workmen.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement is full of technical errors. What European workmen can accomplish, the native-English workmen can do with equal or better acumen. And the Asian and African workers also can do the same, if the same tools are given and they are trained to work in an equivalent social ambience. However, handing over great tools and weapons to barbarian populations is dangerous for the animals and human beings who come under their control. That is what native-English nations should have been careful about. They were not careful.

And now, both human beings as well as animals suffer under barbarian people all over the world.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

28

Post posted by VED »

c28 #
SOCIAL ENGINEERING


My commentary as yet has not addressed the terrible social issues cropping up in present-day South Africa. This book, THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA, does not come anywhere near to the present-day social scenario that South Africa presents. In fact, one would be struck with wonderment on contemplating upon how the nation moved so fast to such a totally different scenario. I feel that the 2nd World War and the utterly foolish dismantling of the English Empire are two most powerful items that changed the world so much.

Even though technology has moved forward much, the world is in a more barbarian mental state. Not only human beings, but even animals are in dire straits all over the globe, with the empowerment of utterly inhuman human populations. In fact, technology has given added powers to the barbarian and inhuman populations. In their locations, both human populations as well as animals that are in their clutches are in a terrible condition.

In spite of all these horrendous situations, I do sense that there is indeed a way to move the world to a better level. The foundations of my thoughts are connected to certain things I know about languages. Even though there is a general attitude that languages are ‘mere languages’, it is my observation that languages are the very powerful software that designs, maintains and runs so many things connected to human beings as well as other living beings. I do not want to go into the reasons and logic of why I came to this conclusion. For, it is a very big theme.

I started writing on this theme way back in 1989 and it came out in my first major book: March of the Evil Empires; English versus the feudal languages! That book was far from perfect. But then over the years, I have written a few more books on this theme. They are listed below. They can be downloaded from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS’ Website.

2. SHROUDED SATANISM in FEUDAL LANGUAGES!

3. Software codes of Reality, Life and Languages!

4. Codes of reality! What is language?

5. The Machinery of Homœopathy!

6. Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c.

7. The tragic consequences of teaching Hindi in Australia!

8. PRISTINE-ENGLISH! What is different about it?

Image

Some of these books are quite readable. A few are a bit tough or roundabout. Interested readers can also read the chapter on feudal languages, I have given in my Commentary on MALABAR MANUAL by William Logan.

However, the best thing to do would be follow my posts on this Telegram Channel:. This is actually a continuing writing on South Asia. However, in this writing a lot of others things including feudal languages, codes of reality, software codes of life, software codes of mantra, tantra &c., brain software &c. are propounded in a very slow-paced manner.

The world requires a solution for the state of continuous belligerence it faces. There are other issues also. Such as the mindset of certain populations to outbreed everyone else. The issue of racism. The issue of certain populations being quite repulsive. The issue of certain populations’ or sections’ of populations body language as well as facial demeanour causing mental aversion. Issues of mixing with other populations creating personality erosion. Feeling that when working among certain populations, or under certain populations, one’s individuality is being crushed. The need to be distant from people or populations who are an eyesore and also a cause of mental distaste. And such other similar things.

These mentioned things are real. They are not what the quack sciences known as psychology and psychiatry call mental issues or mental disease. Emotions are real. Emotional distress is also real. There are reasons behind each of these things. One cannot simply wish them away.

When non-English individuals say something if a native-English individual gets distressed without any tangible reason, the reality might be that there was actually something totally bad in the speech of the non-English individuals. However, the native-Englishman has no means to define or explain what actually distressed him.

Well, why I am saying all this is that I stand on the other side of the fence. That is on the non-English side. However, I can understand and sense the English mentality also. That is not by means of mere language knowing, but by knowing what it is that is different about English; and what is eerie in feudal languages.

Since I cannot explain away huge contents of information connected to these things, I will make a very single sentence idea:

Even a simple sentence spoken in feudal languages, with appropriate verbal codes, can very powerfully throw a group of people, who existed in English without any seeming heights and lowliness between them, into different heights and lowliness in various directions in the social system.

The above sentence is a minimal way to convey a very huge idea. If the reader can grasp the information, well and good. Otherwise, if he or she is interested in getting a more deeper information on the theme, he or she might need to read my other writings.

I will make a very brief write up on how the world can be made a better place. Writing a huge text here will be counterproductive. If any reader wants to know the wider reasons on why I am promoting this idea here, they can read my other books.

1. Hand over the administration of any independent social system or nation or location to a group of selected native-English individuals.

2. A kind of apartheid should be enforced whereby the native-English will have a private space in the nation for all their private activities. Native-English only – Clubs, beaches, playgrounds, schools, colleges, eateries, staying places &c.

3. A similar kind of ethnicity-based exclusive Clubs, beaches, playgrounds, schools, colleges, eateries, staying places &c. can be created for any ethnic group of people, if any group requires them. However, generally no other group other than pristine-Arabs and some such similar populations would make use of this right. For, everyone would love to gatecrash into native-English locations.

4. White skinned, non native-English, persons should not be allowed to get identified with the native-English. So they should not be allowed admission into native-English only locations. However, as mentioned earlier, the White-skinned persons can have their own exclusive zones if they want.

5. There should be other places - Clubs, beaches, playgrounds, schools, colleges, eateries, staying places &c., where anyone of any ethnicity can enter and use the facilities therein. That is, a general or common areas.

6. The native-English can mix with the others and vice versa, as much as they want. However they should not physically go into the residential areas of the others, other than for official purpose. This is a very powerful statement that would require some deep understanding of the language codes inside feudal languages.

7. The native-English individuals living in this particular locality should not have the right to do any commercial activity. They should remain only as the administrating or teaching class of persons.

8. Selection of the native-English for this kind of work should be done in a very selective manner. Those among them who have studied under feudal language speakers, those who have learned feudal languages, those who have friends or companions who are feudal language speakers, those who have been classmates of feudal languages speakers, those who have family members who are feudal language speakers, those among them who have married feudal language speakers &c. should be ranked low in the selection process. Some of them should be marked as downright ineligible for this work. However, as of now, it might be quite difficult to find native-English speakers who are bereft of all these negative strings on them.

9. The native-English who get selected for this kind of administrative work should be given very detailed information on what is different about pristine-English. They should be made to understand that they are part of a very unique group that can create a very sensible social system.

10. The nation or location or social system should be encouraged to use pristine-English in all communications. The carnivorous codes inside feudal languages should be made known to all.

11. Primary school teaching should be handed over to extreme highly paid native-English teachers. If this done, the issue of certain jobs like doctors &c. only being quality jobs, and many jobs like Taxi driving &c. becoming despicable jobs will get erased from the minds of the youngsters. In fact, such concepts as right to equal treatment, right to dignity of stature, dignity of labour etc. will spread throughout the land if this done.

12. Right to drive a motor vehicle should be restricted to only those who are good in English. Ownership of commercial vehicles should be allowed only to those who are good in English. This is to ensure that the persons who get engaged as commercial vehicle drivers are not addressed or referred to in the pejorative part of the feudal languages.

13. The most fundamental idea behind the above contention is that all working individuals and also animals would derive the highest personality elevation when they are under the native-English. If they are under the feudal language speakers, their individuality will vary according to the number of levels above them and number of levels under them. Many of them on the lower levels will be crushed personality-wise. And these persons will act and react in ways and manners that are designed to express their individuality from their suppressed state.

14. Almost all other population groups will create only highly corrupt, mutually repulsive social systems. They will create a communication system inside the social system, wherein extreme social heights and total poverty or extreme human lowliness are part of the social system.

15. Even in South Africa, the Boers only displayed the reflected glory of the native-English therein. Actually the Boers were also a very crude and barbarian population. Indeed, it is the proximity to the native-English that has given a glow to many (maybe not all) Continental European nations. If England had been close to South Asia for centuries, South Asia would also have glowed.

Image

The above-mentioned is the very brief framework of the ideas for creating a very good social system. At the moment, many persons very pointedly make disparaging comments about the native-English. And yet, would quite slyly like to move over to native-English nations. I am aware of communist party leaders who had spent much time in decrying native-English nations, slowly relocating their children to native-English nations.

It is all a matter of using a quality social communication software. However, simply learning English or knowing to speak it would not be sufficient to replace the native-English population in the above-mentioned scenario. For, inside feudal languages, each person comes with a huge load of strings attached to him, each one of them containing dynamic codes for heights and lowliness. This would not vanish simply because he or she learns English. This idea if quite deep and might need a huge number of words to explain.

When speaking about the native-English versus Continental Europe, there are certain things that might be mentioned. One is that till around beginning of the 1st World War at least, the French were trying all sorts of permutations and combinations in South Asia to finish off the English rule over there. Even in the case of a particular terror attack on a well-beloved Collector (district administrator) in Madras state, a possibility that it was the nearby French-ruled location which had given the gun for the terror purpose had been mentioned in those days.

If this be the exact scenario, the Great Britain going for a war with Germany to save the French seems quite a foolish idea. In fact, even the history of the French Revolution army being attacked by Great Britain was totally foolish. For, the king of France who had been beheaded by the French revolutionaries was the probably a king who had supported the French attack on the English side both in South Asia as well as in the New World.

As to the US, it has become a place where all the Continental Europeans merge together and become equal to the native-English. Actually this is also a very foolish situation. For, in the immediate aftermath of the 2nd World War, both Germans as well as the Italians barged into the US. This is also a very idiotic scene. Citizens of the defeated nations are being allowed inside to take over the land and the economy! No sane nation would condone this kind of actions.

And what are these swarmed into the US whites doing over there? In every discussion on the native-English or England, these sinister populations use very deprecatory words upon England and the native-English.

Actually in the US, every sinister language population groups are having a fabulous time. They think that they brought in genius, skills and capacities, and that the other nations, including their own native nations are bereft of them. The fact is the if spoken language of USA changes into Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Mandarin, Zulu, Malayalam, Korean, Telugu &c. the national momentum will slow down. The social system will break down. The only contribution which the geniuses and extremely-skilled immigrants would give would be a scene of totally disarraying of the social system.

If the counter question is, why nations which are having such sinister languages are not breaking down, the answer is that in those nations a huge majority of the people are in a shackled state. This shackling is done by verbal codes. And hence it is not visible to a person who looks for a metal shackles and chains.

For instance, in India, around 70% of the population are in terrible conditions. However, the affluent people in India are not bothered. In fact, they are happy that the other section is shackled. For, if the shackled sections are unshackled, they will come to compete with them in everything. And the lower classes are seen as repulsive in India. That is how the language codes work.

There are many things that cannot even be understood in their slightest form by the native-English. If I were to claim that in a feudal language nation such as India, for an ordinary educated person to be taken called into a police station and talked to or questioned, can in most times be an experience of being pushed into a stinking cesspool, will the reader understand it? There is no way to convey this information in English other than to explain the tiny invisible details of the language codes in very slow pace. But who has the time and inclination for all that?

The US is actually a nation built up upon a framework of native-English settlements in the New World. However, as of now, all the non-English persons who have entered there are literally enjoying the English ambience, and at the same time making totally derogatory wordings about England.

Some years back, I did comment on Huffingtonpost newsmedia website for quite some time. A lot of recriminatory retorts used to come upon my posts from various US-based persons. With the exception of a few, all the others were totally of an ignorant kind. How then are these persons able to be part of a very grand nation?

Well, the answer is that in a native-English nation, everyone can get to enjoy the best of his or her communication abilities. This is what creates a good social set up and nation. Technical knowledge and various other skills are actually a dime a dozen in various other nations. However, their language systems do not allow the creating of a highly dignified and least blocking communication system. Instead, their language create terrific mood for backstabbing and blocking each other. Instead of being supporting others in the social system, the general mood would be that of jeering.

Coming back to my comments in Huffingtonpost, due to my posts seeming to be quite weird and of a kind of racism that was not clearly definable, there was or were some complaints and my account was blocked and I lost all my comments. However, the retorts that I had received were in my email. Some them I have posted here on this page.

In the US, the Continental European Whites cannot bear the native-English, but would not allow anyone to mention that the native-English are different from them. As to the blacks in the US, the erstwhile US slave-descendent blacks could be totally different from the blacks who are entering into the US in the last so many years. However, no one has the calibre to mention this.

If the social set-up that I have mentioned here is enforced in any nation, that nation will grow up. Even if South Asia is handed over to the (pristine) native-English to rule in accordance to the scheme I have proposed, the location will become fabulous. As of now, the nations of India and Pakistan looks fabulous, if one were to confine one’s vision to the government employees and other super rich locations in these nations. Actually rich and poor is not the basic problem in these nations, but the satanic languages codes.


Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

The book

Post posted by VED »

h #


THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA

A History of the Intrusion of the Hottentots and Bantu into the Hunting Grounds of the Bushmen, the Aborigines of the Country

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
By
GEORGE W. STOW, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.

Edited by
GEORGE McCALL THEAL, Litt.D., LL.D.
Formerly Keeper of the Archives of the Cape Colony and at present Colonial Historiographer
Author of “History of South Africa” in seven volumes

LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIMITED
New York : THE MACMILLAN CO.
1905


Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

CONTENTS

Post posted by VED »

bc #


Commentary

Illustrations

Editor's Preface

Preface

Dedication

CHAPTER I
The Ancient Abatwa or Bushmen

CHAPTER II
The Great Antiquity of the Bushmen in South Africa

CHAPTER III
Habits of the Bushmen

CHAPTER IV
Weapons and Implements of the Bushmen

CHAPTER V
The Bushmen's Methods of Hunting and Fishing

CHAPTER VI
Social Customs of the Bushmen

CHAPTER VII
Mode of Burial of the Bushmen — Heaps of Stones — Some of their Beliefs

CHAPTER VIII
The Various Groups of Bushman Tribes

CHAPTER IX
The Various Groups of Bushman Tribes (continued)

CHAPTER X
The Various Groups of Bushman Tribes {continued)

CHAPTER XI
The Bushmen of the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony

CHAPTER XII
The Struggle of the Bushmen for Existence

CHAPTER XIII
The Encroachment of the Stronger Races

CHAPTER XIV PAGE
The Tribes of the West Coast

CHAPTER XV
The Koranas

CHAPTER XVI
Account of Various Korana Clans

CHAPTER XVII
The Griquas

CHAPTER XVIII
Barend Barends, the Original Chief of the Sept of the Bastaards

CHAPTER XIX
The Griquas of the Early Settlement

CHAPTER XX
The Griqua Chiefs

CHAPTER XXI
The Agricultural and Pastoral Bachoana and Basutu Tribes of the North

CHAPTER XXII
The Tribes of the Second Period of the Bachoana Migration

CHAPTER XXIII
The Career of the Mantatee Horde

CHAPTER XXIV
The Barolong

CHAPTER XXV
The Bakuena or Bakone Tribes

CHAPTER XXVI
The Bakuena of the North

Index

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:48 pm, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

Illustrations

Post posted by VED »

i #

ILLUSTRATIONS

1 Portrait of a Bushman

2 Bushman Rock Chipping

3 Stone Implements for making Ostrich Eggshell Beads .

4 Portraits of Bushman Children

5 Bushman Pipes for smoking Dacha

6 Bushman Quiver and Poisoned Arrows

7 Bushman Painting showing Disguised Hunter

8 Bushman Painting of Gnus and other Animals

9 Bushman Musical Instruments

10 Bushman Painting of Elands and Lions

11 Carved Stone Bowl of Bushman Hookah

12 Hottentot Woman (from Le Vaillant)

13 Basutu Wall Decorations

14 Batlapin Weapons

15 A Copper Casting by Bakuena

16 Two Copper Castings by the same Tribe

17 Wooden Vessels of the Bakuena

18 Bachoana and Basutu Spoons

19 Bamangwato Weapons

20 Bamangwato and Mashona Implements

21 Bakuena Wall Decorations

22 Bamangwato Implements

MAP showing Lines of Migration of the various Races.


Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 12:38 pm, edited 18 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

ep

Post posted by VED »

ep #. Editor's Preface

The author of this volume died before it was ready for the press. The illustrations had, most fortunately, been carefully prepared, and they are reproduced by chromolithography, so that they are indistinguishable from the originals, except that most of them have been reduced in size. The manuscript was purchased by Miss Lucy C. Lloyd from Mr. Stow's widow, with the intention of having it published, but other work has prevented that lady from bestowing upon it the time and care needed for its arrangement.

In 1904 Miss Lloyd, feeling that a work of such importance ought to be placed before the public without further delay, did me the honour of submitting the manuscript for my inspection and advice as to what should be done in the matter.

It needed only a hasty look through the packets to impress me with the conviction that no production of such value upon the native races of South Africa had yet appeared, and I was therefore most anxious that it should be published. I may add that the draft of Mr. Stow's intended dedication of the result of his researches to that highly gifted and justly esteemed governor, Sir Bartle Frere, whose aid and encouragement were also extended to me in a special manner, had no little influence in stimulating me to undertake the task of seeing the work through the press.

Miss Lloyd, who is the greatest living authority upon the Bushmen, attested the accuracy of much in Mr. Stow's description of the customs and mode of life of those people, though she doubted whether his division of that race into the two branches of painters and sculptors could be maintained, thinking it probable that this matter was determined by locality and convenience.

The accuracy of his accounts of the Barolong and Bakuena tribes I can myself confirm, as, independent of researches in books and manuscript records, I was on several occasions directed by the high commissioner. Lord Loch, to investigate territorial claims between rival chiefs of those branches of the Bantu family, and have been for weeks together engaged in taking evidence from the disputants, their counsellors, and antiquaries, upon their history as far back as tradition reached, which I find correctly given in these pages.

It appears also, from Mr. Stow's manuscript, that he had the assistance of the late Charles Sirr Orpen, Esquire, a gentleman whose researches into the history of various native tribes extended over a very long period, and were carried on with diligence and carefulness never surpassed.

Image

On the other hand, it is only right to mention that Mr. Stow never had an opportunity of research in the colonial archives, and was dependent entirely upon other authors, chiefly Lieutenant-Colonel Sutherland, for information concerning the Hottentot tribes at the time of the settlement of the Dutch in South Africa. Those tribes certainly extended farther along the coast to the eastward than he describes them to have done. For the same reason his account of the early career of Jager Africaander is not quite accurate. But these are very small blemishes, and detract only in a slight degree from the value of his work.

The manuscript when it came into my hands was in an unfinished state. It was not divided into chapters and the paragraphs were often of great length. It was clogged with a vast number of extracts from almost every English book previously published upon South Africa some of which were given to corroborate the author's statements, others that their inaccuracies might be shown. To have retained these would have swelled the book to such a size that no publisher would have undertaken to issue it, and they really added very little to its value.

With Miss Lloyd's consent, I therefore struck nearly all of them out. The remainder of the manuscript I divided into chapters of convenient length for readers, and I broke up the long paragraphs into short ones. I added nothing whatever to the text, and, except in a very few instances, I retained the author's spelling of proper names, though often differing from that in my own history. The date on the draft of Mr. Stow's preface is the latest given by him, but would probably have been altered had he lived to complete the work himself.

The photographs of Bushmen were supplied by Miss Lloyd from her large collection. They show the striking features of the people of this race : the hollow back, the lobeless ear, the receding chin, the sunken eye, the lowness of the root of the nose, the scanty covering of the head with little knots of wiry wool, and the low angle of prognathism as compared with negroes.

Having, jointly with Miss Lloyd, corrected the proofs and revises, I added an index, which is indispensable for a work of reference, and with this completed what was no more than the duty of one holding the appointment of colonial historiographer with respect to a work of such importance for both ethnological and historical study as this of Mr. Stow, who has been long in his grave, and whom I never had the pleasure of meeting, though my researches in the same field were well advanced in one part of South Africa before his ended in another.

GEO. M. THEAL.
London, May, 1905.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

p

Post posted by VED »

p #. Preface


On my arrival in the Cape Colony in 1843, having settled on the extreme border, I was not long in discovering that, although the settlers were in daily contact with races entirely different from their own, no reliable information could be obtained of the manners and customs, much less of the early history of these strange people.

Image

The struggle for existence among the settlers themselves was of too keen and earnest a character to allow of the leisure necessary to carry out such an inquiry systematically, from the constant state of hostility which existed between them, owing to the almost unchecked depredations of the frontier tribes. As was natural, such a condition of affairs fostered a feeling that was altogether antagonistic to the development of that frame of mind which alone can enable us to judge dispassionately and impartially of men whose savage and untutored instincts urged them to plunder the more peaceful and well-disposed colonists, and to glory in the excitement of continuous raids upon the herds of their white neighbours. Thus a state of chronic warfare was entailed upon both parties, with intermittent periods, of greater or less duration, of armed truce.

Under such circumstances, few took sufficient interest in the obnoxious tribes by which they were surrounded to attempt to collect any of the traditionary history connected with them, and the works of those travellers who had visited the country before the war of races had assumed its subsequent proportions and intensity, were at that time unobtainable. The greater number of the missionaries who were then residing among them, and who might have collected many of the traditions which are now lost for ever, considered the past history of a race of savages as a matter of little moment in comparison with making converts to their own special ideas of salvation, and even when any facts regarding their new protégés were recorded by them they in general gave such a biassed and distorted description as to render their evidence so untrustworthy as to be perfectly valueless in carrying out any impartial philosophical or ethnological inquiry

The simple fact that certain tribes were found occupying some given tract of country at the time of the missionary's arrival was of itself, without further question, deemed irrefragable proof that these particular natives must have been its rightful owners from time immemorial. Thus erroneous statements and unfounded claims were not only promulgated, but upheld with a holy fervour a positiveness of assertion, and acrimony of feeling, which were only equalled by the profound ignorance of the disputants with regard to the real state of the case. The white nations were looked upon, and spoken of, as the only intruders into the ancient domains of the "poor natives," and the only race which had trodden under foot, with a remorselessness and cruelty deserving universal execration, the rights of the ill-treated aborigines.

Each of the men of this school confidently asserted that his own special tribe, or the one he had taken under his own special protection, was the true representative of the original possessors of the soil. Such was the spirit in which inquiries were made into tribal history from 1843 to 1853, if such dogmatic assertions can be called inquiry. How then can it be a matter of wonder that so many unfounded theories were circulated, giving rise to a multitude of erroneous opinions, many of which are current at the present day? One fallacious statement backed up another, and they were so often reiterated that they not only gained implicit credence, but, from the character of their promulgators, were considered to carry with them an authority which ought not to be doubted ; and thus, ultimately, the claims of the true aborigines of this portion of the continent were lost sight of entirely.

Image
Image: Hottentot individual

For some years after my arrival in the Colony I was impressed with the idea that the Hottentots were the aboriginal inhabitants of the western, and the Kaffirs of the eastern portion of the country, and that the Bushmen were waifs possessing no particular claims to territory, nor any fixed place of abode. My ideas, however, upon this point underwent a considerable change as my notes accumulated, for as I gained more and more information regarding the native tribes, I became gradually impressed with a firm conviction that the Bushmen alone were the true aborigines of the country, and that all the stronger races, without exception, were mere intruders. Traces of Bushman cave-paintings were still to be found in every direction, and even in localities where for a generation or two no Bushmen had been seen. In the first instance the existence of these primitive artistic productions suggested the idea of gathering materials for a history of the Bushmen, as illustrated by themselves.

Image
Image: Bushmen 1892

In carrying out this design, every additional item of information but tended to establish the fact that they were once thickly spread over the whole country, and that their occupation could also be traced far towards the north, even into the tropics ; and the evidence proved, in as equally conclusive a manner, that there was doubtless a time when they were the sole proprietors of the country. This conclusion brought me face to face with the question of "the Intrusion of the Stronger Races." Such queries as, whence could they have come, and what could have been the order of their arrival, thus presenting themselves, naturally aroused a desire to obtain, if possible, some information upon so interesting a subject. I then commenced collecting data upon this particular point, although I did so with many doubts as to the probability of accomplishing such a task, intending if I succeeded to devote a section of the contemplated work to its consideration.

Image

Although I ultimately, after some years' perseverance, effected my object beyond my most sanguine expectations, nevertheless at the commencement difficulties, even from unexpected quarters, were ever presenting themselves : such as the apathy displayed upon the subject by far the greater number of people appealed to, even of educated men, who from their position were most advantageously situated for gleaning the scattered traditions of the various tribes; the suspicion with which some of the old natives themselves looked upon such inquiries also frequently baffled every effort to obtain reliable evidence from them, as they imagined there must be some ulterior motive in seeking for information with regard to their early movements, having no idea that such a thing could be done from a simple desire of acquiring historical knowledge. On many such occasions, therefore, they feigned profound ignorance and obliviousness, while the younger men of the rising generation, instead of troubling themselves about the ancient traditions of their tribes, seem, as a rule, desirous of forgetting and even obliterating, if possible, the recollection of the antecedents of their savage forefathers.

Under such adverse conditions several years were spent almost profitlessly, in vain attempts to procure the desired data. Still, during this time a sufficient number of glimpses were obtained, which clearly demonstrated the fact that traditions of this migratory movement were to be found among all the tribes of the stronger races. At length more favourable circumstances brought me immediately in contact with a great number of various tribes, or fragments of tribes, when, as the evidence upon the point at issue accumulated, it proved with every addition more convincing and overwhelming.

It was during this period that I became indebted to the zealous co-operation of Mr. CHARLES SIRR ORPEN, of Smithfield, Orange Free State, and much of the success in the ethnological researches I have since carried out has been due to his untiring energy. I received important assistance also from the investigations of Captain Blyth, chief magistrate of the Transkeian Territory, the Rev. H. Moore-Dyke, of Morija, British Basutuland, the Rev. Roger Price, of the Northern Bakuena, the Rev. Richard Giddy, of the Native Reserve, Herschel, and the Rev. F. Maeder, of the Bataung mission, which they readily and heartily entered into at my suggestion.

I have also to thank Miss Lucy C. Lloyd, Judge Buchanan, and Mr. Alfred Barlow for the valuable aid they afforded me in supplying me with works of reference, which under other circumstances it would have been impossible to have obtained so far in the Interior. From among the multitude of native authorities, I am especially beholden to the Basutu chief Mapeli, and Lipatsane, the last chief of the Bakulukwa (a branch of the Baputi), for their vivid word-pictures of numerous stirring episodes in the history of the tribes with which they were acquainted. The descriptive powers of Mapeli are seldom equalled, even among the natives, although many excel in the figurative and poetic style of language which they employ when relating the exploits of their chiefs.

After my investigations had arrived at this stage, the long-desired information almost poured in from every quarter, until the materials upon the early migrations of the races now residing in South Africa attained such proportions that it became necessary to modify the original plan, and arrange them as a distinct work under the present title.

Such then was the origin of "The Races of South Africa" ; but, after all the time expended in collecting the materials, it has necessarily been made up of shreds and patches, so much so that one cannot help being painfully impressed with its many shortcomings and imperfections, and must ever regret that such an attempt was not made some fifty years ago. Since the commencement of the present century how many of the old tribal chroniclers, men who were the great repositories of the traditionary lore of the country, have not been suddenly cut off in the merciless native wars which have intervened.

The few survivors are now old, most of them very old men, widely scattered and hidden in the nooks and corners of the land, and are fast disappearing from the face of the earth ; while the quasi-educated native looks with contempt upon the tribal traditions of his forefathers, and thus as each one of these ancients passes away, so much knowledge with regard to the tribes of South Africa is lost for ever. It is certain that before another quarter of a century has elapsed, the opportunity of rescuing any portion of it from oblivion will have irrevocably glided from our grasp.

Image

Even those native authorities of the present day who profess that they have preserved some portion of the history of their tribes have so mutilated and adulterated the traditions, modifying them to suit the altered conditions of the nation or tribe to which they belong, that the originality and authenticity of these narrations have at length in many instances become so completely obscured or destroyed that they are rendered nearly valueless as affording material whereon to build a reliable and veracious tribal history.

This was seen in a marked manner in gathering materials for the memoirs upon the Frontier Hottentots, Griquas, and Basutu. With regard to the last, the discrepancies between the evidence given by Nehemiah Moshesh, a younger son of Moshesh, in 1880, and that of Mokoniane, a great fighting captain of the Bamokoteri, a clan of the Basutu, to M. Arbousset, in 1834-6, as well as that of Mapeli, a brother of Moshesh, and contemporary of Mokoniane, in 1878 to myself, are striking instances of this fact. The statements of Nehemiah evidently embody all the additions and modifications which have been made to the original tribal history.

This tampering has been clearly intended to show that from the commencement Moshesh had a rightful claim, both by descent and inheritance, to the paramount chieftainship of the Basutu nation, as well as to the territory over which he subsequently attempted to exercise sovereignty ; while, on the other hand, those of Mokoniane and Mapeli give the history of the rise of the clan of Moshesh with a clearness which is unmistakable as to the insignificance and second-rate position of the Bamokoteri at the outset of Moshesh's career, before his ambition led him to lay claim to every inch of country over which his marauding parties had pushed their cattle raids.

Again, their evidence is equally distinct upon the point of the Bamonaheng chiefs being acknowledged as the paramount power at the time when the Bamokoteri were nothing more than a miserable sept occupying a most circumscribed piece of country among the rugged ravines near the sources of the Caledon. The two other narrators spoke of what they had themselves witnessed ; the younger gave the tribal traditions after they had been trimmed up and modified so as to support the more ambitious schemes and ideas of the dynasty of Moshesh.

The knowledge of such facts indicated the necessity of employing considerable caution in collating the evidence thus obtained from witnesses swayed by different interests, and who therefore viewed the occurrences they narrated from different standpoints. To arrive at impartial and trustworthy conclusions has been the consummation I have striven to achieve in the compilation of the present work ; viz. to separate as much as possible the reliable from the fictitious, so that if it does not reveal the whole truth (an accomplishment which is an impossibility, since so much of it has been irrecoverably lost), it may at any rate shed some additional light upon the Races of South Africa, and possibly be the means of rescuing some portion of their traditions from the oblivion which threatens them ; while their diffusion may lead to more correct opinions being entertained with regard to them.

GEO. W. STOW.
Bloemfontein, Orange Free State,
6th September, 1880.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

d

Post posted by VED »

d #. Dedication


To

HIS EXCELLENCY

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR H. BARTLE FRERE,

K.C.B., G.C.S.L, F.R.S., etc., etc..
Governor of the Cape Colony
AND Her Majesty's High Commissioner for South Africa,

This work is respectfully dedicated, as a token of appreciation of the encouraging interest he has shewn, since his arrival in the country in the ethnological studies of the author.
Geo. W. Stow.

Image
Last edited by VED on Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

1

Post posted by VED »

1 #. THE ANCIENT ABATWA OR BUSHMEN


It is frequently found that the descriptions given by various travellers of the same country differ very considerably the one from the other, and yet each writer, as far as we can judge, appears to be an accurate observer and reliable in noting correctly whatever came under his observation. This diversity has arisen, not from want of ability in describing, or any error occasioned from negligence, but rather from their limited experience, from having made the examination at different periods, and under different aspects.

Each described what he saw, and described it correctly ; but then he had only examined its features in one particular light, and therefore his delineation conveyed only a portion of the truth. Thus one travelling on the western side of a certain mountain range may tell us that a particular crest is capped with enormous precipices, which are perfectly inaccessible ; another approaching it from the east, and who has seen it only on its opposite face, informs us that instead of being precipitous, the mountain in question slopes to the very top, with the exception of a few insignificant fringing precipices detached from one another, while the mountain summit may be easily gained through the open spaces.

The fact is both were right, but in either case each writer had only an opportunity of examining one side of the object described : a mountain presenting the features of " crag and tail," often met with in different portions of Southern Africa.

And as such writers differ in their topographical descriptions, so they frequently disagree in their deductions, not only in regard to the country itself, but also the people who inhabit it, giving rise to erroneous ideas, which, at length, by being repeated by others even less informed than themselves, become accepted as verities, and thus, instead of progressing in knowledge, the fallacies become stereotyped and perpetuated, without further questioning, the one to the others.

This has certainly been the case with regard to the aborigines of South Africa. Much has been said and written about them, but much error still exists on the subject among those who have discussed it. Most appear to have entered upon the topic with a foregone conclusion in their minds, and thus their examinations have been confined to one side of the mountain, and stopped short at the very point at which they would have become the most interesting.

Image

The writer trusts that a residence of thirty-six years in the country, during which time he has been animated with the desire of obtaining reliable data upon so important a question, has given him an opportunity of inspecting at leisure the typical mountain on every side, and thus enabled him to speak of it in its entirety ; and that, on the present occasion, by attempting to describe it in its different aspects and from different points of view he may succeed in clearing away some of the mists which have for so long a time hidden or obscured its true outlines.

In this attempt he is duly impressed with the difficulties which must be encountered in carrying out such a design, and also with the imperfections which must naturally cling to any endeavour to work out the primitive history of a country which never possessed a history of its own, and where sources of information can only be derived from scattered and fragmentary tribal traditions and obscure and sometimes apparently conflicting myths ; but which, doubtless, possess a germ of truth that may possibly be discovered by careful comparison and an almost microscopical examination.

Such, then, has been the somewhat presumptuous endeavour of the writer ; but he can assure those who may study the following pages that, whatever shortcomings may be found in them, and their name must be legion, it was only after long years of close investigation and research that he felt himself competent, or was justified, in making the present effort to remove some of the mystery and misconception which have so long clouded from view the true aborigines of Southern Africa.

Previously, in most instances, they have been described differently from what they really were, or set altogether on one side by obtrusively thrusting others into their place who never possessed the least right or title to be classed among the primitive inhabitants of the country.

In carrying out this design we will consider in the first place —

1 . The widely extended occupation by the Bushmen in former times ;
2. Their probable origin in the North ;
3. A comparison of other races with them ;
4. Their great antiquity in South Africa ;
5. The Bushmen of Southern Africa ;
6. Their struggle for existence ; and
7. The encroachment of the stronger races.

I. The widely extended Occupation by the Bushmen in Former Times.

A considerable number of native traditions, obtained from widely separated sources, are almost unanimous with regard to the direction of the early migrations of the South African tribes, viz. from the North to the South.

They state, as a rule, that as their forefathers migrated southward, they found the entire country unoccupied, except that the plains swarmed with vast herds of game. They acknowledge, however, that the Bushmen were always to be found where the game was, and in their old myths of the origin of man they declare that when the Great Father brought men out of either the split reed or the fissure of a rock, the Bushmen had nothing to do with these ; he existed already ; therefore in speaking of a country as being uninhabited or unoccupied, the hunter race of the Bushmen was never taken into account.

Other tribal traditions, again, state that when their forefathers migrated to the south, they found the land without inhabitants, and that only the wild game and the Bushmen were living in it, evidently classing the Bushmen and the game in the same category as wild animals.

The portion of the continent with which we are now more especially interested is that part which has been defined as a cone-shaped mass of land terminating in the promontory of the Cape of Good Hope. This cone may be divided into three irregular concentric zones or belts, each being marked by distinct peculiarities in its physical features, climate and population. Advancing from the coast-line to the centre, these appear to rise in successive steps or terraces, the outer edges of each being fringed with ranges of mountains of greater or less elevation, the older rocks forming a rim around the great central plateau, which towards the middle forms a vast depressed, although still elevated basin, through which the great rivers 'Nu and 'Gij Gariep take their course.

The eastern or coast zone is often furnished with mountains, well-wooded with evergreen trees ; its seaboard gorges are clad with gigantic timber. It is abundantly watered with streams, meandering through every valley and ravine, while its inhabitants, such as the Amaxosa and Amazula, are tall and well-made.

Image

The next is that which embraces the more central portion of the continent, the greater portion of which was once occupied by the Great Lake region of Southern Africa, but now represented chiefly by immense slightly undulating plains, interspersed with a few scattered outliers and depressed ridges. It contains comparatively few springs, and fewer streams; the impervious water-bearing rocks, which are nearly horizontal, lying in most instances considerably below the surface. Rain also is far from either frequent or abundant, and periodical droughts visit the country.

The present inhabitants are Bachoana and Basutu, a race of men inferior to the coast tribes both in physical development and warlike energy. Interspersed among these are a few insignificant and scattered remnants of the aboriginal occupiers of the country, but who are rapidly diminishing in numbers.

Image
Image: Orange river / 'Gij Gariep Author:Keenan Pepper This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

The western zone, which includes the great plain of the Kalahari Desert, is still more level, and represents portions of the uplands of the old lake districts whose drainage supplied the streams which ran into the basin before mentioned. Here, mixed with scattered remnants of other broken tribes, are found those of Hottentot and Bushman origin, the former being the most numerous along the western coast, the latter scattered over the more sandy and arid plains of the interior.

There can be, however, little doubt but that at one time the Bushmen were, as they are described in the native traditions, the sole occupants of the entire country here indicated. We have not only traditions in support of this, but we have positive proof of this occupation, which the ancient Bushmen themselves have recorded upon the rocks, in their paintings, their sculptures or chippings, and stone implements, which are as much their unquestionable title-deeds as those more formal documents so valued among landowners in more civilised portions of the earth.

Their paintings are still to be seen in Damaraland, their sculptured rocks are found on or near the banks of the Mariqua and Malopo, and in different portions of the present Batlapin country. Numerous evidences of the same kind are found among the hills of Griqualand West, along the banks of the Vaal, and throughout the Free State territory, the Malutis, the Witte and Storm Bergen.

Their chippings or sculptures were found spread over the present Division of Beaufort West, and the caves and rock-shelters of the Sneeuwberg were filled with their paintings.

Image

Bushman painting: Cave painting created by the San people in the Cederberg Cave near Stadsaal. Image owner: Valroe at English Wikipedia

Until the latter part of last century their clans were still in undisturbed possession of the present colonial divisions of Somerset and Cradock, the Tarka and Winterberg, Hanglip and the Bongolo, and throughout the entire country from the Bontebok Flats to the banks, and even the sources, of the Tsomo.

Traces of their paintings are not only still found in the Transkeian Territory, but existed until very recently at Salem, near Grahamstown ; while some fifty years ago numerous paintings were preserved in many of the rock-shelters of the Kroome river, Lange Kloof, and George mountains, a few being still left as near Capetown as the hills in the neighbourhood of Worcester, Ceres, and Stellenbosch ; while the remains of their less perishable stone implements are scattered over the entire area from one end to the other.

Traces of these people were, in fact, to be found a quarter of a century ago in almost every direction, both in the Colony and in Kaffirland. Even in the land of the irrepressible Zulu, although no paintings have yet been noticed, remnants of Bushman tribes are still found in the most inaccessible portions of the country, some of whom, reduced to the lowest stage of existence, have from their peculiar habits obtained the name of Earthmen.

Mr. Moffat and some other writers have considered that the Hottentots were the original possessors of the soil ; abundance of evidence will be found in the present work to prove most satisfactorily that the Bushmen, and not the Hottentots, were the true aborigines of the country, the latter being, in comparison with the former, intruders of a recent date. It is only of the Bushman race that it can be truly said that they were robbed by every other race with which they came in contact, and compelled by them to abandon for ever the land of their ancestors.

From the evidence of the early colonial records, Moffat, Arbousset, and other writers with opportunities of observation, each corroborating and upholding the other, there cannot be any reasonable cause to doubt that from a remote period to a comparatively recent date Southern Africa was solely in the possession of the Bushman race. As we proceed in our investigation we shall find this position still more strongly substantiated by the testimony to be brought forward, when we come to consider the subject of the intrusion of the stronger races. We will now take under consideration the second point of our inquiry.

Image


2. Their Probable Origin in the North.

It seems almost as certain that even the aboriginal Bushmen migrated to the south as that they, at one time, were the sole possessors of the country. It seems somewhat surprising that so many writers have continued to class these people with the negroes and other dark-skinned, woolly-haired species of men ; whereas if we are to judge from their physical appearance, with the solitary exception of the hair, no two sections of the human race could be more divergent. Their closest affinities in this respect are certainly more frequently to be found among those now inhabiting the Northern Hemisphere than in any other portion of the world. It is possible that the character of the hair may point to the fact that they hold a kind of intermediate station, a kind of connecting link, but still one more nearly related to the men of the north than the splay-footed, swarthy races of Central Africa.

Even the bones of the Bushmen show a marked difference from those of a large number of the negro type. The writer in his long and frequent wanderings has had many opportunities of examining the striking characteristics which they present. This is particularly noticeable in the almost perfectly cylindrical shape of the bones of the extremities, and the extreme smallness of their hands and feet.

Every observant traveller who has come in contact with any of these people has been struck with their remarkably diminutive proportions. "The stature of both sexes," writes Harris, "is invariably below five feet." " Their complexion is sallow-brown." " The women, who were much less shy, are of small and delicate proportions, with hands and feet of truly Lilliputian dimensions. Their footprints reminded us of Gulliver's adventures, and are not bigger than those of a child. Whilst young they have a very pleasing expression of countenance."

One of these Bush-people was seen by this enthusiastic traveller, whose foot measured barely four inches in length. It is, therefore, undeniable that their diminutive size of limb gives their bones a delicacy of shape entirely foreign to those of the larger and more robust races alluded to, in some of which the projecting and uncouth-looking os calcis becomes a wonderful development.

As there are few in the present day who would hazard the opinion that the Bushmen were " a special creation," adapted peculiarly to South Africa, and as they are now cut off from the more northern birthplace whence they probably sprang, by a zone of nations more ferocious than themselves, we are led to suppose that the impetus which caused these old primitive hunters to migrate farther and farther to the southward was in a period of such remote antiquity that it must have been previous to the occupation of the country by the savage black races which now form, and must have ever formed since they have taken possession of the intervening area, an impenetrable cordon of barbarism, which the weaker hunter tribes, with their puny shafts, could never have forced their way through.

The original habitat of the negro is clearly involved in this but that is a subject which must be left for future discussion. It is however almost self-evident, if we consider but for a moment the condition of Central Africa, even at the present day, as described by the most recent travellers, that these stronger nations must have presented the impregnable barrier we have alluded to, through which such a race as the Bushmen never could have broken.

What Stanley and other enterprising travellers describe the black tribes to be now has doubtless been, with such unprogressive nations, their condition for unknown centuries. Had the remote ancestors of the Bushmen commenced their southern migration after the occupation of the central lands by these hordes of savage men, the smaller and weaker hunter race, as is evident from their subsequent history, could never, as we have before stated, have broken through such a cordon of fierce barbarity. All the evidence we have been able to collect tends strongly to prove that the Bushman race alone, in their southward migrations, moved through a perfectly unoccupied and uninhabited country. The other and stronger races closed in upon their southern retreat and followed" their footsteps at a later period.

It would seem from the present researches into the construction of the Bushman language that its northern origin will be fully established. The labours of the late lamented Dr. Bleek threw much new light upon this important subject ; and it may be looked upon as one of the most primitive forms of language which has survived to the present day. And the striking manner in which it has preserved what may be termed its purity and individuality is evidently owing to the long continued isolation of the race to which it belonged.

Unhappily, by the untimely death of the eminent philologist, inquiry was suspended just at the crisis when the origin of grammatical forms of gender and number, the etymology of pronouns, and kindred questions seemed likely to be solved. One of the great objects was to examine the lower or more primitive forms of speech, so as to exhibit thoroughly and fundamentally the relations in which the Hottentot language stands to some of the northern languages, such as the Egyptian, the Semitic, and those of the Indo-European family; in fact, to establish that kinship which had been indicated by the Rev. Dr. Adamson, long resident at the Cape.

This question of the Bushman language, its nearer affinity to those of the northern hemisphere than to those of Central Africa, and its freedom from any foreign intermixture, are points of the greatest importance in support of the position which we, upon other grounds, have taken up. One cannot imagine any two sections of the human race coming intimately in contact with each other, without one or both adopting in a greater or less degree a number of words and expressions taken from each other, and understood by both, thus becoming indestructible and indelible records of this mutual intercourse.

South Africa affords a very apt illustration of the manner in which this process takes place. Thus in what is styled by some " the Landstaal," or language spoken by the frontier Boer population, there is a sprinkling of Bushman and Hottentot words, marking the time when they first came in contact with the inhabitants of the country ; after which a few Kaffir words were introduced, and during the last fifty or sixty years a number of English expressions have been grafted on it. Again, during the last sixty or seventy years a considerable number both of colonial Dutch and native words have been anglicised in the language spoken by the colonial English, such as, for example —

Spruit, for a river or valley ; Lager, for a camp ;
Vlei, for a pond ; Inspan, to yoke oxen ;
Flat, for a plain ; and many others from the Dutch.
Kloof, for ravine or glen; Kerie or Keerie, a club,}
Poort, for a pass ; Karee or Karree, a tree,}
Drift, for a ford; from the Hottentot.
Spoor, for a trail;

The natives, on the other hand, have in a number of instances availed themselves of both English and Dutch words to express objects and ideas with which they were not before acquainted.

The same rule governs the intercourse of the English with the inhabitants of India, Australia, New Zealand, etc., native words in each dependency becoming gradually anglicised and grafted into the parent language. They thus become indubitable memorials of close contact with the various races inhabiting these countries, and we may feel convinced that what we see going on in the present day must have been in operation, under similar conditions, during all past time.

For this reason, therefore, we cannot imagine that the Bushman race, had they come into contact with others speaking languages differing from their own during the long series of generations which must have been occupied in their migration towards the south, would have formed any exception to this law, but that such contact must have left its impress upon them.

Image

The vanguard of the great westerly migration of the tribes of Coast Kaffirs acquired a number of clicks, after coming in contact with the aboriginal Bushmen, which are not to be found in use among the tribes that followed in their rear, and therefore only came in contact with such diminished numbers of the aborigines that their presence could make no impression upon the advancing tide of the stronger race.

The inference therefore, if not the positive conclusion, to be drawn from the foregoing facts is that the ancient Bushmen must, as we have before intimated, have gradually worked their way through a really unoccupied country, and that they were the primitive inhabitants of Southern Africa and the forerunners of every other race, a conclusion which is upheld by the most ancient traditions of every intruding tribe now found in the southern portion of the continent.

The conviction of Mr. Moffat that the Bushmen (included by him among the Hottentots) were the true aborigines was evidently forced upon his mind from some of the considerations which have been advanced. This appears when he writes :

" It may not be considered chimerical to suppose that the Hottentot progenitors took the lead, and gradually advanced in proportion as they were urged forward by an increasing population in their rear, until they reached the ends of the earth."

That this was the case is a demonstrable fact, which will be found enlarged upon in another portion of the present work. Their history during the last century and a half has too clearly proved that had the central portions of the continent been already occupied by any of the stronger races, similar to those which have been for the last few generations opposed to them, they could never, with their primitive weapons, have broken through such a barrier of savagedom as must thus under such circumstances have been placed in opposition to their southern progress.

It seems also certain that as the main body of the race moved on in front, detached clans lingered behind in sequestered and isolated spots, until they were overtaken, surrounded, and cut off for ever from their migrating countrymen by the advancing tide of the stronger races, which after driving them for refuge into dense jungles and nearly impenetrable forests, or the rocky fastnesses of almost inaccessible mountains, rolled on beyond them, making their isolation still more complete by the increase, in succeeding generations, of the surrounding hostile population ; and thus it is that enterprising travellers penetrating into the interior of the Dark Continent still hear traditions of communities of untamable dwarfs, who, even in the present day, hide themselves in the mysterious recesses of the primeval forests.

Such, in all probability, was the dwarf race described by Schweinfurth* ; and such those of whom Stanley writes : " In the unknown region west of Nyangwe, a region which Livingstone panted to reach but could not, and which Cameron intended to explore but did not, all is involved in mystery ; the intense superstition of the Africans has enshrouded it with awesome gloom. It is peopled in their village stories with terribly vicious dwarfs, striped like zebras, who deal certain death with poisoned arrows, who are nomads, and live on elephants. A great forest stretches no one knows how far north, certainly no one has seen the end of it."

* Might be: Georg August Schweinfurth was a Baltic German botanist, explorer of East Central Africa and ethnologist. (from Wikipedia)

Du Chaillu* also alludes to traditions of a race of wonderful dwarfs inhabiting some portion of the country which he visited ; and it is highly probable, when the evidences of Bushman occupation are better known, — such as his chippings on the South African rocks — than they are at present, that similar traces of his migrations will be found even still farther to the north.

* Might be: Paul Belloni Du Chaillu was a French-American traveller, zoologist, and anthropologist. (from Wikipedia)

Mr. Moffat considered that the Bushmen have descended from the Hottentots, and gives what he supposes to be a parallel case, in the Balala, a tribe to be noticed in the sequel ; but so much evidence has since been obtained which proves this hypothesis to be untenable, that we should only be led into error should we adopt it in pursuing our inquiry. The Korana traditions appear conclusive on the point of the prior existence of the Bushmen in the country, at the time their forefathers migrated from tropical Central Africa to the western coast, and thence to the Cape.

That both Hottentots and Bushmen may have descended from the same original stock seems more likely. In that case, however, such a length of time elapsed between the migration of the two offshoots that the language had completely changed, and when they again came in contact they were not able to understand one another. With regard to the language of the Hottentot race, Mr. Moffat remarks that "genuine Hottentots, Koranas, and Namaquas meeting for the first time from their respective and distant tribes could converse with scarcely any difficulty," while the Bushmen " speak a variety of languages " (? dialects)" even when nothing but a range of hills or a river intervenes between the tribes, and none of these dialects is understood by the Hottentots."

Again, this writer considers the present condition of the Balala will explain the difference. It may explain the difference of the variety of dialects among the Bushmen themselves, but not the wide gap between the language of the Hottentots and that spoken by the Bushmen.

We have also another proof of the length of time which must necessarily have elapsed between the two migrations. Not only had the language completely changed, but the tribes of the later migration had advanced from the purely hunter to the nomadic pastoral stage of existence, while a noticeable alteration had taken place in their physical development. They were no longer tribes of diminutive dwarfs, but they had become a taller race of men, although still inferior to the more robust and manly Kaffir. A period, however, of no ordinary duration must have intervened to have effected changes of so marked a character.

From the foregoing one cannot doubt but that we are authorised in drawing the following deductions, viz. —

1. That the Bushman is not a development of the south, but that he must have had his origin somewhere in the distant unknown north.
2. That his language, his artistic talents, and even his physical characteristics, have closer affinities to some of the northern races than to that of the negro type.
3. That he migrated from the north to the south at a remote period.
4. That that period was so remote that the stronger black races could not then have occupied Central Africa.
5. That therefore the Bushman was the true aborigine of the country.

We can advance still a step further. The Bushman tribes, with regard to their artistic talents, were divided into painters and sculptors. This difference marks two distinct divisions of the Bushman race, and judging from the relics which they have left of their former ownership, they entered the widespread territories of Southern Africa by two different lines of migration. The sculptors moved to the southward through the more central portions of the country, crossing the Zambesi and traversing the country by the Lake Ngami, the Mariqua, and the upper Limpopo, thence to the Malalarene and the 'Gij Gariep or Vaal. In the valleys of these two rivers and in that of the Gumaap or Great Riet river they appear to have established their headquarters.

Some of them spread to the westward and occupied the mountains of Griqualand West, others extended to the east, and left the records of their occupation upon the rocks of the Wittebergen, a branch of the Maluti range projecting into the Free State. Others again pushed farther to the south, and sculptured over the rocks and boulders as far into the Cape Colony as the present division of Beaufort West, whence some of them migrated as far as the Sneeuwberg.

Image
River Zamebsi . Image owner: Hel-hama. Image license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Image
Beaufort West: Image owner: Htonl. Image licence: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The painters, on the other hand, appear to have advanced through Damaraland along the western coast. On arriving at the great mountain ranges in the south, they turned to the eastward, in which direction they can be traced as far as the mountains opposite Delagoa Bay. The main body of them, however, settled in the country now occupied by the Divisions of George, Uitenhage, Albany, Beaufort, Victoria East, Somerset, Cradock, Graaff Reinet, Queenstown, and the Transkeian Territory, thence to the Stormberg and the 'Nu Gariep or Upper Orange river, occupying the whole of the Colesberg and Aliwal districts, and crossing the river, filled every rock shelter to the east and northeast with their cave paintings.

Image

Image

Image owner: Rémih

Image

They do not appear to have penetrated as far to the north as the Vaal river : that valley was already thickly peopled by clans of the other division of the family. They also came into contact with the sculptors of the north along the line of the Sneeuwbergen, where some of the clans appear to have amalgamated, as their artists combined both styles of art for the ornamentation of their rock shelters.

Image

Image

A small clan of these painters appears to have penetrated as far as to the hills to the north of Griquatown, where a few isolated caves were filled with paintings, while chippings or sculptures alone are found in the country round. This was probably a fugitive clan, that had fled so far to the north whilst their countrymen were being ruthlessly hunted like wild beasts in the southern portions of the country.

Besides these there were numerous clans who lived in the centre of the great plains, thus filling up the intervening spaces with inhabitants, and who were neither painters nor sculptors. The painters were the true cave-dwellers, and delighted in ornamenting the walls of their rock shelters ; the sculptors lived in large communities, but they preferred the stony hills covered with projecting rocks and boulders, which they sculptured over with their carvings. Their great places were permanent residences, from which they started on their hunting expeditions ; their huts were small spherical structures, opening to the east. The occupants of the plains lived in, fragile portable shelters, constructed of withes and small rush mats, which they rolled up and moved as fancy and the game might lead them.

Image owner: NordNordWest. Image licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

3. Comparison of other Races with the Bushmen.

It appears a remarkable coincidence that we should find that all the representatives of the smaller races of men have been, as a rule, driven into the extremities of the various continents in which they are found, and that although they differ considerably from each other in many particulars, there is still a kind of general resemblance which is somewhat remarkable. A number of them seem to have inherited the germs of similar arts, and in some instances even similar modes of thought. They evidently started on their migrations when the hunter state was the most advanced stage of existence, when the use of metals had not been discovered, when language was still in its infancy and shackled with its early imperfections, and bone, flint, and horn afforded the only means of giving point to the weapons which they employed in the chase.

If we can imagine such a people emanating from a common centre, it must have been at some immensely remote period, before the development of the stronger races, who as they gradually came upon the scene, as gradually drove the smaller and weaker ones before them in various directions, until the latter became imprisoned for a vast cycle of ages in the uttermost comers of the earth ; each race becoming, through a variety of degrees, more and more adapted to the requirements of its own peculiar position, until they became so widely divergent from the original type in language and physical features, that all trace of connecting links which once probably bound them together have been destroyed, and only a certain general resemblance, such as we have suggested, has escaped the ravages and changes of time.

We will now, for the sake of comparison, give a rapid sketch of such of the races of man which, although in the present day widely separated from each other, still possess certain affinities that appear to be common, and would, therefore, seem to indicate a closer relationship in a remote past than that which they bear to one another in our time. In doing this we wish to avoid asserting anything dogmatically, but merely desire to point out, from a South African point of view, the direction we imagine such inquiries will have to take if the great problem of the true descent of the Bushmen of this country is to be correctly solved.

One very striking feature in the pure Bushman race is their remarkably dwarfish stature. Judging from the descriptions of various trustworthy authors, there appear to be many seeming affinities between them and some of the branches of the Mongolian race, the only marked difference being in the hair, the one having black, straight, strong, and thin hair ; whilst in the other the hair, although black, is in small tufts at distances from each other, but when suffered to grow it hangs in twisted tassels. This twisting is frequently increased by artificial means, as it was looked upon by some of the clans as a type of beauty.

The Mongolian, Dr. Pickering states in his Races of Men, "is pre-eminently a beardless race, the chin often remaining perfectly smooth, even to extreme age." The same might be stated of the Bushmen; and even when a few scattered patches do appear, they never attain more than the fraction of an inch in length, like a curly mop.

It is surprising how little notice appears to be taken of the Bushman, and how seldom the race is mentioned by many of the later European writers. This may arise from two causes : first, that the term Hottentot and Bushman have frequently been used synonymously, an error which even the writers of the earlier Dutch records seem to have constantly fallen into, giving rise to a confusion of ideas which has certainly led to erroneous impressions ; and in the second place, because for the last two or three generations these unfortunate people have been so harried and hunted like wild beasts, by every race of men who have intruded themselves into their ancient hunting-grounds, driving them into the most inaccessible portions of the country, and treating them with far less consideration than the most viciously outrageous of condemned criminals, that little opportunity has been afforded to visitors from other lands of studying them from any point except that permitted by their bitterest enemies.

With regard to the Bushmen, however, it can be confidently stated that there is no characteristic feature indicative of a certain affinity between the Hottentot and Mongolian tribes, which is not even more strongly marked in them. There appears no reason to doubt but that the Bushmen belong to a more primitive, and therefore purer stock, than the tribes of Hottentot origin ; and, as a consequence, it is amongst such a people that we may expect to be able to discover signs of closer connection between these at present widely geographically-separated branches, by striving to trace them back as near as possible to that point where the stream of life separated, than between the same original stock and the later wanderers who followed on the trail of the hunter race and occupied the intermediate area.

With regard to the Bushmen this would be rendered more easy from the remarkably isolated existence into which they were forced by their southern migration, which thus, for unknown centuries, kept them unmixed from the stronger races that pressed upon their rear, until the former found themselves hemmed in by the southern ocean. This isolation, however, enabled them to retain unchanged not only their primitive habits and customs from a very remote antiquity, but also their original and special physical characteristics, in a degree of purity seldom met with in other races.

If the prehistoric artists alluded to by various authorities on the American Indians were of the old Mongolian stock, it is certainly a most remarkable coincidence that this early tidewave of human migration to the east and south carried with it the same artistic tastes as that which was carried along with a similar wave which spread itself more directly to the south, and which went on developing itself in productions of a kindred nature, until they ultimately arrived at the perfection displayed in some of the Bushman paintings and sculptures in South Africa.

We are not aware of any of the ancient negro race who ever excelled in artistic productions of this kind ; such efforts appear to have been foreign to their nature, and this fact would seem to give us an additional assurance that we must look to some other source for the origin of the primitive artists of the earth. This idea is strengthened when we consider that there were, as has been demonstrated, ancient races possessing not only many of the physical characteristics which are common to the Bushmen, but also that they seemed to have inherited similar art germs, of so identical a description that they shadow forth the possibility of a common parentage in some remote period of the past.

Surprising as such coincidences as these appear, they are still more so when we learn that there are among the descendants of other primitive races which possess, not a similarity in artistic talents, but a wonderful identity in their respective modes of thought, although for unknown time the vast expanse of the Indian ocean has most effectually separated them.

This fact is clearly evinced by Dr. Bleek's remarks upon Resemblances in Bushman and Australian Mythology. He says that African researches have given the most emphatic confirmation to the idea that mythological notions, or the outward forms of religious beliefs, are primarily dependent upon the manner of speech, a fact which was first pointed out by Professor Max Miiller in his Essay on Comparative Mythology, and which is now generally allowed to be one of the most fertile and efficient for the purpose of understanding rightly the natural history of religion and mythology. These African investigations " have especially drawn our attention to the fact that the modes of thought, and among them the religious ideas, are dependent upon the forms of the language, and upon the stimulus which these forms give to the poetical faculty, etc."

The sex-denoting languages possess mythologies, while the prefix-pronominal languages, where no distinction is made, are merely addicted to ancestor-worship. The first filled the heavens with objects of adoration — the sun, the moon, the stars, and other natural objects ; whilst those nations whose languages are clearly different, and never have been sex-denoting (such as Kaffirs, negroes, etc.), are almost entirely devoid of the myth-forming faculty, and possess hardly any myths or true fables, excepting where, by contact with sex-denoting nations, these have, to a small extent, been adopted from the latter. The knowledge of this fact advances us another step, by learning that the languages of the negro, Kaffir, etc., and that of the Bushman, differ radically in their construction, thus affording us further proof that their origin must have been derived from different sources.

Image

Where myths are found among nations whose language is at present non-sex-denoting, it would seem to indicate that they had been derived originally from more remote languages of that character, and thus may afford evidence of the former state of the language.

“In fact, upon the evidence of the mythological notions which are found to exist among the nations speaking them, the great mass of those genderless languages which Professor Max Muller calls Turanian (from which, however, the Malay-Polynesian as originally prefix-pronominal are at all events to be excluded) must be concluded to have lost the sex-denoting character, just as the Persian has done in more modern times."

“The mythological conceptions of certain aborigines of Australia offer some curious points of resemblance to those entertained by the Bushmen of South Africa, as is pointed out in the following comparisons." In giving them Dr. Bleek says that it is not the special coincidences of belief between the Bushmen and the Australians, which he should conclude to have been derived by them from a common source, " but rather the spirit of mythological conception in both nations, due probably to similar causes.

"Both these nations are generally considered the lowest of the low in many points of human civilisation, as, for example, in their very imperfect numerical system, the Bushmen having no numerals beyond two or three,N and the Australians generally none beyond three or four. Yet by their mental and physical characteristics they lay claim to a nearer kindred with ourselves than do many far more civilised nations, especially those of the Kaffir and negro type. And certainly the possession of similar mythological notions, of which both Kaffirs and negroes are, generally speaking, destitute, is of no small moment in gauging their real affinities."

Notes: These simple numerals were (that is, among the Central and Eastern Bushmen) xa, one ; t'oa, two ; 'quo, three ; any higher numbers were expressed by repetitions, thus :

T'oa-t'oa _ four.
T'oa-t'oa-t'a _ five.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa = six.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-'ta = seven.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa = eight.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa-'ta — nine.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa — ten.

It is certain, however, that the constant repetition of the numbers three, five, and seven, their 'quo, t'oa-t'oa-'ta and t'oat'oa-t'oa-'ta in their symbolic representations in the valleys of the Gumaap and the Vaal evidently indicate that they had a mystic or sacred meaning, now lost, but known and understood at the time by the initiated.

“The aborigines of Victoria (especially the Booroung) believe that the earth was in darkness until an emu's egg was prepared and cast into space, when the earth became light. This was effected by one who belonged to an earlier race of people, who then inhabited the earth, but who were translated in various forms to the heavens, before the present race of men came into existence.”

“The Bushmen believe that there was a very dim light over the earth, and that the sun (who was a man) only shone round the place where he lay sleeping (the light proceeding from one of his armpits) ; so two women (of the old race who inhabited the earth before the BushmenN) sent some children to lift up the sleeping sun unawares and throw him into the sky, where he, becoming round, thenceforth remained, rendering the earth light and warm."

Notes: The Bushmen believe in an ancient race of people who preceded them, some of whom possessed magic powers, and some of whom have also been translated as stars into the sky.

“The Bushmen say also that the moon was made by a being who is both mantis and man, who, being inconvenienced by the darkness, threw up one of his shoes into the sky, and ordered the shoe to become the moon and to make light for him."

"These Victorian aborigines term Jupiter the Foot of Day, while the Bushmen call it Day's Heart. The Australians say that (either the whole, or part of) the Milky-Way is the smoke of the fires of the old race of people who preceded them. The Bushmen say that a girl belonging to the ancient race made the Milky Way by throwing wood-ashes into the sky.”

“The Australians say that the star Arcturus is the discoverer of the larvae of the wood-ant, of which they are very fond, and their teacher when and where to find it. The Bushmen say that Canopus is the rice-star, who comes carrying 'Bushman rice’.N By appearing it shows them when to seek it."

Notes: Bushman-rice " is what is commonly called ants' eggs but which are really the pupas or chrysalides of the ants.

"The Magellan clouds are, in this Australian mythology, believed to be male and female birds called 'Native Companions,' and by some of the Bushmen they are considered to be a male and female steenbok."

Some of these coincidences are very remarkable, especially that of the belief in the existence of an earlier race of men. Some of the Bushmen, however, still assert that remnants of this race yet exist in the deep and almost unknown recesses of the Kalahari. In corroboration of this latter assertion, an old traveller, Mr. A. A. Anderson, who has spent a number of years in the interior, assured the writer that in one of his expeditions into that portion of the country he came upon a small clan of very diminutive and degraded people, who declared that their forefathers had inhabited this part of the world before the Bushmen came into it.

At the time Mr. Anderson encountered them they acknowledged subjection to the Bushmen of the Kalahari, who are said to treat them not only as degraded vassals, but as an inferior grade of beings. Their habits, as described by this traveller, certainly approach nearer to those of wild animals than to those of the most abject people yet known in South Africa.

They build no huts of any description, but shelter themselves under bushes or projecting rocks, or the leeside of large boulders, while their food is frequently of the most loathsome description, as, with the exception of these people, it is only among the lower animals that the placenta is devoured after giving birth to their offspring. Further information with regard to this race would certainly be most interesting, and might possibly supply one of the missing links which are being so eagerly sought for in the world of science.

From the facts advanced in this chapter we would seem justified in concluding that the Bushman race belongs to a type of humanity altogether distinct from that of the negro or the Kaffir; that the races which display the closest affinities to them are some of the earlier races whose migrations radiated from the northern hemisphere as from a common centre ; that at the time of their separation from the main stock these races had arrived at the hunter state, and carried with them, into widely separated countries, similar germs of primitive art, and there, by means of their kindred artistic talents, they were enabled severally to leave memorials upon the rocks of the country, thus recording for future ages the different portions of the earth's surface which they had respectively occupied.


Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 7:39 am, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

2

Post posted by VED »

2 #. THE GREAT ANTIQUITY OF THE BUSHMEN IN SOUTH AFRICA


We are fortunately able to obtain evidence upon the great antiquity of the Bushman race in South Africa from several independent sources, viz. the subsequent Hottentot migration, the geological evidence afforded by exhumed relics, and that which is demonstrated by some of their most ancient sculptures and paintings.

The subsequent southern migration of the Hottentot hordes clearly proves that such an enormous period had intervened between their onward movement and that which led to the original Bushman occupation, that the Hottentot tribes had advanced from the purely hunter state of their remote progenitors to that of the nomadic-pastoral ; their language had also undergone such a complete transformation that the new-comers were no longer able to understand the more primitive and therefore original tongue of the kindred race which had preceded them ; while they had also, in the interim, progressed in physical development, until, by the side of the taller Namaqua and Koraqua, the aboriginal Bushmen appeared a veritable race of pigmies.

A vast cycle of ages would doubtless be required to bring about radical changes of this kind. With this fact we must be duly impressed, if we consider but for a moment the extreme slowness with which such extensive modifications from their original type must necessarily have been accomplished, especially among races which were naturally unprogressive.

The second source of evidence with regard to the antiquity of the Bushman race in South Africa is from the geological record. From the mass of testimony which might be brought forward under this head we shall merely notice such a number of instances as must fully establish the point under consideration. Thus, on a farm in the Bloemfontein District a very finely shaped stone armlet was found embedded in situ, in digging out a reservoir four feet below the surface in undisturbed clay.

In excavating the superficial diamondiferous deposits at Du Toit's Pan, in Griqualand West, numerous Bushman beads made of ostrich eggshell were found at various depths ranging from six to eight feet, and in several spots resting on the bed of calcareous tufa. These local accumulations had evidently been very gradual in their formation. Multitudes of minute land shells were interspersed throughout them, the animals which inhabited them having evidently perished and been entombed whilst traversing the arid sand.

This place had evidently been a great station for the Bushmen, in the midst of the ostrich country, and had in all probability been a locality where the manufacture of ostrich eggshell beads had been carried on for generations, thus the abundance of them frequently met with in patches, as well as their having been found in various stages of manufacture. Some of those dug out from the lowest depths had become perfectly fossilized, and adhered to the tongue.

These mounds at one time formed a portion of the margin of an ancient lake, whose waters had drained away, the pan of the present day being its degenerated representative. The extent of this ancient lake is still well defined by a zone of sandy marls and calcareous deposits, and it was in some of the former and the more superficial red sandy clay that these relics of the ancient Bushmen were found.

Again, a stone hammer and another well-formed chipped stone implement were found by the writer in a bed of river-gravel on the banks of the Vaal, near Pniel, about fifty feet above the present stream, and which was evidently laid down at a time when the level of the river was much higher than the Vaal of to-day.

Near the mouth of Kleinemond, on the farm Fairfield, in the Division of Lower Albany, a number of pieces of rude Bushman pottery, stone implements, and semi-fossilised bones were found at a depth of sixteen feet, embedded in interlaminated and undisturbed beds of sand and marine shells.

In 1869 several Bushman maal-stones, stone implements, and an awl made of ivory were found at Poplar Grove, in the Division of Queenstown, in a bed of sub-angular gravel, embedded in a clayey matrix fourteen feet below the surface, and underlying three or four other undisturbed beds of clay and gravel. Associated with these were found the scapula and some of the ribs and grinders of a wart-hog. These bones had become so fossilised that, like some of the oldest fragments of ostrich eggshell at Du Toit's Pan, they adhered to the tongue.

In 1874, when the writer was examining the calcareous zone at the western end of the Roode Pan basin, about five or six miles from the great Kimberley Diamond Mine, he discovered in a bed of sandy marl a number of finely formed chipped implements, made of lydite. These implements must have been dropped there at the time the marl bed was in process of formation ; portions of it were interlaminated with belts of calcareous tufa, it was also capped with a layer of this rock of considerable, although varying, thickness, as shown below.

Image

This calcareous zone, similar to others surrounding so many of these great pan basins, and which evidently mark the margins of extensive lakes which once filled them, must have been deposited at a time when the level of the water was at least sixty feet higher than that of the present pan, and when a magnificent lake spread itself, for a considerable number of miles, over the intervening valley.

The hunters, therefore, who manufactured these stone weapons must have lived in a period so remote that the physical features of the country were vastly different from what we see at the present time. Numerous extensive lakes were dotted over it, and, as is proved by geological evidence, the Vaal itself did not flow in the same channel in which we now see it, as it has in two or three places cut through some of these very basins, which therefore proves that the makers of these implements must have existed before the river adopted its present course.

Image

This period represents the second or minor lake-period of South Africa, but which nevertheless must have been so far removed from the present that the intervening years would not have to be represented by thousands only, but tens of thousands, if we would form an approximate idea of their probable duration.

The evidence, therefore, here brought forward proves that the Bushman race must have occupied South Africa, continuously, for an enormous period. It is not necessary to suppose that all their tribes arrived at the same time : it is more than probable, judging from the migrations of other races, that they arrived in this portion of the continent by degrees, accelerated, more or less, by the pressure of other clans in their rear, a process which may have continued for a number of ages before they were overtaken by the stronger races.

We will now proceed to examine the next series of evidence, afforded by the remains of their rock sculptures or chippings, and their paintings. The latter, being of a more perishable nature, we cannot expect to find escaping the ravages of time, caused either by exposure to the atmosphere or the disintegration of the rock itself, where the paintings have been executed upon the somewhat friable sandstones of the upper Lacustrine or Karoo-formation, as long as the more durable chippings, which have generally been worked into the surface of some of the hardest igneous rocks.

An opportunity was offered in examining some of the paintings in a large cave in the Boloko or Vecht Kop, near the southern border of Basutoland, of making an approximate calculation as to the probable age of the most ancient artistic productions of this kind found there. The most recent of the paintings represents an attack of a commando upon a considerable body of Bushmen. The writer was fortunate enough to obtain the history of this picture. The attack had been made upon this cave some forty years previously by a combined force of Boers and Basutu, with the intention of driving out the old inhabitants of the place ; and immediately afterwards this drawing was made by one of the Bushman artists, evidently with a view of commemorating the event.

The painting, like most of their last productions, which were executed at a time when they were constantly harassed and driven about by their enemies, was rudely done, but still the action of the figures was well marked. Several of the Bushmen are armed with guns ; one or two are shouting out, defying the attacking party to come on. The rock upon which it is painted is a soft friable sandstone, and a certain amount of disintegration has taken place since the representation was finished, amounting in places to the eighth of an inch.

The most ancient paintings preserved depict a group of elands, beautifully and artistically finished, showing that the artist had both time and leisure at his command to finish them with an amount of care which is admirable, thus affording a striking illustration of a state of rest enjoyed by the Bushmen during the halcyon days of undisturbed occupation, compared to the season of turmoil and tribulation which fell upon them after the invasion of the stronger races.

Portions of the animals have disappeared from the same natural decay, we have spoken of, of the rock surface. The process of disintegration, from the sheltered position of the walls of the cave where the paintings are found, defended as they are against rain and similar atmospheric agencies, must have been tolerably uniform. Such being the case, if we calculate the depth of the erosions and destruction to have progressed at the same ratio as in the preceding instance, it would give a probable antiquity of about four hundred years to this last group of animals. It is quite certain that the same cause of destruction would have entirely obliterated any earlier paintings.

At a rock shelter on the banks of the Imvani, in the Queenstown Division, as many as five distinct series of paintings were found, one over the other. The old Bushmen assert that the productions of an artist were always respected as long as any recollection of him was preserved in his tribe : during this period no one, however daring, would attempt to deface his paintings by placing others over them. But when his memory was forgotten, some aspirant after artistic fame appropriated the limited rock surface of the shelter, adapted for such a display of talent, for his own performances, and unceremoniously painted over the efforts of those who had preceded him.

If we calculate that the memory of any artist would be preserved among his people for at least three generations, as every Bushman tribe prided itself and boasted of the wall decorations of its chief cave, it would give a probable antiquity of about five hundred years to the oldest found in the Imvani rock shelter. Many of them are doubtless of a very much greater age, but they afford no means by which their greater antiquity can be gauged.

The case, however, is different with the rock chippings or sculptures on the banks of the Gumaap and the Vaal. Strangely enough Mr. Moffat has ascribed these productions to the Bachoana, and employs their existence as an evidence of the extended occupation of his favoured tribe in early days ! He informs us that they are called Lokualo, a word from which the one used to express writing and printing is derived. He further states, in describing those which he examined, that these Lokualo are various figures chipped upon stones with fiat surfaces. "

These marks," he says, " are made by striking one stone on another till curved lines, circles, ovals, and zigzag figures are impressed upon its surface, exhibiting the appearance of a white stripe of about an inch broad, like a confused coil of rope." These, Mr. Moffat imagined, were done by Bachoana herd boys, and that as they were to be found to the vicinity of the colonial boundaries of those days, that is, to the present District of Victoria West, therefore these Bachoana tribes must have extended much farther to the southward than their present limits.

In these deductions Mr. Moffat is clearly mistaken, for there can be no question but that these relics are all of undoubted Bushman origin. All those examined by the writer, and they have been a multitude, in the valley of the Lower Vaal and in Griqualand West beyond Daniel's Kuil towards Kuruman, are also unmistakably the work of Bushmen ; they therefore fall to the ground as an evidence of early Bachoana occupation, proving the very opposite to such a position.

It is quite possible that Mr. Moffat may have seen some imitations by the Bachoana, the same as attempts at painting are sometimes found in Bushman caves, the handiwork of ambitious Kaffirs ; but in such cases the practised eye can never be deceived for a moment. The inaccuracy of outline, the perfect caricature of the thing represented, and the crudeness of the materials stamp at once the nationality of the artist.

As it is with the imitation paintings, so it is with the copies of chippings, the want of meaning and design at once shows their spurious origin ; while the imitations are always, without exception, the most recent productions of that nature.

Copies of Bushman chippings have been obtained as far north as the Mariqua and branches of the Limpopo, while from the evidence of the earlier Koranas and Griquas the Bachoana had only arrived as far to the southward as about Kuruman when the former first came in contact with them, the entire intervening country being occupied alone by Bushmen.

In examining these primitive works of art, we find that they have been done, similar to the paintings, at different periods, from the most recent, which exhibit the whitish coloured outlines described by Mr. Moffat, to those ancient ones where the lines of chippings have, from length of time, become so oxidised that they have once more assumed the original colour of the exposed rock.

Image

On the banks of the Gumaap and the Vaal the rocks which have been utilised for this kind of ornamentation have been, almost universally, the igneous and highly felspathic Vaal variety, which is frequently associated with beds of an amygdaloidal character. These rocks are amongst the hardest and most durable in the country, possessing such power of resistance to the effects of the atmosphere that the most recent of the Bushman chippings found upon them, and which are now from forty to fifty years old, look as fresh as if they had been worked into the surface of the rock but a few weeks ago.

As it is with the paintings, so it is with these rude attempts to sculpture, the more ancient, as a rule, can be distinguished by the boldness and correctness of their outlines, which clearly evinces that the labour of chipping out such delineations with merely a piece of pointed stone must have been one of considerable time and patience.

At Blaauw Bank, on the Gumaap, and at several places in the valley of the Vaal, these same Vaal rocks are found perfectly polished and striated, the effect and indubitable proof of a remote glacial period in the geological history of the country ; and it is a remarkable fact that, although these spots must have doubtlessly passed for years unheeded by men calling themselves civilised, their wonderful and unwonted appearance had evidently produced a strong effect upon the Bushman mind, for, struck with their unexplainable smoothness, he has covered the space with mystic symbols. This is especially the case at Blaauw Bank, where hundreds of such symbolic designs are found.

p2 #
Image

They are, however, of so ancient a character that the re-oxidisation of the engraved rock is complete.

This is strikingly noticeable in the last named locality, whereby hundreds of hieroglyphical emblems are found. They may be divided into two distinct series, the oldest of which are evidently of great age. There is a marked difference between them and the paintings: in the latter one is frequently found superimposed upon the other, while in the former no two figures are ever found overlapping one another, or even touching.

The figures thus engraved on the rock have evidently been held sacred by the generations which followed the original designer. There is very little doubt but that many of them conveyed a mystic meaning to the initiated ; this seems confirmed by the frequency of certain forms, and the repetition of particular numbers. When the first series of figures were finished, it would appear as if no additions were for a long period made to them. Then copies, or reproductions of the original symbolic forms, were sparingly introduced, filling up the intermediate spaces, by a generation of artists living at a period infinitely more recent than that of those who had gone before, as the lines of which their productions are composed are only semi-oxidised.

After this no other figures were added, except a few insignificant ones at widely scattered intervals, belonging to the most recent period of Bushman art, and evidently after all the mystic lore embodied in the ancient symbols of their remote ancestors had been lost to their race.

Unfortunately in this instance we have no sufficiently satisfactory data to make an approximate calculation as to the probable age of the oldest of these designs, but if we are to be guided by the slight change in those which we know to be the most recent, many centuries must have elapsed since the primitive Bushmen first engraved their antique symbols upon these ancient polished and striated rocks.

The extreme antiquity of some of these designs is, however, clearly evinced by the fissures which have been formed in the apparently impenetrable rocks since the earliest designs were chased upon them, thus, upon the large island in the Vaal opposite Riverton, which is formed of an ancient roche moutonne stretching across the channel of the present river, there are a number of various chipped figures, some of them very boldly executed.

One of the oldest was that of an eland, done on a larger scale than any other representation of an animal found ; but since its completion a large fissure has been worn through the rock, upwards of nine inches in breadth in its broadest part and about eighteen inches in depth.

When we consider the astonishing hardness of these rocks, and the capability which they evince of resisting atmospheric and other influences, and also that they are allied in some portions of the Vaal basin to similar porphyritic rocks to those employed in the construction of the ancient palace temples of Egypt, whose ruins have withstood the ravages of some twenty-five centuries, we cannot help but imagine that we are justified in giving at least an equal antiquity to the great eland of the Riverton island of the Vaal. Many other instances might be brought forward, but we have already produced sufficient evidence from ethnological, geological, and artistic points of view to prove the position advanced as the subject of this section of our inquiry, viz. the great antiquity of the Bushman race in South Africa.

We have already learnt from native traditions that they believed a still earlier race preceded them, and that up to within a short time ago there was a miserable remnant which professed to belong to that race, but if such were the case it is quite certain that they were of so degraded a type that they left no more impression upon the country than the wild animals which inhabited it ; and that the Bushmen, although they magnified them in their traditions as excelling in power and wisdom, nevertheless in actual life looked down upon them as a race of inferior beings.

The Bushmen of Southern Africa

Having arrived at these conclusions, we will now treat of the Bushmen more particularly as a South African race, together with such fragments of their local history as have been rescued from oblivion, and the reminiscences of the desperate struggle they made for existence after their ancient southern domains were invaded by the stronger races.

The Bushmen of Southern Africa have been described by their enemies, not only as being " the lowest of the low," but as the most treacherous, vindictive, and untameable savages on the face of the earth : a race void of all generous impulses, and little removed from the wild beasts with which they associated, one only fitted to be exterminated like noxious vermin, as a blot upon nature, upon whom kindness and forbearance were equally misplaced and thrown away. Such being the sweeping charges made against them, we will under the present head, among other things, inquire how far these allegations are justified ; and whether the doom which followed was such as they merited from their own inherent and unendurable viciousness.

These people, who were severally known to the old colonists and early writers as the Bosjesmans, the Boschismans, and Bushmen, appear to have adopted among themselves the name of ‘Khuai’, which is also the same as that given to the natural apron for which the women of pure Bushman and Hottentot races are distinguished ; and it was thus probable that the appellation 'Quae-'quae, or perhaps more properly ‘Khuai-’Khuai or 'Khuai-’quae — the people of the Apron, was derived.

Image

From the evidence of 'Kwaba, alias Toby, a very old Bushman of 'Kou-'kou or Bethulie, the Bushmen of his tribe were called 'K'ay (? possibly 'kwa or 'qua, the men or the people). 'Kue was the designation of a single Bushman. Hottentots, such as the Koranas and Griquas, were known by the name of 'Kuara.

With regard to the names by which the Bushmen are known to the tribes of the interior, according to Backhouse, some of the Bachoana call the Bushmen Ba-roa, which he explains as "The men or people of the bow." The Basutu also, so M. Arbousset informs us, use the same term, Ba-roa, the meaning of which he gives as “the men of the Bushes," while Miss L. E. Lemue writes,N "A strange fact is that among all the tribes of Central Africa the Bushmen are called Ba-roa, which means " of the South ; "

Baroa signifying the south. It is certain, however, from the evidence collected from native sources, that the Bushmen are styled Ba-wa by some of the Basutu clans, and Mur-ra by the Bataung. Stanley states that the dwarf-race of the far interior is called Watwa or Batwa ; and as a remarkable coincidence the Bushmen of the south are called A-ba-twa by the Tambukis, which, they assured the writer, was not derived from their own language, but was of Bushman origin.

Notes: Private Notes of Charles Sirr Orpen, from letter of Miss L. E. Lemue, daughter of the French missionary of that name.

The Bushman chiefs of the great tribes had their distinctive tribal emblems, which seemed to answer the same purpose as the Siboko of the Bachoana and Basutu, and from which it is not improbable that the custom of such Hottentot tribes as Koranas of taking the names of various animals such as the Zeekoes (hippopotami), the Cat-people, the Scorpions, the Rats, the Springboks, etc., was derived. But the difference between the artistic hunter and the nomadic pastoral Hottentot was that the former employed positive emblazonment or representation of the emblem which distinguished the particular branch of their race, conspicuously painted in some central part of the great cave of the chief of the clan.

These tribal paintings were held sacred, and it was only occasionally that some profane artist would venture to place any other upon them. Unhappily most of these, together with the other cave paintings, have been ruthlessly destroyed ; fortunately, up to a short time ago a few striking illustrations were preserved, of most of which the writer was able to secure copies. Thus he found —

The Cave of the Python, near the Gwatchu, on the banks of the Zwart-Kei ;
The Cave of the Serpent, (a drawing upwards of seven feet long), on the banks of the Klip-plaats river, near Whittlesea ;
The Cave of the Eland (almost life-size), in the Stormberg, near Dordrecht ;
The Cave of the Red Serpent, near Bad Fontein, Orange River ;
The Cave of the White Rhinoceros and Serpent, near Washbank Spruit ;
The Cave of the Hippopotamus, on the farm Lichtenstein, Orange River;
The Cave of the great Black Serpent and Elephant, in Rockwood Glen, Orange River ;
The Cave of the one-horned Rhinoceros, in Eland's Kloof, Orange River ;
The Cave of the White Hippopotamus, in Knecht's Kloof, Koesberg ;
The Cave of the Ostrich, near Oliphant's Been ;
The Cave of the Puff-Adder, near Junction Hotel, Division of Queenstown.

Others could be mentioned, but the above will be sufficient to illustrate what has been asserted. The writer has been informed by several old Bushmen that all the great caves, that is those which were the residences of the head chiefs, were, at one time, thus distinguished ; and that in speaking of the people who inhabited them, or all those who acknowledged the authority of the same ruler, they were designated according to the tribal emblem with which the cave itself was ornamented.

Many have stated that the Bushmen were entirely without any form of government. This is altogether an erroneous idea ; and was probably formed from what the writers saw of the broken, scattered, and half-annihilated tribes which were to be met with along the exposed frontiers, after their fathers had been driven about and hunted for a couple of generations, and when each miserable fugitive group was forced to look after its own individual safety without reference to any other portion of the persecuted tribe.

The Bushman race was evidently, at one time, divided into a number of large tribes occupying tolerably well-defined tracts of country, which they looked upon as their own ancestral hunting-grounds ; and any intrusion upon these was sure to be resented. These branch-tribes were again divided, although they had but one chief, who was looked upon as paramount over the whole territory belonging to the tribe. The subdivisions, or minor clans, were under the guidance of lesser captains, who, nevertheless, seemed to possess almost uncontrolled authority over their respective kraals. The great cave represented the dignity and glory of the entire tribe, and it formed the grand centre around which they congregated when the different clans were threatened with a common danger.

As we proceed with our investigation we shall discover that they showed a devotion to their chief (a feeling which appeared to be almost entirely wanting among the purely Hottentot tribes) which could not be excelled, as they invariably gathered round him in the hour of danger, and fell to a man rather than desert him in his extremity. Nor was it only for their attachment and loyalty to their chiefs that they were distinguished, but for an almost passionate fondness for the rocks and glens in whose caves they and their fathers had lived probably for generations.

Many instances might be mentioned where a few wretched fugitives, after their tribe had been mercilessly butchered, have, after hopelessly wandering about for a time, stealthily returned to their ancestral cave, hiding themselves among the rocks by day and stealing out in the early morning and evening to gather a few roots and tubers to prolong their wretched existence, obtaining a little water from a neighbouring spring, and occasionally a little honey from some wild bees' nest among the fissures of their rocky asylum ; and have thus existed for years, tenaciously clinging to the spot, until feeble and tottering with age, they have sunk from sheer exhaustion and passed away in some hidden nook near where they were born ; or too feeble to defend themselves, they have been torn to pieces by the ravenous beasts which had made their lairs amid the romantic retreats which had once resounded with the noise of revelry and moonlight dancings of their forefathers.

In judging of their character, there are unfortunately few records left of them in their undisturbed state, and most of the intelligent writers who have treated of this subject visited them after the fierce and cruel crusade had commenced against them, and which, having once been taken in hand, was not allowed to cease until their extermination was rendered a certainty.

It was when their precarious means of subsistence failed that the Bushmen of the frontiers were driven to the necessity of hazarding a toilsome and dangerous expedition of plunder across the colonial boundaries. Such a mode of life naturally leads to cruelty. Although it is a crime in the eyes of political justice for a starving family, driven by imperious want to the necessity of taking the property of another, still in the law of nature the offence must be venial ; but the Bushmen for their conduct had not only the plea of nature and humanity, but that also of retribution.

They were driven out of their own country, the vast herds of game which once afforded them abundance of food were ruthlessly destroyed, their children were seized and carried into slavery by the people upon whom they subsequently committed their depredations, and on whom they almost naturally took every occasion for exercising revenge.

That the Bushmen were not always as barbarously ferocious as they were afterwards charged with being is proved by the fact that forty years previous to Barrow's visit, as was shown by the testimony of men then living, they frequented the colony boldly and openly, begged and stole, and were troublesome, just as the Kaffirs were afterwards, but they never attempted the life of any one. They proceeded not to this extremity until the Government unwisely and unjustly suffered the colonists to exercise an unlimited power over the lives of those who were taken prisoners. It failed at the same time to fix any bounds to the extent of the expeditions made against them, which certainly ought not to have gone beyond the limits of the colony.

When these circumstances are viewed impartially, it would almost appear that even their cruelty admitted of some palliation. Their studied barbarity, however, which ultimately extended itself to every living creature that pertained to the farmers, indicated a very altered disposition from that of their nation at large. Thus when they seized a Hottentot guarding his master's cattle, not content with putting him to immediate death, they tortured him by every means of cruelty their invention could frame, as drawing out his bowels, tearing off his nails, scalping, and other acts equally savage. Even the poor animals they stole were treated in the most barbarous and unfeeling manner, driven up the steep sides of mountains, where they were allowed to remain without any kind of food or water till they were either killed for use or dropped for want of means of supporting nature.

Image

Had a humane course of action been adopted from the beginning, instead of ruthlessly hounding them out of their country, how different might have been the history of this primitive race ; but '"'the greed for increasing pasturage was paramount, every available fountain was seized and occupied, and every right of the ancient owners unceremoniously trampled on. When all this is taken into consideration it is not to be wondered at that they should become brutish and miserable, that they should make their home in the desert, the unfrequented mountain pass, or the secluded recesses of a cave or ravine.

That in the deep hatred which was ultimately aroused against all those who were gradually, yet still most surely, despoiling them of their cherished hunting grounds, the Bushmen were frequently hurried into deeds of violence, at which humanity shudders, cannot be doubted ; but, as we have stated, the rights of this ancient hunter race were entirely ignored by the intruders of every race and colour.

Each appears to have asked with Lichtenstein, " What right has the Bushman to land, of which he does not know the value ? " And then these stronger races of men considered that all the blessings of life were summed up in the possession of sleek herds of cattle, with plenty of grass and water to pasture them, never troubling their heads for a moment to reflect whether it might not be possible for others to exist who cared for none of these things, and whose only glory was their wild, but cherished, freedom to follow over their boundless hunting grounds the swarming game which inhabited them, and who prized the rocks and caves where their fathers had dwelt above all the waving com lands in the universe.

It was, therefore, in the never-ending war of races which ensued, where all, however much they differed from one another, were against the Bushman, that it merged into one of the fiercest intensity, in which an irrepressible determination was shown, on the one hand, to maintain, at whatever cost, and by every means their untutored minds dictated to them, the lands they considered unquestionably their own ; while, on the other hand, as the old race were stumbling blocks to the coveted possession, an equal determination was exhibited to exterminate, if possible, the last vestige of those who so resolutely opposed their unjustifiable usurpation. The struggle ended, as all such conflicts ever do, in the ultimate triumph of the strongest, while in its course little forbearance or mercy was shown on either side.

Notwithstanding the Bushmen have been charged by their enemies with a total want of all kindness of feeling towards any other race than their own, and that every one that fell into their hands, even from the earliest times, was put to death without mercy, it is quite certain that this was not the case when the Bushmen held undisturbed possession of their ancient territories.

The evidence on this point is clear and distinct, and it was not until later times that they evinced that merciless and bloodthirsty disposition which so many have been eager to ascribe to them. The unanimous testimony of the old Kaffirs, Bachoana, Leghoya, and Basutu, as well as of the Bushmen themselves, affirms that this was far from being the case.

On the contrary, during the murderous native wars, when so many of the Bachoana and other tribes were half annihilated and scattered, in many instances the few unhappy outcasts that escaped destruction fled into Bushman territory, where they not only received protection and an asylum, but conforming to the Bushmen's habits and customs, wives were given to them and their daughters intermarried again with the Bushmen, and it was doubtless such infusions of foreign blood which gave a different physical character to some of the families of their leading captains, in contradistinction to those of pure Bushman type.

This good understanding continued until these refugees, increasing in numbers, and some, at last, bringing the remnants of their herds of cattle with them, began to band together and assume a sovereignty over portions of the country. Then, as they grew in strength, they turned upon those who had first given shelter to them when they were helpless and miserable fugitives, and strove by every means in their power to dislodge the ancient owners, who were at once deemed wild and untameable animals when they attempted to prevent the invaders from doing so.

As soon as the Bushmen saw these strangers beginning to intrude themselves in large bodies in every direction, with a determination to make permanent settlements, a spirit of opposition was aroused within them. The game, which was as precious to the old hunters as herds of tame cattle were to their aggressors, was destroyed or driven away ; and cattle-lifting almost as a natural consequence took the place of stalking the eland, the quagga, or the elephant. Capture and recapture, injuries and retaliation, soon grew into a war of extermination against the weaker and smaller race, whose unconquerable spirit might be crushed and annihilated, but seldom taught to submit to the trammels which the invading and conquering races were desirous of imposing upon them.

From all the evidence that can be obtained, the Bushmen in their undisturbed state appear never to have been aggressors. This doubtless arose from the fact of their having been the primitive inhabitants of the land, and therefore having never displaced any other race of men from its still more ancient possessions. The only rivals they had to contend with for dominion and supremacy were such animals as the mailed rhinoceros and lordly lion.

From the traditions of some of their clans they appear to have believed that, from an unknown time, they were the only men upon the earth. Some of the more isolated tribes retained this belief until a very recent period, for in the early days they seldom trespassed beyond the confines of their respective hunting grounds, and the same traditionary creed was handed down, unaltered, for many generations.

The gradual intrusion of the Hottentot tribes along the western coast, the pressure of the Bachoana tribes from the central north, the eruption of the more warlike Kaffirs from the eastward and along the south-eastern coast, the advent of the still more formidable pale faces from the very sea itself, rudely dispelled these long-cherished ideas wherever the original inhabitants of the soil came in contact with the invading races. " Bushman depredations " were unheard of as long as their ancient hunting-grounds were unmolested. Their oldest paintings are chiefly representations of the excitement of the chase or the joys and pleasures of their numerous dances.

They appear never to have had great wars against each other ; sudden quarrels among rival huntsmen, ending in lively skirmishes, which owing to their nimbleness and presence of mind caused little damage to life or limb, appear to have been the extent of their individual or tribal differences. Even an habitually quarrelsome man was not tolerated amongst them ; he became an intolerable nuisance, and his own friends assisted in putting the obnoxious individual on one side ; while their very enemies acknowledge them to have been, when left to themselves, a merry, cheerful race.

Their evening feast being ended, dancing during the first watches of the night followed as a matter of course. But when their ancient hunting-grounds were invaded from various quarters, great changes came over their social condition, and at length a determined opposition was shown by them against further encroachments. Finding, however, that they were unable to repel their invaders, while their chief means of subsistence was being destroyed, they levied, in their turn, unconditional blackmail upon the possessions of those they no longer looked upon with friendly eyes. Then it was that resistance, and capture, and recapture followed.

Image

Bushmen fell under the clubs, the assagais, or the bullets of the pursuers ; and these, in their turn, frequently experienced the fatal effects of the poisoned darts that were discharged at them. Organised attempts were made to dislodge the obnoxious Bushmen from their native strongholds ; sometimes these attacks were repelled, at others the cave dwellers were overpowered, and a considerable portion of a tribe would be destroyed.

Image

Driven from the fastnesses in one range of mountains, those who remained fled for refuge to another, mingling with other tribes already in possession. One piece of country cleared, the encroachments steadily continued, with a continually intensifying animosity on either side. Again dispossessed, again driven back, the marauding parties of the survivors would penetrate again into the old hunting-grounds which had been so violently wrested from them, to make reprisals upon the flocks and herds of those who had so unceremoniously monopolized them. These raids were pushed for a considerable distance into the old country once occupied by them. It was a never-ending war of encroachment on the one hand, and retaliation on the other.

This unswerving determination on the part of the Bushmen was put down to their wild animal propensities and untameableness, and it was considered as a necessary part of civilisation to look with leniency on the wholesale purloining of territory on the one side, yet still to paint the character of the weaker and much-wronged race in the blackest possible colours.

Their incomprehensible attachment to their original mode of life, their strong love of the wild freedom they had ever possessed, were considered as unquestionable evidence of their unimprovable nature, and the members of the formidable expeditions that were from time to time launched against them seemed impressed with the idea that the cause of humanity would be best served by annihilating a race with such peculiar tendencies ; and thus they were driven from stronghold to stronghold, rendered more and more desperate, until the last remnant of their most powerful tribes found a temporary asylum in the most inaccessible portions of the Maluti and Quathlamba mountains.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

3

Post posted by VED »

3 #.
HABITS OF THE BUSHMEN



To a Bushman, his mode of living, as long as he could obtain plenty of food, was in reality no more miserable than that of other savage races. He had no invidious object of comparison to place against his condition. When one feasted, they all partook ; and when one hungered, they all equally suffered. They took no thought for the morrow. With them it was either a feast or a famine. Their power of endurance, as well as that of digestion, was quite wonderful. Yet many instances of longevity are to be found at the present day among those who are still living with the Boers.

Notwithstanding their forbidding appearance, they possessed a number of savage virtues, which showed that they were not so utterly worthless as many have delighted in depicting them. Not the least noteworthy of these was their implicit faithfulness in any trust imposed upon them. We have already noticed their loyalty to their chiefs, their strong attachment to the place of their birth, their hospitality to strangers, their unselfishness in their division of food, their self-sacrifice and devotion in their attempts to rescue their wives and children from a life of bondage which they abhorred, their unflinching bravery, and their love of freedom.

Having thus gained some insight as to what was their true character in their originally undisturbed state, and what they doubtless would have remained under a more just and generous mode of treatment than that which was mercilessly meted out to them, we will now proceed to make some inquiry into such of their more domestic habits as may give us a better view of their inner life, when, devoid of fear from outer enemies, they were isolated among the rocks and plains of their ancestors.

In commencing this portion of our investigation, it may be as well to notice that from the evidence of Kwaba, alias Toby, the language spoken by that division which we may call the Sculptors or kopje-dwellers, from the fact of their selecting a hill or mound as their permanent place of residence, whence they obtained an extensive view of the surrounding country, but which contained no caves or rock shelters, in contradistinction to the Painters, or true cave-dwellers, was so different from that spoken by the latter, that it was not understood by them.

Upon this subject he says : " I can speak the Bushman language well," that is, the language of the branch of painters, " but," he continues, " I cannot understand the language of the Bushmen of the Gumaap or Riet river," — who belong to the tribes of sculptors. " Their language is too double."

From this it would appear that this division of the Bushman family has, in all probability, retained the more primitive form of their original language in their southward migration, while with those who moved more to the westward the language had become so modified that when the two streams again met in Central Southern Africa, so long a period had elapsed that they had become unintelligible to one another. This, however, is a question which must be left to some future philologist to decide.

We have already noticed the difference in the habitations of the two main branches of the Bushmen. Those who were the cave-dwellers and painters arrived at a higher degree of artistic talent than any other portion of their race, while their cave dwellings afforded more comfortable shelters from the weather than the fragile structures used by those tribes living on the more open kopjes. The towns, for so the stations of the large tribes might be termed in comparison with the movable dwelling-places of the small nomadic clans of the hunters of the plains, contained from one to two hundred huts.

Image

Two excellent examples of stations of this kind are to be found between Kimberley and Klip Drift or Barkly, on the Vaal, in Griqualand West. The one is on the outlying kopje near what is termed the Half-Way House on the road to Pniel, the other on the kopje immediately behind the Mission Station at Pniel itself.

Image

One or two others are to be found in the neighbourhood, but these were evidently the headquarters of this particular tribe. At both places there are a number of chippings, chiefly representations of animals : the head and neck of a giraffe at the Pniel kopje is remarkably fine, both on account of its large size and the correctness of its outline. It was evidently the grand figure of the tribe, and the spot might fitly be named from it — after the fashion of the caves we have mentioned — " the Camp of the Giraffe."

The position of most of the huts which covered the crests of both these hills is marked by a semi-circle of stones with the opening towards the east ; while that which formed the residence of the chief can also be distinguished from the rest, not only because it is larger, but the rocks also around it are very much more ornamented than any in the immediate neighbourhood of the others, while two or three smaller ones are placed close against it, forming probably the sleeping apartments of some of his wives.

An open space was left around this, and here it is that the carvings on the rocks are the thickest. Beyond this the huts of his people evidently formed an irregular ring around him ; while detached from the main body, the sites of several smaller groups of huts are still marked on the flanks of the kopje, apparently so placed for the purpose of acting as out-posts, so that the town itself should not be exposed to sudden attack either from the multitude of lions which once swarmed over the plains, or, in later years, from more formidable foes who then invaded the country.

These semicircles of stones show that the diameter of the general huts was about four feet, and of those of the chiefs nearly five. Their framework was formed of a few bent withes, and this again was covered with rush or grass mats. These were most commonly made of rushes laid longitudinally side by side and then sewn neatly and closely together with either a twine made of the back-sinews of an antelope or a kind of cord composed of rushes bruised and closely twisted together. The holes through which the twine or cord was passed were perforated through the body of the rush by means of a bone awl made for the purpose. These huts were more in the shape of magnified Dutch ovens than that of anything else.

The huts used by the men of the plains differed somewhat from those just described. They were not strengthened at the bottom with the row of stones used in the more permanent dwellings. They were taken down in the morning, the mats rolled up, the sticks tied into a bundle, and carried from place to place after the game, and again pitched at night at their fresh halting place. Campbell describes these dwellings as the most primitive of any of the nations he had visited. Moffat, who met some of the fugitive clans after so many of those on the frontier had been destroyed by the colonists, found some who did not possess even this flimsy shelter against the winds and storms.

Their mode of sleeping exhibited their primitive stage of existence, as instead of stretching themselves out like most other races, they coiled themselves up into as small a space as possible. Mr. Jan Wessels, who resided north of the Orange river at the time the country was filled with Bushmen, informed the writer that on visiting any of their caves, it was possible, although all the inhabitants were absent at the time of the visit, to tell the exact number of men, women, and children who lived in it, as each of them made a small round hollow hole, like a nest, into which they individually coiled themselves, each man, woman, and child having his or her own allotted form, to which they retired when they wished to sleep.

In cold, rainy, or snowy weather, they would not make the least attempt to get up or alter their position for a day or two together, but would remain in a state as if of semi-torpor until an amelioration of the inclement weather took place, which apparently revivified them. Then first the men would be seen creeping out, with their never-for-gotten bows and arrows, and after a little time the women and children would make their appearance. Certain connubial rites, and other operations of nature which in more civilised communities decency taught men to reserve for the strictest privacy, were performed openly among them.

The wife constructed for herself a fireplace with three round stones ; she also fashioned, varnished, and baked the few earthenware pots she had to use, manufactured the frail rush mats, under which her family found shelter from the wind and heat of the sun ; she suckled her infants and decked them with care ; in fine weather she was seen going in haste to the fields to gather roots, especially a small round white bulb called uintje (iris edulis), which together with locusts that she gathered and dried in the summer, the chrysalides of the ants which she took from the anthills, constituted with the game taken by her husband their only subsistence.

The man generally cooked by himself, and the woman for herself ; but whenever a pot was to be emptied, all the kraal gathered round it and partook of it. Thus they went from hut to hut until there remained nothing more to be consumed.

Sometimes the men, who would be absent hunting on the vast plains the whole of the day, would there eat to their hearts' content of the game they had killed, and only bring food to their wives when they had had their fill. On such occasions, when they returned in the evening with empty hands, they generally put on sulky faces, and pretended to be knocked up or annoyed.

The cunning wife, however, soon detected from her husband's appearance that he was not hungry ; besides the woman was always on the watch, and saw the smoke rising on the distant flats when the meat was cooking ; and so she received him very angrily, pulled and threw down the hut in her rage, and would not suffer him to partake of the ants or whatever supper she had madeN. But in their undisturbed state this condition of affairs did not often exist, during that period there was not only an abundance of game, but, as a rule, an abundance of food also; and the spoils of the chase amply rewarded the fatigues of the huntsmen.

Then it was, as soon as supper was over, the women with the children and the young men commenced some of their numerous dances, which were continued until deep into the night, when, at length weary, they retired to their little hollow nests lined with grass or straw, in which they coiled themselves to sleep.

Note: Memoir of Miss L. C. Lemue, from Notes of Charles Sirr Orpen.

The vanity of the Bushwomen was just as great as that which, characterises women in all ages and all lands. They evinced with their ostrich eggshell beads and springbok kaross as much desire for decoration and display as any others. Their heads were always uncovered, sometimes even shaven, but a quantity of hair was left and arranged as a tuft on the crown, and always plastered with ochre, fat, and the powder of an aromatic plant called buchu. This they carried in a little skin bag or small pot or box made of the segment of a horn, slung to the waist for ordinary use.

They speckled their faces and breasts with red and yellow paint and white clay. The men also indulged in this fashion of painting their bodies, sometimes in zebra-like parallel lines, sometimes the lines were drawn diagonally across their bodies, at others they covered themselves with a series similar to chevronels, and again others employed a combination of these different modes of ornamentation.

Besides painting, the women adorned their foreheads with a narrow band of thread, not very closely plaited, but elegantly covered with rings made from ostrich eggshell ; and in addition to these fillets, bracelets, girdles, and long fibrous aprons, which in some cases hung down from their waists to their feet, were made and ornamented with the same. Their industry was clearly illustrated in the manufacture of these shell beads and rings, upon which an infinite amount of labour, patience, and time must necessarily have been bestowed in their production. Nor did they, besides these, despise any other ornament they could obtain.

They further adorned themselves, as do the Orientals, with a lace or cord of threaded ostrich eggshell beads, which passed through the nostril and was tied at the back of the head, thus forming a festoon over either cheek.n Above their ancles and wrists they fastened little oblong bells, made of the skin of the springbok well dried, and which, by means of pebbles enclosed in them, produced a sound very agreeable to their taste.

Note: 1 The Coast-Kafiir and other kindred tribes, and even the Hottentots themselves, do not appear to have ever arrived, before their contact with the European, at that stage of mechanical skill which enabled them to manufacture ornaments of this kind for themselves, in lieu of which they used such natural productions as the brilliant coloured red seeds of the Kaffir-boom and different kinds of sea-shells, especially such as the Nerita, Bulla, and Cowrie.

Image

The men, besides the custom of painting their bodies with various patterns (a custom which necessarily fell into disuse when their invaders commenced breaking up their clans and hunting them from mountain to mountain), wore a small piece of skin for a girdle, a very scanty springbok cloak, frequently cut and ornamented in different patterns, together with sundry anklets, arm-and bracelets, and sometimes necklaces, these ornaments seeming to indicate respective rank.

After their territories had been invaded and much of their game had been destroyed or driven away, they were sometimes reduced to such extremities as to be obliged to cook and eat old skins. Sometimes they were afraid to go into the plains to hunt, on account of their enemies. They had a great dread of being captured or shot by the Koranas or the Dutch, and there were critical times when nothing would induce them to leave their retreats. The very sight of a white face threw them into an agony of fear. Every time M. Arbousset managed to get near them, they raised loud cries, and sought to flee or conceal themselves.

p3 #
Image

It was at this time, and under these circumstances, that this earnest missionary found some of their huts constructed of branches of trees, and others of another kind among the rocks, with which they might at a distance be readily confounded. All these consisted of three sticks stuck in the ground, and of two small mats, one of which served as a screen behind the stakes, the other as a roof ; and under these poor shelters the unfortunates reposed, huddled pell-mell together. When asked why they did not build better huts like the Basutu, they answered that such huts attached them too much to one spot, that their enemies might burn them all alive in these huts, or kill them in some way before they could get out ; that they would not be able to put them aside during the day to prevent them being seen.

They assured M. Arbousset that, since their country had been invaded, they slept with their feet out of their kaross, that they could more readily spring up and escape in case of an alarm ; that they did not long remain in one place, partly owing to the migration of the game, and partly that no one might know where they were to be found. For this last reason they went in very small companies, without dogs, and with the least noise and bustle possible.

The Bushmen who, through their friendly intercourse with the Leghoya, the first of the Bachoana tribes with whom the aborigines of the Vaal river came in contact, had in the early part of the present century become possessed of small herds of cattle, and were gradually passing from the hunter to the pastoral stage, had long before the time of M. Arbousset's visit in 1836 been reduced to a state of destitution ; and many of them had been wantonly butchered by the marauders who had invaded their country from different quarters.

By this time also an additional calamity had befallen them. The Koranas, finding that they could exchange them for guns, ammunition, and brandy with the old colonists, commenced kidnapping their children ; and a few years after the commencement of this traffic, some of the wandering Boers, following the example of their fathers along the Bushman borders of the Old Colony, made forays upon them for this express purpose, seizing almost all their children, dishonouring them if they were girls, and sometimes making eunuchs of the lads ; and thus it was that the Bushmen became greatly exasperated.

Such however was the attachment of these Bushmen to their native rocks and plains that, young as these captives were, many of them attempted to escape as soon as a favourable opportunity presented itself. They have been known to travel for many days through a wild country infested with beasts of prey, and yet at last have, after escaping many perils, succeeded in discovering the retreat of their friends. Many doubtless wandered into the far wilderness, and were never more heard of.

These unhappy little wretches, after effecting their escape sought the wildest parts of the country to travel through, in order more effectually to avoid detection. When they neared the part of the country where they believed their friends were staying, they commenced making a series of signals in the following manner : selecting a spot where they could see over a considerable extent of country, they would make a little fire on the highest point, and cover it with a small pile of damp grass, just sufficient to form one long slender column of smoke ; as this rose in the air the little wanderers watched intently to see if any answering sign could be detected. Failing to see this, they would again proceed onward, and would again and again repeat the experiment on some other favourable spots, continuing to advance in the intervals until at last they saw another slender column of smoke rising in answer to their own ; then they would speed onward in the direction where the answering signal was given.

p4 #
Image

Should the Bushmen prove to be strangers, to show that their meeting was a friendly one all those who were armed, and there were few who were not, would during the interview lay their bows and arrows upon the ground. Thus the fugitives proceeded until they were fortunate enough to encounter some of their countrymen who knew their tribe and the position of their country, when they obtained the necessary information which enabled them to direct their footsteps, with greater certainty, in the direction of their home.

A sign of peace or a flag of truce among the Bushmen of the Karoo was displayed by exhibiting a jackal's tail fastened to the end of a stick, which was held aloft in the air and waved repeatedly ; and then, as they approached nearer, their bows and arrows were laid aside in the usual manner.N

Notes: Evidence of David Swanepoel, an old farmer of considerable intelligence, one of those who in the early days used to cross the Orange river for the purpose of hunting, when the entire country was still in the undisturbed possession of the Bushmen.

Fugitive families were, after the dispersion of the tribes, met with all over the country. Campbell in his travels in 1812-13 encountered one of these, consisting of a Bushman, his wife, a younger brother, two daughters, eleven and twelve years of age, and a child of about eighteen months, which the mother still continued to suckle. They were on their way for a supply of water. The man had a bow and quiver full of poisoned arrows. The mother had a stroke of dark blue, like tattooing, from the upper part of her brow to the nose, about half an inch broad, and two similar strokes on her temples.

Image

The man had several cuts on his arms and smaller ones on his temples, and so had the children, which they said was done to cure sickness. The dark colour of these cuts was produced by rubbing ground charcoal into the wounds when they were green. They had part of the entrails of a zebra filled with water, from which they frequently drank, and then filled five ostrich eggshells with water to carry home. The paunch of the 'gnu or wildebeest was frequently used as a water-bottle among the Bushman tribes. The open end or mouth of this was fastened with wildebeest-hair ; when they wished to pour out the water this was loosened sufficiently to allow the required quantity to escape, without being entirely unfastened. A tortoise shell was used as a drinking cup, or the orifice of the watersack itself was introduced into the mouth of the drinker.

Their most convenient water-bottles, however, were undoubtedly the shells of the ostrich egg. A kind of neck was made to them with the black wax employed by the bees to stop the crevices in their hives, and the mouth was closed with a plug. The women could carry a considerable number of these at a time, in a rude kind of net slung across their shoulders ; and the shell bottles, when filled, were packed away in a cool place ready for use.

Some of the Sculptor tribes used to ornament the surface of these shells in a most elaborate manner, covering them over with etchings of various animals, and sometimes even with hunting and other scenes. The delineations stood out boldly from the white ground, from the engraved lines having been blackened with charcoal or some other pigment. Gemsboks, giraffes, gnus, zebras, elands, and various kinds of antelopes, lions, and serpents, men and women, were in many instances engraved upon them with admirable skill.

Unfortunately from the fragile materials of the water-bottles, very few of these works of native talent are now to be met with. Their pots of earthenware were also sometimes ornamented with patterns raised upon the surface when the clay was being fashioned ; but these are now only found in detached fragments, as it appears to have been the universal practice of their enemies, when they took possession of one of their caves, to destroy everything which could remind them of its former owners.

The Bushmen have been frequently charged with gross inhumanity towards their children. We have already seen that it was a virtue among the Bushmen to love one's own father, and that mothers were known to deprive themselves of food that they might give it to their children. We are therefore led to imagine that these instances of cruelty were the exception rather than the general rule. The women seldom had large families. They carried their children in a different manner from that adopted by the Basutu, or Kafar race, among whom they are bound to their mother's backs in the fold of a kaross, while the Bushwomen carry their little ones on the left side, in a lying posture, the child's feet being towards its parent's back, and its head towards her chest, supported in the skin of a springbok.n

Notes: The peculiar way of carrying their children astride on the left hip employed by many of the South African Dutch peasantry has probably been derived from the Bush and Hottentot nurses that they employed in the early days.

Image

Moffat, who from his long contact with other races, seems sometimes to write somewhat severely about Bushmen, states that these people " take no great care of their children, and never correct them except in a fit of rage, when they almost kill them by severe usage. In a quarrel between father and mother, the defeated party wreaks his or her vengeance on the child of the conqueror, which in general loses its life.

Tame Hottentots seldom destroy their children except in a fit of passion ; but the Bushmen will kill their children without remorse on various occasions, as when they are ill-shaped, when they are in want of food, when the father of a child has forsaken its mother, or when obliged to flee from the farmers or others, in which case they will strangle them, smother them, cast them away in the desert or bury them alive rather than they should fall into the hands of their hated enemies.

There are instances of parents throwing their tender offspring to the hungry lion, who stood roaring before their cavern, refusing to depart till some peace-offering was made to him. In general the children cease to be the objects of a mother's care as soon as they are able to crawl about in the field."

Terrible as this list of charges appears to be, and to which another has been added, viz. that of burying the living infant with the body of its mother, who may have died whilst it was still in its infancy, from the hopelessness of attempting to rear it upon their primitive fare without the aid of maternal care, they were evidently aggravated by the cruelty and wrong which was heaped upon them by those who looked upon themselves as members of a superior race, who so relentlessly seized the last acre of their territory and destroyed their only means of subsistence, until all the horrors of famine dogged the steps of this ill-fated race, and many perished from hunger.

Still in their direst extremity no instance has been recorded that the Bushmen resorted to cannibalism to prolong their lives, in a similar manner to the Bachoana, Basutu, and some of the Kaffir tribes, who threw away their children by scores in their flight from their enemies, and beyond this, as soon as they had found an asylum among the mountains, had recourse to the horrid practice of feeding upon human flesh, devouring not only their children but their wives also, as well as every one else who had the misfortune to fall into their hands.

In addition to what has already been said with regard to their ornaments, it may be added that the men were the great manufacturers of beads. Their most valued ornament was that which passing through the nostril was looped up at the back of the head. As a rule in the earlier days they did not pierce the ears, and it was only after they obtained small copper rings from other tribes that the men did so.

They calculated time by wet and dry seasons and by moons, and the period of the day by the course of the sun. After a time, as they became accustomed to the use of horses, they became expert and fearless horsemen. This was shown in a striking manner in their mode of hunting the quagga, being light-weights they would dash into a herd of quaggas, and when in full career amid the maddened throng single out such victims as they marked for death.

Much has been said by many writers about the evil effects brought upon the native races since their contact with white men, by the introduction of tobacco and ardent spirits ; but, strange as it may appear, all the tribes now found in South Africa were smoking and drinking races ages before they knew of the existence of Europeans.

p5 #
Image

The Bushmen were almost passionately fond of smoking. Their pipes were made either of wood, reed, stone, or a bone of an antelope. They were generally made in the shape of a tube rather wider at the one end than the other. Joints of the mountain bamboo were also used, as well as bowls of baked clay.

Some of them were of rather elaborate construction, and answered the purpose of a rude or rather a primitive hookah ; they were made of a large horn of an eland, a hole was made in this about one-third from the pointed end, into which was inserted a tube about nine inches in length, on the top of which was fitted an elongated clay bowl, from six to eight inches in length, either made of baked clay or cut out of a soft stone. One of the latter, which the writer saw in the hands of a Basutu who had obtained it from an old Bushman cave, was very beautifully and elaborately carved with a pattern in relief.

When these pipes were used, a certain quantity of water was put into the horn, the mouth was applied to the large orifice of the horn, and the smoke, after being drawn through the water, was inhaled quickly three or four times into the lungs, from which it was again thrown off in a violent fit of coughing, the tears at the same time rolling down from the eyes ; this was considered the height of ecstasy to the smoker. This process continued for a little time, when the fumes of the dacha produced a kind of intoxication or delirium, and the devotee commenced to recite or sing with great rapidity and vehemence the praises of himself or his chief during the intervals of smoking and coughing. The Zulus and some of the other tribes use a similar hookah, substituting, however, the horn of an ox or a calabash for the more primitive eland's horn used by the Bushmen.

As it is evident that the hunters were addicted to smoking, and used these pipes generations before they came in contact with the stronger races, it becomes a question whether the latter did not copy the idea from the older inhabitants. "The plant used for smoking was a species of wild hemp, called dacha, which was generally carried in a small skin-bag. Pieces of a narcotic root were also strung like a necklace and worn round the neck ; these were lit at the fire and brought to the nose, so that they snuffed the smoke into their nostrils.

The Kanna-bosch was also dried and powdered, and used both for chewing and smoking. When mixed with dacha it was very intoxicating.

The great happiness of the Bushman was however in his honey harvest, when the combs of the wild bees' nests were dropping with honey. It was then that he brewed his primitive mead, with which a certain root was mixed which rendered the beverage more intoxicating. This root however was kept a profound secret, except to a few chosen members of the ruling family. It was at such seasons that he could pour out the libations in which he delighted, and it was then, before the intrusion of his enemies, that he could eat, drink, and be merry.

But when his enemies came upon him, all this was changed in the evil days which followed ; and because he was the possessor of the land, he was accused of every crime, and as every opportunity was sought by the usurpers to rid themselves of his inconvenient presence, few of his race escaped a tragical end.

Having thus made some inquiry into the character and habits of the Bushmen of South Africa, we shall now take into consideration their means of subsistence. There seems very little reason to doubt that before mankind arrived at the higher grade of a hunter race, before they were able to construct weapons sufficiently effective to secure a supply of animal food for them- selves, the primitive savage must have been compelled to live upon such food as he could procure with his hands alone, with the assistance of such improvised missiles as whatever sticks or stones chance threw into his way.

In such a state he must have existed for an immense number of ages before such an advance was made as to arrive at the perfection of a sling or a bow, during which period he must have subsisted upon what in South Africa has been termed veld host, and which consists of such edible roots, bulbs, and tubers, such plants or wild fruits, insects, and small animals, birds, or reptiles, as can be secured without the aid of any artificial weapon, beyond those afforded by Nature herself.

Such then was the condition of life from which the remote ancestors of the Bushmen emerged when they entered into the rank of true huntsmen armed with, what to them must have been a wonderful invention, a bow and arrow. But in becoming hunters (a change which must have come over their race by slow degrees) they still retained their original mode of living, and the veld-kost remained, especially in times of scarcity, one of their mainstays to support existence.

Image

This kind of food may, as we have seen, be divided into two kinds, vegetable and animal. We will therefore enumerate, in the first place, such productions of the former classN as are known to have been utilised by them as articles of food, after which we shall notice those which they obtained from the animal kingdom.

Image

Notes: The writer had hoped, during the time he was engaged upon the geological survey of the Orange Free State, to have obtained a correct and exhaustive list of such things as had been used by the early Free State Bushmen, but although he made strenuous efforts to do so he failed— as owing to some unaccountable reason the Boers who had old Bushmen living on their farms used every means of persuasion to prevent them accompanying him, and the Bushmen across the border declared they dared not cross it on account of their fear of the Boers.

Hunger, writes Moffat, compelled them to feed upon everything edible. Ixias, wild garlic, mesembryanthemums, the core of aloes, the gum of acacias, and several other plants and berries, some of which are extremely unwholesome, constituted their fruits of the field ; while almost every kind of living creature was eagerly devoured, lizards, locusts, and grasshoppers, the poisonous as well as innoxious serpents not excepted, the head of the former being carefully cut off, and then all roasted and eaten together.

The Bushmen of the more wooded portions of the sea-coast were able to obtain a number of additions to their vegetable supplies, which their brethren of the interior could not procure. The bulbs of many Ixias and other plants of the same tribe constituted with ants and locusts the chief food of the Bushmen and Koranas, when they could not procure game or milk.

The inside also of the enormous roots of the Testudinaria elephantipes, or elephant's foot, and the soft pithy interior of the stems of the Zamid, the latter being known to the colonists as Hottentot-bread, were extracted, reduced to a pulp, and after being baked in some primitive fashion, served the purpose of a kind of coarse bread or cake. The flowering tops of the Aponogeton distachys, a pretty white-flowered floating plant frequent in pools in many parts of the colony, and sometimes used even by the settlers as a pickle, and asparagus, were cooked by them.n

Image

Notes: The Uyntje, called Monakaladi in Sesutu, is one of their principal means of subsistence ; it is abundant in the Free State, the Interior, and in Basutoland, and in fact this little bulb is found in the whole of South Africa. They eat it any way, either raw, roasted under the ashes, or ground, or rather it is crushed on a stone; when crushed it is dried, in which state it will keep a long time."

" The Sekeng-keng in Sesutu is a fat plant that grows on the hills and in very dry places, they also eat it raw. The black tribes use this plant also to improve their snuff, by mixing a little of its ashes with the snuff." — Notes by C. S. Orpen, Memoir on Bushmen, by Miss L. E. Lemue.

The young shoots of several shrubs were also used as articles of food. One of these was said to possess special nourishing properties, viz. the Methyscophyllum glaucum (Mac-Owan), growing on the banks and in the ravines of the Kei. These shoots when chewed have a slightly bitter, yet pleasant flavour, combined with a strong sweet taste of licorice. It is said to contain such life-sustaining powers that during its season the Bushmen were not only able to subsist for a considerable time upon its nourishment alone, but, as they termed it, they became " strong and fat " upon the invigorating diet.

The Bushmen of the North, again, were able to procure supplies from the vegetable kingdom which were denied to those living on the great central plains. To the travellers Chapman and Baines we are indebted for whatever description of them we possess. The first noticed is a tree with heart-shaped leaves called Toa by the Bushmen, Onganga by the Ovambo, and Mapura by the Bachoana. Its wood is used principally by the natives for making wooden vessels, troughs, etc., and combines softness with closeness of grain and durability.

All the natives make a strong intoxicating drink out of its fruit, which is very like a lime in appearance, of a pleasant acid taste, thick rind like the lime, and with a large nut inside. The elephants are very fond of it. The trunk of the tree is generally several feet thick and straight for about twenty or thirty feet, when it branches out into a beautiful crown.

Image

The Baobab, Adansonia digitata, is another tree connected with the Bushmen of the interior. Its Bushman name is 'Bo, it is called Moana by the Bachoana and Makololo tribes, and Boana or Boyana by those of the Makalaka and Batonga. Its fruit hangs attached to a strong stem, and has a woody gourd-like capsule, sometimes from ten to twelve, but generally about six inches in length, and from three to four thick. In this capsule numerous kidney-shaped seeds are imbedded between fibrous divisions in a white pulpy acid substance, somewhat resembling cream of tartar in taste.

Image

The Bushmen convert the fibrous bark into a kind of matting, which is sometimes used in lieu of a blanket or a kaross. They look as if made of a material like coir. Bags, ropes, etc., are also made of it, but the wood, being soft and spongy, is useless, excepting as tinder when in a state of decay.

In the decayed hollows of the uppermost branches bees build their nests in fancied security from the ravages of the Bushmen, who nevertheless scale its castle-like walls by means of two rows of pegs driven deep into the bark to serve as a ladder.N From the pulp of the fruit a very pleasant and wholesome drink may be made with boiling water, in cases of fever, especially with the addition of a little honey or sugar.

Image

The Bushmen made a kind of porridge by boiling it, which was however very acid. The fruit ripens when the leaves have fallen, generally in March and April. The difficulty of throwing them down with sticks and stones ensures a pretty constant supply throughout the winter season. Chapman found in some of these trees large excavations made by the Bushmen, in which ten or twelve men could sleep, with a fire in their midst. In others large caverns were discovered, the resort of numerous owls and bats.

Notes: The writer has seen places where the Bushmen, by a similar method, have climbed the face of a dizzy precipice where even a baboon could not have obtained a footing, to secure the much coveted honey of a bees' nest. The pegs were still in the face of the precipice.

Another fruit of great value to the Bushmen of this part of Africa was a species of Anona, which these people called Bododo. It was found by Chapman, in 1854, in the Kalahari, near the Chobe It is a perennial, thriving in moist sandy places, such as old river-bedsN and hollows. It is from fifteen to eighteen inches high, and grows in beds and clusters. The leaves are oblong, alternate, and one inch apart, their upper sides smooth and glossy, and their lower strongly reticulated. The fruit is divided into sections, each of which encloses a brown seed, in shape like that of the castor-oil plant, but larger. The fruit hangs downward by a short stem, under the leaves. It emits a very sweet odour when ripe, by which it may be easily traced in the field.

Mr. Chapman states that it was the most luscious fruit he ever tasted, and that when ripe it is of a pine-apple colour. In its green state it is used as a vegetable. In favourable seasons the Bushmen gathered large quantities, and became fat upon it, but it is almost too luscious for a white palate. Some seasons, however, it does not bear at all.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari frequently obtained for two or three months together their water supply from the wild water-melon (Cucumis caffer) found so plentifully in the desert at certain seasons. Making a hole in one side of the melon, they pound up its contents, the rind forming a natural mortar, and then drink the water thus obtained.

Notes: The old dry river beds found in the Kalahari region are called Dums by the Bushmen, Omaramba by the Damaras, and Malopo by the Bachoana.

Image

The Bushmen of the 'Gariep, or Great river, make use of a species of Stipelia, which they call 'Guaba. The writer found this growing on the rocky ridges of the great southern bend of this river. It is eaten both by the Bushmen and the Dutch hunters to assuage their thirst. It has a sweetish taste, somewhat approaching licorice, mingled with a permanent bitter which clings to the palate for a long time after it has been eaten. The Bushmen assert that it acts as a tonic, both strengthening them and increasing their powers of endurance.

Besides these things, some of the Bushman tribes collected considerable quantities of grass-seeds, which were pounded, boiled, and eaten like grain. It would appear that the practice of collecting these seeds for winter store was almost universal before the peace of the country was destroyed by the irruption of the stronger races into it.

Several of their mortars, hollowed out of the solid rock, and which are worked out in perfect shape and smoothed and finished inside with a care which is surprising when we know that the only chisel at their disposal was a chipped and sharpened piece of lydite, are still found near several of the old caves in the Free State, and which were used in the preparation of this kind of food. It was doubtless the use of grass-seeds as an article of food which induced some of the earlier races of men to attempt its growth to increase the quantity of their winter food, a practice which formed the germ whence by slow degrees and step by step the knowledge of cultivating the soil was gained, and from which the science of agriculture ultimately sprang.

The most abundant supplies of insect food were derived from the innumerable ant-hills found in the country, and in the early days the almost periodical visits of vast swarms of locusts. The arrival of the latter was hailed by the Bushmen as a glorious time of harvest, as they were esteemed excellent and nourishing food. Immense numbers of them were caught, deprived of their legs and wings, dried in the fire, and then either ground with a maalklip, that is a flat stone, or one which has been slightly hollowed in the centre, upon which the dried locusts were reduced to powder by means of a smaller round one worked with both hands, or pounded in one of the mortars which have been described as hollowed out of the solid rock and used in the preparation of grass-seeds.

The finest specimen of one of these mortars which the writer met with, he discovered hollowed out of a large boulder in front of a cave in the Koesberg. It was six inches in diameter and eight in depth, of excellent shape, and perfectly smooth inside. The labour required to have made this with the rude stone implements they possessed must have been immense. Unfortunately the boulder was too large to be removed, and doubtless remains in the same position until the present day.

The locust-powderN was stored in a dry place, in skin sacks, and kept for future use, when it was made into a kind of porridge, and also, when mixed with honey, into a sort of cake, which was said by those who have tasted it to have been far from unpalatable. The nutritious properties of this food were proved by the fact that during the locust season the Bushmen increased in flesh, and became rotund and well-conditioned.

Notes: The method of baking the locusts was by hollowing out and heating beforehand a deserted anthill. They were poured into this primitive oven through a hole at the top, and when sufficiently dried, which was in a short time, were raked out through another at the bottom. — Memoir of Miss L. E. Lemvie, C. S. Orpen's Notes.

The Bushman-rice, as it was termed by the Dutch, or chrysalides of white ants obtained from the ants' nests, was merely gathered in such quantities as sufficed for daily use. This Bushman rice was called 'Kasu by the Bushmen themselves. To obtain a supply, the nest was opened with a digging stick, called 'Kibi. The "eggs" were then taken out and placed upon a small grass mat, made expressly for the purpose, and which was used as a sieve. The " eggs " were then properly sorted, and placed in a small grass basket or skin bag, and the process was continued until a sufficient quantity was obtained. They were then taken to the cave or camp, when they were placed on the fire, on a flat stone with a little fat, and roasted until they were brown, when they were considered fit for use.

Among the reptiles most esteemed as food were the great frog and the iguana, both of which are said by epicures to possess a most delicate and chicken-like flavour. The enormous frog (Pycicephalus adspersus) (Dr. Smith), called the brul-pad, or bellowing toad, from the noise it makes resembling the bellow of a bull, by the Dutch, and matlameto by the Bakuena, is supposed by the natives to fall from the thunder-clouds, on account of their sudden appearance during rain, as frequently when the rain is falling a sudden chorus is raised on all sides, which seems to strengthen the belief.

The Bushmen, however, found out that in times of drought it makes a hole at the root of certain bushes. And as it seldom quits its hiding-place, a large variety of spider takes advantage of the hole, and makes its web across the orifice, and thus it is discovered by them.

Image

Savage as they were deemed to be, they had several modes of cooking, viz :— boiling, roasting or broiling, and baking. The last, as we have seen, was sometimes accomplished by the help of a deserted ant-heap. Meat was sometimes prepared in this manner ; but the climax of Bushman cookery was reached in the mode they adopted in preparing the foot of the elephant or hippopotamus, a delicacy supposed to be the portion of their great chiefs. After an elephant or hippopotamus had been killed or captured, the tribe gave itself up to feasting and festivity.

A hole was dug in the ground, in which a large fire was made. When it was thoroughly heated, and the coals and ashes were raked out, the great foot of the animal was placed in the centre, and it was then covered in with the ashes which had been abstracted. In this position it was allowed to remain until the following morning, when, according to the testimony of old hunters, these wild men produced a dish fit for an emperor !

They obtained fire by using fire-sticks. The Bushmen employed several kinds of wood in making them ; one was a small thorny bush abundant in some parts of South Africa, and called Mosukutsoane by the Basutu, another that of the wild fig, and a third that sometimes called Melkbosch by the Dutch, a species of Asclepias, the " wild cotton " of the Settlers.

Two small pieces of one or other of these woods were taken ; the one was round, and pointed at one end, the other had been flattened, with a small rounded hollow in the centre of it, into which the pointed end of the former was introduced as in a loose socket, which by being rubbed briskly between the palms of the hands was made to revolve rapidly. In a few seconds, under their skilful manipulation, fire would make its appearance. A small groove was cut from the socket in the lower piece to allow the ignited particles to escape.

Mr. Octavius Bowker, who has frequently in his hunting expeditions been accompanied by some of these wild huntsmen, has assured the writer that he has been perfectly astonished at the readiness and rapidity with which he has seen them obtain fire to cook any game that may have fallen in the chase.

On one special occasion, during a halt, one of his Bushmen attendants undertook to broil some steaks for him from an eland that had been shot. His volunteer cook first collected a quantity of dry wildebeest dung, and with a sharp stick dug up a number of grass roots ; these he placed in a small circle, putting the meat in the centre. He produced his fire-sticks, and with a few rapid whirls obtained the necessary fire to set the whole in a blaze, and in a short time produced as savoury a repast as any genuine hunter could desire ; and this, he assured his master, was the method of cooking game adopted by his countrymen.


Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:19 am, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

4

Post posted by VED »

4 #
WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE BUSHMEN


Having thus obtained a slight insight into their means of subsistence, we will now proceed to make some inquiry with regard to their Weapons and Poisons.

In entering upon this portion of our subject we find ourselves confronted with the important and interesting fact that the Bushmen were not only cave-dwellers, but also the manufacturers of the stone implements which are found scattered all over the surface of the country ; and, moreover, it is equally certain that implements of this kind were still manufactured and used by some of their more isolated clans until within as recent a period as the last fifteen or twenty years. This circumstance was so well known that when any of these implements have been presented to old Koranas or Bachoana, with an inquiry as to what they were intended for, they have invariably answered, “They are Bushman knives !”

Some have questioned the authenticity of these stone relics of South Africa, asserting somewhat emphatically that the whole of them were merely natural exfoliations from the parent rock. It is quite possible that exfoliations of this kind might have first taught primitive man the benefit to be derived from a sharp-edged tool, and that he subsequently learnt the method of striking them off himself when no others were to be found, and, finally, of improving the efficiency of their edges by chipping and grinding them, varying their shapes according to the uses for which they were intended.

The proofs, however, of their having been shaped by human hands are too overwhelming to be gainsaid. The writer has found them in all parts of South Africa which he has visited. Numerous chipping places are to be found where the flakes are scattered round, and the cores lying amongst them. He has seen these places near the banks of rivers, on the tops of kopjes, whence an extensive view of the country could be obtained, and especially near their caves, where among the refuse belonging to the larger ones immense numbers are still frequently to be found.

The favourite rock for making them was Lydite, although any other hard rock was frequently employed. These materials must in most cases have been brought from long distances, as no similar rocks could be found for many miles. Arrow-tips and small drills were generally formed of flint, agate, or chalcedony, which in many instances could only have been obtained from distant tribes.

Image

As an illustration of this, the following were the results of the examination of a small Bushman cave in the kloof near the native location at Smithfield, which had evidently been only an occasional residence of an insignificant family or clan. The rocks of the surrounding country are composed exclusively of those of what are termed the Karoo or Lacustrine formation, with igneous dykes protruding through them, while the micaceous-sandstone, schistose and jaspideous rocks here spoken of are only to be found among the older formations which formed its ancient coast-line or boundary, the nearest known point of which must be at least some one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles from Smithfield. The agates, chalcedony, etc., could have been obtained from the Vaal, the Orange, or Caledon rivers.

Image

The examination of this cave was made through the energetic aid of Mr. Charles Sirr Orpen, who pointed it out to the writer and accompanied him to it, taking with him a man and the necessary implements for a vigorous search. The floor of the cave was then gradually cleared out, and the soil and refuse ashes thus obtained carefully sifted and sorted, with the following interesting results. They were found to comprise from the animal kingdom fragments of bone, pieces of ostrich eggshells, and fresh-water shells ; from the mineral numerous stone implements and chips, together with some relics of native manufacture. They were as follows —

Animal remains, among numerous small fragments of bone :—
Leg bones, broken fragments, various antelopes ... 5
Small scapula, animal unknown ... 1
„ clavicle ,, „ .... ... 1
Fragments of various small skulls, among which two under-maxillary bones of small rodents .... 6
Teeth, antelope 4
“ wild-boar 2
i rib, antelope 1
Fragments of Ostrich Shell : —
Fragments comparatively recent 12
„ ancient, slightly damaged I2
,, ,, almost fossilized 5
— 29
Some of these had evidently been broken up with the intention of manufacturing beads.
Fresh-water Shells : —
Fragments probably used as scrapers — 4
Total of animal remains 53
Stone Implements, etc. : —
Knives and drills (Lydite) 8
Scrapers ,, 12
„ (Micaceous sandstone) 4
,, (Schistose-rock) 1
Chipped agates, drills and scrapers 11
Quartz and chalcedony — chipped fragments .... 13
Fragments — jaspideous-rock 5
Total of implements — 54
Native manufactures, pottery, etc. : —
Plain pottery, fragments 4
Pottery, showing bordering edge, one with worked pattern upon it 2
— 6
Bone shaft of arrow, fragment made of ostrich leg bone . 1
Stem of clay-pipe, fragment 1
Found in upper surface : —
Fragment of iron shaft of assagai much corroded . . 1
— 3 9
This was the only indication of metal discovered.
One small fragment of fossil reptilian-bone, derived from karoo-formation 1
Total of contents of cave 117

The interesting results afforded by the above examination of such a small cave clearly indicate the important discoveries which might be made could time and leisure be obtained to sift the accumulations on the floors of the greater caves which have been inhabited for many generations by some of the large tribes. Besides the writer's own personal and somewhat extended experience, the following extracts will tend to show the wide field which still remains unexplored : " The presence of many chips of implements, and a coarse kind of pottery, in some of the Stormberg caves," says a writer in the Cape Monthly Magazine, " leads us to hope that explorers may yet bring to light as startling facts from discoveries to be made there as have been elicited from the thorough search in the haunts of the so-called cave-men in England and elsewhere."

Image

The prevalence of stone weapons in Basutoland and in the neighbourhood of Aliwal North, and also in the caves of the Stormberg range, is referred to in a very interesting communication inserted below from Mr. Alfred Brown, of Aliwal North. Mr. St. Vincent Cripps also discovered during his visit to Basuto- land a collection of arrow-heads and flakes near Stephenson's Drift, Orange River, in the Native Reserve. The implements were lying on the undisturbed surface, along the terraced ridges of the river-bank.

With regard to the ancient mounds and stone implements occurring in the vicinity of Aliwal North, and more especially some parts of Basutoland recently annexed to the Orange Free State, Mr. Alfred Brown writes : " I presume that a short noteN on these localities will not be unacceptable to the readers of your useful publication, as general conclusions are often affected by a more extended range of observations. About ten miles south of Koesberg, lately Poshuli's country, is an extensive plain, intersected by a valley nearly five miles in length and five hundred yards in width, which is the site of a very interesting series of ancient mounds or refuse heaps.

"The rocks forming the sides of the valley consist of coarse gritty and quartzose sandstone. Underneath the terrace band of sandstone, which, in general, considerably overhangs the valley, and affords secure shelter from the weather, are numerous caves, whose floors are covered with the refuse deposits and mounds, varying from two to eight feet in thickness.

"The mounds are now overgrown with a coarse rough grass, which binds them so firmly together that the rains and rush of water over the ledge of rocks have scarcely any effect upon them. Their uppermost surfaces are strewn with numerous fragments of stone implements, made of materials obtained from rocks which do not exist within many miles of the spot. They are composed of a mass of ashes, charred wood, fragments of implements, and numerous comminuted bones ; many of the bones have not only lost a large percentage of their animal matter, but sometimes occur in a subfossil condition."

Notes: Article in Cape Monthly Magazine.

Having thus shown some of the evidence which exists upon the connexion between the Bushmen and the stone implements found in the country, the following incident will tend to prove that the knowledge of their manufacture and use still exists among some of the Bushmen of the present day. When Mr. F. H. S. Orpen, the Surveyor-General of Griqualand West, was on one of his tours of inspection in the western portion of the province, accompanied by his son, the latter whilst out shooting with a Bushman after-rider, happened to kill a springbok in the middle of a large plain.

Image

When they wished to lighten the buck by disembowelling it and depriving it of its head, it was discovered that neither had a knife in his possession. In this dilemma the Bushman said that it was all right, and looking round selected a couple of stones. Giving a smart blow with one piece above one of the angles of the other, he immediately struck off a long flake found to possess a sharp cutting edge; with this he set to work, and in a short time opened the buck, dressed it properly, cut the sinews of the legs, and brought it into a state fit to place behind the saddle. He then threw away the stone implement which had proved so useful.

This manufacture of a stone flake, merely for temporary use, seems to explain the reason why so many of this kind are found thickly strewn over different portions of the old game country.

The Bushmen, however, manufactured a large number of other implements intended for permanent use, which were formed upon certain patterns, and fashioned with considerable care. These comprised spear-heads (?), rubbers, wood and bone-scrapers, hammers, arrow points, drills, etc. One of their most valued implements was " the poison-stone," made of a smooth flat oval pebble about two and a half inches long, with a deep groove along the centre. This was kept for the purpose of working the poison upon the heads of their arrows, without the necessity of touching it with the fingers. This stone was so highly prized by them that it is said they would never part with it, except with their life.

A highly valued implement was a cylinder of sandstone about two and a half inches in diameter and three in length, with about five rather deep longitudinal grooves on its sides. These were intended for forming the round bone shafts of their arrows, and also for rounding the edges of their ostrich eggshell beads. The stone bowls for pipes we have already mentioned.

Still another valued and important implement was the large round perforated stone used to give weight and impetus to the 'Kibi or digging stick, which was said also to have been occasionally used as an offensive weapon or a club. The stone itself was called ‘T-koe or ‘Tikoe,N signifying " the strong hand," because they were enabled to dig into hard surfaces and make excavations which it would have been impossible for them to have accomplished without its assistance. It was therefore their veritable strong hand, and thus it was that they achieved labours in excavating such numerous pitfalls in some parts of the country that intelligent travellers have been astonished at these unquestionable proofs which they have given of their untiring industry.

The rock selected for making these stones was either a fine crystalline igneous one, or a tough close-grained sandstone. They were first, with infinite labour, rounded into the required shape, either a spherical or oblong ball, which varied from three to six, eight, or nine inches in the diameter of their longest axis. The smaller were generally of the former, the larger of the latter shape. The process of making a hole through the centre, or in those of an oblong or egg-shape through the longest axis, must have been a work of much time and patience, and was performed with a sharp-pointed piece of black stone which they called T'wing (Lydite).

At first a slight indentation was made at each end of the stone, in which a few drops of water were alternately placed and allowed to stand all night, and the next morning a little more was worked out, when a little more water was placed in the hollow. This process was repeated day after day, and thus by slow degrees a large hole was at last worked through the hard stone, which was then smoothed, and was fit for use. A strong stick of hard wood, rather more than two feet long, was then procured, which was sharpened at one end, the other pushed through the hole in the stone until it protruded about six inches, when it was firmly wedged in its place. This formed the Bushman's celebrated 'Kibi, or digging stick, upon which he had solely to depend in times of scarcity for a means of subsistence. Its origin, therefore, in all probability, is one of remote antiquity.

Notes: 1 With regard to this stone, the 'Tikoe, Miss L. E. Lemue writes that it was considered " such a valuable article with the Bushmen, that it was never left behind or thrown away." Notes of Charles S. Orpen. This, therefore, would seem to indicate that when these implements are found scattered over the country, their unfortunate owners must either have been suddenly slain, or they must have been accidentally lost in their panic and flight from their enemies.

Image

The flat stones used for roasting the ants' "eggs" were slightly hollowed in the middle, which was formed by chipping out the hollow with another hard stone. Small tortoise-shells were sometimes used as drinking-cups, and the large ones as dishes for their different kinds of porridge, etc.

The Bushmen of the Stormberg, the Orange ('Nu-‘Gariep), and Caledon rivers used very short bows, while the tribes north of the Vaal ('Gij 'Gariep) and to the westward used bows of a much longer kind. Any one unaccustomed to the use of weapons of the former description was unable to draw them to their full strength. This was done by holding the bow itself firmly in the left hand, and placing three fingers of the right upon the string, steadying the end of the arrow between the thumb and first finger, then drawing the arrow up to the head.

This could not be done with one straight pull, but with three jerky movements ; the first drew the string out of line, the second about half the length of the arrow, and the third up to its head, when the missile was immediately freed for flight. This extension gave great impetus to the poisoned shaft, and sent it not only to a considerable distance, but with sufficient force to pierce the thickest hide. A bow, however, thus drawn, when incautiously managed by a novice, was very apt to strip the .flesh from the tips of the fingers of the uninitiated one who ventured to try the experiment.

The Bushmen used two kinds of arrows, one of which had a very sharp bone point or pile. In making these, or the heads of their fishing harpoons, awls, and other similar bone implements, the bone of the ostrich leg was always preferred to any other, on account of its superior hardness and toughness. These piles were fitted carefully into the end of the reed, which was neatly bound round and strengthened with a narrow band of sinew. The arrows were from fifteen to eighteen inches in length, of which two-thirds were composed of the reed, the other of the pointed bone shaft ; in some cases they were tipped with sharp horn points.

The second kind was exactly like the first, with the exception of the head, which originally was made of a triangular chipped piece of flint, agate, chalcedony, etc, fitted into the bone, which instead of having a sharp point was cut off square, into which a groove or notch was cut rather more than the eighth of an inch in depth, into which the triangular head was fitted, and held in its place either with a little tough well-tempered clay or the milky sap of a plant called by the Basutu Setloko.

About an inch and a half from the head a small piece of quill was so fixed as to act as a barb, and was neatly fastened in its place with a binding of sinew. All this portion of the head was carefully covered with the poison, which had some- thing of the consistency of black wax, and which by firmly adhering to the sinew binding tended also to keep the head in its place. An arrow of this kind, having struck an animal and penetrated beyond the quill barb, would have no chance of falling out ; and even if in the efforts of the animal to escape the reed portion should become separated, the bone part of the shaft with its poisoned head remained behind, rankling in the wound with every motion which it made.

After the Bushmen came into contact with the stronger races which were acquainted with the use of metals, they adopted small triangular pieces of iron for their arrow points, instead of the more primitive materials used by their fathers ; many of the more isolated clans, however, still retained them to within a few years of the present time.

Mr. W. Coates Palgrave informed the writer that at the time of his first visit among the Bushmen of the lower portion of the 'Gariep or Great river, they used invariably small chips of chalcedony, etc., probably obtained from some of the agate gravels of the river, for making the sharp points of their poisoned arrows ; but that after travellers had passed through their country and scattered a number of old bottles about in various directions, he found when he again visited them that they were using chipped pieces of glass m preference, having found that they could give a sharper edge to the new material than to that which they had before employed.

Mr. Palgrave sent one of the stone-headed arrows to Cape Town. This interesting specimen has been described by the same writer, in the Cape Monthly, as the one previously mentioned, and as it differs slightly from those which the writer himself personally examined, we cannot do better than compare it with the details of those already given. It came from the northern borders.

"The construction of it," says its describer, " is highly interesting as a key to the method of fixing stone arrow tips in the shaft. The workmanship is wonderfully neat and effective. The shaft consists of two lengths of fine reed, between which (for strength and weight) is socketed a bone of three inches in length.

"The joints are firmly secured by tightly bound strips of the sinews of animals. Into the end of the reed shaft is inserted a small leaf-shaped arrow-head of quartz crystal, the fissure is narrow, and the arrow-head, excepting the very tip and edges, is embedded in a fine cement, apparently clay, and evidently dressed with some poisonous matter. The stone arrow-head is sharp at the edges and the point. A horn barb is spliced on about an inch from the arrow-head. There is a coating of clay along the shaft for about three inches, securing the barb, and giving weight, as well as preventing the splitting of the reed. This constitutes a formidable weapon."

"It is remarkable," he further writes, " that in my collection I have a well-shaped arrow-head, found on the Cape Flats, of the same size and material as the one fixed in this Bushman arrow."

The present writer has himself found a considerable number in the vicinity of the different Bushman caves he has visited in the Free State and elsewhere. Some of the tribes carried their arrows in a leathern bag slung over the shoulder, but by far the greater number preserved them in a quiver, sometimes of leather or bark, but whenever procurable the bark of the Koker-boom, or Quiver-tree, a species of aloe widely spread over South Africa, and called Aloe Dichotoma by Paterson. This was frequently ornamented round the top with a band of snake or iguana skin, and contained from sixty to eighty arrows.

Besides these they frequently carried a number in a fillet round their heads, for rapid use as well as to strike their enemies with terror. Some wore them sticking out like rays all around ; others again had eight or ten on each side, so arranged as to represent horns, and others fixed these arrows in such a manner that the ends alternately crossed each other until they formed a kind of ridged roof or helmet over the head of the warrior-huntsman.

They were able to shoot one of these arrows to a distance of two hundred paces, and could hit a mark, some with unerring precision, and all with a tolerable degree of certainty, from fifty to a hundred.

Besides their bows and arrows the Bushmen made use of other weapons in the chase or in war. We have already noticed that the 'Kibi occasionally served as a mace or club ; they also employed small darts, or assagais, which were thrown by the hand. Their construction differed from those belonging to the Kaffir races. They had remarkably short lance-shaped blades, and the heads, before their intercourse with the stronger races who were acquainted with the use of iron, were formed of chipped and sharpened pieces of lydite, etc.

Image

They were also poisoned in a similar manner to their arrows. The shafts of these weapons were about three feet long. They were never employed except at short distances, or at close quarters, and when hunting such large animals as the elephant, hippopotamus, etc.

The force with which an expert hunter could hurl one of these primitive missiles is well illustrated by an incident which Campbell recorded in his first journey into the Interior, when a Bushman showed his dexterity in using even a common stone with fatal effect. A quagga being wounded, but still attempting to escape, this Bushman threw off his skin kaross, ran towards it, and with great exertion threw a stone which sank into its forehead, on which he drew out a knife which had been given to him and stabbed it.

The Bushmen near Lake Ngami, who are great elephant-hunters, use a strong broad-bladed assagai attached to a thick shaft about five feet in length ; this is not intended for throwing, but is used as a spear simply for thrusting at close quarters, and is employed by them in their attacks upon the great pachyderm.

These blades, being made of iron, are obtained from the neighbouring tribes, the chiefs of which claim the tusks of all the animals they kill. But long before the southern Bushman tribes had the slightest knowledge of the value, or even the existence of iron, a very large kind of harpoon or spear was used by them for the purpose of hamstringing the larger game, such as the elephant or hippopotamus. The blade or head was made of a sharp stone, generally poisoned, and attached to a long strong shaft. This weapon was evidently the forerunner of the broad-bladed assagai of the Ngami Bushmen of the present day.

Upon certain occasions some of their clans used shields made of eland's hide, such as are depicted in their own paintings, especially in some of their methods of hunting the lion, when this piece of defensive armour was fastened on their backs, so that should the brute spring upon them, they threw themselves on the ground and drew themselves up under it after the manner of the tortoise, and thus afforded their companions an opportunity of rescuing them.

In addition to the foregoing, the Bushmen of the 'Nu and 'Gij 'Gariep and their tributaries, all of whose streams abounded with fish, made very ingenious harpoons to enable them to capture them. These weapons were made with long, sharp, barbed points of bone.

p6 #
Image

This portion of the harpoon was valued so very highly by the owners that, although the shafts after use might be thrown away, the bone points were always carried with them when they migrated from one spot to another, with the same care as that which they bestowed upon the preservation of the " poison stone " and their " strong hand," the T’ikoe of their digging sticks. The shafts were made of the stems of the mountain bamboo, to which a long line made from the back sinews of an antelope was attached.

Mr. Jan Wessels has assured the writer that he has many times watched the Bushmen using these weapons, and has been astonished at the dexterity and unerring aim with which they struck and landed fish of a considerable size. The use of this weapon must necessarily have been confined to such tribes as lived along the course of the great rivers mentioned and their affluents, and possibly some of those inhabiting the sea coast. Those which were seen and examined were in the possession of Bushmen belonging to the valleys of the 'Nu or 'Gij 'Gariep.

Another bone implement much valued by the Bushmen was the awl, made out of a piece of the leg bone of an ostrich, sometimes also of ivory, although the former kind appears to have been in more general use. They were about four inches in length, the thickness of a moderately sized porcupine's quill, and tapering gradually towards both ends to a sharp point.

A Bushman generally carried two or three of these of different sizes in his velzak, which he used when required after the fashion of a modem cobbler, by first boring the hole and then introducing the thread of sinew, and although this was a slow and tedious process, it was remarkable with what neatness and regularity they were able to place the stitches into the work upon which they were engaged. This was especially seen in some of the caps they manufactured of jackal's skin, very much in the shape of a Turkish fez.

The stone scrapers were of two kinds, one employed in cleaning and rounding not only their bows, but also the handles and shafts of their kerries, darts, and harpoons, which was generally a thin and nearly flat flake of stone, with a deep semicircular notch in one side, with a sharp edge, and varying in size according to the required thickness of the shaft to be manufactured. This was used as a kind of primitive spokeshave.

The other was also a tolerably flat, but thicker stone than the last, about two and a half to three inches across the broadest part, and of a rudely circular shape, but such as could be conveniently gripped by its outer edge between the fore-finger and the thumb. It was used in the preparation of their skin mantles and bags, in scraping and clearing away any extraneous matter adhering to the skin under manipulation, which after undergoing a course of scraping, rubbing, and stretching with the hands and trampling with the feet, was at last reduced to the required degree of softness.

The skin of the springbok was the one which was preferred in the construction of these mantles. In summer one only was worn, suspended from the shoulders with the head downward, forming a kind of ornamental appendage ; when cold they wore two, one hanging on each side. Their favourite bags for hanging at their waists were made of meer-kat skins. It was in a bag of this description that they carried the lump of deadly poison which they applied to their fatal arrows.

Having thus gained some insight into the description of weapons and implements used by the primitive Bushmen, we will now attempt to make a further advance by taking into consideration the means they adopted to render these apparently rude and, to modern ideas, almost useless weapons efficient and formidable.

From all the evidence which can be obtained from Korana and other native sources, the Bushman race alone of all the South African tribes used poison to render the effects of their weapons more fatal. We shall discover, as we proceed, that the early Hottentot tribes were ignorant of its use, and did not adopt the practice until after their retreat from the Cape districts, when they came in contact with the Bushman tribes of the valley of the 'Gariep or Great river.

The same may be said with regard to the Bachoana and Basutu, whose ancestors were also armed with bows and arrows from a remote period, with the exception that their bows, as might have been expected, were much larger, and frequently more elaborately polished and strengthened with strips of sinew bound round different portions of them.

The border tribe of the Batlapin, however, was the only known one of their race who made use of poison, a mode of warfare which they adopted to enable them to compete with the Koranas and Bushmen ; but for a long time after doing so they still remained ignorant of its mode of preparation, and had to depend solely upon whatever chance supply they could obtain from one or other of these people.

With regard to the antiquity of the use of the bow among the Basutu tribes, in an ancient Bushman painting in a cave in the Wittebergen of the Orange Free State, which represents a battle scene between the Bushmen and these people, the latter are armed with long bows, exactly similar to those employed by the Bamangwato and Mashoona tribes living between the Limpopo and Zambesi of the present day.

The last-mentioned tribe manufacture the most elaborate iron barbed points for their arrows, the shafts of which are not only fledged with the greatest neatness, but the shaft itself is often etched over with zigzag patterns. Such elaborations in their structure evidently shew that they have been manufactured by experts, and are not the experimental trials of novices, while their bows, as above noticed, are much stronger, longer, and more highly finished. In speaking with some of the old natives of these tribes, the writer has been assured that none of their weapons in the older times were poisoned, and yet the bow and arrow were the weapons of their fathers.

The origin of the old hunter race poisoning their darts and arrows was doubtless occasioned from the fragile materials of which they were made, and the necessity of rendering the wounds inflicted by their bone and flint-pointed arrows more certainly fatal than it was possible for them to be in the primitive state of their manufacture.

Witnessing the fatal effects of the bite of many of the venomous snakes which infested the country would, in all probability, be the first thing which suggested to the dawning inventive faculties of the human mind the potency of such an application to their arrows, and which would also at the same time point to the source whence the means could be procured of rendering their weapons equally dangerous ; and experience would ultimately teach them that different poisons, more or less virulent, were required to secure the different kinds of game which they hunted.

Those of the stronger races using more powerful and formidable weapons of the same class would not have to resort to the same expedient, but would naturally rely upon the greater penetrative powers of their well-fledged and cruelly double barbed arrows for equally fatal results.

That such races may have, at a remote period, fashioned their weapons after the model of still more primitive hunters need not be questioned, as well as that of using at one time or the other poisoned points. At any rate, from all the evidence the writer has been able to gather upon the subject, the more advanced Basutu tribes for a lengthened period used bows with unpoisoned arrows, while the Bushmen, on the other hand, employed shafts whose fatal potency was attributable to the virulent poisons with which they were armed.

The Bushmen of the same locality used different kinds of poison on different occasions, according to the description of game they were hunting. Poisons sufficiently strong to destroy the springbok and smaller kind of antelopes were not equally successful with the wildebeest and the quagga ; the lion also required poison of considerable strength, while the buffalo and the ostrich required the most potent of all.

Image

Different tribes .used different ingredients and modes of preparation, even with the poisons deemed the most virulent ; thus, according to Livingstone, the Bushmen of the North, living at Rapesli and Kama-Kama (Pools of Pools, or Pools of Water) used for their strongest poison the entrails of a caterpillar called 'N'gwa, half an inch long.

By a lucky accident Mr. Chapman discovered the antidote for this poison. The Bushmen were most unwilling to give any information upon the subject, denying the existence of an antidote at all. From the researches of the writer, he is convinced that there were certain secrets among many of the tribes which were not known to every member of them, but which were kept as heirlooms in a certain branch or family, and which gave them a superiority over the rest, thus laying the first foundations of " caste."

This seems to have been especially the case, not only in the manipulation and preparation of poisons, and the antidotes suited thereto, but even in a more marked manner among those tribes that produced the great artists of their race, the proper mixture and employment of colours was only known to the few, and not to the many. This exclusive knowledge naturally gave rise to an amount of reticence on the part of those who were the guardians of these special secrets, that was most difficult to overcome.

It is not at all unlikely, however, that when one tribe after the other was broken up, and the fugitive members dispersed in all directions, after they were harried and hunted like so many wild beasts by the grasping invaders of their ancient hunting grounds, the knowledge of the composition and preparation of the various poisons employed by them, and so necessary to their preservation, became more widely diffused ; but as far as can be ascertained, in the days of their undisturbed possession this was not so, such secrets being retained exclusively in the families of the ruling chiefs, the knowledge being rigidly with- held from those outside this sacred circle, an illustration that even among the Bushmen the truth of the axiom was recognised that " Knowledge is Power."

Thus it is that frequently so much difficulty is experienced in obtaining information from this old-world race. Acting up to the traditions of their fathers, they often either profess a profound ignorance, evade the inquiries, or maintain a mysterious silence.

However, in discovering the antidote alluded to, Mr. Chapman states that he had asked the question again and again, but could never obtain the desired information, until one day happening to hear some Bushmen expatiating on the wonderful powers of the white men, especially having with their own eyes seen them consulting the stars by means of a glass, he took the opportunity of a lad's coming in with a collection of insects, among which were the poison grub and beetle, to ask them abruptly, just as if he had known all about it, " What do you call that plant with which you cure the poison of the ‘Th-a ? "

The Bushmen answered at once “ 'Kalahetlue," its Sechuana name, adding, " But who told you about it ? " and concluded with the remark, " These white men are children of God, they know everything ! " In making further inquiries on the subject from different Bushmen, he found they were reserved about this antidote, and as he heard, had even preferred death to divulging the secret ; but although they all professed ignorance of the antidote for the 'Th-a, yet finding that Mr. Chapman knew a great deal about it, these men corroborated everything he had before heard.

This 'Kalahetlue grows wherever the grub is found. It is a tuber, which he discovered was the favourite food of steenboks and duikers ; the leaves are long, thick, narrow, pulpy, and lanceolate, with a strong indentation down the middle, and in colour a dull green. The mode, however, of applying this antidote seems still to remain a secret.

There is, so Mr. Chapman asserts, a creeping tendrilous plant, called " eokam " by the Bushmen, which they consider a specific against snake-bites. It is with the root of this that the Bushmen are said to cure themselves of the most venomous bites. About eight or ten grains, either eaten or taken as a decoction, act as an emetic. The dose is repeated about three times, when the patient is cured.

They also tattoo and scarify their bodies, and make an incision near the wound, which they suck with some of the root chewed in their mouths. This is evidently to prevent the poison from acting upon the gums in case of bleeding. The sucking out of the poison is not necessary, but is done by way of precaution. Bushmen having a piece of this root strung among their charms and medicines around their necks " laugh at snake-bites."

But still so difficult is it to obtain information from Bushmen with regard to this poison and these antidotes, that Mr. Chapman states it was only after waiting ten years that he succeeded in gaining the knowledge here detailed, and he considered it quite a triumph that he at last succeeded in extracting so much of the secret from them. He believes that to become an expert naturalist one ought to turn Bushman and conquer the language, when one would learn more about the natural history of many things than from books and years of study and experiment. They live and depend for existence on animals and insects, and therefore are obliged to know all about their habits and instincts.

Image

Another poison used by them was extracted from the Amaryllis distichia (Paterson), which was called " mal gift," or mad poison, by the Dutch and Namaqua Hottentots, from the effects usually produced on the animals which were wounded by the weapons impregnated with it. It was thus prepared : the bulbs were dug up about the time they were putting out their leaves, and cutting them transversely, a thick fluid was extracted, which was kept in the sun until it became quite of the consistence of gum. It was then kept fit for use, and laid on the arrows near the points. This poison was used chiefly for animals which were intended for food. The milk of one species of euphorbia was also used both for their arrows and for poisoning water.

The Bushmen of the West used a poisonous insect for one of their most virulent preparations. This was the most horrid-looking of all the African spiders, commonly called the trapdoor spider.N This appears to have been pounded and mixed with the extract of the amaryllis.

Notes: The following anecdote is sufficient to show the venomous character of this spider. Dr. N. Rubidge, F.G.S., was collecting insects near the Van Staade's river, Uitenhage, and after having filled all his boxes, found a very rare specimen of a tree frog of a beautiful green colour, and for want of a better receptacle placed the captive in a wide-mouthed pickle-bottle.

Shortly afterwards he discovered one of these spiders of large size, which he also consigned to the same prison. As soon as the spider reached the bottom, the frog seemed to recoil with horror, and pressed itself close to the side of the bottle. When the spider recovered it turned upon its fellow-captive, darted savagely at it, and gave it two savage bites in quick succession. The frog, although larger than the spider, did not attempt to move. A few seconds after it was seized with trembling, followed by a convulsion, and it expired immediately.

The Bushmen of the East (the present Queenstown division and beyond) principally used the venom of snakes, the milk of the euphorbia, and the extract from the poison amaryllis.

Image

The poisons most relied on by the Bushmen of the 'Nu 'Gariep, the Caledon, and the 'Gij 'Gariep were the venom of snakes, together with scorpions and spiders crushed up, the poison amaryllis, and the milk of a small plant found growing in many parts of the Free State and British Basutoland, called Motlatsisa by the Basutu. So poisonous do some of the natives believe this latter plant to be that they refuse to touch it, lest any of the milk should get upon their fingers.

These Bushmen adopted the following method in the preparation of their poisons. A fiat, smooth, stone was procured, very similar to the one used for roasting the " ants' eggs " ; this was placed on the fire, and the milky juice of the Motlatsisa or of the amaryllis was set upon it. This was then worked up with a wooden spatula until it began to attain a certain consistency, when the venom of the snake or other poisonous ingredient was gradually added, and the mixing continued until the whole mass had acquired a dark wax-like appearance, when it was worked up into a lump and reserved for use.

The season for making this preparation was during the summer months. It was kept in a little bag until required for use. In employing it a small portion was placed upon a " poison-stone," and the part of the arrow to be anointed pressed upon it and worked round and round until it had acquired the proper shape. It was never touched with the fingers, and great care was taken that none adhered to the hands or nails during these processes.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

5

Post posted by VED »

5 #
THE BUSHMEN'S METHODS OF HUNTING AND FISHING


There can be no doubt that the life of the wild hunters of old must have been one which would necessarily tend to develop in a very high degree habits of endurance, and of both bodily and mental activity unknown to those whose occupation was confined principally to pastoral pursuits.

Caution and strategy, coolness and presence of mind were qualities which must have been steadfastly cultivated through many generations to have enabled a race like the Bushmen to arrive at the degree of excellence which they attained, and which has made their swiftness, their keenness of sight, their ready resource in cases of emergency, the marvel of all those who have taken the trouble to examine these striking traits of their character.

In the days of undisturbed occupation by the early Bushmen, the country literally swarmed with game, both large and small. The Bushmen state that in the days of their fathers a number of large animals lived in the country, which afterwards became extinct and disappeared from the face of the earth.

Some of these extinct species are still to be found depicted in their caves ; and it is certain that animals still living had a much wider distribution in South Africa than they have been known to have since the advent of Europeans. The gemsbok (Oryx capensis) was once found on the plains drained by the Zwart Kei (t'Nu- t'Kay and 'Neiba), and the giraffe browsed on the trees of the Tsomo and other portions of the lower country ; while pythons must have been abundant along the banks of the rivers.

Immense herds of buffalo must have frequented the brakes, and thousands of elephants roamed through the forest glades, not only of the coast line, but also in every other portion of the country where a sufficiency of succulent food could be procured ; while the abounding hippopotami laved their broad sides in every deep pool to be found throughout the land.

Instead of the deep chasms now found cutting through and draining the water from the plains, the result of excessive sheep-farming, chains of deep zeekoegats, or hippopotamus' pools, occupied their place, and wide spreading beds of reeds not only surrounded them, but frequently linked them together in one unbroken line. Innumerable herds of gnus, quaggas, zebras, ostriches, elands, and various other antelopes were scattered over the plains in countless myriads. This state of things existed in many parts of South Africa up to the middle of last century, and survived to the north of the 'Nu 'Gariep until the exterminating firearms of the Griquas and the Dutch were introduced.

In such a country, and endowed with the activity which it is known they possessed, it is not at all likely that the Bushmen would be the starving miserable people which some have delighted to depict them, before the stronger races invaded their hunting-grounds. Their powers of vision were extraordinary. They were able not only to descry, but to describe, objects at a distance, which were almost invisible to Europeans except with the aid of a telescope.

Image

This wonderful keenness of sight, the unerring manner in which they could follow upon the trail of either men or animals, gave rise to a tradition among the old Hottentots that there was once a race of men in South Africa who, instead of having eyes in their head, had them placed in their feet, so that it was impossible for any one to escape from their pursuit, on account of their quickness in discovering the trail.

Every precaution was taken not to alarm the game more than possible, and for this reason the Bushmen as a rule never drank of the water nearest to their cave or kraal. This was on account of the strong odour which they always, from their peculiar habits, carried about with them, and which they would certainly leave behind if they daily frequented the neighbourhood of the fountain ; thus the scent would frighten away the game, and tend to lessen their means of subsistence. To prevent this, they dug holes at a distance, from which a supply could be obtained.

Image

A number of devices and disguises were constantly employed by the old hunters to facilitate approach to the objects of their attack. When taking the field against the elephant, the hippopotamus, or rhinoceros, they appeared with the head and hide of a hartebeest over their shoulders, and whilst advancing towards their quarry through the long grass, would carefully mimic all the actions of the animal they wished to represent.

They appeared again in the spoils of the blesbok, with the head and wings of a vulture, the striped hide of the zebra, or they might be seen stalking in the guise of an ostrich. Sometimes a large tuft of grass like an enormous rayed crown was tied round their heads, and then none but the most practised eye could detect anything besides a slight rustling in the grass as they stealthily moved along.

Among the various modes that they adopted in watching game or their enemies, without exposing themselves to view, was to lie on their backs, with their feet towards the object they wished to look at, then throwing the head well backward, they gradually raised it until they could look under their eyelids, just over their cheeks, in such a manner as not to expose the forehead above the line of sight, their nose alone being higher than the level of the rock or grass over which they were peering.

Doubtless such a mode of observation would be a difficult operation to any except an adept ; but they from constant practice rendered themselves such proficients that they were able to descry, in this position, objects at a considerable distance with the greatest accuracy. In this position also the foot was sometimes used in drawing the bow, whenever they wished to give increased force and impetus to their arrows.

In their paintings we constantly find both huntsmen and warriors using the disguises we have here mentioned. They are shown with the heads and horns of various animals, or else with heads and beaks of different birds ; they evidently prided themselves upon the correctness of the representation. These drawings would appear to any one not acquainted with the habits and customs of this old hunter race to be intended for symbolic, or supernatural deities, around which some ancient myth was embodied.

As it is quite certain that the custom of representing various deities with the heads and coverings of birds and animals must date back to a very remote antiquity, such a misconception is suggestive that all elaborations of this description had their origin in the fact that among the primitive hunter tribes disguises of this kind were constantly used and we can easily imagine that in those early days, when all history was mere verbal tradition, that any of their number rendering themselves more famous than their fellows, by their superior strategy, would after they had passed away have their deeds and successful daring recounted over and over again, and that these would be handed down from generation to generation. Their modes of attack, the disguises they had worn, their appearance and their arms, the great achievements they had accomplished, and the mighty victories they had won, would be again and again recited.

According to the descriptive powers of the ancient narrator, would the recital of their prowess be more and more elaborated and intensified, until the magnitude of their reported deeds would be considered something more than human, proving, as it would be said, the degeneracy of the men of their race then living. The extraneous disguises that they wore would become identified with their own personality, as indicating some great attributes with which the growing veneration of their descendants invested them, until, in process of time, their human origin would be lost in the obscurity of an almost unknown past, and only the deified recollections of them would remain.

Men whose memories were capable of retaining the largest amount of this cherished folk-lore, who could display the greatest energy in its recital, would naturally be looked upon with more admiration by their fellows than others less gifted, while an innate and natural desire to still further arouse the enthusiasm of their auditors would incite their vivid imaginations, at each declamatory repetition, to wilder flights of rude oratory, until the admiration of their hearers grew into awe ; and the narrators, as a necessary sequence, in the course of time were themselves looked upon as men possessed of superior power, denied to their less gifted co-patriots, until they became reverenced as the special keepers of those traditions which were ultimately deemed as possessing some mysterious and sacred authority, thus giving rise to the germ and the development of a priestly caste.

Image

Many, or rather all, the Kaffir tribes, before they came into contact with more civilised races, thought the spirits of their great chiefs were the paramount power of the universe. They had no ideas of a deity beyond this.

The Bushman representations of the disguises of their great huntsmen and warriors would seem to point to the true origin of many of the bull, eagle, and other headed divinities, and much of the human element which we find introduced into ancient and modern religions. In this progression from the natural to the supernatural, the Bushmen shew in their paintings the earliest stages of the process of exaltation ; while the sculptured and pictured remains of the ancient Hindus, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians display, among the other creeds, its highest elaboration and development.

When the Bushmen wished to prevent the game from passing a certain line, and yet were not numerous enough to form a cordon along it, they employed the device of planting stout wands about their own height, dressed with ostrich feathers, and a tuft of them fastened to the top.

These were planted at short distances from one another along the line they wished to mark out. The game appeared more terrified at sight of these than of the Bushmen themselves, and generally rushed from them in the greatest alarm. Even the lion himself very rarely approached them, but would skulk away whenever possible. In places where the lions were more daring, a strong sharp point was made at the end of them, which was rendered still more dangerous by being poisoned ; in later days a small blade of an assagai was fastened and concealed among the feathers, so that when the indignant animal sprang upon it, it was so placed as either to impale him or inflict a deadly wound with its poisoned point.

In stalking the quagga the Bushmen generally disguised themselves in skins of the ostrich, with a long pliant stick run through the neck to keep the head erect, and which also enabled them to give it its natural movement as they walked along. Most of them were very expert in imitating the actions of the living bird.

Image

When they sighted a herd of which they wished to attack, they did not move directly towards them, but leisurely made a circuit about them, gradually approaching nearer and nearer. Whilst doing so the mock bird would appear to feed and pick at the various bushes as it went along, or rub its head ever and anon upon its feathers, now standing to gaze, now moving stealthily towards the game, until at length the apparently friendly ostrich appeared, as was its wont in its natural state, to be feeding among them.

Singling out his victim, the hunter let fly his fatal shaft, and immediately continued feeding ; the wounded animal sprang forward for a short distance, the others made a few startled paces, but seeing nothing to alarm them, and only the apparently friendly ostrich quietly feeding, they also resumed their tranquillity, thus enabling the dexterous huntsman to mark a second head, if he felt so inclined.

But as these primitive hunters never wantonly slaughtered for the mere sake of killing the game, like those who boast a higher degree of civilisation, they generally rested satisfied with securing such a sufficiency as would afford a grand feast for themselves and their families, quite content with knowing that as long as the supply lasted their feasting, dancing, and rejoicing would continue also.

That these huntsmen, as long as the game was comparatively undisturbed, had an abundance of food is proved by the testimony of every observant traveller, some of whom have also noticed that the very dogs among the Bushmen were invariably fat and in good condition, whereas among both Kaffirs and Hottentots the dogs were never more than a pack of wretched-looking, half-starved curs.

Captain Harris, who travelled through the country with the eye of an intelligent sportsman, is conclusive upon this subject : " In many places," he writes, " the ground was strewn with the blanched skeletons of gnus and other wild animals, which had evidently been slaughtered by Bushmen, and traces of these troglodytes waxed hourly more apparent as the country became more inhabitable. The base of one hill, in particular, in which some of their caves were discovered, presented the appearance of a Golgotha ; several hundred gnus and bonteboks' skulls being collected in a single heap."

As the ostrich was one of the most wary of the inhabitants of the South African plains, the Bushmen adopted several methods of hunting it, but all depending on imitation or strategy.

Somewhat allied to hunting was their searching for bees' nests, and they showed not only their dexterity in the manner of discovering their retreats, but also their daring in securing this much coveted spoil. They would watch for the laden bees as they were returning to their hives towards the evening, at which time they fly straight to their habitations ; and with their keenness of vision the Bushmen would be able to detect the direction which the industrious insects took. This they would follow, still watching for returning bees, until they at last came to the spot where the nest was hidden.

Should they pass it in their first attempt, they would soon perceive that the bees were coming from the opposite direction, when they would try back until the place was found. A beehive of this kind in the mountains when once discovered became the sacred property of the finder. Woe to the man who carried off the honey from a marked hive, which was usually distinguished by stones heaped up before it as a beacon. There have been instances where such an encroachment was punished with death.

They had also a most useful ally and assistant in carrying out this work in the honey-bird — the " Bee-cuckoo " — (Cuculus indicator), of Sparrman, and called " honing wijzer," the honey- guide, by the Hottentots and Dutch. As soon as a Bushman heard its well-known and alluring cry of " cherr, cherr, cherr," he was immediately on the alert, as he knew by experience that the bird was desirous of attracting attention. Finding that it had been successful in doing this, it flew a short distance in front, repeating the cry.

As the Bushman followed, it again went a little farther, slowly and by degrees towards the quarter where the swarm of bees had taken up their abode, all the while repeating its cry of " cherr, cherr." The Bushman answered it now and then with a low gentle whistle, to let the bird know that its call was attended to. Approaching the bees' nest, it flew shorter distances, and repeated its note with greater earnestness.

On arriving at the cleft of the rock, the hollow tree, or cavity in the ground, it hovered over the spot for a few seconds, and then perched in silence on some neighbouring tree or bush, awaiting results. A small piece of comb containing young bees was generally left on the ground as a reward to the bird for its information. Bushmen searching for honey say that the bee-hunter must not be too generous at first, but merely give enough to stimulate the bird's appetite, when the shrewd little thing will show a second hive if there be another in the neighbourhood.

Up to a few years ago, in portions of the country visited by the writer, the miserable remnant of scattered Bushmen who still clung to the land of their fathers returned regularly during the summer to their old haunts, for the purpose of examining and taking as much honey as they required from the swarms of bees which had occupied the same hollows and crevices from time immemorial.

On their departure they always left certain private marks by which they could at once detect any attempt that might be made during their absence to pilfer from the hives, which, they considered, had descended from their ancestors to themselves.

Some of these krantz-nests, as they are termed, were reached, as before mentioned, by a kind of rude ladder formed of sharpened pegs of hard wood driven into the cracks and crevices in the face of the precipice, and often to a height that none except Bushmen or baboons would ever have dreamt of climbing on such a precarious footing ; but the writer has been assured by those who have witnessed them that they not only ascended without the least hesitation or symptom of fear, but also with a rapidity that was perfectly astonishing.

The writer has seen the remains of some of these ladders still sticking in the face of the krantz, in positions where, without the evidence of the projecting pegs, it could never have been believed possible for any human being to have scaled and driven in these holdfasts as he ascended to such heights upon such a perilous foothold.

In some cases, where even they found it impossible to reach the spot from below, on account of over-hanging rocks, they were frequently let down by their companions, with a long leathern thong, from some projecting ledge to the level of the nest below, and here, while dangling in midair, they would drive in a line of apparently fragile wooden supports, and thus form a sort of narrow platform, upon which they could either sit or stand whilst they abstracted the honey from the nests.

This was transferred to one of their leathern sacks, made of the skin of an antelope which had been flayed without any incision being made along the belly. The bags as they were filled were let down by another thong to the foot of the precipice, where another Bushman was in waiting to receive them.

Image

In 1870 there was still a small platform of this kind to be seen just under a bees' nest in the face of a precipice above the opening of Madolo's cave, the Cave of the Python, on the Zwart Kei. This was still visited every year by a small party of Bushmen, who up to that time had sheltered themselves in some of the fastnesses of the Great Kei, in their annual rounds, when they let themselves down in the manner described to secure their harvest of honey.

p7 #
Image

One of the disguises very frequently used by the Bushmen, both in attacking an enemy and stalking game, was to bind a large tuft of long grass round their heads with a band, the ends of the grass covering not only their foreheads, but forming a mask for their faces, leaving only apertures through which they could look. In this manner they could gently raise their heads and securely survey from among the tall grass whatever might be approaching, without fear of being discovered when moving from one position to another.

They could rapidly wriggle along, with a snake-like movement on the ground, until they again raised their heads to see what progress they were making and the position of the game or their foe. Thus prepared, they would with great coolness and daring approach, totally unperceived and unexpected, within a very short distance of their enemies, and there remain watching their movements until a favourable opportunity presented itself of making an attack.

When it was their intention of attacking under such disguises, they generally divided themselves into two parties, one remaining out of sight at a distance until they knew that those advancing under cover of the tufted grass had attained their appointed position. The reserve party would then make their appearance at a considerable distance, and would commence endeavouring to draw their opponents towards the ambuscade, by flying long shots at them.

In all probability their enemies,, supposing that the only party of Bushmen attacking was that in front of them, would freely expose themselves in the attempt to drive them off, until on a sudden they found themselves assailed almost at close quarters with sharp flights of poisoned arrows, whizzing apparently from what seemed to be merely the long grass around them.

Although the great plains and many other places were frequently so infested with lions, that they were met with hunting about the country in packs of eight and ten together, and it would have been dangerous for others to traverse them, yet the little Bushmen were able to do so with impunity. It has been already pointed out that many of the small clans spent their lives in the midst of these wilds, with no other protection at night than their frail mat-huts, and yet, notwithstanding this, they slept in security, whereas multitudes of fugitives who fled into their country at various times were devoured when attempting to sleep in the same exposed situations.

It is said that the safety of the Bushmen depended upon a certain powder, long kept as a most profound secret, which they sprinkled at night upon their camp fires, and to which the lions showed such an antipathy that they would not approach the spot. The writer has been assured that this powder was composed of the spores of a peculiar fungoid plant, which grows exclusively upon the ant-hills of the country.

Daring as the Bushmen were in their attacks upon the lion, they were very cautious in their attacks upon the wild boar (Sus larvatus, Harris). " We would rather attack a lion on the plain," so they informed Sparrman, " than an African wild boar ; for this, though much smaller, comes rushing on a man as swift as an arrow, and, throwing him down, snaps his legs in two and rips up his belly before he can strike it and kill it."

The lions, on the contrary, seemed to have a dread of the Bushmen. When the latter discovered evidence that one of these beasts had made a full meal, they followed up his spoor so quietly that his slumbers were not disturbed. One of them then discharged a poisoned arrow at the savage sleeper from a distance of a few feet, while another threw his kaross over the animal's head. The surprise caused the lion to lose his presence of mind, and he bounded away in terror. In a short time the effects of the poison on the lion were terrible, and he was heard moaning in distress, while he bit the trees and ground in his agony and fury.

In hunting the larger game, such as the hippopotamus, the elephant, and the rhinoceros, three methods were employed. The first was by attacking them openly with their arrows and darts, when the animal was assailed on every side until it sank from its wounds, or it was disabled by being hamstrung, the tendons of its legs being severed by one of their large stone-headed harpoons.

A second method was catching them in pitfalls, and a third by constructing a trap, which has been called “ the harpoon- trap.” Pitfalls were at one time found along the banks of every stream and around almost every large pool in the country, and in many of the bush paths made by the wild animals.

Some of the tribes, where wood was procurable, made long fences, filling up the open spaces so that the only passages were those which were occupied by these treacherous traps, others again, where trees were scarce, erected long stone fences for the same purpose. Some of these were of such great length that after the tribes were broken up and they became a race of fugitives, travellers who saw them believed that works which displayed so much labour and perseverance could have only been accomplished by some pre-Bushman people. In later years the most extensive series of these works were found along the banks of such rivers as Zak River, Beer’s Vley, the ‘Nu ’Gariep, Caledon, Gumaap, ‘Gij ’Gariep, Kolong, and their tributaries.

In 1801, along the valley of the ’Gariep or Great river, pitfalls, with sharp stakes of hard wood in the bottom, and covered with grass, were numerous in the neighbourhood of the river. The points of these stakes were frequently poisoned. The spaces between the several holes were obstructed with fences, and thus the deer coming to the river for water, by striving to avoid the fences, fell into the pitfalls.

At the time of Governor Van Plettenberg’s visit to the Bushman country on the northern frontier, Colonel Gordon, who accompanied him, narrowly escaped with his life, by being precipitated with his horse into one of .these small abysses. They were even to be found in the country which was said by the friends of the Griquas to have been uninhabited when they first took possession.

In 1820, at the time of Mr. Campbell’s second visit, although the game had then become very scarce owing to the increase of muskets among the Griquas, a number of pitfalls were yet to be found at Kogelbeen Fontein and other places beyond Griquatown, which had been dug by the Bushmen for catching game. These were so spread round the pools that it made it hazardous to approach them in the dark.

Some of the large pitfalls intended for catching hippopotami were nine feet deep and proportionately large at the top. The labour, therefore, of making a number of such excavations with an implement of so primitive a description as the ’kibi must have been immense. The capture of a hippopotamus was the signal for feasting for the whole tribe, and nothing but gormandizing, dancing, and boisterous revelry continued as long as the supply lasted.

The exaggerated expressions of triumph employed by some of the Bushmen on returning from a successful hunt, either with their bows or the pitfall, showed the intense and somewhat extravagant joy with which they contemplated such an approaching feast, which may have followed after one of their enforced periods of fasting. This feeling was well illustrated in the hyperbolic address made by a successful Bushman on his return to the waggons of the traveller Baines, after making a few successful shots. “ Behold me ! ” he shouted, “ the hunter ! Yea, look on me, the killer of elephants and mighty bulls ! Behold me the Big Elephant ! the Lion ! Look on me, ye Damaras and Makalaka ! Admire and confess that I am a great bull-calf ! "

It was this same feeling which made the Bushmen, before they were driven from their country with such inhuman barbarity, welcome any party of hunters that came amongst them merely for that purpose. Thus it was when Messrs. Chapman and Baines passed one of their Kalahari villages, that the whole female community ran out after them in all possible stages of dress and undress, joyfully clapping their hands and singing the praises of the “ flesh-givers ” who had made them thick and sleek. And it was not long before the greater number of them, laden with their household gear, took the road ahead of the hunting party, with, the intention of keeping company to the next water.

Nor did hippopotami and antelopes alone fall into these treacherous pits ; the lion, with all his activity and strength, has been found impaled in them, and even the wary and prudent elephant thus fell into the hands of the Bushmen. These animals with their superior sagacity have been known to attempt to assist their unfortunate companion out of his difficulty by aiding him with their trunks, and cases are upon record where they have succeeded in doing so when the animal has been young.

Image

The third method employed by Bushmen for capturing large game, such as the hippopotamus, was that which has been called the harpoon trap. This ingenious contrivance consisted of a great block of wood, to which a poisoned blade was attached, which was suspended by a line over a bough that hung immediately over one of the foot-paths used by the animals on leaving the water ; the line was brought down and so placed across the path that when the victim struck his foot against it, it set loose the great block immediately above him, which falling with its weight and impetus drove the poisoned barb deep into its flesh. Some of the Bachoana adopted a similar method for entrapping these great brutes, but it is probable that in this, as in so many other methods which they employed in securing game, they have merely imitated the plans of the older race of hunters.

The Bushmen on some occasions, in order to ensure a supply of food, resorted to the expedient of poisoning the water of some of the drinking places. The substances principally used were the bulbs of the poisonous Amaryllis and branches of the tree Euphorbia , the latter when procurable appearing to be the most powerful. These poisons were also more fatal in their action upon some animals than others. This practice proved an additional danger to travellers who were unacquainted with the circumstance, though the natives generally used the precaution of leading off the water which was to be poisoned to a small drain, covering up the principal fountain.

The Bushmen had discovered several methods of capturing fish. One of these was that in which the national weapon was employed. The shaft was fastened to a long light line, and was used to strike the smaller sized fish as they came near the surface, when their dexterity in the use of the bow enabled them to ply their arrows with wonderful precision and success. For the larger fish the harpoon, such as we have already described, was used with a certainty of capture which astonished all those who were fortunate enough to witness these piscatory exploits.

A third, and equally ingenious device, was in the employment of fish-baskets, which have been called by some, as they answered the same purpose, Bushman fishing-nets. They were constructed upon the same principle as the eel-baskets of Europe. They were about six feet long, and from one and a half to two feet in diameter. Their manufacture displayed a wonderful amount of neatness and ingenuity. They were composed of reeds and twigs of the taaibosch, a wood noted for its toughness, placed alternately side by side, so that this alternation of dark and light bars gave the structure a pretty appearance.

They were bound together with cord made either of bruised rushes or inner bark of the mimosa. These were placed at intervals in proper positions along the reedy margins of the rivers, and near passages through which at certain seasons of the year the fish passed in great numbers, when ascending the streams before the spawning and rainy season. Similar to the fences so frequently placed between the spaces of the pitfalls, the reeds and rushes were so interlaced as to form a net-work which prevented the fish from passing in any other direction than through the openings left for baskets, to which they were further directed by the erection of small weirs, built of stones, leading to them.

The quantity of fish caught in this manner was sometimes very considerable, and added much to the feastings of the old Bushman race.

A plan identical with the above appears to have been adopted by the natives living on the banks of the Albert Nyanza. Sir Samuel Baker states that he went to the water side to examine the fishing arrangements, which were on an extensive scale. “ For many hundred feet the edges of the floating reeds were arranged to prevent the possibility of a large fish entering the open water adjoining the shore without being trapped. Baskets were fixed at intervals, with guiding fences to their mouths. Each basket was about six feet in diameter, and the mouth about eighteen inches.”

This remarkable identity between the methods adopted by wild tribes so widely separated as the banks of the Albert Nyanza and those of the ’Nu and ‘Gij ’Gariep is particularly interesting, and would seem to indicate that, as they are strikingly identical in every detail, the palm of invention must be awarded to the more primitive hunter race, which carried its discovery along with it in its southern migration, and that those farther to the north are mere copyists, having possibly acquired their knowledge from some of the scattered remnants of the rear-guard of the former, who were cut off in their retreat by the intervention of the stronger races.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:30 am, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

6

Post posted by VED »

6 #
SOCIAL CUSTOMS OF THE BUSHMEN


It will be well now to describe the social customs of the Bushmen, such as may be included under the following heads : —

1. Marriage,
2. Games,
3. Music and Musical Instruments,
4. Dances,
5. Burial, heaps of stones, and some of their beliefs.

I. Marriage.
From the evidence we can gather upon this subject, it would appear that there was no uniform custom with regard to either marriage or polygamy which governed the Bushman race, but that the different tribes were each ruled by the more or less primitive ideas which they severally entertained. No degrees of relationship appear to have barred unions of this description, except those of parent and child, brother and sister, although it has been declared that among some of the isolated clans even this restriction did not exist.

It is said that owing to the extreme jealousy and passionate disposition of the women, some of the tribes never took more than one wife ; but it is certain that among the greater portion of them a plurality of wives was allowed, the number being mainly regulated by the force of circumstances, such as the abundance or otherwise of food, the position and influence of the man, and his power of attaching a number of women to himself. The young men frequently contented themselves with one, while few of middle age had less than two, a young and an old one.

The tie could be dissolved whenever the incompatibility of the pair became insupportable, and women sometimes deserted their husbands for a more alluring mate, but in such cases vengeance often fell upon the head of the abductor.

With regard to marriage ceremonies, they were generally no other than such as were inevitably necessary and agreeable to nature, viz. the consent of the parties.

Miss Lemue writes,N " Their marriage is not a bargain, like those which take place among the other native races, but a fight. When the young people have settled it between themselves, they tell the parents, who fix a day for the marriage. The Bushmen then come from everywhere, and bring as much meat as they can get.

The women smear themselves with red clay and put on their beads, when they all eat and are jolly. In the middle of this feast the young man catches hold of his bride ; her relations at once set on him with their ' kibis,' or digging sticks, and beat him on the head and everywhere ; all the Bushmen then begin to fight together, during which the young fellow must hold his bride fast and receive all the hammering they choose to give him, without letting his treasure escape ; if he can hold out they at length leave him, and he is a married man ; if not, and his charmer escapes from him, he will have to undergo a second ordeal some other time before he can again claim her."

NOTES: Notes of Charles S. Orpen ; Memoir of Miss L. E. Lemite, " upon Bush- men."

According to M. Arbousset, adultery was less common amongst the Bushmen with whom he was acquainted than amongst any other natives of the country. It appears certain, however, that all their quarrels which did not originate from trespass upon one another's hunting grounds arose about their women, the greater portion considering it " great fun " to inveigle away one another's wives.

It is very probable that they were similar to the old Koranas in this respect. The writer has been assured by some of the ancients of the latter people that they did not believe there was a single Korana woman who had not a favourite lover, besides her husband. And the strangest feature in the case appeared to be that, although the inamorato was known to all the kraal, the husband was the only one who was kept in profound ignorance of his favoured rival.

This fact shows the universality of the custom, for as soon as the husband was absent from the kraal, the whole of the community at once resolved themselves into a kind of guard of vigilance to prevent surprise, while the lovers could indulge in their stolen interviews without fear of interruption.

Should the husband be seen unexpectedly returning, some met him to attract his attention and delay his progress, while others hastened to warn the faithless pair of the approaching danger ; and yet these husbands, who assisted in thus hoodwinking one unfortunate and knew every other woman was frail, frequently had the infatuation to believe that their own wives were vestals. Thus it was that, should the amour of the wife be discovered by any unlucky chance, the enraged husband frequently inflicted condign punishment upon her gallant.

Thus among the wide-spread Bushman tribes different stages in the development of the marriage tie were to be found, from that most primitive form of simply pairing by mutual consent, to an elaborate contest, when on a fixed wedding-day the endurance and sincerity of the bridegroom were tested to the uttermost ; while we must at the same time be struck with the consideration which these so-called untamable savages evinced towards the widows found in their community. No piece of game was ever eaten without their receiving a share.

Image

2. Games.
At one time, in the days of their prosperity, the Bushmen had many games, in which they indulged in their leisure hours to diversify the dance. Some of these pastimes were intended for the daytime, others again were set apart for the evening. Most of them, however, are now lost, although there are still enough rescued from oblivion to show that they might be divided into three classes, of which the following may be given as illustrative specimens : —

I. The 'Nadro, or disguise. They appeared to have had an almost passionate fondness for dressing themselves up in masquerading fashion, in the guise of some animal or other, so that it was not only in hunting and war that they simulated the wild animals by which they were surrounded, but even in their amusements, their games, and dances.

One of the latter kind, the most popular and frequently resorted to, was that in which the older women of the horde indulged, and which was specially called 'Nadro. They disguised themselves by fastening the head and horns of some wild animal upon their own, and so painting and enveloping the rest of their body in the hide of the beast, that they looked more like some wild or supernatural monster than a human being.

Figures of this kind were frequently represented in their paintings, which have led some to imagine that they were representations of supernatural personages who shadowed forth an ancient tribal myth. That such may have been the case with some of them is undoubted, but it is equally certain that the old Bushmen who inhabited the rock-shelters containing the cave-paintings in question have been unanimous in asserting that it was the 'Nadro alone which was there represented.

The painting was originally intended to be a matter-of-fact delineation of the leading figure in a game, to which some mythological interpretation has afterwards been given. This particular disguise was generally adopted in the evening, when one so dressed and carrying a small stick with which to make a rattling noise, would suddenly and unexpectedly come upon the assembled group of the horde, which always had the effect of startling the younger people, while even the old members would in the first impulse of the moment get out of the way of the rather unearthly looking apparition with no small degree of trepidation.

As the alarm subsided, it was succeeded by bursts of merriment at the consternation and confusion which had been occasioned. They also disguised themselves in the same manner in some of their grand masquerade dances, when each impersonated some different animal and acted his or her part accordingly.

II. Other games were such as required both skill and presence of mind, and were generally, if not exclusively, manly games. One of these might be termed the training game, although only experts would dare to join in it. All who have witnessed the Bushmen use their apparently fragile weapons have expressed astonishment at the dexterity with which they handle them, as well as the certainty of their aim and the rapidity with which one arrow is sped after the other.

They were not only true in their aim, but they were equally dexterous in avoiding any hostile shafts that were launched at them. The game in question would therefore seem to be intended as a necessary training to enable these warrior-huntsmen to attain the desired degree of proficiency in this latter particular.

Two Bushmen, each with a certain number of arrows, would take up a standing, sitting, or lying position opposite to one another, and then at a given signal let fly at one another, one after the other, with as great rapidity as possible, each with equal rapidity trying to avoid the shafts of his opponent. Sometimes the arrows were arranged in a row before them, or, as worn in war or hunting, in a fillet bound round the head.

The younger and more inexperienced were matched one against the other, whilst the oldest and most proficient members of the tribe would try their skill upon one another. When we consider that this game was played, not like some modem tournaments with half severed and mock lances, but with genuine poisoned arrows, we may form some idea of the peril which accompanied it. Every Bushman engaging in it was furnished not only with his bow and arrows, but also a kind of small horn bottle slung at his belt, in which he carried a powerful remedy against any unfortunate wound he might receive in the friendly encounter.

During the trial of the younger ones, one or other was occasionally struck by an arrow, when some of the antidote was immediately swallowed. An accident of this kind never occurred when the more experienced Bushmen encountered one another. Sometimes they sat upon the ground opposite to each other, and then with the greatest coolness a simple inclination of the head, or a rapid twist of the body, enabled them to avoid the well aimed shaft launched against them, and which in all probability passed within an inch or two of their bodies. At other times they were ever on the move, now springing on this side, now on the other, now prostrate on the ground, now leaping from it on all-fours with extended arms and legs high into the air, with all the agility of an excited baboon that would avoid the unpleasant missiles that are thrown at it.

This was a favourite game among them, and from being looked upon as a proof of vigorous manhood, was frequently depicted by their artists among their cave paintings.

III. A third class of games also showed skill, but in these it was accompanied with a certain amount of legerdemain. One of these became so universally popular that it has been adopted and perpetuated among other tribes, by whom it is known as Bushman cards.

Sparrman saw them playing this game about 1775 in the Zuurveld, and the writer during the time he was engaged in the geological survey of the Orange Free State in 1877-8 saw some of his attendants amusing themselves round their evening camp-fires with the identical pastime. Sparrman calls it a peculiar game, which was played not only by these people but the Hottentots also.

" Two or four sit on their hams, facing each other. The game always appears to be played with ardour, and seems to consist of an incessant motion of the arms upwards, downwards, and across each other's arms, without seeming (at least on purpose) to touch one another ; they appear in certain circumstances mutually to get the advantage over each other, as each of them at times would hold a little peg between his forefinger and thumb, at which they would burst out into laughter, and on being asked the reason said they lost and won by turns.

Image

One grew weary after playing two hours, others kept on the sport from evening until break of day, during the whole time continually pronouncing, or rather singing, the following words, Hei pruah pr'hari'ka, 'hei fruah fhei, 'hei pruah 'ha. Of the words they did not know the meaning, but said that some of their tribe, together with the game, had learnt them from the tribes a great way to the north."N

Notes: A game very similar to Bushman Cards appears to have been played by the ancient Egyptians ; and is represented in paintings, a copy of which will be found in Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's Egyptians, p. 17.

Image

M. Arbousset, who saw some Basutus playing this game in 1836, gives the following explanation. " Two or three people sit side by side or opposite each other, one of them picks up a stone, or small piece of wood, all move their arms about in an excited manner, the one with the small piece of wood passing it with as much rapidity as possible from one hand to the other, ' so as to bewilder the other players, and then presents his clenched hands to his companions to guess where the wood is.

If the guesser is mistaken, the holder of the wood exclaims triumphantly, ' Ua ya incha, kia ya khomo,' in a kind of song or cadence, meaning, ' You eat the dog, I eat the beef.' In the opposite case, the player declares himself vanquished, when the guesser touches the hand containing the wood, saying ' Kia ya incha, ua ya khomo,' ' I eat the dog, you eat the beef,' and delivers the wood to his companion to do the same. The players will sometimes keep up this game for hours at their evening fires."

It will be observed that the rhythm of the two sentences given by Sparrman and Arbousset is very similar, great stress being laid upon the penultimate syllable ; and it is highly probable that the meaning of both is very much alike. That heard by Sparrman was probably a corruption of the language of the northern Bushmen, of which the players, although they had retained the cadence, did not know the meaning. This would be a case exactly similar to that which came under the writer's own observation.

Among his attendants he had a tame Bushman, who had never learnt the language of his fathers, and a Motaung. These two would play at this game for hours almost every evening ; they used two sentences, which sounded like corrupted Bushman. The rhythm was exactly similar to that given by M. Arbousset, while the cadence might be rendered by the following notes : —

Image

When asked the meaning of the words they used, both said they could not tell, but it was said they were Bushman. As a pleasing coincidence, whilst in the conquered territory of the Orange Free State, the writer found in two widely separated caves pictorial representations of two groups of Bushmen playing this very game. The action of the arms and position of their bodies were unmistakable ; so strikingly natural were they that upon the Bush-boy first seeing them he exclaimed at once, " Oh ! sir, here they are playing at Bushman cards." Both paintings were very old, and had certainly been done before the Basutu occupation of that portion of the country, thus giving an unexpected confirmation of the Bushman origin of the game.N

Notes: Since writing the above, Miss Lucy C. Lloyd has given the following description of a game of skill played by the Bushmen living to the north-east of Damaraland : " It is played with a kind of shuttlecock, i.e. with a short stick with two or three feathers tied to its upper end, and weighted at its lower extremity by a berry or a button attached to it. This is thrown into the air, and beaten with another stick, to keep it up, time after time, much as a shuttlecock should be kept up (in the game of battledore and shuttlecock)."

Miss Lloyd's Bushman authorities assured her that this is one of the old games played by members of their tribe in their own land. This discovery is an interesting one, as tending to prove that this popular game of English children is probably one (by being thus known to so primitive a race as the Bushmen) of high antiquity.

3. Music and Musical Instruments.

The Bushmen in their undisturbed state might have been termed the most musical people in South Africa, as in both the number of their tunes for dances and the variety of their musical instruments they were unsurpassed by any other native races. It seems certain that the Coast Kaffirs were totally unacquainted with any kind of instrument whatever except those which were of undoubted Bushman origin, and it is a question whether most of those in use by the Bachoana and Basutu tribes were not derived originally from the same source. Some of them were undoubtedly so.

The songs also of these stronger races, which accompanied their dances, showed little variation, and dwelt almost entirely on two or three notes, while the Bushmen, on the contrary, not only had a multitude of dances, but each dance had its own special tune adapted to it, which, although confined to five or six notes, were capable of much modification. In fact, in comparison with the other races the Bushmen might have been termed passionately fond of music, and from the writer's experience some of their simple refrains had as much effect upon their feelings as our own more perfect and elaborate compositions have upon civilised men.

This the writer had fortunately an opportunity of witnessing, whilst exhibiting a portfolio of copies of their own cave-paintings to some old Bush-people. The old man, whose name was 'Ko-rin-na (called Danster by the Boers and Basutu), was apparently between seventy and eighty years old, while his wife, 'Kour-'ke, was about ten years younger. The meaning of his name was flat-stone, probably derived from the place of his birth.N

Notes: Kwa-ba, alias Toby, in his evidence (Notes of Charles S. Orpen) says : — " Bushman children are named from the place where they were born. I have four ; and all are called T'kout-'koo, from Bethulie, the Bushman name of which was T'kout-'koo. The oldest is T'kout-'koo-'tn'goi, or the eldest T'kout-'koo, the second is called Middle T'kout-'koo, and so on. Children were not called after their father, but from some cave, river, bush, or tree where, or near which, they were born."

He originally belonged to the tribe which inhabited the Bushmanberg on the Caledon. When his tribe was attacked and driven thence, he fled to 'Co-ro-ko, the last great Bushman captain of the 'Kou-we, i.e. the Mountain, the present Jammerberg of the Orange Free State and Basutuland. Here he married 'Kou-'ke, who was the niece of the chief 'Co-ro-ko. His father's name was 'Gou-roun-'ko, and his mother's, Tuk'rm-ku-kuba. Although all the rest of the 'Kou-we tribe had been annihilated he and his wife were still clinging to their old haunts and caves in the Mountain, under the protection of a petty Basutu or Bataung captain, named Ramanape, that is the father of Manape.

p8 #
Image

The old man still retained his bow and arrows, together with a number of other Bushman implements. He was very proud to show how he worked with his bone awls, etc. His wife was very intelligent, and was evidently well versed in the folklore of her tribe. Unfortunately the time was too short to permit the writer to avail himself of the knowledge she possessed ; and such was the dread of the Boers which animated these unfortunates, that no offer that could be made would induce them to stay even for a short time within the Free State border.

This interesting old couple expressed their delight continuously, as with twinkling eyes they were shown the different copies of their cave-paintings, explaining all they saw, and emphatically terming them " their paintings," " their own paintings," " the paintings of their nation." Coming at length to the copies of some dances, old 'Kou'ke immediately exclaimed, " That, that is a grand dance. It is the 'Ko-'ku-curra ! " " This," she said, " had gone out of fashion when she was a little girl, but used always to be danced in the days of her grandmother's grandmother. I know it ! I know the song ! " And at once, moving her head and body to the time, commenced the following :—

Image

Whilst 'Kouke was singing the upper line, the old man became visibly affected, and kept continually touching her arm, saying, " Don't ! Don't ! " She, however, continued, when he again said, almost pitifully, " Don't ! Don't sing those old songs, I can't bear it ! It makes my heart too sad ! " She still persisted, with more animation than before, evidently warming with the recollection of the past, until at length the old man, no longer able to resist the impulse, broke into the refrain shown in the second line. They looked at each other, and were happy, the glance of the wife seeming to say, " Ah ! I thought you could not withstand that ! "

One was not prepared to meet with such a display of genuine feeling as this among people who have been looked upon and treated as such untamably vicious animals as this doomed race are said to be. It was a proof that " all the world's akin," and was certainly a Bushman edition of " John Anderson, my Jo, John."

Upon looking at another painting which represented a number of Bushmen hunters with their bows in their hands and their arrows filleted around their heads dancing, she said that was a dance for huntsmen, and that it was called the 'Kahoune ; to this she gave the following tune and refrain : —

Image

As an additional proof of the powerful effect which the sight representation of their of these paintings, together with the dances and the wild music with which 'Kouke accompanied them, old 'Ko-rin-'na, whilst the recital and song was going on, the ice having once been broken, disappeared behind the waggon, and shortly afterwards reappeared with his head arrayed with a perfect coronet of barbed arrows, most artistically arranged, swaying at the same time his old grey head, in evident glee, backwards and forwards to the cadence of the tune, as he came towards us, and continued the dance as long as his wife continued singing, saying that " now he was a young man again " !

A third dance, she said, was the 'Kou-coo. It was the grand dance of the Bushmen. The dancers were always in full dress of skins cut into various patterns ; they also wore head-dresses and large hollow balls made of dry hide fastened to their upper-arms or shoulders. These hollow instruments contained a number of small pebbles, and were shaken with a sudden jerk in the measured time of the refrain which accompanied the dance ; this she gave as follows : —

Image

We have already given the music of the song which accompanies the playing of the game of Bushman cards, and which evidently proves itself to be of Bushman origin, if we compare it with the foregoing and the monotones in which most of the Kaffir compositions are chanted. Having thus gained some little insight into the Bushman's talent for music, we will now pass on to the consideration of the instruments which have been found in his possession or represented in his paintings. This is a subject of great interest, as it enables us to learn, from a Bushman point of view, the probable primitive germ of many of the complicated and beautiful instruments of a more advanced stage of civilisation.

Among the early races of men, the first attempt at a musical accompaniment was in all probability the regular clapping of hands to the time of the dance or the song. By such sounds its movements might be regulated, and the multitude of dancers be brought into uniform action. In their war dances the men danced and sang, or rather vociferously chanted, while the women accompanied them with the clapping of hands, and perchance, similar to some of the present Kaffir tribes with a long, droning, humming undercurrent of a refrain : —

Image

swelling and dying away as the excitement and vehemence increased or diminished. To this, after a time was added, to increase the effect, the beating of sticks in measured time, and still advancing, the beating on shields for the same purpose was introduced, a custom continued among the frontier Kaffirs until a very few years ago, and which may perhaps be still continued in some of the more isolated portions of the country, where the use of the shield has still been retained.

These nomadic warrior-herdsmen, who were far ruder and more warlike than the Bachoana and Basutu clans of the interior, had nothing among the arms they carried — their javelins, clubs and shields — which could suggest to their untutored minds any ideas of harmonious sounds, except the harsh rattle of their weapons upon the piece of dry hide which formed their means of defence ; and hence it was (from all the most reliable evidence which can be gathered bearing upon the subject) that they never had, until after they came in contact with the Bushman race, any knowledge of any other musical accompaniment than the clapping of hands, the beating of kerries and assagais, and the barbarous noise of their sounding shields.

A hunter race, however, armed with a bow and arrow possessed a considerable advantage over such tribes as these ; and the tinkling sound of his bow-string must have attracted his notice and aroused his attention. He discovered that by striking it with the shaft of his arrow, or a small wand, he could reproduce the pleasant sound at will, and, doubtless, by degrees he was led from this to use it as an instrument of music, and thus made an important advance beyond his more primitive accompaniments of the clapping of hands and the beating of sticks.

All these three methods were frequently found depicted in their cave-paintings, and amongst some of the most ancient yet preserved, Bushmen are represented as beating on their bowstrings while engaged in some of their numerous dances. Such then was doubtless the first musical instrument of the Bushman race, and such, in all probability, was the original germ which, commencing with the dawning ideas of prehistoric man, when the bow-strings of the mammoth hunters gave out the first musical sounds derived from an artificial source that ever fell upon the human ear, ultimately arrived at the perfection of the stringed instruments which have since been developed in the world.

Image

Happily the Bushmen afford us decisive information upon the early stages of this progressive development. Thus in Madolo's cave, on Lower Zwart Kei, we find a Bushman playing upon a bow to which an additional string has been added, so as to give a double harmony. Again, in another place, a bow is represented with four strings, evidently a primitive harp, being used as a musical instrument to accompany a dance.

This may be the reason why, on account of its origin, the harp in ancient times was considered a more fit instrument for the hands of men than of women. Le Vaillant, during his visit to this country in 1781-2 met with an instrument among some of these people, which was called a Rabouquin, made of a triangular piece of wood with three strings fastened with pegs, so that they could be tightened at pleasure and which when played were twanged with the fingers.

Image

A cave, in a deep ravine, forming one of the sources of the Eland's river, on the north-east face of the Malutis, furnishes us with another illustration of the progress of development in stringed instruments. It is the representation of a dance in which a great number of Bushmen are engaged ; the musician sits opposite to the centre of the line of dancers, whose bows have been collected and fixed in the ground before him so that the strings are all on a level and inclined towards him, upon which he is playing by striking with a bow-stick ; thus we are unexpectedly presented with the idea of a primitive dulcimer, composed of a combination of bows.

After a time it appears to have been discovered that by pressing the bow upon something hollow, the sound of the instrument was improved and increased. The Bushman used a tortoise- shell for his primitive sounding-board. This instrument became popular among the intruding tribes, and was called 'Kopo by some of the Coast Kaffirs, and 'To-mo by the Basutu.

By them a calabash was substituted instead of the more primitive shell used by the Bushmen. It was played by grasping the bow near the lower end with the left hand, the open mouth of the calabash was placed on the left breast, the notes from the string were varied by pressures of the left thumb and forefinger upon it whilst it was tapped with a small wand in the right hand. It was generally accompanied by the singing of the player, who frequently gave a kind of recitative performance whilst doing so.

Le Vaillant saw an instrument of very similar construction, which he said the Bushmen of the south called a 'Joum-'joum. It was generally played by a woman in a sitting posture. Placing the bow before her perpendicularly like a harp, holding the bottom firm with her foot, without touching the cord, she grasped the bow with her left hand about the middle, and whilst blowing upon the string, where a quill feather was attached, she struck the string with a wand about five to six inches long. This 'Joum-'joum would almost appear to have been a combination of the 'Kopo, and of another instrument called the 'Goura, of which we shall speak presently.

Another and more elaborate variety of the instrument we are speaking of was seen by Thompson. He states that he observed a Bushman playing on a Ra-ma'kie, which he describes as being about forty inches long by five broad, and having half a calabash affixed to one end, with four strings somewhat resembling those of a violin. Here then we find a further advance of a quadruple-stringed bow, joined with a calabash sounding-board, the nearest approach to a harp that the inventive faculty of the old Bushman race was capable of arriving at.

Another stringed instrument copied from the Bushmen was that called a 'Kan'gan by some of the Coast Tribes. It was made of a kind of compound bow, formed of three pieces, the centre being a strong piece of bamboo, about twelve inches in length. Two pieces of tough wood were then inserted, one into each end, about eighteen inches long and tapered off towards the tips like the extremities of a bow, giving it the appearance of some of the old classical bows of the northern hemisphere. This was then tightly strung with a fine line made of an antelope's sinew, which was again so braced down to the central piece of bamboo that the string was divided into two unequal lengths.

In playing upon the instrument, a portion of the bamboo was held in the mouth, and the string played upon with the forefinger of the right hand, in which it was held. The music, however, obtained from the Kan'gan was more for the performer's own private delectation than for the amusement of the general public.

The next instrument was the t‘Goer-ra, Goura, or Gora, called also Sesiba by the Basutu. It has been appropriated by both the Coast Kaffirs and the Basutu. This also is another invention which has, evidently, had its origin from the bow. In fact it is simply a bow in which one end of the string, instead of being fastened to the bow itself, is attached to a broad, thin, flexible tongue-shaped piece of quill, which is firmly fixed and spliced to the end of the bow.

It is this piece of quill which acts as a kind of mouth-piece, in a somewhat analogous manner to the soft reeds of the old-fashioned clarionets. The instrument was played by taking the quill in the mouth, and causing it to vibrate by strong inspirations and expirations of the breath, and therefore might be termed a wind-stringed instrument. The sounds produced are frequently very wild, harsh, and discordant. It is said that "with its help the Bushman could imitate the noise of a bellicose ostrich to perfection." N

Notes: Miss L. E. Lemue, Memoir on Bushmen. Notes by Charles S. Orpen.

Sometimes several musicians would perform on the 'Goura together, raising an unmelodious and unearthly din which however delightful it might prove to a native audience, would certainly be more suggestive of a dance of witches round an infernal cauldron, to ears more refined and cultivated, than anything else. Campbell who in his last journey heard an old man playing upon one of them, likened its sound to the word " dum- wharry, dum-wharry," pronounced in a hoarse hollow tone.

Another wind instrument was a kind of reed flute, or pipe, and was especially used in their old favourite dance called 'Ko-'ku-curra. The reeds were cut at a particular season, and the flutes made of different sizes and lengths, so as to obtain a variety of notes. They were made by one or two of the men who were skilled in their manufacture, but their use was reserved exclusively for the women. The Koranas esteemed this the most beautiful of all the native music, and introduced its use into several of their dances.

SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS FROM THE BUSHMAN BOW

p9 #
Image

1. The Bushman Bow,
2. Do. do. with two strings.
3. Do. do. with four strings.
4. The Bushman 'Kopo, with Tortoise-shell Sounding Board.
5 The 'Kangan.
6. Compound Group of Bows.
7. Kopo, with four strings and Calabash.
8. The 'Goura or 'Gora.
8a. The Quill Mouth-piece of do.

Beyond these we find that the inventive faculty of the Bushmen, in their desire to increase their musical accompaniments, had enabled them to produce an instrument of percussion in the shape of a kind of tambour or drum, called by different writers a Romelpot (Le Vaillant), 'Tam-tam (Arbousset), and T'koi-t'koi (Sparrman). The two last were probably Bushman appellations derived from the sound emitted by it.N Some of them were formed of a portion of the shell of the great bush-tortoise, the bottom being cut away, and its place supplied with a skin stretched over it.

This was probably the most ancient invention, and where such shells were not procurable, they were driven to the necessity of substituting earthen pots, and these again, from their liability of being easily broken in the excitement of the dance, were displaced by a hollow block of wood, or even a large calabash after their contact with the stronger races. All these modes of construction, however, were retained among one or other of their tribes till within the memory of the present generation.

Notes: There are a number of Bushman words which, like many found in all primitive languages, are discovered to be, when analyzed, imitations of natural sounds : thus the above word T'koi-t'koi is an evident imitation of the beat of their drum. Hurroo (Barrow) was another word used by some of their coast tribes to indicate the breaking of the sea on the shore ; while 'Ka-boo (Barrow) and 'Khoo (Arbousset), both being pronounced with a strong palatal click, for a gun ; the click representing the striking of the hammer of the old flint-locks before the explosion ; hence also a white man was called by some of them a 'Khoo — i.e. the carrier of a gun, while Le Vaillant gives us 'Kgaap, a bow ; with a dental click in imitation of the twanging of the bow itself.

Those of earthenware were sometimes made of a pot in the form of a quoit, and covered with the skin of a springbok after being well softened and stripped of its hair. This therefore was more a kind of tambourine than a drum. Those made of a hollow block were from two to three feet in height, whilst the heads of the smaller kind were made of the skin of a steenbok, and those of the larger were sometimes formed of a piece of zebra skin. These were veritable drums, and were beaten with the hand or a stick.

The last instruments we shall notice were those which have been termed "Bushman bells." The larger kind were formed of a piece of dry hide, from which the hair had been scraped. They were in the shape of a large hollow sphere, and were fastened to either the upper arm or shoulder. The smaller ones were generally made of prepared springbok skin, and were either round like the others, or cup-shaped.

This latter kind was fastened round the ankles and wrists: they were from two to three inches in diameter. Sometimes a belt of small ones, the size of a pullet's egg, encircled the waist, or was worn across the shoulders. They all contained small pebbles, and made a noise in the agitation of the dance like the shaking of peas in a bladder. The effect of this was heightened when a number of Bush people were dancing and keeping regular time together.

Image

Their Dances.

We have already seen the fondness of the Bushmen for disguising themselves in masquerading dresses, representing various animals, birds, and imaginary monsters, either with the aid of paint or the skins, heads, and horns of the objects to be represented. Beyond this, however, their powers of mimicry were wonderfully striking, and thus they were able not only to assume the appearance, but the action, manner, and cries of the animal they wished to personify, with extraordinary accuracy.N It was this talent which enabled them to give such variety to their dances, an amusement of which they were passionately fond, and in which they indulged upon every fitting occasion.

The universality of this custom was shown from the fact that, in the early days, in the centre of every village or kraal, or near every rock-shelter, and in every great cave, there was a large circular ring where either the ground or grass was beaten flat and bare, from the frequent and constant repetition of their terpsichorean exercises. It was when food was abundant, after having eaten, that they gave rein to their favourite amusement. Feasting and festivity were ever accompanied with continuous dancing and rejoicing from the close of eve to the dawn of the returning day.

Notes: A Bushman once travelled with the writer, who was able to imitate on the sand the spoor of every animal, from an elephant to a steenbok, with such exactitude that it required a most practised eye to detect the counterfeit.

They had also their special seasons when the dance was never neglected, such as the time of the new and full moon. Dancing began with the new moon, as an expression of joy that the dark nights had ended, and was continued at the full moon, that they might avail themselves of the delicious coolness after the heat of the day, and the brilliancy of the moonlight in this portion of the southern hemisphere. It is probable that similar practices in a remote period gave rise, among some of the nations of antiquity, to their feasts and festivals of the new and full moon, which, as they emerged from the primitive barbarism of their ancestors, became connected in their observance with a number of religious rites and ceremonies.

Another marked time with the Bushmen was the approach of the first thunderstorm of the season, when it is stated that they were ever particularly joyful ; as they considered it an infallible token that the summer had commenced. In the midst of their excessive rejoicing they tore in pieces their skin karosses, threw them into the air, and danced for several nights in succession. On these occasions the 'Gariep Bushmen made great outcries, accompanied with dancing and playing upon their drums.

As the first thunder-storm was hailed with joy as a sign of returning warmth, so as the season advanced and some of the tremendous outbursts of elementary fury, which sometimes visit the country, made their appearance, their superstition and dread were aroused, which among some of the tribes culminated in fits of impotent rage, as if the war of the elements excited their indignation against the mysterious power which they supposed was the cause of it.

A desire to repel the storm, as they would a dangerous enemy, may have arisen from the fact that occasionally some of their caves have been destroyed in these storms, when the greater portion of the horde have been buried in the ruins, the projecting rocks jutting far over their rock-shelters appearing to have acted as more powerful conductors on these fatal occasions than the smoother face of the precipice on either side of the locality where the cave was situated. In 1877 and '78 the writer visited two spots where the caves had been destroyed by catastrophes of this kind, and where, in both instances, it was said that a number of Bush-people lost their lives.

Thus it was in all probability that a germ of the religious element sprang up in their breasts, and their superstition created the idea of, as he has been styled by Arbousset, the Chief of the Sky, whom they named 'Kaang, and who was also called Kue-A'keng-'teng, the Man, that is to say, the Master of all things, who according to their expression one does not see with the eyes but knows him with the heart, and who is to be propitiated in times of famine and before going to war, and that throughout the whole night by performing a certain dance.

From this we seem to learn something of the primitive ideas, which became more and more elaborated until dancing was looked upon as a religious ceremony, which, however licentious we may deem the greater portion of these ancient religious performances to have been, were nevertheless at the time earnestly entered into with a view of propitiating some fancied deity.

The dances of the Bushmen were carried out with an energy only equalled by that which they displayed in the chase. In many of them, as well as in their great hunts, they painted their bodies, some covering them with red, white, and yellow spots ; some entirely with red, others in parti-colours, as one portion of the body black, for instance the legs and arms and the lower part to the waist, the remainder white ; or the colours might be reversed, or red or yellow might be substituted for either the black or white or both.

Another fashion was to adorn one side of the body with one colour, the other with another, by way of contrast ; sometimes the whole would be painted black, red, or some other colour, and these again ornamented with spots, or straight or zigzag lines, or a combination of all these devices. These were evidently intended for their gala costumes, and were only indulged in before their enemies began to vent their remorseless rage upon them.

Some of their dances required considerable skill, such as that which may be called the ball dance. In this a number of women from five to ten would form a line and face an equal number in another row, leaving a space of thirty or forty feet between them.

A woman at the end of one of these lines would commence by throwing a round ball, about the size of an orange, and made of a root, under her right leg, and across to the woman opposite to her, who in her turn would catch the ball and throw it back in a similar manner to the second woman in the first-row ; she would return it again in the same way to the second in the second, and thus it continued until all had taken their turn. Then the women would shift their positions, crossing over to opposite sides, and again continue in the same manner as before ; and so on until the game was over, when they would rest for a short time and begin again.

Another ball dance was played merely by the men. A ball was made expressly for this game out of the thickest portion of a hippopotamus' hide, cut from the back of the neck ; this was hammered when it was perfectly fresh until it was quite round ; when finished it was elastic, and would quickly rebound when thrown upon a hard surface. In this performance a flat stone was placed in the centre upon the ground, the players or dancers standing around.

One of them commenced by throwing the ball on the stone, when it rebounded ; the next to him caught it, and immediately it was thrown again by him upon the stone in the same manner as by the leader, when it was caught by the next in succession, and so on, one after the other passing rapidly round the ring, until the leader or one of the others would throw it with such force as to send it flying high and straight up into the air, when during its ascent they commenced a series of antics, throwing themselves into all kinds of positions, imitating wild dogs, and like them making a noise " che ! che ! che ! " but in the meantime watching the ball, which was caught by one of them, when he took the place of leader, and the game was again renewed.

The play was sometimes varied by two players being matched against each other, each throwing and catching the ball alternately, until one of them missed it, when it was immediately caught by one of those in the outer ring, who at once took the place of the one who had made the slip, and thus the play continued.N

Notes: Notes by Charles S. Orpen.

Image

Some of the dances were intended for the women alone, others for the men ; sometimes the men and women danced together, but in separate lines facing each other, like the old country dance, at others intermingled alternately in a large circle.

The 'Ko-ku-curra, or as it might be termed from the instrument played during its performance, the reed or flute dance, was exclusively for women. This was also a kind of competition dance, as the women of one cave or kraal would send a challenge to those of another, informing them that on a certain day they intended to come and " flute " with them. Both parties then prepared for a feast, by laying in as large a stock of provisions as possible.

On the appointed day the challengers, who had prepared, in addition to the provisions which they carried with them, a large supply of various sized reed flutes, left their kraal in a kind of rude procession, leaving all of the men of the place behind, and started for the rendezvous whither the challenge had been sent, fluting as they went along. Had any of the men attempted to follow them it would have been resented as a gross breach of privilege, for it was the day of the women asserting the prerogative of unlimited freedom.

Their approach was heralded to their expectant hosts by the sound of their flutes, which could be heard in fine weather at a great distance. As they drew near their friends turned out to meet them, and gave them a joyful welcome. A feast was prepared, and when all were satisfied, they made ready for the friendly contest.

The women of the two kraals then drew up in two opposing lines, when the rival fluting and dancing commenced ; this was taken up alternately, first by the representatives of the one kraal and then by the other, though occasionally both joined together. This was sometimes continued for hours.

Feasting again followed, and the dance was renewed, the women ever and anon throwing themselves into a variety of positions intended to excite the feelings of the male spectators. This feasting and revelry was continued for three or four days, or until all their provisions were exhausted, during which time the lady visitors abandoned themselves to every species of licence, and had no cause for missing the absence of their husbands. They then returned to their own kraal in the same frolicsome manner as they had left it.

In a short time the women of the kraal they had visited returned the compliment, and came in the same kind of procession, bringing, in their turn, their flutes with them, when the dancings and flutings were repeated, the same feastings and orgies were reacted, and the men of the kraal were consoled for the departure of their wives on the former occasion.

The song which accompanied this dance has already been given. The Koranas had a dance which was identical with the one described, but as the Bushmen of the north practised it for generations before the Koranas made their appearance on the banks of the 'Nu 'Gariep, it is not improbable that the latter derived their knowledge of it from the older race.

The 'Kahoune was one in which none but men were allowed to join, and of these, only such as were distinguished for their manly qualities. Thus it was when old 'Ko-rin-'na heard his wife singing again the wild refrain which accompanied the dance of huntsmen, that the recollections of olden times rushed over him, and impelled him to array his head once more as he doubtless before had done in the days when he himself had joined the wild hunters of his tribe in dancing and singing the 'Tata-'ta-yeya, yeya of the 'Kahoune.

The accompaniment has already been given. The men danced in line, with their arrows filleted round their heads, which they, rolled about in a rollicking manner as they advanced, shaking their bows aloft at the same time, while their movements were regulated by a leader.

Unfortunately the writer was not able to discover the names of a considerable number of their other dances, nor the refrains by which they were accompanied. There was another dance of huntsmen, when as they danced alone they were tapping on their bowstrings with a small wand, and every alternate one had a large-sized Bushman bell attached to his shoulder.

Another might have been termed a Bushman country dance, where the men and women were in two opposite lines, waving their kerries frantically in the air, and loudly vociferating as they proceeded, while a conductor in the centre, but a little in advance of the two lines, led them.

Another might be called the chain-dance, in which a mixed company of men and women formed an open column four deep, with a considerable space between each file ; all the dancers standing with their arms extended holding a long wand upright between them, thus forming rows of arches, through which a couple (a man and woman) setting to each other, danced in and out, whilst a leader standing at the head of the column directed their movements.

In many of the dances the conductor who superintended and guided the movements of the performance wore the disguise of the 'Nadro, in some the dancers themselves were so decorated ; in others they were so dressed as to represent a particular animal, when the dance was called by its name ; such was the t'Gorlo'ka, the Man-nia, or Baboon dance, in which the performers imitated all the actions and droll grimaces of rival baboons, springing, gambolling, and running upon all foursy chattering and grimacing like a troop of excited simiadæN.

Another, and one which also appeared a favourite amongst them, was the Kloo-rou-o, or Frog-dance, in which they squatted, and leaped, and rolled about like a lot of inebriated batrachians. A third of this kind was the t’Oi, or Bee-dance, when the company transformed themselves into a swarm of bees, and performed their evolutions with a buzzing chorus.

Notes: It is quite possible that some of these dances may have had, at one time, a mythical signification attached to them, which would only be understood by the initiated. This idea is suggested by a myth which Mr. Joseph M.Orpen obtained from a Maluti Bushman named 'Qing (.'kign Bleek) who said Cagn (the 'Kaang of Arbousset and Callaway and kaggen of Bleek) sent Cogaz to cut sticks to make bows.

Image

When Cogaz came to the bush the baboons (cogn) caught him. They called all the other baboons to hear him, and they asked him who sent him there. He said his father sent him to cut sticks to make bows. So they said, " Your father thinks himself more clever than we are, and he wants those bows to kill us, so we'll kill you," and they killed Cogaz, and tied him up in the top of a tree, and they danced round the tree, singing (an intranscribable baboon song) with a chorus saying, " Cagn thinks he is clever."

Cagn was asleep when Cogaz was killed, but when he awoke he told Coti to give him his charms, and he put some on his nose, and said the baboons have hung Cogaz. So he went to where the baboons were, and when they saw him coming close by they changed their song so as to omit the words about Cagn, but a little baboon girl said, " Don't sing that way, sing the way you were singing before."

And Cagn said, " Sing as the little girl wishes," and they sang and danced away as before. And Cagn said, "That is the song I heard, that is what I wanted, go on dancing until I return ; " and he went and fetched a bag full of pegs, and went behind each of them as they were dancing and making a great dust, and he drove a peg into each one's back, and gave it a crack, and sent them off to the mountains to live on roots, beetles, and scorpions, as a punishment. Before that baboons were men, but since that they have tails, and their tails hang crooked. Then Cagn took Cogaz down, and gave him canna, and made him alive again.''

From the above it is quite possible that this dance may have been instituted in honour of some festival dedicated to 'Kaang or his son 'Qing informed Mr. J. Orpen that there were certain dances which only certain men were allowed to dance : men who had been initiated, and understood the meaning of them. Some of these animal dances may belong to this class.

On special occasions, they held a general masquerade, when each took the disguise or head-dress of some particular bird or animal, and upheld the character during the performance. This appears to have been considered one of their grand national dances, and was reserved for their high festivals ; it was one which even their greatest artists delighted to depict, and probably it had some hidden meaning known to the initiated.

They also had a very singular one, which might appropriately be named the dance of acrobats. In this, in hopping and jumping about in a ring, it appeared as if all their efforts were directed to place themselves in every possible position and contortion, the leader taking his place in the centre, and occasionally joining in the posture-making going on around him, while the dancers moved on in a circle writhing, twining, and twisting their bodies in whatever droll and uncommon attitude their fancy suggested; now balancing themselves on their hands and throwing their legs upwards until their heads were in the position of a clown's looking through a horse-collar at a circus, now standing on their heads, and again balancing and walking upon their hands with their legs thrown high in the air, in true acrobatic style.

The changes from one posture to another were rapid and continuous, and the entire circle was ever in ceaseless motion. The women, as it was among ancient dancers and tumblers, were the chief, if not the only, performers. The conductor was, however, generally one of the male sex.N

Notes: 1 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson in his Egyptians gives a copy of one of their paintings, where a group of women are performing a number of similar evolutions. The head-dress of the Bushwomen on these occasions was, however, the ears of a spring or a steen-bok.

Another very similar one might be termed the dance of the Chief, or the Wise Man of the Tribe. This was one of the licentious group of dances, but which, nevertheless, may have also had its hidden meaning, in which the women appear to have offered themselves up to sexual congress ; and which therefore may have had some reference to 'Kaang, who they believed was the originator or creator of things.

In this the women formed themselves into a circle similar to the preceding one, the chief took up his position in the centre, and frequently hopped and sprang round on all fours like some animal, the women in the meanwhile dancing and placing themselves in every possible lascivious position, until the great man in the centre pounced upon one of those who had most distinguished themselves and performed that in the sight of all which in more civilised communities is reserved for the strictest privacy, amid the applauding clatter of the excited dancers forming the enclosing circle. After this the chief again took up his original position, and the dance continued with the same repetitions until all engaged in it were wearied and exhausted.

The most famous dance, however, among the Bushmen was that called Mo'koma, or the dance of blood, a name which M. Arbousset informs us is derived from the same word Mo-koma which signifies blood from the nose, from circumstances which frequently arose during its performance. They believed that their ancestors derived their instructions with regard to this dance direct from 'Kaang himself, and that in times of famine, war, scarcity, or sickness, this dance, Mo'koma, was to be continued throughout the whole night, in his honour.

'Qing or 'King informed Mr. J. Orpen that Cagn gave them the song of this dance, and told them to dance it, and people would die from it, and he would give charms to raise them again. It is a circular dance of men and women following each other, and it is danced all night. Some fall down, some become as if mad and sick, blood runs from the noses of others whose charms are weak, and they eat charm medicine, in which there is burnt snake powder.

M. Arbousset, who saw the Bushmen dancing it, says, " The movements consisted of irregular jumps, as if, to use a native expression, one saw a herd of calves leaping. They gambolled together until all were fatigued and covered with perspiration. The thousand cries which they raised, and the exertions which they made were so violent, that it was not unusual to see some one sink to the ground exhausted and covered with blood, which poured from the nostrils, and it was on this account that the dance was called Mo'koma or the dance of blood.

When a man thus falls in the middle of a ball, the women gather round him and put two bits of reed across each other on his back. They carefully wipe away the perspiration with ostrich feathers, leaping backward and falling across his back. Soon the air revives him ; he rises, and this in general terminates the performance."

M. Arbousset states that the use of the two bits of reed appeared most obscure to him, but it is evident that they were a portion of the charms alluded to by 'Qing ; but why they should be put in the form of a cross is not so easily explained. The cross singly, or in groups of three, was one of the most ancient of the Bushman symbols. M. Arbousset, however, could obtain no further explanation of it than that they constantly had recourse to it in cases of extreme sickness, and that they say it exerts a salutary influence over a sick person.

He considered that it might be mixed up with something of a religious rite. That such was really the case, and that the mystery hidden in such symbols was only known to a select few called the initiated, is rendered almost a certainty from the statements of 'Qing, who informed Mr. J. Orpen that when a man was sick the Mo'koma was danced round him, and the " dancers put both hands under their armpits and press their hands upon him, and when he coughs the initiated put out their hands and receive what has injured him, secret things. The initiated who know secret things are 'Qogn'qe ; the sick man is hang'cai."

The women were the great upholders of these dances, and always prepared for them by putting on their gala costumes. It is said that some of the men ruined themselves by too frequent indulgence in some of these licentious performances, or as Qing expressed himself, there were people who were " spoilt" by the Mo'koma. It was believed that such transgressing individuals were carried off by 'Kaang to some mysterious retreat beneath the water, where they were transformed into beasts, and had constant chastisement administered to them as a punishment for their excesses.N

Notes: 'Qing stated to Mr. J. Orpen that " there were three great chiefs, Cagn, Cogaz, and 'Qwanctqulchaa, who had great power, but it was Cagn who gave orders through the other two." The cartoon that will now be described clearly sustains this statement.

The writer, whilst examining one of the sources of the Eland's river, in the Malutis, discovered a rock-shelter where the whole of this myth was most wonderfully and clearly depicted. It was in two groups, one a short distance removed from the other. In the uppermost a number of women of different ages were engaged in performing the Mo'koma, or this very dance of blood. The figures were full of life, and their actions plainly suggested the result which would naturally follow from an indulgence in such a questionable pastime.

Near at hand were three of the most demoniacal-looking satyrs that could be imagined, with the heads and horns of beasts, shaggy loins, and long tails — with thick legs and monstrous splay-feet. One of them had captured two unfortunate delinquent Bushmen, whom he was carrying away, the one on his back, the other by dragging him along the ground by a leather thong tied round the culprit's neck.

The other two demons are evidently rejoicing at the capture that had been made, and are hurrying to the assistance of their companion. The second representation, some feet removed from the upper one, depicts where the two sinners have been transformed into beasts, that is they have the heads of animals placed on their shoulders, instead of their own ; they are securely pinioned with a couple of kibis, or digging sticks, and 'Kaang has seized one of them in a most painful position, and is administering to him a sound thrashing with another heavy 'kibi or digging stick of the same kind, thus making " the strong hand " an instrument of punishment.

This discovery was an important one with regard to our present subject, for it unmistakably proves that a certain amount of religious belief was connected with some of their dances ; and that, in the painting here described, we are furnished with a positive representation of their fancied deities ; and moreover it clearly demonstrates, as was before suggested, that the 'Nadro and hunting disguises of their remote ancestors had become so identified with some great, but primitive hero of their race, upon whom they looked in process of time as not only the first man, but the originator of all things, and who they at length believed was not only superhuman, but that the very disguises which he wore were transformed into a living portion of himself, until their lively imaginations depicted him as a being endowed with enormous power, as denoted by the strength of his limbs and possessing not such a head as belonged to common humanity, but one similar to some great homed beast.

Hence it seems as if through the despised Bushman we obtain a knowledge of the true germ whence the more elaborate, yet fabulous and symbolic animal-headed deities of the more polished nations of antiquity were developed.

Some writers have suggested that a large number of Bushman paintings are merely, especially where the Bushmen are shown in their hunting disguises, the pictorial representations of some hidden myth.

This, however, after having carefully studied the subject for a long number of years during which period the present writer has examined the remains of their paintings in hundreds of caves, obtaining also at the same time the opinion of every trustworthy Bushman he encountered, he cannot believe ; nor does he consider that, with a very few exceptions, these paintings as a rule were ever intended, originally, to convey a mythological meaning, any more than those more finished productions found in the northern hemisphere, which represent the victorious career of some Egyptian king, or the sculptures that show those of Assyria in the act of hunting the lion or the wild bull. They are purely historical.

It is, however, not improbable that after the history of some of these paintings had been forgotten and the names of the heroes who were intended to be depicted had been lost, then it might have been, at least so we can imagine from what has been previously advanced, that some mythical description may have been occasionally connected with them ; or some Bushman of the present day, deeply learned in the folklore of his tribe, may upon examining them imagine that he can detect a similarity between some myth with which he is acquainted and the pictorial representation before him, and he forthwith may cleverly join the one with the other.

He may probably belong to a tribe rich in myths, and now looks for the first time upon a painting by an artist of a distant tribe, of which previously he had not the slightest knowledge. Clever as they undoubtedly are, his natural shrewdness enables him to patch the myth and the scene represented in the painting together.

The knowledge of myths, which are passed from mouth to mouth, and handed down by tradition, must naturally be far more widely spread than that of an individual painting, which can only be known to the inhabitants who once occupied the cave and those of the immediately surrounding country. Such would seem to be the probable connexion between the interesting myths communicated to Mr. Joseph Orpen by 'Qing and the Bushman paintings, or copies of Bushman paintings which were shown to him.

As a proof of this, a copy of the same painting was submitted to an old Bushman who had been born in a cave, where from his childhood he had been surrounded by both the ancient and recent paintings belonging to his tribe, for his examination. Without any hesitation, he explained it as representing two Bushmen hunters who had painted their bodies in their hunting disguises, chasing a jackal. This man was a matter-of-fact observer.

'Qing, who was inspired with all the learning of his race, described the same two men, adorned with the heads of rheboks, as mythological characters named Hagwe and Canate, and that the animal which they were catching was a snake ! " They are holding out charms to it," he said, " and catching it with a long riem. They are all under water, and those strokes are things growing under water. They are people spoilt by the Mo'koma dance, because their noses bleed." The old Bushman, as we have stated, gave a simple description of its real and literal historical meaning. Its elaboration and mythical interpretation given by 'Qing arose from the fact that the latter was deeply versed in the folklore of his people.

The writer has since then had opportunities of questioning a number of other old Bushmen upon the same subject, and they have all agreed in their explanations with the opinion of the ancient above given. From this we may therefore learn that in looking at any of these paintings, if we find that they represent scenes of actual Bushman life, and yet that a myth is attached to them, we must look behind and beyond the myth for their true history. The myth was the after-thought, and never the intention of the artist who painted it.

Still, however, it is admitted that in such a case such a representation may become a valuable adjunct in arousing in the minds of others, by a fancied, though it may be, as in the present instance, forced resemblance to some almost-forgotten myth, a vivid recollection of its existence, and thus prove the means of further illustrating the imaginative faculties and mental powers of the race.

Where such a matter-of-fact interpretation cannot be put upon it, and from the experience of the writer they are few in number, then in all probability it represents some ancient myth in a pure, simple, and unadulterated state ; and such is the one we have described, which was discovered on a flank of the Malutis, where 'Kaang is seen to be unquestionably inflicting punishment upon two unfortunate delinquents, who have outraged the Bushman ideas of prudence in their excessive indulgence in the licentious yet mystic dance of blood.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:39 am, edited 5 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

7

Post posted by VED »

7 #
MODE OF BURIAL OF THE BUSHMEN— HEAPS OF STONES— SOME OF THEIR BELIEFS


These subjects in Bushman ideas are closely associated the one with the other, thus the heaps of stones are connected with their burials, while their superstition forms the connecting link between these and some of their beliefs.

As a precaution against sickness the Bushmen carried their medicinal rootsN and charms strung on a cord of sinew, and worn as a necklace. Some of the initiated were more skilful in the use of these remedies than any one else, and for this reason were looked upon in the light of medicine-men or doctors. Such individuals generally belonged to the ruling family or its branches, and thus a kind of caste or rank was recognised, among whose members all the secret mysteries of the tribe were jealously preserved.

Notes: The Bushmen certainly are acquainted with a number of very valuable medicinal plants ; some of them are specifics in the cure of several diseases which have frequently baffled the skill of the most eminent medical practitioners ; and it is a matter of astonishment that no effort has been made to discover such important secrets. Thus they were able to effect certain cures in cases of snake-bite, tænia, dysentery, and calculus, besides the rapid removal of gonorrheal affections.

In cases of severe illness, when all their remedies and charms alike proved unsuccessful, they would sometimes seize the dying man and attempt to arouse by roughly shaking him, scolding and reproaching him with his evident intention of leaving them ; but when they saw that their reproaches and remonstrances were as unavailing as their charms and their medicines, they became visibly affected and gave way to their grief, making lamentations over him, and continued doing so for several days.

M. Arbousset, who availed himself of the frequent opportunities he possessed of studying the manners and customs of this people, states that as soon as a man had breathed his last, his relatives rolled him up in his kaross and carried him out, by removing the back of his hut, as it was considered unlucky to take out the dead through the regular door or opening used by the living. His body was placed temporarily in a round hole, he was then blessed and revered by his family, and looked upon as one of their tutelar guardian spirits. "

Image

The dead were first anointed with red powder mixed with melted fat, and then they were coarsely embalmed. The friends of the deceased attended the funeral, and laid the body on its side in an oblong pit, where all the friends and relatives assembled to make their lamentations."

His bow and staff were deposited in the grave by his side. His face was placed towards the rising sun, as they believed were they to put his face towards the west, it would make the sun longer in rising the next day. At last they threw into the pit the materials of the hut in which he died and burnt it over him, and the grave was then filled with earth to the level of the ground.

Arbousset says that the Bushman clans with which he was acquainted placed no heaps of stones or monument over the graves, as other native tribes do. It is certain, however, that the greater portion of the Bushmen did so, as well as surrounding the spot with a hedge.

"The funeral over," Arbousset continues, "all the inhabitants left the place for a year or two, during which time they never spoke of the deceased but with veneration and with tears." ..." These interments were never so precipitate as among the Kaffir or Bachoana tribes, where unfortunate people have been known to recover from their state of lethargy, and manage to work themselves out of their graves again," appearing once more among their horrified friends as unexpected visitors from another world.

The graves were dug with the 'kibi. It is most probable that the custom of placing stones over the graves of the dead amongst primitive tribes originated from the desire of protecting the bodies of their relatives from the ravages of hyenas and other ravenous beasts.

By degrees these heaps were looked upon as associated with the memory of the dead, and as their superstitious ideas became more and more developed, and the belief arose that the shades or spirits of the departed could be either propitiated or offended, it was at last looked upon as an imperative duty to avoid the evil consequences which might follow should it be neglected, for every passer-by to make some addition to the sacred heap, with the assurance that by so doing he secured prosperity to himself and his family. In course of time heaps of stones, the Gilgals of old, were raised, which had a certain phallic significance.

These were altogether unconnected with the burial of the dead, and are still found on the brows of many hills in different parts of South Africa, of which we shall have to speak when treating of the stronger races. Heaps of this description appear to have been instituted after the southern migration of the Bushmen, as they had no traditions concerning them ; therefore from our South African point of view the evidence seems strongly to favour the idea that the primitive heaps of stones were primarily intended merely as a protection to the bodies of those buried beneath them.

The Bushmen, however, had got beyond this stage, and considered that in order to propitiate the favour of their departed friends it was necessary to make an offering to the consecrated heap upon their graves whenever they passed.N Enormous lines of stones were noticed in some parts of the country by some of the old travellers, but these have evidently been the ruins of the stone fences which had been made by some of the ancient hunters, monuments of the numerous tribes which inhabited it at the time of their construction, as well as a testimony of the wonderful energy and industry possessed by a race which has been long deemed one of the lowest of the genus homo.

Notes: A writer of a letter to the Graham's Town Journal, February, 1865, in describing some of the stone heaps, states that two of them are to be found in the vicinity of the missionary institution of Hankey, on the Gamtoos river. " One of these ancient heaps," he continues, "stands a little above the junction of the Zuurbron and Vley Plaats road, in the Zaat Kloof, on the line of road from Hankey to the Zuurveld, via Zuurbron."

It consists of a vast heap of stones, few of which are larger than a man's fist, intermixed with fragments of boughs plucked from the surrounding bushes. The other is to be found in the neighbourhood of Hankey, in a narrow gorge of the Klein or Palmiet river. These he attributes incorrectly to Hottentots.

Sparrman in his travels met with heaps which evidently belonged to both classes. He writes : " Heaps of stones were found near the Great Fish river similar to those near Krakeel river. They were from three to four and four and a half feet high, and the bases of them measured six, eight, and ten feet in diameter. They likewise lay ten, twenty, fifty, two hundred paces, and even farther asunder, but constantly between two particular points of the compass, and consequently in right lines, and those always running parallel to each other."

Image

He " likewise found these heaps of stones in a considerable number in more open portions of the country," and knew from the account received from the colonists on this subject, that they extended in this manner several days journey from this spot in a northerly direction through uncultivated plains, into the SneeseN Vlakten where they were said to be met with in still greater numbers of parallel lines.

Notes: Cineeze, Cineese, or Chinese, from the appearance of the Bushmen living upon them.

Sparrman attempted to dig into one of these isolated heaps,N but after penetrating about two feet with great labour, he discovered nothing but what appeared to be " some rotten bits of trees and something that seemed to be a piece of bone quite mouldered away."

Notes: The use of these laborious works of the early Bushmen has already been explained, of which Sparrman was evidently ignorant.

From other travellers we obtain more definite information upon this interesting subject ; thus Borcherds found near the drift which he crossed in the upper portion of the 'Gariep, on the right bank, a grave of a Bushman captain or chief, which consisted of a large cairn of stones and branches of trees ; and every " Bushman on passing the pile was in the habit of adding a stone to the heap, as a mark of respect for the deceased."

Thompson says : " In the Hantam there is a narrow defile between two mountains, called Moordenaar's Poort (or the Murderer's Pass) on account of several colonists having been killed there by Bushmen. Near the same spot were six large piles of stones, or cairns, which had been raised, so his guide asserted, to commemorate a bloody conflict between two tribes of either. Hottentots or Bushmen, before Europeans intruded into the country."

From the foregoing evidence both with regard to their mode of burial and the veneration paid by some of the tribes to the dead, and the heaps of stones placed upon their graves and sacred to their memory, we are assured that the Bushmen had some vague belief in a future state of existence. This becomes a certainty when we inquire into some of their beliefs.

The custom of cutting off the first joint of the little finger was almost universal amongst the Bushman tribes.N

Notes: A similar custom was prevalent among the old Tambukis, but we shall find when we inquire into their history that there is every reason to believe they derived it from their intimacy with the Bushmen.

The operation was performed with a sharp stone, and they believed that by this act of self-mutilation they secured to themselves a long continued career of feasting after death. The 'Gariepean Bushmen have the following myth upon the subject :N one of them stated that not only his own tribe, but many others also, believed that at some undefined spot on the banks of the Gariep,N2 or Great river, there is a place called 'Too'ga, to which after death they all will go ; and that to ensure a safe journey thither they cut off the first joint of the little finger of the left, or right hand, one tribe adopting the one fashion, another the other.

This they consider is a guarantee that they will be able to arrive there without difficulty, and that upon their arrival they will be feasted with locusts and honey, whilst those who have neglected this rite will have to travel there upon their heads, beset the entire distance with all kinds of imaginary obstacles and difficulties ; and even after all their labour on arriving at the desired destination they will have nothing given to them but flies to live upon.

Notes 1: ' Obtained from an old Bushman near Fraserburg by Mr. Turner, Junior, of Draai Hoek, Vaal River.

Notes 2: ' Some of the Bushmen believe there is a deep mystery hanging over that portion of the river called the Falls.

Another belief of these Bushmen was somewhat similar to that of 'Qing of the Maluti tribes. They imagined that in the beginning of time all the animals, as well as the Bushmen themselves, were endowed with the attributes of men and the faculty of speech, and that at that time there existed a vicious and quarrelsome being named 'Hoc-'hi'gan, who was always quarrelling with every animal he came near, and trying on that account to injure it.

He at length disappeared, but they state that none of their race was ever able to discover what became of him, nor is there any tradition to tell when or where he went. But upon his disappearance he committed, as a parting gift, a deed of vengeance ; for immediately afterwards all the animals forsook the abodes of men, ,and were changed into their present condition, while the Bushmen alone retained the faculties of human beings and the power of speech.

When these Bushmen were asked how they knew this, they replied, "It is what they had learnt from their fathers, and it is what their fathers' great-great-grandfathers had told them."

Some of the tribes living in the regions around the lower portion of the Gariep have another version of a primitive state of friendship between Bushmen and the lower animals, and their subsequent dispersion.N According to this myth their remote forefathers came out of a hole in the ground, at the roots of an enormous tree, which covered a wide extent of country.

Immediately afterwards all kinds of animals came swarming out after them, some kinds by twos and threes and fours ; others in great herds and flocks ; and they crushed, and jostled, and pushed each other in their hurry, as if they could not get out fast enough ; and they ever came out swarming thicker and thicker, and at last they came flocking out of the branches as well as the roots. But when the sun went down, fresh ones ceased making their appearance. The animals were endowed with the gift of speech, and remained quietly located under and around the big tree.

Notes: Communicated to the writer by Mr. William Coates Palgrave, Special Commissioner to the Tribes on the West Coast, and obtained by him many years ago, in one of his first visits to that part of the country.

As the night came on, the men, who were still sitting at the foot of the tree, were told that during that night, until the sun rose again, they must not make a fire. Thus they remained for many hours, with all the animals sleeping peacefully around them. And the night grew not only very dark, but cold, and the cold went on increasing until it became bitterly cold, and then cold almost beyond endurance ; and the men at last, not being able to withstand the extreme severity any longer, in spite of the warning that had been given to them, attempted, and at last succeeded in making a fire.

As soon as the flames began to shoot up, the startled animals sprang to their feet in terror, and rushed off panic-stricken to the mountains and the plains, losing in their fright all powers of speech, and fleeing ever afterwards from the presence of man. Only a very few animals remained with the fire-makers, and these the men domesticated and kept about them for their service ; but the great family of animals was broken up, and could never again be reunited.

Dr. Bleek statesN that among the Western Bushmen the most prominent object in their mythological tales is 'Kaggen, whose mundane representative is the Mantis, and that this Mantis ('Cagn — ‘Kaggen), according to the myths of his Bushmen informants, was very far from being represented as a beneficent being, but on the contrary is a fellow full of tricks, getting into scrapes, and even doing purely mischievous things, so that in fact it was no wonder that his name has sometimes been translated by that of the devil.

'Kaggen's wife's name was 'Hunntu or 'Hunu, the hyrax ; and he had an adopted daughter Xo, the porcupine, who married ‘Kwammanga, by whom 'Xo had a son called Ni, the ichneumon, who was the constant adviser and admonisher of his grandfather ‘Kaggen, the mantis.

Notes: Remarks by Dr. Bleek on a " Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen," by J. M. Orpen.

The Bushmen of the east — that is, of the conquered territory, Orange Free State, Basutuland, and the Malutis — declare that there were at one time a number of animals living in the country in the days of their forefathers, which are now extinct and nowhere to be found in Southern Africa. Some of these are described as great monstrous brutes, exceeding the elephant or hippopotamus in bulk, others enormous serpents, such as are neither seen nor heard of in these degenerate days.

Upon this point 'Kou'ke stated, upon looking at the copy of a picture of a great black reptile of this description, taken from the cave of the Great Black Serpent and the Elephant, in Rockwood glen. Orange River, that this was an enormous brute which was found in the very early days in the country, and that they were so large and powerful that they would attack and crush to death a full grown hartebeest. She described it as more than twenty, or nearly thirty feet in length.

The horned serpent of the Brakfontein cave, Koesberg, she pronounced to be the 'Koo-be-eng, a monstrous creature of equal size with the former, that lived in the water, and sometimes lurked near its edge in the reeds.

Image

The great animal which was the distinctive symbol of Klein Aasvogel Kop cave, Lower Caledon, a second representation of which was found in a rock-shelter many miles distant, at Miaputte, on the banks of the 'Nu-Gariep or Upper Orange, near where the river disengages itself from the gorges of the Malutis, she called the ' Kou-teign- Koo-rou, which she explained as meaning ' the Master of the Water.' This she stated was an animal of enormous size, that lived in the country in ancient times. The Bushmen of the olden days used to hunt them ; but they have long, long ago disappeared.

It was far larger and more formidable than the hippopotamus, and lived always in or near the great waters and rivers, amongst swamps and reeds. The Bushmen captured it by making a very strong enclosure with reeds and poles, so strongly interwoven and bound together that it could not break through. This fence was also masked with reeds. When they succeeded in getting one of these brutes within the toils, as soon as the monster found he was entrapped his fury appeared to know no bounds ; he made desperate attempts to free himself, and lashed the water about, in the impotence of his rage, until he raised such clouds of spray around him that the rainbow appeared upon them, as if crowning him. Hence his name, and this circumstance the Bushman artists attempted to depict in their paintings.

But even after thus imprisoning him, it frequently happened that three or four Bushmen would be sacrificed to his uncontrollable fierceness before he was finally conquered and killed. He generally seized them by the middle of the back, crushed them with a single crunch of his teeth, and then pounded them to a shapeless mass beneath his feet. These and others she declared were animals that once lived in the land in the days of her father's fathers, but they had long since disappeared.

With regard to their religious beliefs, M. Arbousset informs us that the Bushmen of the mountains believed in an unknown being they called 'Kaang, or the chief, or great chief. He is to be addressed in times of famine, or before going to war, and when performing the dance of the Mo'koma. All the beasts of the field have their marks which he has given them, for example this eland obtained from him only a stump of a tail, that a folded ear, this other a pierced ear. 'Kaang causes to live and causes to die ; he gives or refuses rain, when there is a deficiency of game they say, 'Kaang 'ta-kago go si- ho 'kaa 'kuaing," 'Kaang refuses them beasts.

Dr. Bleek, as we have seen, identifies 'Kaggen ('Kaang) with the Mantis. These Bushmen appear to apply the same word to the caddisworm as to the mantis, to which the name of N'go vide !Xo of Dr. Bleek) is also given. The N'go, or caddisworm, which is frequently met with at certain seasons in some parts of the Free State, constructs a case for itself with pieces of straw, and it was probably its peculiar appearance, as well as that of the mantis, which first attracted the superstitious attention of the Bushmen towards these remarkable insects, which were subsequently held in high veneration by some of them.

The Bachoana consider the N'go to be very poisonous, and are afraid of them should they meet them among the grass when the cattle are grazing. The Bushmen of the East addressed them as an outward representation of 'Kaang.

When asked by M. Arbousset whether they did not pray to their deceased fathers, like other tribes of the land, the Bushman addressed answered, No ! to which he added that his father had taught him otherwise, and had solemnly said before dying, " My son, when thou goest to the chase, seek with care for the N'go, and ask food from him for thyself and children. Mark after thy prayer if he moves his head, describing an elbow, which signifies that he has heard thee graciously, and that very evening thou wilt bring to thy mouth a portion of game, which thou shalt hold fast between thy teeth, and shalt cut it with thy knife, and with thine arm bent describing an elbow like our N'go."

The words of the petition to be offered to this emblem of 'Kaang were :

" 'Kaang 'ta ha a ntanga e ?

'Kaang is it that thou dost not like me ?

'Kaang 'ta 'gnu a 'kua a s'e'ge.

'Kaang lead me to a male gnu.

I’tangaN i 'kogu 'koba hu ;

I like much to have my belly filled ;

I'konte, i'kage, itanga 'kobu koba hu ;

My oldest son, my oldest daughter, like much to have their bellies filled ;

'Kaang 'ta, 'gnu a 'kua a s'e'gi.

'Kaang bring me a male gnu under my shafts."

—'Qing.

Notes: From this several Kaffir words appear to be introduced into the old Seroa language, thus itanga (Bushman) I love ; — uku tanda, — itanda (Kaffir).

Image

'Qing, when questioned by Mr. J. Orpen, with regard to 'Kaang, replied, " Cagn made all things, and we pray to him."

Being asked whether he was good or malicious, he answered, “At first he was very good and nice, but he got spoilt through fighting so many things."

When questioned as to the manner in which Bushmen prayed to him, he responded in a low imploring tone " O Cagn ! O Cagn ! are we not your children ? Do you not see our hunger ? Give us food ! " and he gives us both our hands full." When an inquiry was made whether he could tell where 'Kaang was, he said, "We don't know, but the elands do. Have you not hunted and heard his cry, when the elands suddenly started and ran to his call ? Where he is, elands are in droves like cattle." Having stated that 'Kaang was the first being, and that his wife's name was Coti, he was asked where Coti came from, when he replied, " I don't know, perhaps from those who brought the sun ; but," he added, " you are now asking secrets that are not spoken of," secrets with which he asserted he was not acquainted, and which were only known to the initiated men of that particular dance.

'Kwaha stated to Mr. Charles Sirr OrpenN that the Bushman name for the Superior Being was T'koo — vide 'Tikoe and T'koe, the Bushman's " strong hand," or round stone of the 'Kibi or digging stick — and that his ('Kwaha's) father used to say that when they killed game they were not to waste the flesh, or T'koo might not favour them again by giving them any more. They considered T'koo was good for all. There was also a wicked spirit T'ang (? 'Kaang), but although they called T'koo the father, they did not like to speak of T'ang.

Notes: 'Kwaha had been staying for a long time at the Bethulie Mission Station, under missionary instruction.

We have now in our study of the Bushmen attempted to obtain some insight, imperfect however as it must necessarily be, of the probable lines along which the tribes first penetrated into South Africa.

We have discovered that they were divided into two great branches, each of which possessed artistic talents of a distinct order ; and that they had been so long separated that, although they still retained certain myths which seemed to indicate from their great similitude a common origin, the language of each of the two branches had, in the interim, become so modified that when some of the advanced clans again came in contact, they were not able to understand one another, or as 'Kwaha, who belonged to the painter tribes, said, he could not understand those of the 'Gumaap or 'Gij-Gariep, who were of the sculptor branch, as " their language was too double," that is, in all probability, it had retained a greater number of primitive clicks, and therefore more of its primitive character than the other. The painter tribes came earlier in contact with the races that followed upon the Bushman's trail.

We have learnt also something of their government, their character and domestic habits, their means of subsistence, their weapons and modes of hunting. We have passed under view what is known of their marriage rites, their games, music and musical instruments, and we have not only made the interesting discovery that their artistic talents far surpassed those of all other South African races, but that they had made greater advances in primitive music than any of the intruding tribes ; they had invented a greater variety of musical instruments, and there was a greater compass and variation in the refrains which accompanied their dances.

We have, however, nothing in the Bushman language, as far as our own inquiries have carried us, which can compete with the energetic compositions found in some of the Kaffir or Basutu war-songs.N

Notes: The only fragment of a Bushman poem which has been preserved belonging to the eastern tribes is that given by M. Arbousset (Voyage d'Exploration, p. 249), and by a strange freak it is in Sesuto, and not Seroa. But as it is unique as a specimen, we repeat it here :

" Raselepe u tlula yuale-ka puri
Raselepe (i.e. the father of Selepe) bounded like a kid ;
U tlula yuale-ka pokoa "
He bounded like the kid of a goat."

The rest is lost.

When we come to study the nature of some of their dances, their funeral rites, and some of their leading myths, we find that they possessed a traditionary belief that at some remote period the connexion between man and the lower animals was much closer and far more intimate than at present, that they paid a certain amount of homage to some mysterious and powerful being, who was by turns generous or vindictive, that they reverenced the memory of their departed friends and sought to propitiate their manes by adding to the sacred heaps which covered their graves, that they believed in a future state of existence wherein Bushmen would be punished or rewarded according as they performed or neglected certain rites while upon earth, and that they preserved among their tribes certain mysteries and mystic rites which were revealed to none but a privileged class called the initiated, who alone were allowed to join in certain dances whose hidden meaning was jealously withheld from those who were uninitiated, or the profane vulgar among them.

Unfortunately whole tribes have been annihilated by the stronger races which seized their hunting grounds, and the wise men of their race perished with them, thus the knowledge and the key of many of these mysteries, which could they have been rescued from oblivion might have explained to us the first stages of the development of more elaborate systems of religious mysticism, have perished also ; and we are only able to attempt to grope our way in a very unsatisfactory manner through the gloom, the fragmentary ruins, and the few scattered and obscure traditions that have survived the desolation of past ages.

Having thus far endeavoured to obtain a knowledge of the Bushman race, taken in its entirety, we will now strive to gather as much of the history as may have been preserved of the various groups of tribes which once inhabited different portions of the country.


Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:20 am, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

8

Post posted by VED »

8 #
THE VARIOUS GROUPS OF BUSHMAN TRIBES



Image
In reviewing the various groups of tribes, we will commence with those to the north, and pass from them to the western portion of the country, following up the inquiry through the Karoo and Middle Veld, thence to Griqualand, the Southern Bachoana territory, the valleys of the Kolong and the Vaal, the present Free State, the 'Nu-Gariep, Basutuland, and the east ; and finally noticing those of the Zuurveld, concluding with as much as is known of the life of the last great Bushman captain who ruled over that portion of their ancient territory before the Kaffir tribes attempted to obtain possession of it.

To avoid repetition as much as possible, we will in every case where the Bushman history is intermixed with that of the intruding races, defer its consideration until we treat more particularly of the tribes with which they came in contact.

In pursuance of this plan we will begin with

The Bushmen of Damaraland.

These tribes or clans were visited by the traveller Chapman several times. In 1861 he was accompanied by Baines ; and from them we are able to glean a considerable amount of information. Some of these people joined Messrs. Chapman and Baines' hunting party and were glad to perform small services for a few charges of powder and ball. They showed no timidity, nor in fact any distrust or want of confidence.

Living, as they did, between the Bachoana tribes and the Hottentots, and so far distant as to be subservient to neither, they had more independence of character than their less fortunate countrymen. Occasionally, however, the Namaqua Hottentots penetrated as far as this portion of their territory on hunting expeditions, and what with scouring the country by day and watching the water at night, they destroyed such immense numbers of game that they almost exterminated the animals for miles around them.

Mr. Baines in his description of them added that he had not a little pleasure in being able to state that the behaviour of the Bushmen who visited them was civil and respectful, and they were not annoyed by the constant attempts at theft so common whilst they were travelling through a country occupied by other native tribes.

Some of the women were particularly diminutive, being a very few inches above four feet in height. Their real colour was a light yellowish brown, but they were generally nearly black with accumulated dirt. The general stature of the men seemed to be below five feet, but some of them were tolerably well made, and in good condition.

The only one of the first party they met with who exceeded that height was a stout fellow, with well-developed muscles, the son of the old chief. At another place, however, some Bushmen were met with who were nearly five feet five or six inches in height. This variation in height was in all probability owing to some intermixture between these particular Bushman families and some of the Namaqua hunters who occasionally penetrated into their country, in the same manner as we shall find that half-castes of a similar description, more or less numerous according to the number of the intruders, sprang up in many portions of the Bushman territory.

It seems an established fact that wherever we find such a marked deviation from the pure Bushman type, the modification can always be traced to the intercourse alluded to.

Baines noticed that one of these Damara Bushmen had a tinge of red in his cheeks, while a number of white feathers, cut short and stuck in his hair like curl-papers, gave him almost an effeminate appearance. One of them had the front of a secretary bird's head fastened in his crisp locks, with the beak projecting over his forehead ; and another wore the spoils of a crow in the same manner. In the general contour of their bodies they were similar to all other Bushmen. " The peculiar line of beauty formed by the protuberance behind, and the necessity of throwing back the shoulders to support the stomach, unnaturally distended by quantities of roots, melons, and other non-nutritious food, has been often remarked."

" In some the hair was shaved round the temples, ears, and back of the head, what remained on the scalp being felted with red clay and grease into a thick mat, to which ornaments of various kinds, such as beads and bits of ostrich eggshell of the size of shirt buttons, were attached behind and before."

Image

" A bit of sinew from the backbone of a beast formed a necklace, and small bands of giraffe's or elephant's hair were tied about their limbs, the tail of the former serving at once as a sceptre and a fly-brusher to the old headman." Some of them had rather longer hair than the Bushmen of the Cape Colony, a small portion of which was drawn out into cords which formed a fringe or curtain three inches long behind.

A belt from three to six or seven inches in width, which was worn by some of the young women, consisted of small circular pieces of ostrich eggshell bored in the centre, strung like buttons with their flat sides together, the cords were then laid side by side until they formed a belt of the required width ; and to support them in its proper shape, stiff pieces of leather were stitched behind like whalebone in a corset.

In making one of these an immense amount of time and labour must have been expended, as the shell, which is naturally very hard, had first to be boiled and softened in cold water, then cut into small pieces through which a hole was pierced with a little flint or agate drill, then rubbed into small rings like beads and polished, which were afterwards threaded in the manner described.

No other race except that of the Bushmen had either the skill or the patience to manufacture these beads, which is certainly a mark of their indomitable industry and perseverance when any occasion called them forth. After the stronger races came in contact with the Bushman bead-makers, they used to purchase these pierced discs of eggshell from the latter for small pieces of iron.

Besides these bead-belts the other portion of the Damara Bushwomen's dress consisted of a fringed apron in front arid a small piece of soft skin behind. It was remarked that they " were much cleaner in their food than the Damara or Bachoana, the facility of obtaining fresh meat freeing them from the necessity of eating everything that came to hand." Those seen by these travellers not being smeared with grease, except in " their matted hair, were far less unpleasant to sit near than the Damara."

The arrows were carried in neat quivers of bark served round with sinew, the whole with the bow being carried in a buck-skin, the neck of which was bound tightly round the quiver, while the legs served as belts to sling it round their shoulders. Baines states that there was a " manly bearing about these fellows which he could not help but admire." Besides their bow and quiver, the Bushmen carried in their velzak their fire-sticks, sucking-reed for drinking water, sinew for thread, bone-awls, and a number of other implements.

In 1861 these Bushmen not only headed their arrows with bone, but also with iron.N The latter, however, was only a recent innovation, as the fact has already been pointed out that Mr. Palgrave found at the time of his first visit quartz and agate chips were used by the northern tribes for this purpose.

Notes: We have already shown that the Bushmen obtained such iron as they used by barter, as they never appear to have possessed the knowledge of smelting it from the ore and working it themselves.

To preserve the points from injury, the bone heads were reversed while carrying them in the quiver, that is, " the sharp envenomed point was inserted into the end of the reed forming the shaft," and replaced in its proper position immediately before being used. Thus when a beast was hit, the reed shaft fell off, like that of a harpoon, leaving the poisoned head fast in the victim.

The iron head on the other hand, " with a sharp chisel edge a quarter of an inch broad, was carefully wrapped up by itself in bark or sinew, and was said to be specially reserved for the giraffe." The bow was strung with neatly twisted sinew, looped at one end and rolled round it at the other in such a manner that by merely turning it in the hand, as if it were the thread of a screw, it could be tightened or relaxed at pleasure. The bow was three quarters of an inch thick, and little, if at all, more than three feet long. It looked more like a plaything than a formidable weapon, but it required, nevertheless, a stronger pull than those of the Damara to bend it.

In obtaining fire two sticks of moderately hard wood were chosen, in one a little thicker than a pencil a small notch was made, and into this the point of another somewhat harder and thinner was inserted. This was made to revolve rapidly between the palms of the hands, until sufficient heat was gained to ignite a small tuft of carefully selected dry grass.N When one failed to produce fire in this manner, another sat opposite, and as the hands of the first came to the bottom of the stick the second caught it above and kept up the motion until the first one had raised his hand again.

Notes: Mr. Palgrave informed the writer that during his first journeys along the west coast and the west interior, the sight of fire suddenly bursting from the end of a lucifer match created the greatest astonishment, and the possession of two or three of them they looked upon as an invaluable treasure.

On one occasion, being encamped near the kraal of a chief, he thought that he would amuse and surprise them by firing off a rocket in the evening. He did so, and immediately there was a hubbub, consternation, and panic among the terrified inhabitants, succeeded in a few moments by a death-like stillness. In the morning he found the place abandoned, every soul, man, woman, and child, had fled, leaving all their worldly gear behind them.

Image

For three days no trace of them could be discovered, when a few stragglers were seen, and the retreat of the rest found out ; but even then it was with difficulty they could be persuaded to return, and not before Mr. Palgrave had given a promise to the chief that he would not again attempt to knock any more stars out of the heaven as long as he was in the country.

It appears that the Bushmen had a distinguishing appellation for every pit and spring of water. This was noticed to be especially the case in the Kalahari region : thus the one named " Stink Fontein " by Anderson was called 'Thounce by the Bushmen, and by the Bachoana Letje-piri, both signifying " the Fountain of the Hyena." It is to be regretted that so many travellers attach names of their own to a multitude of localities, instead of ascertaining wherever practicable the one by which it is designated by the natives, as their modem nomenclature cannot possibly assist those who may follow their footsteps, the natives being ignorant of the new titles thus given to them by the foreign visitors.

Chapman found the Bushmen of this part of the country extending into Ovambo-Land, and Bushmen alone occupied the intervening country to Lake Ngami.

The Bushmen of the Ngami Region.

The country to the north of the Kalahari, and between Damaraland and Ngami, was a region full of pans and plains, very similar to those which form the great central portion of the old lacustrine formation in part of Griqualand West and the Cape Colony, and to which in the latter their brethren gave the general name of Karoo, a designation which by a coincidence the northern Bushmen have also given to the country which they inhabit. These people, as was probably at one time the case in the lower country, have given special names to all the great pans, three of which are 'Goo-i-naw, Sa-ba-'tho, and 'Karoo (Dry).

Mr. Baines found Bushmen as far as he travelled to the north-west of the lake, they were known by the name of Ma-'kow-'kow to the lake people who live to the north-west of the Bataoana, or Batauana, the Men of the young Lions. Most of them are armed with the large assagai, or rather spear, as it is not intended for throwing, as well as the bow and arrow. The former appear to be used principally in elephant hunting. Large weapons of this character were manufactured for this express purpose, and called elephant spears by the Bamangwato and Mashuna tribes, who are considered the great blacksmiths of the interior.

Those, however, possessed by these Bushmen were not of the same gigantic dimensions as some of the others belonging to the tribes alluded to, having a blade of only some eight inches in length and two in breadth, with a strong shaft of five or six feet. They had also kerries, or knobbed sticks, of hard black wood like the Ovambo.

When they had a desire to show that they were friendly, many of them would lay down their weapons and sandals a long way off before approaching those they were visiting. A similar custom was observed among the painter-tribes, and is found depicted in some of their paintings representing friendly interviews. They carried sticks for producing fire. Their cookery was simple, yet not without method. Their favourite plan was to dig a hole with a sharp stick under the fire, and in this to cover up the food with hot ashes.

Thus one of them placed "several good-sized prickly melons like ostrich eggs in a nest, and though they are generally bitter before they are cooked, yet after it they came out very juicy and agreeable." Another method was to roast, or rather broil, the meat on a stick, which acted as a temporary spit.

These Bushmen could work very tastefully with beads, and wore their medicines and roots as necklaces round their necks. One of them had a spiral tuft made of the ends of black ostrich feathers with short pieces of the stems tied together, the filaments radiating from them so as to form a perfect globe of jetty hue, which he wore as an ornament on his head. Their colour was a light sienna brown, very different from the sallow dry-leaf colour of the Bushmen of the Cape Colony.

All the large game pits near the lake were exclusively the work of the Makobas and Bushmen, as it is in some parts of the Kalahari. Their spade was the national digging-stick of the Bushmen. The water at which any chief or headman of these Bushmen drank was soon known by his name, and his successor in the post, as a matter of convenience, continued to bear it.

“In this manner, perhaps," says Mr. Baines, " a series of stations along the pools in a river will have separate names, and thus a European arriving at one of them, if not aware of the custom, applies to the stream the name given to him where he strikes it ; another in like manner applies, as a general name, the word he hears at the next post ; and in this manner contradictory and confused statements are made upon the maps, and the new comer who uses these in conversation to the natives will be guided not where he wants to go, but to the spot where the word he happens to use is properly applicable."

The watering-place called Kobis and Koobie by Chapman and Baines was named after a Bushman formerly living there, and his son afterwards bore the same name. Some of the Bushmen were in a state of vassalage to the neighbouring Bachoana tribes, and were supposed to form a sort of outposts around the territories of the latter, to give the alarm in case of any marauders making their appearance in the direction in which they were stationed.

Leshulatibi, the chief of Lake Ngami, claimed a kind of sovereignty over some of the clans living nearest to the country in which he resided, and although, as we have seen, many of these northern Bushmen were living in a state of isolation and perfect independence, those living on the borders of this territory, and who were thus brought into contact with stronger races, were treated by the latter with the same merciless barbarity as elsewhere.

The chief we have just mentioned not only asserted a kind of sovereignty over them, but demanded of them as a species of tribute the tusks of all the elephants which they killed in hunting ; those near his great place were held in a state of abject servitude, and subjected to the greatest cruelty.

Image

On one occasion, two horses having been suffocated in a quagmire, he ordered the two Bushmen who had charge of them to be bound to them and thrust back again into the morass, with an injunction not to lose the horses again.

Again, in 1854, when this chief was attacked by Sekeletu, the son of Sebitoane, and the last of the Makololo chiefs, the Bushmen on this side thought it was a good chance to sweep off a lot of his cattle. His people could neither pursue, nor dare engage these " black serpents " of the desert, so after a while he dropped a hint that he supposed they thought he was dead and the cattle without a master, that they were hungry, and that now the affair was forgotten.

He then sent a man with tobacco to buy skins of them, and having by a long course of deceitful kindness lulled their suspicions, he proclaimed a grand battue. Of course the quarry was the Bushmen themselves, who were surprised, disarmed, and brought before him where he was sitting on his veld-stool.

He superintended the deliberate cutting of their throats, embittering their last moments by every taunt and sarcasm his imagination could supply. One of the actors in this bloody drama was afterwards in Chapman's service, and " related with great gusto the part he had sustained in it."

Baines states that some of these Bushmen in the immediate vicinity of the Lake were fine fellows, six feet high. Livingstone also visited these people, and tells us that he found many Bush families living at a place far to the north called Matlomaganyana or the Links, a chain of never-failing springs, who unlike those of the plains of the Kalahari, who are generally of short stature and light yellow colour, were tall strapping fellows of dark complexion.

Heat alone does not produce blackness, but heat with moisture, says the doctor, " seems to insure the deepest hue." Baines, however, considered they were half-castes, like the Bastaard Hottentots of the Colony, while Moffat says that the Bushmen who are " the most northerly, exist among the inhabited regions, where they remain perfectly distinct, and what is very remarkable, do not become darker in their complexion, as is the case with all the other tribes that inhabit the torrid zone."

The explanation of this apparent divergence is doubtless to be traced, as in other well-authenticated cases, to an admixture of foreign blood, rather than to mere variations of climatical conditions upon such nomads as some of the branches of this old hunter race, especially as we find such an admixture taking place upon other border lines, where other Bushman tribes have been thrown in contact with the stronger races that were being impelled upon them.

In Livingstone's second visit we obtain some further particulars about this half-caste tribe. He met them at Rapesh, under a captain named Haroye. " He and some others were at least six feet high, and of a darker complexion than the Bushmen of the south. They frequented the Zouga, and had always plenty of food and water. They were a merry laughing set."

From some of their observances they appeared to regard the dead as still in another state of living, for they requested one whom they were burying " not to be offended, even though they wished to remain a little longer in the world." These Bushmen killed many elephants, which they hunted by night when the moon was full, for the sake of the coolness. They chose the moment succeeding a charge, when the animal was out of breath, to run in and give him a stab with their long-bladed spears.

The Bushmen of Ngami reported that others of their race existed much farther to the north. Some of these men joined Mr. Baines' expedition, and one of his attendants, " though he knew one dialect of the Bushman language, could not understand theirs. At length a Damara was found who could carry on some sort of conversation with them, when they stated " that their chief lived very far to the north and hunted elephants with dogs near a very great water, the distance of which seemed to increase every time they were asked about it."

We have already seen that the Bushmen of the north apply the same appellation to a portion of the country in which they live as do those of the Middle Veld of the Cape Colony, viz. Karoo. Livingstone met with another instance among those in the far interior where a name was used which was identical with one employed by the tribes of the south. The spot alluded to was called 'Kama-kama, or Pools, Pools, that is, 'a chain of pools,' while we find Kisi 'kama on the Vaal, near 'Gong-'Gong,N ' 'Keis or Khais-kama in British Kaffraria, ' Kragga-' kama near Port Elizabeth, ' Ziet-zei-kama on the border of the district of George, and a number of others.

Now as it is certain that no Hottentot tribes ever lived in the country where the Bushman 'Kama-' kama is found, the name could not have been derived from them, but must have been of pure Bushman origin. We have therefore reason to conclude that Kama was originally a Bushman, and not a Hottentot word ; and that therefore the names given above, belonging to these widely separated localities, were of Bushman nomenclature also.

Notes: Gong-Gong is the Bushman name for a waterfall, over which all the waters of the Vaal rush ; and is explained by them to imitate its noise Gong-Gong, Gong-Gong, Gong-Gong.

This similarity of words used by distant tribes that have been cut off and isolated for unknown generations from each other, is another link in the chain of corroborative evidence of the southern migration of the old hunter-race.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari.

The Kalahari extends from the Orange river, 29° south latitude, to near Lake Ngami in the north, and from 24° east longitude to near the west coast. It is intersected by beds of ancient rivers, yet it contains no running waters, and very little in wells. Most of the latter are in the ancient river-beds, but the water never rises now to the surface. The ancient Mokolo, found towards the north of this region, must have been joined by rivers lower down, as it becomes broad and expands into a large bed, of which the present Lake Ngami forms but a very small part.

Image

Image

Large salt pans are also met with in this portion, one of which, visited by Dr. Livingstone, was fifteen miles broad and one hundred long ; in another there was a cake of salt and lime, an inch and a half thick. Some of the pans were covered with shells identical with those found in Lake Ngami and the Zouga. This traveller therefore considered it probable that the salt was the leavings of slightly brackish lakes of antiquity, large portions of which must have been dried out in the general desiccation.

Image

The Kalahari proper is covered with grass and creeping plants, and in some parts patches of bushes and even trees. It is remarkably flat, and prodigious herds of antelopes wander over its surface. Here the Bushmen live from choice, and the Bakalahari from compulsion. ' " The Bushmen," writes Livingstone, "are distinct in language, race, habits, and appearance, and are the real nomads of the country. They never cultivate the soil, or rear animals save wretched dogs. They are intimately acquainted with the habits of the game, and chiefly subsist on their flesh eked out by the roots, and beans, and fruits of the desert. Those who inhabit the hot sandy plains have generally thin wiry forms, and are capable of great exertion and severe privations. Many are of low stature, although not dwarfish."

" That they are," continues the doctor, " to some extent like baboons is true, just as these are in some points frightfully human.”

The inhabitants of the Kalahari frequently " hide their supplies of water, by filling the pits with sand." In the olden times the Bushmen who inhabited those portions of the country now comprised in the Cape Colony used to do the same, merely leaving a small reed pipe through which they sucked up their supplies. One reason given by the Colonial Bushmen for this custom of covering up the springs was that there might be fewer places for the game to drink, and thus they were able to watch the more easily the remaining drinking places when hunting. Ostrich eggshells furnished them with water-bottles, in which to carry the fluid to the place of their haunt.

At Kanne, beyond Letloche, Livingstone found one of these " sucking-places," around which were congregated great numbers of Bushwomen with their eggshells and reeds. At one of the stations in the desert, named Boatlanama, were deep wells, in the neighbourhood of which was an abundance of pallahs, springboks, guinea-fowl, and small monkeys.

The game which frequented these wilds in large numbers were elands, duikers, steenboks, gemsboks, and porcupines, all able to exist without water for a long time, living on bulbs and tubers containing moisture. The koodoo, springbok, and ostrich can live where there is moisture in the vegetation on which they feed. The rhinoceros, buffalo, gnu, giraffe, zebra, and pallah are never seen except in the vicinity of water. There were likewise two species of jackals, the dark and the golden, a small ocelot, the lynx, the wild-cat, and others, besides lions, leopards, panthers, and hyenas.

The desert was a refuge for many a tribe when their lands were overrun by the ferocious Matabili.

The natives of the Kalahari, the Bushmen and Bakalahari, eat some of the snakes which are found in their country, such as the python. The largest of these are from fifteen to twenty feet in length. They live on small animals, chiefly the rodentia, although occasionally steenboks or pallahs fall victims. They are harmless to man. One was shot by Dr. Livingstone about eleven feet ten inches long and as thick as a man's leg. The flesh, he states, was much relished by the Bakalahari and the Bushmen, each carrying away his portion on his shoulder like a log of wood. The Kaffirs, on the other hand, hold these serpents in superstitious dread, believing they are animated by the spirit of some great chief ; and in former days any person destroying one was punished with death.

In rainy seasons, Chapman informs us, there is an abundant supply of water in the Kalahari, but frequently when the superficial moisture has dried away, its existence is only known to the Bushmen, who suck it from the damp sand several feet below the surface by means of a tube of reed buried in it, having a sponge-like tuft of grass inserted at the end.

At one of their camps, where they appeared to have nothing to live upon but water, they were asked how they managed to be so fat. It proved that their principal article of diet was the iguana, which happened to be very plentiful in the neighbourhood. The Bushmen trace them by their spoor or trail to the hole they inhabit, and then dig them out, after which they stew the flesh nicely, stamp it fine, and mix it with the fat and eggs of the reptile, which makes a savoury and nourishing dish. These huge land lizards are from three to four feet long, while another larger kind is about six. They are quite distinct from the water kind, which are of a darker and lighter colour, and have the tail laterally compressed like the crocodile to aid them in steering under water.

Image

These Kalahari lizards are of a pale raw sienna ground-colour, irregularly marked down the back with brown lozenge-shaped patches, with small spots between. They ascend and descend trees with great rapidity. When irritated they not only defend themselves, but attack and give chase to man, when they erect their tails and expand their cheeks, which are of a pale cobalt blue. They dart out their long forked tongues with great rapidity like a snake, and inflict severe blows with their tails, or bite ; but their bite is not venomous.

The precarious life led by the Kalahari Bushmen was strikingly shown by the vast difference in the appearance of the inhabitants of the various encampments ; some were fat and plump, others the most pitiable objects imaginable, men, women, and children shrivelled with hunger. The conditions of their existence and the sudden vicissitudes to which they were exposed, must doubtless have rendered their life one that was constantly veering between a feast and a famine.

"When food is plentiful," says Chapman, "the Bushmen seem to be the happiest of mortals in their simple state, and in their parched wilds, which just give what life requires, but give no more." The wide desert with its life of comparative freedom imparts even to the civilised white man a degree, not exactly of happiness, but of freedom from care and anxiety, which it is hardly possible to obtain in a civilised state of society.

This sense of freedom, however, was not the only enjoyment which these Bushmen possessed ; for the excitement of the chase was their greatest glory. The huntsmen of the Kalahari constructed great lines of fences and a continuous series of pitfalls, which, when we consider the primitive and imperfect tools at their disposal to carry out such extensive works, requiring so large an amount of labour to accomplish, must excite our wonder, if it does not arouse our admiration of their perseverance and enduring energy, which such achievements unquestionably demonstrate.

These fences and pitfalls, which were called telle-kello by the Bushmen, were formed by long funnel-shaped fences converging towards a certain point, in the gorge or apex of which a large pitfall of a particular construction was placed. When these works were completed and a grand battue was decided upon, the Bushmen commenced to watch in shelters adjacent to the telle-'kello fences, in which during the daytime a large fire of hard wood was made. In the evening the hunters covered up the burning embers, and a gentle warmth for a certain distance within their influence was imparted to the atmosphere around.

During the day large clubs of touchwood were prepared, generally from some decayed baobab, and when at night the game poured down to the water, the huntsmen rushed out on either side from their places of concealment, extending themselves towards either end of the funnel-shaped fences, at the entrance they threw the clubs which they had previously ignited at the panic-stricken animals as they tried to avoid entering between the two fences. The burning brands caused them to change their course, until at last the startled animals rushed between the fatal fences, which gradually narrowed as they advanced, increasing at the same time in height and strength.

The demoniac yells and blazing firebrands of their pursuers added to the terror and consequent speed with which the hindermost were impelled onward, until at length, when their terror was at its height, between the highest part of the fences an escape seemed at hand, by the opening in front.

Men on either side guarded the fences so that they did not break through, and with one terrific bound they leaped the low fence fronting the pit and were swallowed in the treacherous abyss into which they were precipitated one upon another, until the whole presented an indescribable chaos of writhing, smothering, tortured animals. The pit was filled with probably from fifty to a hundred head of game, and the living made their escape by trampling over the dying, while the delighted and triumphant Bushmen rushed in, spear in hand, and slew the uppermost as they were struggling to escape.

Chapman states that there was a sociability about these Bushmen which was not always found among the members of tribes of other native races, thus when the larger game was scarce they would hunt all day for roots, bulbs, tortoises, etc., and then in the evening meet together to share and devour the spoils.

Image

He also mentions another trait in their character, that few who know the special weaknesses of the Hottentot race would be inclined to give them credit for. He states that the Bushmen generally were less corrupt in their morals than any of the larger congregated tribes, excepting when they had been long in close contact with them. They lived comparatively chaste lives, and their women were not at all flattered by the attention of their Bachoana lords. Instead of an honour, they looked upon intercourse with any one out of their tribe, no matter how superior, as a degradation.

As the Kalahari tribes have been occupying a country, probably from a remote past, which has been removed from the great lines of migration of the stronger races, they have remained more perfectly isolated than any other portion of the Bushman family, and have probably, in consequence, retained their habits and modes of thought with less alteration and innovation than any others.

The Bushmen of the West.

It would appear from the frequent occurrence of stone implements used by the Bushmen and the scattered remains of some of their paintings, that, until the intrusion of the pastoral Hottentots, the entire country to the shores of the Atlantic was occupied by them, and that after that intrusion, although many retired more to the eastward, a considerable number clung to the mountain strongholds of their old land, and kept up a continuous warfare against the invaders, which ever increased in intensity until, from the exasperation which it engendered, it became a struggle characterised by peculiar vindictiveness. Some of the weaker clans in like manner sought an asylum among the rocks and solitudes of the sea coast.

Some of these last still survived in 1779, and were then visited by a party of travellers composed of Colonel Gordon, Lieutenant Paterson, Sebastian and Jacobus van Reenen, and a Mr. Pienaar, while fortunately Lieutenant Paterson put on record what they saw of them. He states that they reached the Great river after being nine days in crossing the arid and desolate country they had travelled through, and frequently being more than two days together without obtaining a drop of water. On the banks of the river they observed several old uninhabited huts, where there were numbers of baboons' bones with those of various other wild beasts. Colonel Gordon launched his boat, hoisted the Dutch colours, first drank to the States' health, then that of the Prince of Orange and the Company, after which he gave the river the name of Orange, in honour of that prince.

Crossing the river near its mouth, they came upon a great number of huts which were uninhabited. They were much superior to those built by the generality of the Bushmen, they were loftier and were thatched with grass and furnished with stools made of the back bones of the grampus. The tribe that inhabited them must have at one time been numerous,N although at the time of Paterson's visit only eleven members of it were to be found there. A Namaqua woman was living among them. They were styled Shore-Bushmen, and were living under a chief called 'Cout. Their mode of living was wretched in the highest degree, and they were apparently the dirtiest of all the Hottentot tribes. They had all cut off the first joint of the little finger. Their dress was composed of the skins of seals and jackals, the flesh of which they ate.

Notes: Sometimes great havoc was committed among the Bushmen and other native tribes by the occasional visitation of a severe epidemic, which has sometimes swept off whole tribes, as if before the blast of a pestilence. Chapman informs us that a raging sickness of this kind having decimated some of the Kalahari tribes, an old Bushman named Casse emphatically passed his hand before his mouth and blowing against it strove thus to indicate the clean sweep the extensive mortality had made amongst them. " There are no people left," he said," only stones." He was equally as figurative when speaking of the unseasonable weather, declaring that " the cold wind was cutting off the summer from the winter."

Their principal food appeared to be fish, which was found suspended from poles. When a grampus was cast on shore, they removed their huts to the place, and subsisted upon it as long as any part of it remained, and in this manner it sometimes afforded them subsistence for several months, though in a great measure decayed and putrified in the sun. They smeared their bodies with oil or train, the odour of which was so powerful that their approach was perceived some time before they presented themselves in sight. They carried water in the shells of ostrich eggs and the bladders of seals, which they shot with bows. Their arrows were the same as those of other Hottentot Bushmen.

When they were first seen they took to flight. They were evidently perfectly unacquainted with Europeans, and it was only after considerable persuasion that they made their appearance. This was probably a remnant of a similar tribe to the people called strandloopers by the early Dutch. They were certainly a more primitive race than the nomadic pastoral Hottentots which followed them.

The Bushmen who clung to the mountain fastnesses were still numerous at the time of Barrow's visit in 1796-7. He says that formerly the kloofs of the Khamiesberg abounded with elands and hartebeests, gemsboks, quaggas, and zebras, and were not a little formidable on account of the number of beasts of prey that resorted thither ; but at the period when he wrote, although the lion was still troublesome, the country was almost deserted by beasts in a state of nature, and the Dutch, who in their turn had almost entirely superseded the original Hottentot intruders, were too much in dread of the Bushmen to range far over the country in quest of game.

He found a Bastaard chief (old Cornelius Kok) living near the foot of the mountain, with a mixed horde of Bastaards and Namaquas. In his younger days this man had been a great lover of the chase, and the inside of his matted hut still showed trophies of his prowess. He boasted that, in one excursion he had killed seven camelopards and three white rhinoceroses. But although the intruding races had almost annihilated the game, the Bushmen were still in considerable numbers along the borders, and the same continued state of unrest and alarm prevailed. They were said to be particularly vindictive to any of their own countrymen who had been taken prisoners and continued to live with the Dutch farmers. Should any of those unfortunates again fall into their hands, they seldom escaped being put to the most excruciating tortures.

In the Kaabas mountains, not far from Pella, a narrow pass winds through. It is, says Thompson, a remarkably bold and picturesque defile, cutting its way apparently through the bowels of the mountains, which rise on either hand in ; abrupt precipices at least a thousand feet in height, giving a grand and solemn effect to the scenery, with its rocks and caverns rising round in dim perspective.

This poort, or pass, received an appellation which signified in the Namaqua and Bushman languages the Howling of the Big Men, from an event which took place there in the early days. A party of Boers had left the Colony to survey the banks of the 'Gariep, probably in hopes of discovering in these remote regions a land flowing with milk and honey, with no one to dispute their occupation of it but the feeble and famished natives.

Whether they committed any aggressions on the route upon the Bushmen is not now known, but they were waylaid in this defile on their return by the crafty savages, and many of them slain by showers of stones and poisoned arrows ; and from the dismal holing they made in their flight the pass received its name.

Many other similar traditions were connected with other portions of the country, which have in like manner been marked by some tragedy in the determined and desperate struggle that was made by these aborigines to maintain the independence of their country, and they are evidence of the feelings which were excited in the breasts of the tribes of the desert by the cruel oppressions and arrogant usurpations of the white men.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

9

Post posted by VED »

9 #
THE VARIOUS GROUPS OF BUSHMAN TRIBES (Continued)


The Bushmen of the Western Karoo.

Up to the middle of last century the Bushmen of the Karoo on the borders of the Dutch settlements were living on good terms with the colonists. They roamed about the border districts in a friendly way ; petty thefts now and then occurred, but " Bushman atrocities " were unheard of. It was about this time that some Dutch elephant hunters penetrated into the long kloof to the eastward, and began to make a permanent lodgment there.

The mountains at that time were thickly peopled by Bushman clans, who held the key of all the passes leading to the eastward. Doubtless the newcomers, who were successful huntsmen — as the country literally swarmed with great troops of elephants and every pool and river teemed with hippopotami, — were welcomed as " flesh-givers." This was but the first phase of the contact of the two races.

The case however was altered when, either to escape the grip of the law or the oppressive restrictions of their own government, or from a desire to live a free and untrammelled life in the wilderness with an unlimited extent of land around them, the colonists began to cross the great mountain ranges in considerable and ever-increasing numbers, carrying their numerous flocks and herds with them, invading the Bokkeveld, seizing the fountains, making permanent settlements, destroying or driving away the game, the Bushmen's means of subsistence, treating the inhabitants, the " zwarte schepsels," with menace and contumely, and reducing all those who fell into their grasp to a condition of abject slavery.

Then a spirit of resistance was aroused in the breasts of the Bushmen of the Karoo, and this feeling of hostility gradually increased, as the voortrekkers pressed on, extending themselves wherever water and herbage were to be found, to the Roggeveld in one direction, and to the Camdeboo (or Green Elevations) and De Bruyn's Hoogte, including all the sources of the Sunday's river and the abundant springs of the Sneeuwbergen.

The Bushmen resented this unjustifiable usurpation of their ancestral hunting grounds, this wanton destruction of the game which they looked upon as their property, and the forced servitude of many of their number captured when others were hunted and shot down like wild beasts of the field ; and they rose, from one end of the border line to the other, en masse, and made a desperate effort to drive back the intruders.

The details of the actions of the periodical commandos which followed for the express purpose of totally subduing and extirpating the obnoxious race form a portion of the history of the Dutch settlement ; we shall therefore defer their consideration until we arrive at that section of our subject. Suffice it here to say the Bushmen were pursued and destroyed with a relentless and almost savage ferocity, clan after clan was annihilated, the men were shot down without mercy, and the surviving women and children were dragged into a state worse than slavery.

Sometimes they were destroyed in their caves, and no survivors were left ; all, men, women, and children, perished in a heap ; and men, nominally Christians, boasted, as if they had been engaged in some meritorious act, of the active part they had taken in these scenes of slaughter.

Before any of the history of the Bushmen of the Western Karoo was recorded, their clans had been broken up and scattered, and the miserable remnant, with scarcely the means of subsistence, was reduced to the most deplorable condition of want and wretchedness.

Cruelly as they had been treated by the vast majority of Europeans who invaded their country, some two or three farmers living upon this border stand out as a bright example to the remainder of their countrymen, for the zealous and humane endeavours they made to ameliorate the wretchedness of the unhappy aborigines. They obtained by public subscription a considerable number of sheep and homed cattle for their use, hoping thus to reclaim them from their wandering life ; and by their means, with the co-operation of one of the captains, several hordes of these outcasts were brought together, while an equally zealous missionary, named Kicherer, volunteered to attempt to establish a mission among them.

Among this small knot of right-minded philanthropists, the name of Floris Fischer is undoubtedly pre-eminent. He it was who first attempted to rouse a better feeling in the Bushmen. With other farmers he made a treaty between the Bushmen and themselves, who had suffered terribly in their flocks and herds from depredations. The Bushmen were struck with the solemn appeal to heaven made by Fischer to witness the transaction.

After satisfying some of their enquiries, he, at their request, took some of the principal of them to Cape Town. The missionary, who had newly arrived, returned with them, and the farmers loaded them with things necessary to commence the station, while some accompanied them to the spot first selected, and Zak river became a finger-post. Many farmers exerted themselves with commendable liberality in favour of the object in view.

Unhappily the company and countenance of the Bushmen could not be commanded without a daily portion of victuals and tobacco, of which Mr. Kicherer had received an ample supply from the farmers. The country in which the mission was fixed was sterile in the extreme, and rain so seldom fell that they were obliged to depend upon foreign supplies. It was doubtless to these insurmountable and adverse circumstances that the failure of the mission was chiefly owing.

At Mr. Kicherer's departure the station was left in charge of Mr. and Mrs. A. Vos and a Mr. Botha, a farmer, who had sold all he had to aid the mission. These men, not having equal resources with its founders, though distinguished for exemplary patience, after suffering great privations and hardships from drought and the plundering Bushmen, were compelled in 1806 to abandon the station.

Image

The Bushmen, as a people, could never appreciate the effort that had been made for their welfare, their wild life and its untrammelled freedom had too many fascinations for them, and they continued to harass and impoverish those of their countrymen attached to it. A few only followed their teacher to Graaff Reinet.

In the above account, which is quoted from Mr. Moffat, the cause of failure in this laudable attempt is attributed principally to the Bushmen themselves ; but there were certainly other causes which from its very commencement entailed an improbability of success. The character of the tract of country set apart for their use was sufficient of itself to mar the entire project. It was the most arid and sterile of all the countless acres of the land of their forefathers.

Every fountain and every stream had been appropriated by the insatiable greed of the intruders, and a piece of ground upon which none of them could live themselves was allotted for the regeneration of the owners of the soil. How could they learn the advantages of a more settled life on a spot where nothing could be cultivated, and scarcely a sufficient supply of their own primitive roots and tubers could be obtained ?

There could be no luxuriant crops, no loaded fruit-trees flourishing before their eyes, to serve as an ocular demonstration of the benefits to be derived from well-directed industry. Even the cattle that were given to them could scarcely obtain sufficient nourishment in a country where there were more stones and sand to be seen than blades of parched and withered grass.

Placing these unfortunate creatures in such a position was enough to confirm them in the idea that their former mode of life was infinitely superior to that to which they were to be condemned by their new friends. This doubtless was the rock upon which the good ship was wrecked. We shall find also from other evidence that at the time this effort was made the entire border was in the utmost anarchy and confusion. The north-western districts were being pillaged and kept in a state of terror by the daring and unchecked exploits of the notorious freebooter Africander and other lawless bands of savage banditti that followed in his wake and professed to act under his inspiration.

A spirit of insubordination still smouldered in the breasts of the more turbulent of the white population, and violence and rapine were everywhere indulged in in open day. Thus it was that in every part of the country where the Bushmen made an attempt to settle, and we shall discover as we proceed that this was not an isolated case, it was not so much from the marauding disposition of their own countrymen that they were impoverished as from the utter lawlessness of the intruders.

They were cajoled out of, or driven by force from, every useful fountain by the whites ; they were dispossessed upon paltry and unsubstantial excuses of the only flourishing mission stations which had been established among them ; and the fountains and lands they were learning to cultivate were most iniquitously granted to the interested complainants, a too palpable proof of the reasons for the charges that were made against these members of a cruelly treated race.

They were attacked and plundered by marauding Griquas and Koranas and some of the other stronger robber pastoral tribes, while the remnant that escaped were driven once more to seek a precarious mode of subsistence, under far more disadvantageous circumstances than their forefathers, the greater part of the game having been destroyed.

Under such circumstances, what could we expect as the natural consequence ? Can we wonder that such well-meaning and meritorious attempts became failures, or that they soon became too late ? " Past sufferings, and past offences on both sides," writes Moffat, " had produced a feeling of hatred so universal that it was of no avail to pacify one party," while in other directions, upon the smallest provocation, their co-patriots were being shot down like wild beasts without pity, and men, women, and children frequently, as we have before mentioned, indiscriminately slaughtered, thus arousing in the breasts of thousands a thirst for revenge and plunder.

It was doubtless this state of affairs which greatly militated against the success of the first missionaries in their attempts to influence them. The few they were able to gather round them were ever in a state of unrest and uncertainty, while their more untamed countrymen were being harried out of the surrounding country, writhing under the wrongs inflicted upon them, or mercilessly butchered whenever they fell into the hands of their pursuers.

From Borcherds we learn that up to the time of his visit some of the Roggeveld Bushmen strenuously defended themselves in several of the strongholds of the country ; thus a defile between two steep hills beyond the Riet river formed one of their great retreats, to which they retired after their forays, and especially to that portion called the Bonteberg, which was too rocky and steep to be ascended with horses.

Image

Mr. Kicherer gives the following description of the wretched condition in which he found these Bushmen of the Karoo.

Their manner of living, he says, was extremely wretched and disgusting. They delighted to besmear their bodies with the fat of animals, mingled with ochre, and sometimes with grime (probably the black sooty paint with which they frequently painted their bodies). They were utter strangers to cleanliness, as they never washed their bodies, but suffered the dirt to accumulate. Their huts were formed by digging holes in the earth about three feet deep, and then making a roof of reeds, which was, however, insufficient to keep off the rains. Here they lay close together. They were extremely lazy, so that nothing would rouse them to action but excessive hunger.

We have abundance of evidence, however, to show that this was not their natural character in their undisturbed state. The torpor of despair had seized them. They would continue, he adds, several days together without food,N rather than be at the pains of procuring it. When compelled to sally forth for prey they were dexterous in destroying the various beasts which abounded, and they could run almost as well as a horse. They were total strangers to domestic happiness. The men had several wives, but conjugal affection was little known.

Notes: This in all probability must have been after rains, to which, as we have seen, they had a great aversion.

Thompson, who visited these tribes nearly twenty years later, says that after the larger game was driven out of the country by the guns of the Boers and the Griquas, the Bushmen were reduced to the most wretched shifts to obtain a precarious subsistence, living chiefly on wild roots, locusts, and the larvae of insects. Even in 1823 the wandering hordes of this people were scattered over a territory of very wide extent, but of so barren and arid a character that by far the greater portion of it was not permanently habitable by any class of human beings.

Even as it was, colonists were perpetually pressing in upon their territory wherever a fountain or even a temporary pool of water was to be found. Had this territory been fertile, there can be little question but that it would have been years before entirely occupied by the Christians.

They were continually soliciting from the government fresh grants beyond the nominal boundary, and were, in the year above mentioned, very urgent to obtain possession of a tract lying between the Zak and Hartebeest rivers. In defence of these aggressions, they maintained that the Bushmen were a nation of robbers, who, as they neither cultivated the soil nor pastured cattle, were incapable of occupying the country advantageously ; that they would live much more comfortably by becoming the herdsmen and household servants of the Christians than they did on their own precarious resources, and finally that they were incapable of being civilised by any other means.

Field Commandant Gert van der Walt communicated his experiences with regard to these Karoo Bushmen to Mr. Melville, the Government Agent among the Griquas, who thus wrote in 1825 : — Van der Walt stated that both he and his father had been for many years at war with them. From the time he could use a gun he went upon commandos, but he owned that he could now see that no good was ever done by this course of vindictive retaliation. They still continued their depredations, and retained an inveterate spirit of revenge.

He was in constant danger of losing his cattle and of being murdered by them. Having seen the effects of war and cruelty, he had for a few years past tried what might be done by cultivating peace with them, and experience had convinced him that his present plan was most conducive to his interest. He said the Landdrost Stockenstrom was also friendly to pacific measures, and encouraged the plan he had adopted. This was to keep a flock of goats to supply the Bushmen with food in seasons of great want, and occasionally to give them other little presents, by which means he not only kept on good terms with them, but they became very service-able in taking care of his flocks in dry seasons.

He said that on occasions when there was no pasturage on his own farm, he was accustomed to give his cattle entirely into the care of a chief of a tribe who lived near him, and after a certain period they never failed to be brought back again in so improved a condition that he scarcely knew them to be his own.

Image

Mr. Melville gives another example of faithfulness in the character of these Bushmen. A farmer who had been residing at a place called Dassen Poort (the pass of the rock rabbit or coney) and had built a hut and raised some wheat, but had been ordered away from it by the Landdrost on account of its being beyond the boundaries of the colony, left the wheat he had sown, when he removed from the place, in charge of two Bushmen ; and when Mr. Melville passed the spot these two men were still at the post of duty, carefully watching and guarding the crop from harm : another proof that had the conquering race been desirous of doing so, it would not have been so difficult to have cultivated peace with these oppressed people, if measures of real kindness had been in the first instance adopted towards them.

Further evidence upon this point was gained by Thompson from an old man of about sixty. This man stated that he had lived all his life upon the Bushman frontier. He could recollect the time when few or no murders were committed by Bushmen, especially upon the Christians.

The era of bitter and bloody hostility between them commenced, he said, about fifty years before, or about 1770-73, in the following manner. The burgher Coetzee van Reenen had an overseer who kept his flocks near the Zak river, this man was of a brutal and insolent disposition and a great tyrant over the Bushmen ; he had shot some of them at times out of mere wantonness. The Bushmen submissively endured the oppression of this petty tyrant for a long period, but at length their patience was worn out, and one day when he was cruelly maltreating one of their nation another struck him through with his assagai. This act was represented in the Colony as a horrible murder.

A strong commando was sent into the Bushman country and hundreds of innocent people were massacred to avenge the death of this unhappy wretch. Such treatment roused the animosity of the Bushmen to the highest pitch, and eradicated all remains of respect which they still retained for the Christians.

The commando had scarcely left the country when the whole race of Bushmen along the frontier simultaneously commenced a system of predatory and murderous incursions against the colonists, from the Khamiesberg to the Stormberg. These depredations were retaliated by fresh commandos, who slew the old without pity and carried off the young into bondage. The acts of the commandos were again avenged by new robberies and murders, and mutual injuries were accumulated and mutual rancour kept up to the present day.

The evidence which Thompson obtained from Field Commandant Nejj will form a fitting conclusion to our remarks upon these Bushmen of the Karoo. He informed our traveller that in the last thirty years (that is, from 1793 to 1823) he had been upon thirty-two commandos against Bushmen, in which great numbers had been shot, and their children carried into the Colony. On one of these expeditions no less than two hundred Bushmen were massacred!

In justification of this barbarous system, he narrated many shocking stories of atrocities committed by Bushmen upon colonists, which together with the continual depredations upon their property had often called down upon them the full weight of vengeance. Such was to 1823, to a great extent, the horrible warfare existing between the Christians and the natives of the northern frontier, and by which the process of extermination was still proceeding against the latter, as in the days of Barrow.

This Field-Commandant was in many other respects, so Thompson assures us, a meritorious, benevolent, and clear-sighted man ; and it was a strange and melancholy trait of human nature to see one with so many excellent points in his character so seemingly unconscious that any part of his proceedings, or those of his countrymen, in their wars with the Bushmen could awaken in the breast of a right-minded man a feeling of horror and abhorrence.

The massacre of many hundreds of these miserable creatures, and the carrying away of their children into servitude, seemed to be considered by him and his companions as perfectly lawful, just, and necessary, and as meritorious service done to the public, of which they had no more cause to be ashamed than a brave soldier of having distinguished himself against the enemies of his country ; while, on the other hand, he spoke with detestation of the callousness of the Bushmen in the commission of robbery and murder upon the Christians, not seeming to be aware that the treatment these persecuted tribes had received from the Christians might in their apprehension justify every excess of malice and revenge they were able to perpetrate.

The hereditary sentiments of animosity and the deep-rooted contemptuous prejudices sear the better feelings, in such cases, of those who come under their influence ; and thus it has been that the conduct of the farmers towards the ill-fated race was rather of a description to render them more barbarous and desperate than to conciliate or civilise them.

Image

The Bushmen of the Camdeboo and Sneeuwberg.

The tribes of these two localities belong to the same group, the former being the name of the country occupied by the projecting buttresses which extend far from the foot, and support the Snowy mountains, and which on that account are mostly covered with verdure. They were styled 'Cam'deboo, or the Green Elevations, by the old inhabitants ; while the Sneeuwbergen form the higher and central ridges, culminating in the crest of the Compassberg, the highest point in Southern Africa, with the exception of the ridge of the Drakensberg. In treating of the one, we shall therefore be describing the other.

Sparrman, who is the oldest writer who notices the Bushmen of this part of the country, and who visited it after they had been harried by commandos, had evidently imbibed a little of the colonial prejudice against them. He states that the Sneeuwbergen, which lie to the north of the Camdeboo, were so called from the snow with which in winter time the highest of them were covered, and which even remained on them during part of the summer. The Lower Sneeuwbergen were inhabited the year throughout, but on the higher range of hills the winters were severe enough. This circumstance compelled the colonists who settled there to remove during the winter into the plains below Camdeboo.

The inhabitants, who had only forced themselves into, and located themselves in that portion of the Bushman territory a short time before Sparrman's arrival, in the more distant parts of this range were obliged to entirely relinquish their dwellings and habitations, on account of the savage plundering race of Bushmen, who from their hiding places, shooting forth their poisoned arrows at the shepherd, killed him, and afterwards drove away the whole of his flock, which perhaps consisted of several hundred sheep, and formed the chief, if not the whole, of the farmer's property. What they could not drive away with them they killed and wounded as much as the time allowed them while they were making their retreat.

It was in vain to pursue them, they being so very swift of foot, and taking refuge in the steep mountains, which they were able to run up almost as nimbly as baboons or monkeys. From these they rolled down great stones on any one who was imprudent enough to follow them. The approach of night gave them time to withdraw themselves entirely from those parts, by ways and places with which none but themselves were acquainted. They then collected together again in bodies numbering some hundreds, from their hiding places and clefts in the mountains, in order to commit fresh depredations and robberies.

Neither Sparrman nor anyone else of the time thought for a moment of the grievous wrong which had been done by the land-robbers who had seized upon all their hunting grounds, surrounding the mountains of their ancestors, the ancient men who had adorned their numerous cave dwellings with innumerable paintings showing the history and hunting achievements of their race for unknown generations. The hundreds of whom he speaks had been most unceremoniously dispossessed of their country, and all their mountain streams had been appropriated to gratify the territorial greed of a few score men, who called themselves civilised because they had guns in their hands.

One of these colonists, who had been obliged to flee from the defenders of the mountains, informed Sparrman that the Bushmen grew bolder every day, and seemed to increase in numbers since people had with greater earnestness set about extirpating them. This is but another proof of the determination of their resistance ; they rallied at the point of greatest danger, as it was doubtless this cause which occasioned them to collect in large bodies, in order to be the better able to withstand the encroachments of the colonists, who had already taken away their best dwelling and hunting places. An instance was related in which these Sneeuwberg Bushmen had besieged a peasant with his wife and children in their cottage, till at length he drove them off by repeatedly firing among them.

Not long before this, however, they had suffered a considerable defeat in the following manner. Several farmers, who perceived that they were not able to get at the Bushmen by the usual methods, shot a sea-cow, and took only the prime part of it for themselves, leaving the rest by way of bait ; they themselves in the meantime lying in ambush.

The Bushmen with their wives and children now came down from their hiding-places, with the intention of feasting sumptuously on the sea-cow that had been shot ; but the farmers, who came back again very unexpectedly, turned the feast into a scene of blood and slaughter.N Pregnant women and children in their tenderest years were not at this time, neither indeed were they ever, exempt from the effects of the hatred and spirit of vengeance constantly harboured by the colonists with respect to the Bushman nation, excepting such indeed as were marked out to be carried away into bondage.

Notes: We shall find as we proceed that this treacherous mode of attack was carried out on a more extensive scale by one of the large commandos under the guidance of a Field-Commandant.

Did a colonist at any time get sight of a Bushman, he took fire immediately, and spirited up his horse and dogs in order to hunt him with more ardour and fury than he would a wolf or any other wild beast.

On an open plain a few colonists on horseback were always sure to get the better of the greatest number of Bushmen that could be brought together, as the former always kept at a distance of a hundred or a hundred and fifty paces, as they might find it convenient, and charging their heavy fire-arms with a very large kind of shot, jumped off their horses and took rest in their usual manner on their ramrods, in order that they might shoot with greater certainty, so that the balls discharged by them would sometimes, as Sparrman was assured go through the bodies of six, seven or eight of the enemy at a time, especially as these latter knew no better than to keep close together in a body.

It was true, on the other hand, the Bushmen could shoot their arrows to the distance of two hundred paces, but with a very uncertain aim, as the arrow must first necessarily have made a curve in the air, and should it even at that distance have chanced to hit any of the farmers, it would not have been able to go through his hat or his ordinary linen or coarse woollen coat.

In the district of the Sneeuwberg the landdrost appointed one of the farmers, with the title of Field-Corporal, to command in these wars, and, as occasion might require, to order out the country people in separate parties for the purpose of defending the country against its original inhabitants.

The government, indeed, had no other part in the cruelties exercised by its subjects than that of taking no cognizance of them ; but in this point it was certainly too remiss, in leaving a whole nation to the mercy of every peasant, or in fact every one that chose to invade their land, as of such people one might naturally expect that interested views and an unbridled spirit of revenge would prevail over the dictates of prudence and humanity.

Image

Sparrman declares that he was far from accusing all the colonists of having a hand in these and other cruelties, which were too frequently committed in this quarter of the globe. While some plumed themselves upon them, there were many who, on the contrary, held them in abomination and feared lest the vengeance of heaven should, for all these crimes, fall upon the land and their posterity.

In 1782 Le Vaillant travelled through this portion of the country. In his time the Bushmen, notwithstanding all the attacks which had been made upon them, still resolutely maintained themselves in the more inaccessible parts of the range. On approaching it, a kraal of Hottentots was found near the foot of the mountain, who had migrated from some of the western districts.

On approaching it, the children no sooner saw the new- comers than they ran to hide themselves, screaming horribly. It contained about one hundred and thirty men, and they possessed about one hundred head of cattle and treble that number of sheep. They were busily engaged in drying locusts on mats, having previously pulled off the wings and legs.

The colonial method of attempting to conciliate the unfortunate Bushmen is well illustrated by an incident in which Le Vaillant, a professed philanthropist, was personally engaged. One of the keepers of his stock, he informs us, came and reported to him that several Bushmen had descended from the mountains and drew near to them, but had been kept in awe by a few discharges of their muskets.

Immediately he and his chief attendant got on horseback, and accompanied by four good marksmen, went in quest of such dangerous plunderers, and soon discovered thirteen of them. The Bushmen seeing the pursuing party advancing resolutely, and hearing their bullets whistle through the air, presently took to flight, and though the traveller and his men followed at full speed, they could not get near enough to hit them. They presently regained and hid themselves in the mountains. Le Vaillant confesses that he could not help admiring the address with which they climbed like monkeys the most craggy and steep parts of the rock, where he did not pretend to follow, as it would have been imprudent to attack them in their inaccessible retreats.

As it was, it was certainly one of the most unprovoked attacks on his part, a mere traveller through the country, but from the way he speaks of it, he evidently considered it a very dashing and meritorious action.

Le Vaillant states that he considered the Bushmen were a different nation from the Hottentots. In some cantons they were called Chinese Hottentots, because their complexions resembled the Chinese seen at the Cape, and like them too they were of middling stature. He imagined that they were a peculiar race of Hottentots, distinguished by the savages of the desert, who had no communication with the Dutch settlements, by the name Houswaana.

He further states that this branch of the Bushman family formerly inhabited the Camdeboo, the Bokkeveld, and the Roggeveld ; but the usurpation of the whites, to whom, like the other savages, they had fallen victims, obliged them to seek refuge at a distance from their country, inhabiting in his time the vast space that lies between Kaffraria and the country of the Namaquas.

Of all the nations, he adds, who have been ill-treated by the Europeans, none remembered their wrongs with so much bitterness. They never forgot the treachery of the colonists or the infamous return made for the many signal services they had rendered them, and such, he says, was the resentment of these people, that the terrible cry of vengeance was ever in their mouths.

The Bushmen of Achter De Bruyn's Hoogte and the Great Eastern Plains.

Of these tribes and the country which they inhabited, Sparrman affords the following interesting particulars. These were the tribes which were called by the voortrekkers the Cineese or Snese Hottentots, i.e. Chinese Hottentots. The clans which inhabited De Bruyn's and Achter De Bruyn's Hoogte lived peace- ably with the first Christians who migrated there. The latter were then few in number, and doubtless found it expedient to adopt, as all isolated voortrekkers ever did, a conciliatory policy towards the aborigines, instead of the arrogant and overbearing treatment meted out as soon as their number was sufficiently augmented to enable them to dictate terms to those who in the first instance had welcomed them as friends.

In the days of their weakness the Bushmen were accustomed to perform the kindest offices for them, and would frequently go unasked in search of a stray lamb or the like belonging to the Christians, and take it home to them ; but at length, after their countrymen had been harried by the relentless commandos, and massacred in their caves, they withdrew themselves and lived concealed in the holes and crevices of the rocks in different parts of the country, like the other Bushmen.

Yet, being fewer in number, they were not altogether so bold and daring. Their complexions being rather of a yellowish cast, they were considered by the early Dutch settlers as a different nation, and were consequently called Chinese or Snese Hottentots.

The chief abode of these fugitives was on each side of the two Fish rivers. Another and more considerable part of this yellow-skinned nation was dispersed, in 1776, over a tract of country eleven days' journey in breadth, and situated more to the north than to the north-east of the Fish rivers, near a river called Tsomo, where some of them were said to be occupied in grazing and rearing cattle.

Image

One of these tribes was called 'Tambu'ki, and there seems no reason to doubt that frequent intermarriages took place between them and some of the pioneer clans of the Abatembu. From this friendly intercourse the two races would assimilate gradually to each other, as we shall discover that the Ghonaquas did with the foremost struggling clans of those Kaffir tribes which during their migrations continued to hug the coast, just as a similar partial amalgamation took place between them and the pioneer clans which formed the van in the southern migration of the Bachoana tribes. In all these cases, isolated fugitives from the various advancing branches first came in contact with the aboriginal Bushmen occupying the country, then came small detached clans far in advance of the main body, too few in number to appear in any other guise than that of friends and suppliants.

During this phase of the intercourse between the various races, while the Bushmen were still the more numerous and stronger party and the masters of the situation, friendly relations were maintained, and a half-caste race with various gradations of intermixture sprang up at the different points of contact. Some of the Bushmen, obtaining in exchange for their furs or beads a few cattle from their new friends, thus became semi-pastoral, while the latter, in their turn, adopted, or rather grafted upon their own customs, a few of those of their entertainers.

Image

The old Bushman tribe of the 'Tambu'ki was a striking example of this.N They appear to have occupied the valley of the Tsomo, and were described 'to Sparrman by the Chinese Bushmen as being like themselves in complexion, but more powerful and warlike. They said that beyond them was another nation still more warlike and intrepid, whom they called the Mambukis, apparently the Abatembu.

When treating of this latter tribe, we shall learn that Lieutenant Paterson also states distinctly that these 'Tambu'ki were originally a Bushman tribe, with the members of which the advanced Abatembu contracted marriage, and that upon the occasion of a civil war breaking out between two rival branches of this Kaffir tribe, the weaker of them fled and sought a refuge among the 'Tambu'ki Bushmen, with whom they amalgamated, and were ever after known by the sobriquet of Tambuki.

The Bushman element became absorbed, and ultimately overwhelmed, by the increasing numbers of the stronger race. The high cheek-bones, the moderate stature of many, the remarkably small feet and hands of some of their chiefs, being a striking divergence from the pure Kaffir type, and finally the adoption by this division of the Abatembu of the Bushman custom of mutilating the hand by cutting off the first joint of one of their fingers, are all unquestionable proofs of this friendly amalgamation of the advanced tribes of the two races.

Notes: This fact is established by the evidence obtained from native and other sources during his travels among their countrymen in the north, and from the corroborative information collected when among some of the Amaxosa Kaffirs in the south, by Lieutenant Paterson. Witnesses so far removed and isolated from one another must needs be independent.

With regard to the amicable disposition of these Bushmen, Sparrman informs us that small parties of Christians had travelled all through this country, and shot elephants there unmolested, yet they thought it necessary for their greater security to shut themselves up at night in their waggons as in a castle. The more considerable rivers which ran through the country of the Chinese Bushmen were the following : t'Kamsi-f’kay, or the White Kei ; t'Nu-t'kay, the Black Kei, and the Little 'Zomo and Great 'Zomo or the Tsomo. Beyond the last, in 1776, another country belonging to a different nation commenced.

Sparrman states that although up to his time no attempt had been made to improve the condition of the Bushmen and make them better men and more useful to the colonists, still, judging from the disposition of those who had been hired in the colonists' service or made slaves of, it did not seem impossible to be effected, although he saw that the sentiments commonly entertained to their disadvantage, as well as the cruelties which had hitherto been practised upon them, could not but lay many impediments in the way of an attempt of this nature.

These Chinese Bushmen made delineations upon the smooth surface of the rocks, though in as uncouth and artless a style as might be expected from so rude and unpolished a people.

The Bushmen of the Bamboesberg.

The Bamboesberg is a portion of the great Stormberg, which in this particular locality forms a double range that in the early days presented such an impenetrable and insurmountable barrier, with its intricate and precipitous fastnesses, that up to the year 1797 it was considered so completely impassable either with waggons or on horseback, that no one had ever penetrated into it. These strongholds, as they had ever been, were still in the hands of formidable Bushman clans. The Bamboesberg, Stormberg, and Tarka tribes appear to have belonged to the same group, and frequently to have acted in conjunction with one another in their efforts to repel the invaders of their ancient hunting-grounds.

In Barrow's time a portion of the Bamboesberg was occupied by a formidable horde about five hundred strong, under a captain named by the colonists Lynx. This traveller informs us that caverns full of their drawings were found in some of these mountains, such as elephants, hippopotami, and among the rest one camelopard.N In the course of the journey he saw several thousand figures of animals, but none had the appearance of being monstrous, none that could be considered as works of the imagination ; they were generally as faithful representations of nature as the talents of the artist would allow.

Notes: The writer has found several drawings of the giraffe in the Zwart Kei and Tsomo caves, also in the Wittebergen of the Orange Free State, indubitably proving that this animal was found in the early days over a far wider area of country than at present.

An instance of this was shown in one of the caves visited, and one which clearly demonstrates the efforts the leading Bushman artists made to copy nature, efforts which were crowned with such success that some chef d'œuvres, the productions of their native Landseers, must from their correctness of outline, their action, their shading, and their finish, fill every impartial beholder with astonishment. Barrow found the back shell of a particular tortoise, the testudo geometrica, lying on the floor of the cave. The artist had evidently been disturbed, and thrown down his model in his flight, for on the smooth side of the cave the regular lines with which it is marked, and from which it takes its name, had been very recently and very accurately copied !

The struggle of these mountaineer Bushmen was a long and desperate one ; the fact has been recorded, but most of the details are lost, and those which have been preserved are so interwoven with the border history of the Colony that we shall defer their recital until we treat upon that subject. Sometimes the commandos committed frightful massacres amongst them, and ranges of mountains would appear cleared for the time ; but suddenly they would rally again in renewed strength, and the avengers of blood would drive the intruders from their homesteads, from the mountain-rills and picturesque nooks they had chosen, to seek a more secure retreat in the open plains.

Thus had the Tarka been abandoned at the time of Barrow's visit. The paintings found in the Bushman caves of the Tarka mountains proclaimed the rights and title deeds of the aborigines, while the deserted farms in the glens at their foot, where vineyards loaded with grapes, and peach trees, and almond, apple, and pear trees full of fruit were found, and no hands to pluck them, made known the temporary defeat of the invaders.

Image

The Bushmen of the Tooverberg and the Northern Plains.

We have chosen the Tooverberg, or Mountain of the Wizard, as the representative centre of this group, as much has been recorded of the Bushmen who lived in its neighbourhood, in consequence of a Bushman mission station having at one time existed there. This mountain received its distinguishing appellation from the Boers who first discovered it, from the fact of its being seen from a great distance, and which from its size and the flatness of the country to the south of it, they imagined was much nearer than it really was. It therefore appeared to keep receding as they advanced, hence they gave it the name of the Mountain of the Wizard.

In 1820 there were many Bushmen in the country surrounding it. When Mr. Backhouse visited them some of them informed him that their forefathers had dwelt there from time immemorial. In the year mentioned they were living under a chief named 'Na'na'kow by his own people, and Uithaalder by the Dutch. His territory extended from the Zeekoe river to Van der Walt's Buffels Fontein, and in describing it 'Na'na'kow used to say that he drank of the Zeekoe river and of Van der Walt's Fontein. The whole of his country swarmed with elands, gnus, and springboks.

The first mission station appears to have been established by Mr. Kolbe, a German missionary, but the honour of having first pleaded the cause of these Bushmen certainly belongs to the Rev. A. Faure, a minister of the Dutch Reformed church, who had long resided on the exposed frontier of Graaff Reinet. His evidence is both valuable and conclusive on the character of these Bushmen for fidelity in any trust imposed upon them. The farmers, he writes, are entirely dependent on the Bushmen for their welfare. Few, if any, have either slaves or Hottentots, consequently they have no means of getting their cattle properly tended without their assistance.

p10 #
Image

Such farmers as possess Bushmen have been in the habit of committing to them the charge of their flocks, and they have proved such faithful shepherds that the farmers have not hesitated to give them some hundreds of ewes and other cattle to sojourn with them beyond the limits of the Colony.

The Bushman, having received a reward of some tobacco, dacha or wild hemp leaves, for smoking, and perhaps two or three ewes, left the habitation of the colonist, drove the cattle into distant parts, with the fertility of which he was well acquainted, and after an absence of some months returned to the farmer his cattle in such improved condition that had they not had his particular mark upon them, he would with difficulty have credited that they were the same animals which on account of their leanness the Bushman could with difficulty remove from his farm.

Facts of this kind prove not only the individual honesty of the Bushman thus trusted, but also the general honesty of all those of his race with whom he must have, of necessity, come in contact during the long period of his wanderings. Sometimes the farmer, Mr. Faure continues, put the fidelity of the Bushman to the test by sending one or two of his acquaintances to try whether they could not obtain a sheep by promising some reward, but the instances were rare in which such messengers succeeded. Many farmers on the frontier assured Mr. Faure that had it not been for the Bushmen they saw no means of breeding cattle.

Image

Bearing upon this subject, Colonel Collins, in his report (1809) upon the native tribes, recommended that the Bushmen should be introduced into the colony, collected and instructed in institutions, and then dispersed among the colonists. He pointed out such positions as he considered most eligible for the formation of stations under proper regulations.

The Bushmen, he stated, often suffered extreme misery, but seldom robbed except to satisfy their wants, and afforded the fairest hope of becoming in time useful to themselves and to the colony. Humanity and policy therefore combined to prompt the adoption of every measure that could tend to alleviate their unhappy lot and attach them to the settlers. He pointed out the necessity of some steps being immediately taken, lest the inhabitants becoming tired of their importunities, the Bushmen should return to the mountains and recommence their former predatory mode of life.

From the above it would appear that there was a short lull about this time in the war of extermination which had raged for upwards of thirty years with vindictive violence, sweeping over the fated Bushman territory in a pitiless storm of blood ; and it would have been well for the cause of humanity and the honour of the British name had this warning voice been listened to, and this opportunity of arresting the extinction of this cruelly treated and unhappy race been seized and utilised, as was so earnestly recommended in Colonel Collins' valuable report.

But alas ! this fitting opportunity was allowed to pass, and a second period of war and extermination was entered upon as remorselessly and pitilessly as the one which had preceded it, and which every right-minded man must look upon with humiliation and abasement, when he considers that although it was accomplished by the same agency as before, it was carried out under the auspices of a government whose proud boast was that it ever upheld the cause of justice and right, defended from their oppressors the weak, and struck off the fetters from the slave.

In 1814 a mission was established at Tooverberg, near the site of the present town of Colesberg, and another was founded at Hephzibah at a subsequent period. In about a month's time there were collected at the latter place no fewer than eight hundred and eighty-seven Bushmen, exclusive of children ; and the Bushmen belonging to the two stations at this period amounted to seventeen hundred.

The Bushmen having once settled at the station, generally went out to invite others of their nation to join them, and when they succeeded, these were introduced to the missionary, and after staying a few days at the institution, usually returned to bring their families with them. During the continuance of these institutions they committed no depredations in the Colony, or anywhere else. Not only were there no depredations, but no pretext was found for the visitation on the part of the colonists of those terrible armed parties which had caused so much havoc among the hapless aborigines.

Image

But the Bushmen were not allowed to remain long in peaceful possession of the lands which they were learning to cultivate with the inherent energy of their race. Too many greedy eyes were set upon the fountains which watered the fertile fields they had been taught to sow. In 1816 some differences arose between the resident missionary of Tooverberg and some of the neighbouring farmers who had appropriated the country respecting the seizure of some children belonging to the station. This disagreement became the pretext for the suppression of the missions ; the fieldcomet Van der Walt was against the missions, and had reported unfavourably about them to the landdrost.

No specific charges appear to have been made, nor was any investigation instituted. A kind of general assertion was advanced that the collection of so many savages so near the colonial border was a menace to the peace of the colony.

Poor Bushmen ! the colonial border advanced upon them, not they towards the frontier line. This however mattered not, Lord Charles Somerset merely stated that he was under the obligation of recalling the missionaries within the limits of the colony, as these Bushman institutions were detrimental to its interests. The manner in which they were detrimental can only be decided by the action which was almost immediately initiated. About 1819-20 the greater part of the mission Bushmen were either killed or frightened away by the great influx of Boers in that year.

How it could be for a moment imagined that this arbitrary and continual seizure of land, without the slightest reservation being made for the unfortunate outcasts whose fathers had occupied it unchallenged from time immemorial, could be carried into effect without outraging every sense of justice, seems almost marvellous ; yet still more so on our finding that when a hapless Bushman, not only deprived of his ancient country but also of the very game which had been to him as much his means of subsistence as the flocks and herds of the intruders who were superseding him were of theirs, happened to steal a sheep to keep himself and his family from starving, if apprehended and taken alive, he was publicly flogged under the scaffold, branded with a hot iron, put in irons, and condemned to hard labour.

'Na'na'kow, the last Bushman captain of the Tooverberg, still clung to the old haunts of his fathers, notwithstanding the bloody fate of most of his tribe, to the year 1825, when he was seen there by Dr. Philip.

He stated that many years before his father's kraal, without the least provocation, had been suddenly attacked by a party of Boers from the Colony ; and that his father and many hundreds of his people, men, women, and children, had been killed ; that afterwards ten waggons were laden with the surviving children and driven off to the colony by the attacking party ; that since that time many commandos had come against his people, that multitudes of them had been shot, and the children carried away ; that when the missionary came he ploughed and sowed land for them, and when the harvest was ripe, he taught them how to cut down the corn, and divided it among them ; and they were happy, for no more commandos came upon them ; that some moons after the missionary had left them the Boers came and took possession of the fountains and chased them from the land of Tooverberg, the land of their fathers, and made them go and herd their sheep and forced their children into perpetual servitude ; and that he, without people, with only his wife and four children, was hiding amongst the mountains and subsisting on roots and locusts ; that whenever sheep or goats or cattle strayed, or were stolen, the Boers said that the Bushmen had stolen them, and they were flogged and shot on suspicion only, for the cattle and sheep which had been taken by others or destroyed by hyenas, lions, or panthers.

Such was the statement of a Bushman when heard in his own defence, and it seems to contain a large amount of truth, when compared with whatever collateral evidence can be obtained upon the subject.

It seems also a significant fact that Fieldcomet Van der Walt, the very man who was the most active in raising the outcry against the institutions intended for the benefit of the Bushmen, was the one who profited most by their suppression, by possessing himself of a large portion of the lands attached to them and forcing some of the people into his service, even Uithaalder himself, until the treatment he received determined him to escape once more to his native mountains. For several years longer he tenaciously clung to the home of his fathers, until the same tragical fate overtook him as had befallen the rest of his tribe.

He and a few faithful followers who had rallied round him were shot by a commando under the same Van der Walt, who was then Field-Commandant, about the year 1827-8, and thus perished the last ruler of the Tooverberg Bushmen.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 10:44 am, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

10

Post posted by VED »

10 #
THE VARIOUS GROUPS OF BUSHMAN TRIBES (continued)


The bushmen of Reyner mountain

It has been said by the supporters of Griqua claims that when the missionaries first took possession of Klaarwater, the country was unoccupied. The fallacy of this assertion will be fully proved as we proceed with our investigation. In 1820 a considerable number of Bushmen were still living scattered over the country between Griquatown and Lithako, the great place at that time of the Batlapin.

They appear, however, to have congregated principally about the locality called Reyner Mountain and from Koing Fontein and Alers plain on the west to the Malalarene and Kolong on the east. They were often met with in small parties, in miserable huts, on the open flats. These all belonged to the sculptor tribes, and few of them, as we have already pointed out, appear to have lived in caves, owing doubtless to the peculiar formation of the country, in which any large numbers of rock-shelters are seldom met with.

As in every instance where the stronger races have come in contact with these aboriginal hunters, the Koranas, Griquas, and Batlapin displayed the utmost vindictiveness towards them. It seemed a strange perversion of ideas in all these tribes, which were accustomed to condemn the Bushmen with such vehemency as rogues, that they should themselves be professional thieves whenever they had an opportunity. The only difference between them as to roguery was that the Bushmen stole in small companies and the others in large parties like an army. The same way of judging, however, is as common in Europe, the crime and the charge seem both lost where the perpetrators are numerous.

Mr. Campbell states that upon one occasion when with their accustomed hatred, some Batlapin could scarcely be restrained from dispatching a couple of Bushmen who had been made prisoners by his Hottentot servants, he attempted to point out to them that the only difference between the crime of the Batlapin and the Bushmen was that the former did it upon a larger scale than the latter. While the Bushmen contented themselves with what was necessary to supply present wants, the Batlapin in their commandos took from one another hundreds and thousands of cattle. When the Batlapin were reasoned with on the cruelty of their disposition towards the Bushmen, they justified themselves by the bad qualities they ascribed to them.

These Bushmen seldom attempted to seize many cattle at once, and their raids were made more to supply the cravings of hunger than to gratify any desire for the accumulation of large herds, such as impelled the neighbouring Hottentot and Bachoana tribes to make continuous forays upon one another. As soon as they had succeeded in securing a small quantity of cattle, they generally signalled to their brethren from the top of some hill, that they might know from the ascending smoke that a capture had been made and that they had better get out of the way.

One of the great places of refuge for the Bushmen in this part of the country was about three miles to the south of Neale's Fontein, on an elevation in the plain where there was a remarkable excavation in the solid rock. It was about a quarter of a mile in circumference. The rock was perpendicular all round, and about one hundred feet high, excepting a declivity in one part of it which was easily ascended. This was covered with trees, while no other trees were found in that part of the plain. At the bottom was a deep pool of excellent water.

Almost on a level with the surface of the water was a cave, which had a narrow entrance, and was frequently used by Bushmen as a refuge from their pursuers when they had stolen cattle, because here they could feast in safety, for though the Batlapin would sometimes pursue them to the mouth of the cave, they never had courage to follow them into that dark abode.

That these Bushmen under different treatment would have been capable of improvement, and were not altogether the irreclaimable savages that their enemies, the Griquas and Batlapin, delighted to depict them, is illustrated by a fact mentioned by Mr. Campbell, of a Griqua who had been able with great labour to cut a canal near the source of a stream, by which he could lead .a sufficient supply of water over all his land, and this he had been enabled to accomplish through the assistance of the Bushmen.

Image

One of their chiefs was living in 1820 in a district at the south end of Reyner Mountain, about half-way between Griquatown and Lithako. His name was 'Hon'ke, or the Little Lamb, and he was the son of 'Hon'ke-yeng, the Very Little Lamb. He informed Mr. Campbell that he and his forefathers had always lived at the same place, and that his people were formerly more numerous than at that time, their number having been reduced by disease and by attacks of the Bachoana. 'Hon'ke stated that he had never travelled farther to the north than Koening Fontein, a place about twenty miles from his kraal, except once when he carried a letter to Lithako, or farther to the east than the 'Gij- 'Gariep or Vaal river, where he went to steal cattle. He confessed that he had killed five men, either in fighting about game or in revenge for their having murdered some of his friends.

Common report, however, gave him credit for having killed a much larger number. In all his combats he had only received two wounds from poisoned arrows, one in his right arm, the other in his side, either of which would have proved mortal had not the flesh been instantly cut out. Although in earlier times there were frequent skirmishes among Bushmen, he said that the men of other Bushman tribes never attacked him then, being afraid because they knew that he was a brave and resolute man.

Like all their countrymen, these Bushmen were exposed to great hardships, being often destitute of food for several successive days during seasons when both roots and game were scarce. When flesh was plentiful they had a mode of drying it and then pounding it to powder, in which state it kept many days.

One of the Bushmen of this tribe was pointed out who had an aged mother-in-law, and it was stated that one day during his absence from home her own daughter, his wife, dragged the old woman into the veld and left her alive among the bushes, where she was torn to pieces by the hyenas the same night. The chief said, in speaking of such matters, that the Bushmen did not think they had souls ; they died one after the other, the young people were buried and the old thrown to the wild beasts.

The greater number of these Bushmen were subsequently hunted down and destroyed by the Griquas and Batlapin, who never allowed an opportunity to escape of venting their feelings of hatred upon them ; the miserable remnant the Griqua chief Waterboer took under his protection.

Image

The Bushmen of the Malalarene and 'Kolong.

The branch of the Vaal now generally marked on maps as the Hart river appears in former days to have been distinguished by three different names, each indicating a particular portion of the stream. The Lower Hart near its junction with the Vaal was known as the ‘Kolong, the central portion as the 'Hhou, while the upper had received the appellation of the Malalarene, the two first being of Bushman origin, the last of Bachoana.

Bushmen were at one time very numerous in this locality, hunting as far to the north as Kuruman, and even in 1820, between this place and T'shopo numerous pitfalls were to be seen, which had been excavated by them. To the eastward their hunting grounds reached to the Vaal, and the great chief of their clans was looked upon as the most powerful Bushman captain in that region. They, like those of Reyner Mountain, belonged to the sculptor branch of the Bushman family. Much of the little history which has been preserved about them is so intermingled with that of the neighbouring tribes that we shall reserve its details until treating of the latter.

In 1820 the name of their great chief was Ma'ku-une ; his father's name was 'Kama'cha, and that of his mother 'Ab. His father died before he was born, when his mother married another Bushman, named 'Ta'ku. He informed Mr. Campbell that when he was young the Bushmen of those parts were far more numerous than they were at that time. Many of them had been destroyed in attacks by the Batlapin and Koranas.

The first raid in which he had been engaged was against the Batlapin, in which, though many oxen were captured, the whole were eaten in two days. His second was undertaken against the Ta-ma-has, but in this they were frustrated, as their design had been discovered, and his party returned without booty. Only one woman, who was found concealing herself, was killed. Another foray in which he was engaged was directed against the Baharara, another portion of the same tribe, when they were more successful ; but again on this occasion the cattle which were captured only furnished a sufficiency for a feast of two days. His last expedition was when his people united with the Koranas against the Batlapin.

He had raised his fame among his tribe as a great hunter, having killed during his lifetime four lions, one panther, two leopards, three camelopards, seven buffaloes, two rhinoceroses, two gnus, one hippopotamus, and numberless quaggas, besides other game.

A few years previously he had about one hundred people with him in his kraal ; murders and disease had, however, so thinned their ranks that in 1820 they were reduced to a small number. He had still a few people at three different places who acknowledged subjection to him.

Image

The Bushmen of this part were all of diminutive size, and did not paint their bodies like many of the other tribes, except on special occasions. However wretched and starved they appeared in times of scarcity, with a change to good living they fattened in a few weeks, like cattle when translated from barren heaths to good pasturage.

Image

The Bushmen of the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal.

There can be no doubt but that the portion of this river valley between the junction of the Vaal with the 'Gumaam or Vet and the 'Kolong was thickly inhabited by the sculptor branch of the Bushman race from a very remote period. Some of the evidences of this lengthened occupation have already been referred to ; similar proofs upon this point might be advanced, but those to which we have alluded will be sufficient to substantiate the fact. Their headquarters appear to have been at the kopje behind the Pniel mission station and the one situated half-way between that place and the Kimberley diamond mine. Scattered around these, the traces of a number of minor outstations are to be found.

It is here and at the 'Gumaap, or Great Riet river, that the finest specimens of their sculptures are to be found, and it was here also that Bushmen had made the greatest advances towards a more comfortable state of existence. This was especially the case with those clans occupying the country towards the 'Gu-maam, or Vet river, where the friendly intercourse which had sprung up between them and the Leghoya, an emigrant tribe of the Bachoana who had settled amongst them, had been beneficial in advancing them in the scale of comfort and civilisation far beyond that found among any of the more western tribes. They had become semi-pastoral, possessing comparatively many cattle, some of the kraals being the owners of as many as five hundred head.

This progress, however, proved the very means of ensuring their speedy destruction as soon as their country was invaded by the more lawless, yet stronger races, with whose history their extermination was so interwoven that it will be necessary for us to postpone the investigation of this portion of our subject until we treat of the career of such tribes as the Koranas, Griquas, and Basutu. It is the same story of injustice, oppression, and cruelty as that which we have related about the Bushmen of the Tooverberg, aggravated towards its close by the advent of the men who for the last century had been the bitterest persecutors of this ill-fated race.

Image

The Bushmen of the 'Nu 'Gariep, or Upper Orange.

The Bushman tribes inhabiting the basin of the 'Nua 'Gariep may be divided into several groups. One of these occupied the country from the Makaleng or Komet Spruit to beyond Thaba Bosigo, including the 'Kheme, and to Platberg on the right bank of the Noka Mogokare or Caledon. They acknowledged a Bushman captain, Lekoumetsa by name, as their great chief, who was an old man in 1820,N and who was succeeded by 'Khiba, or 'Kheba, who was the paramount chief over the men of the caves from Matlakeng, or the Place of the Vultures, to the Great Hang-lip in the Genadeberg.

Image

These Bushmen were called Baroa ba Makhoma Khotu by the Basutu, as some of the kraals had cattle in their possession. M. Arbousset mentions a second group called Mamanchou, who took their name from one of the great women of the tribe, but he does not mention the locality in which they lived. He also states that 'Kheme, 'Rhosatsaneng, 'Ku'ku, and 'Koes (Koesberg) are some of the oldest Bushman names in the country.

Notes: Notes of Charles Sirr Orpen. Letter from M. Arbousset in 1859.

Another powerful group of clans occupied the right bank of the 'Nu 'Gariep from its junction with the Noka Mogokare or Caledon, up along the course of the stream beyond Lotter's Kop, Lichtenstein, and Riebeeksdal ; and in the opposite direction as far as Badfontein to Bosjes Spruit, while towards the north the caves in Mononong or Great Aasvogelkop were included in their territory.

The paramount chief at the beginning of this century was Ow'ku'ru'keu, or as he was called by the Bastaards and Dutch, Baardman the elder. 'Kwaha,N who was a petty captain of his tribe, says that although Ow'ku'ru'keu, who was his mother's uncle, was a true Bushman, he was a big man and fat. He and different members of his family had obtained the sobriquet of Baardman, or the bearded man, on account of a marked peculiarity which they possessed. They were not only, like the other Bushmen of their tribe, short and well-built, but they had thick heavy beards and large moustaches, which marked them at once from the ordinary Bushmen, whose faces, as a rule, are destitute of any such hirsute appendages ; and which in this case arose in all probability from some intermixture of blood.

His great place or cave was lower down the Caledon than that of 'Kwaha, a little above its junction with the 'Nu 'Gariep. The cave, or as it might be called from the beauty and number of its paintings, the palace-cave of his father, however, was the one which from its symbolic figure was termed the Cave of the Hippopotamus, in the rocky gorge or ravine running to the Orange river on the farm Lichtenstein.

Notes: 'Kwaha informed Mr. C. S. Orpen that his father was a Ghona Hottentot, who was born at the Sea-cow river, in the district of Colesberg, and therefore in the territory of 'Na'na'kow, the last chief of the Tooverberg. His mother, whose name was Candass 'Khou'kuha, belonged to a clan living in the Kraamberg, near the present Aliwal North, and was a niece of Ow'ku'ru'keu. The influence therefore of this chief extended to the left bank of the 'Nu Gariep. 'Kwaha was born in a cave on the right side of the Caledon, opposite Tweefontein, and a little distance above the junction of this river with the 'Nu Gariep. 'Kwaha was a young man, and had not taken a wife, when the first missionary came to T'kout'koo, now Bethulie. He was known by the name of Aerk, and was followed by Mr. Kolbe.

Ow'ku'ru'keu, although he did not live there himself, was proud of this grand representation of the large charging hippopotamus as well as the other paintings which adorned the home of his fathers. He was already a very old man in 1839, when he was first met by one of the voortrekkers named David Swanepoel,N to whom he frequently boasted of the beautiful paintings which ornamented the wall of the great place of his father, saying that when he had seen them he would be able to say that he had seen paintings. In those days all the rivers abounded with hippopotami, and troops of elephants were found in every kloof and near every vlei, which extended, in some parts, in great chains of reed-fringed pools for miles in the hollows of the vast plains.

Notes: David Swanepoel, an old farmer of considerable intelligence, was one of those who in the early days were in the habit of crossing the Orange river for the purpose of hunting, when the Bushmen were still in undisturbed possession of the country.

Ow'Ku'ru'keu was always desirous of maintaining peace with his neighbours. The number of his subjects was considerable, and 'Kwaha affirmed that he was loved very much by them and always gave advice towards peace. Living so near the banks of large rivers, these people were great and successful fishermen. The voortrekkers termed them Friendly Bushmen, but their peaceful disposition did not save them ; the tribe was broken up by the intruders, and they were dispossessed of their land.

Ow'ku'ru'keu escaped the dismemberment of his tribe caused by the intrusion of the Boer squatters into the country originally occupied by his people, yet, although he abandoned the place himself, a small clan still clung to the grand retreat of their ancestors in the Lichtenstein gorge ; but their end was a tragical one. They fell, together with Knecht Windvogel and his tribe, by the treachery of a notorious and still more infamous freebooter, called Danster by the Dutch. His vindictiveness was directed against Windvogel and his people, when the Bushmen from Lichtenstein accompanying them fell likewise into the snare.

What the cause of the offence was is not known, but having resolved upon his diabolical scheme, he gave a grand feast and beer-drinking for the express purpose of entrapping these people, towards whom he had always previously expressed great friendship. He sent therefore an invitation to them, informing them that on a certain day he intended to give this great feast, desiring them to be present. Not having the slightest suspicion of any sinister design, the proffered hospitality was accepted without hesitation ; and on the appointed day the whole of both the clans attended. Their host was lavish both in demonstrations of friendship and in supplies of beer.

Image

Not suspecting the least evil or danger, they gave themselves up to conviviality and the indulgences of the banquet ; feasting and dancing were the order of the day, but when his too confident guests, whom he plied steadily for that purpose, were muddled with the heavy potations or lying helpless with the intoxication which followed, suddenly, without notice, at a given signal — a shrill whistle — the entertainers with assagai and shield sprang upon their unsuspecting victims, and murdered men, women, and children without mercy. Not a soul escaped !

Ow'ku'ru'keu survived until the year 1860, and although at that time he was in extreme old age, he was still energetic and active. He then occupied a small kraal with his wives and a few of his sons, near the junction of the Riet and Modder rivers, on a farm in the possession of one Joubert. His eldest son, Baardman the younger, whom he had not seen for some fifty years, he had sold for three she-goats to a wandering hunter named Hans Pretorius, who, according to Bushman tradition, was the first Boer that ever crossed the Orange river.

This fact was corroborated in the following manner : In 1860 the locality above mentioned was visited by Mr. Jan Wessels, who saw the old Bushman captain there. Mr. Wessels had with him at the time a Bushman who had been a number of years in his service. This man was about sixty years of age, and also possessed a thick bushy beard and moustache. He was called Baardman the younger, and had always declared himself to be a son of the great Bushman captain Baardman, who had some fifty years before sold him to a Boer. Since that time he had never seen his father, but had always remained in the service of the Boers, one of whom he had accompanied to Natal.

Long as the intervening time had been since the parent and child had seen each other, the younger Baardman immediately recognised and pointed out his father, and went up and accosted him. So little had the old man aged, that there appeared to be hardly any difference between them. The meeting was a very cool one, and the son immediately upbraided his father, charged him with having sold him to the Boers, and demanded as a matter of right and justice the same number of ewe goats as his progenitor had obtained by selling him. After some altercation, the parent agreed to hand over to his descendant the spoil he had obtained for him. This was accordingly done, and they parted never to meet again.

The date of old Ow'ku'ru'keu's death is unrecorded ; but the son still continued, as he had always done before, whenever slightly elevated, to proclaim the extent of his father's former dominions, his numerous subjects, and the power which he possessed as one of the greatest Bushman captains of the 'Nu 'Gariep. In his later years' he added to his former declarations that as soon as he possessed the means he would go to Victoria and show her how unjustly he and his father had been dispossessed of their lands. He died about 1875 in Rouxville, at an advanced age, being last in the service of Mr. J . C. Chase, of that town ; and thus perished the last representative of the great chiefs of the Bushmen of the 'Nu 'Gariep.

Image

The Bushmen of the Genadeberg and the Mountains around Champagne.

The caves and fastnesses of these mountains formed the strongholds of a very powerful and numerous tribe, or rather group of tribes, as there were a number of outstations which were occupied by smaller clans, but who acknowledged the paramount authority of the chief of the great cave in Poshuli's Hoek. They for a long time maintained their independence, and kept the country round them clear of intruders. Beyond this bare fact, very few traditions have been preserved regarding them, with the exception of a disaster which befell them and the story of the final annihilation of their tribe.

The circumstances of the latter we shall detail when we speak of the Bushman struggle for existence ; the former, however, which forms a portion of their earlier history, occurred at the time when a number of emigrant Kaffirs belonging to the coast tribes attempted to settle in portions of the country afterwards taken possession of by some of the Bakuena clans. This was about 1806-12, when the latter were still north of the Intaba e Muthlope, or the Wittebergen of the Orange Free State. Upon these Kaffir intruders the Genadeberg Bushmen made a foray. They succeeded in capturing a number of cattle, and not only kept their pursuers at bay, but beat back the large body of Kaffirs that followed them. These, finding out the direction the Bushmen were likely to take, dispatched a party by short footpaths to waylay them near a nek on the farm now called Hoogeland.

Here they succeeded in concealing themselves among the reeds and grass on either side of the pass. The Bushmen, imagining that in defeating the body which had pursued them all chance of further danger was at an end, approached the spot just as evening was closing in, carelessly and with gleeful confidence driving their captured spoil before them. Before they were aware of it, however, the Kaffirs were upon them, and knowing that the Bushmen's arrows were nearly expended during the day's fight, rushed in upon them, dashing out their brains with knobkerries or clubs, before the latter, who were taken completely by surprise, had time to make any defence. Very few escaped, and the Kaffirs returned in triumph to their kraals with the recaptured cattle.

Image

The Bushmen of the ‘Kouwe (the Mountain) or Jammerberg.

This isolated range formed another of the great centres around which a considerable number of Bushman clans congregated ; but as usual, except the fact that they once existed, and that traces of many of their paintings are still to be found in its caves and rock-shelters, little has been preserved of their history.

The name of the last great or paramount chief was 'Co-ro-ko or 'Koroko, the uncle of 'Kou'ke. He was termed the chief of the 'Kouwe, or the Mountain. There were secondary chiefs under him : Palare, who occupied the caves in the ravine of the mountain near Ramanape's kraals, and Ma'khema, the chief of those in a deep gorge in the range towards the poort leading to Hermon mission station ; besides petty captains or the heads of detached caves. Another powerful Bushman captain, named Ma'kla, inhabited the Spitzkop in Basutoland, opposite Leeuw River.

'Kou'ke stated that all the men of these tribes were shot without mercy by the different commandos that came to attack them. When the writer was trying to persuade her and her husband to accompany him on his travels for a short time, that he might have an opportunity of learning more of their history, she said : "Do you see where the mountain comes down to the river ? " pointing to where its steep shoulder formed the left bank of the Caledon, in the Jammerberg Poort. " There," she continued, " were all the best of our tribe shot down ; there all our brave men's bones were left in a heap : my captain's, my brothers', and those of every friend that I had. Do you think I could live in the land of the men who did me that evil ? No ! not for a single night would I sleep on their accursed ground ! "

Her reasons were unanswerable. She departed, and the opportunity to obtain their unrecorded history was lost.

Image

The Bushmen of Makwatling or Koranaberg.

This grand old mountain with its table-topped precipitous crown, its steep and rocky gorges, afforded a home and secure retreat for a powerful group of tribes for unknown generations ; yet, notwithstanding this acknowledged fact, the writer when visiting the locality was unable to learn the name of a single one of their great chiefs. They were still, however, very numerous, and held possession of their caves up to the time of the last Free State and Basutu war.

At that time they were attacked by a commando under Commandants Fick and Dreyer, and although rifles, hand-grenades, and cannon were employed against them, — the marks of bullets and cannon shot are still to be seen round some of their shelters, attesting the vigour with which the siege was prosecuted, — they were able to keep their enemies at bay, and forced them to retire without dislodging them from their strongholds in the mountain. The besiegers, however, succeeded in killing a number of Bushmen who held advanced positions, although they defended themselves with desperation to the very last.

During these operations an incident occurred, which was related to the writer by a Korana who was an eye-witness of it, and which illustrates in a marked manner the intrepid daring so frequently displayed by men of the Bushman race. A large patrol had just returned to camp. It was towards evening, and having knee-haltered their horses, they turned them out to graze in the neighbourhood, at about one hundred yards distance.

Here, without the least indication of his presence, a solitary Bushman was lying concealed among the long grass, over which but a few minutes before the patrol must have ridden, but where he had well hidden himself beneath the spreading tuft with which he had disguised himself. He had evidently placed himself there to spy out the position and movements of the people in the camp.

Without being noticed, he worked himself among the horses, and after selecting one, fastened a thong of leather round one of its fore legs, and then by slowly moving along on his belly, he gradually led it off some short distance from the others, hoping by this means to get it sufficiently far to be able to mount it with impunity. After a time the owner of the horse, seeing what appeared to him to be his horse straying away, ran after it to turn it, shouting to it as he ran.

The horse, now becoming alarmed, struggled to free himself ; but the Bushman, still concealed, held on with a tenacious grip. The horse's terror increased, and struggling more fiercely, he sprang round and round, plunging and snorting, until at last with a more desperate effort than before he reared over, and with the sudden jerk swung the persistent Bushman into the air at the end of the thong, while the pursuing Boer was astonished at the apparition of a great tuft of grass with the arms, body, and legs of a Bushman attached, flying round as if in an infernal waltz with the maddened horse.

Seeing at last all chance of success had gone, the Bushman relinquished his hold, with a bound sped away like a racer, and before any alarm could be given placed a safer distance between himself and the camp of his enemies. Before disappearing, he turned to give a last look at those who were now in pursuit of him, and with upraised hand and bitter voice he cursed them as the destroyers and ruin of his country.

Upon the retreat of the commando, the Bushmen, after their dauntless resistance to the fearful odds brought against them, determined to abandon for ever the time-honoured strongholds of their forefathers. They evacuated them in a body, and withdrew unobserved and safely to the most rugged parts of the Malutis. Here some years afterwards they were again attacked, but on this occasion by the Baputi, under their chief Mogorosi, or as he was afterwards called, Morosi, and in the conflicts which ensued the tribe was annihilated. Most of the men were either shot or assagaied, whilst all the women and girls were made captive and became the wives or concubines of the victors.

Image

The Bushmen of Di-tse-thlong or Platberg on the Caledon.

These mountains seem to have formed a species of nucleus, around which a number of Bushman clans congregated, over whom one chief was acknowledged as paramount, although the subsidiary captains exercised a large amount of independent authority over their respective hordes. Upon all occasions affecting the common weal, or in times of public danger, they at once acted in union, submitting to the command of the great chief of the mountain.

The head or palace-cave of the Di-tse-thlong Bushmen was the great cavern among the domed rocks of the mountain opposite Tennant's Kop. Its walls were at one time covered with paintings, depicting the history of the aboriginal inhabitants of the mountain, their manners, and customs ; but these, alas ! have now been destroyed by the goats and cattle of the Basutu and the Boers, who have turned the ancestral abode of the Bushmen into a cattle and sheep kraal.

Image

The name of the last great Bushman captain of the mountain, who lived in this cave, was 'Kabasisi. The informant of the writer was a half-caste Mosutu belonging to the clan of the petty Basutu captain Ramanape. He stated that his grandfather, whose name was Rama'kale, was a solitary fugitive who sought refuge among these Bushmen long before any of the other Basutu were in this part of the country. 'Kabasisi not only gave him shelter, but also Sile'gou, his daughter, to wife. Rama'kale lived under this captain all his life, and all his children, among whom was the father of the narrator, were born in this cave. This was long before Moshesh's time, and when Bushmen alone occupied all the land.

The Bushman chief was very old at the time, and died a few years afterwards in a small cave in a neighbouring ravine. Many years after this, long after his father had grown up to manhood, and these Bushmen had acquired a few cattle, they were attacked by Moselekatze's people, when some of the inhabitants of the cave fell under the assagais of the invaders, and the remainder fled towards Kopje Alleen, in the great central plains towards the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal, where his grandfather died. His father afterwards returned to the old cave, and he and several other children were born there. Here they all remained in right of their father's descent until they were driven out by the Boers in the last Basutu war.

'Koroklou was the last great chief of the Bushmen of the Middle Veld, near Kopje Alleen. After many of them had been shot and their children seized and sold to the Boers as slaves, and the Boers themselves began to take possession of the land, he left the open country and sought refuge in the Jammerberg, where he was captured by the last commando sent against the Bushmen of the 'Kouwe, and carried to Bloemfontein, where he was kept as a kind of state prisoner on parole, and was still living there in 1877.

Image

The Bushmen of the 'Koesberg.

Traces of Bushman occupation are to be found on every side of this extensive mountain and its outlying branches. Several large caves and rock-shelters, such as those of Tienfontein Nek to the east, Knecht's Kloof on the south, and Brakfontein on the west, are illustrations of this. There were also several important caves under the precipices of the neighbouring Matlakeng, Moolman's Hoek, and other places, showing that at one time the whole of this part of the country was densely populated with Bushmen.

Some of the great caves were adorned with innumerable paintings, of which a number were of remarkable excellence, showing that the captains or chiefs to whom they belonged were men of considerable rank and importance. The banks of every watercourse and pool in the surrounding country were fringed with pitfalls. This was especially the case in Devenaar's Spruit, where the remains of them are still to be seen.

No record has been preserved of any paramount chief who asserted sway over the entire district, and from the evidence of the caves it would appear not improbable that there were several great chiefs ruling over groups of clans in different parts of it. One of these was the head of the clan which inhabited the rock-shelter on Tienfontein Nek, before they were driven to seek a securer shelter in the more rugged and nearly inaccessible fastnesses of the mountain.

This chief, on account of his determined daring, was known among the Dutch squatters by the name of Kwaai Stuurman. Little else has been preserved of his career. Several of the fertile valleys surrounding the mountain were seized upon by some emigrant Amaxosa Kaffirs, while fugitives from the north, of Basutu origin, appropriated others in the same unceremonious manner. Hence the seeds of discord were thickly sown around the ancient abodes of the primitive inhabitants. These rival races lived in a state of continual hostility ; stragglers and wayfarers were waylaid, robbed, and murdered.

During the early days of this Kaffir intrusion into the Bushman hunting grounds, a constant series of skirmishing and fighting, of robbery and murder, went on, not only with the Bushmen, the original inhabitants of the mountain, but between the petty robber chiefs who had located themselves in its vicinity. The law of might was the law of right, and no one retained his property longer than he had the power of defending it successfully. Any unhappy native, not allied to one or other of the swarthy bandits, who had the misfortune to possess a small herd of cattle, was sure sooner or later to fall a victim to the lawless rapine and violence that was rampant throughout the country.

As an example of this, a fugitive Fingo, who obtained the name of Knecht, established his kraal, by permission of the Bushman captain of the great cave in the precipitous glen of Knecht's Kloof — the cave of the White Hippopotamus — near the mouth of the ravine. He had not been long there, however, before he found his huts set on fire in the night and his cattle driven off by a party of these marauders, who, not satisfied with this, massacred the unfortunate Knecht and all his family in cold blood, as they attempted to escape, or threw them back into the flames to meet an equally terrible death. In the morning, when day broke, pools of blood and the charred ruins of the dwellings alone remained to mark the spot, and thus it was that the locality obtained the name of Knecht's Kloof.

Besides these there were several other Bushman tribes, such as those of the Mogokare and Bushmansberg, but, although almost every rock shelter contains the remains of their paintings, proving how numerous they must once have been, nothing has been preserved of their history except that most of them were shot down by the sons and grandsons of the men who were so active in the extermination of the Bushman hordes of the Karoo, the Tooverberg, and the Northern Plains.

Image

The Bushmen of the Upper Modder River and Rhenoster Spruit.

At one time a powerful tribe inhabited the ridges above the junction of these streams, near a place called Keerom. These Bushmen made a raid upon some of the Batlapin who had migrated towards the Vaal river. The latter determined not only to recapture the cattle, but to revenge themselves by following up and destroying the entire horde that had robbed them- A large party sent in pursuit of the Bushmen for this purpose arrived at the ravine in which their stronghold was situated.

Image

The Bushmen, however, were prepared for them. A few of these wily hunters, intended as a decoy, took up a conspicuous position at the head of it with some of the cattle ; the main body, however, had in the meantime thickly lined the rocks on either side of the gorge, where they were entirely hidden from the view of the advancing Kaffirs, while another strong party concealed themselves in the long grass around the mouth of the valley, and closed up its entrance as soon as the unsuspecting Kaffirs were sufficiently within the toils which had been laid for them.

It was not until they were well entangled in this cul-de-sac that they discovered, when too late, the manner in which they were entrapped. Assailed by flights of arrows from every side, in flank, in front, and rear, a panic seized them ; they made no attempt at defence or resistance, but merely in desperation cut away pieces of flesh from their bodies wherever the poisoned barbs fixed themselves. There was scarcely one of them who was not hit in several places, and many bled quickly to death from the ghastly wounds they thus inflicted upon themselves.

Only one or two of the entire party managed to burst through the encircling lines unscathed ; all the rest perished in the fatal glen. This desperate affair was remembered by the Bushmen as " the Battle of Blood," from the frightful quantity that was shed by the self immolation of their panic-stricken enemies. The informant of the writer was a youth at the time, and was within a mile or two of the spot when it occurred.

When first examining some of the Bushman paintings representing battle scenes between themselves and Kaffirs who had invaded their country, the quantity of blood flowing from the wounds appeared somewhat exaggerated ; but this the writer discovered from facts similar to that just related, was not the case, as it appears from all native evidence that the Kaffirs and Basutu in their encounters with the Bushmen were almost universally in the habit of excising the piece of flesh containing the poisoned barb of the arrow, cutting through without hesitation any vessels or sinews in the neighbourhood of the wound ; and thus numbers, in the desperate hope of saving their lives, inflicted such terrible wounds upon themselves that they bled to death before any effort could be made to stanch it.

Thus it was that whenever any combat took place, numbers of the Kaffir warriors were seen covered with streams of their own blood, while great pools of it were found every here and there saturating the ground, thus also proving that the observant Bushman artists were in this respect, as in many others, true to nature.

Image

The Bushmen of the Washbank and Wittebergen, Cape Colony.

Many caves are to be found in this mountainous region, several of them of immense size. In some of these the large amount of rock surface adapted for painting enabled the native artists to revel in the exhibition of their talent. Thousands of groups once adorned their walls, which have been since their expulsion wantonly defaced by the so-called civilised intruders, There is every evidence that at one time densely populated centres were sprinkled through the whole of these mountain glens, where, whilst the tribes remained in their undisturbed state, both game and fish abounded. This was notably the case in the valleys of the Washbank, along the tortuous and precipitous course of the Kraai river and its branches, in New England and the present district of Herschel.

But if the extent and number of the caves and paintings contained in them make known the numerous clans which once occupied these picturesque glens, and the surprising degree of excellence at which some of their leading artists arrived, so also do these spots proclaim in an equally unmistakable manner the tragic fate which befell their former inhabitants ; they tell us but too plainly of the infernal storm of lead which was poured in upon them by their vindictive and remorseless pursuers.

The sides of the great cave of the White Rhinoceros and Serpent, in a rocky ravine on the right bank of the Washbank Spruit, are so thickly bespattered with hundreds of the bullet marks of their assailants, that one could almost write an account of its siege and point out where in their desperate struggle the intrepid defenders were forced back from point to point, where they from time to time turned at bay in their attempts to keep back their enemies, and where, behind a great heap of piled rocks at the end of the cave, they turned for the last time, overpowered but unsubdued, and resolutely continued the conflict until the shout and the turmoil closed with the final discharge of the echoing musketry, in the silence of death.

It was considered that when a Boer or Mosutu, armed only with the old-fashioned flint firelock, met a Bushman in single combat, his chance of success, or even of escape, was not very great. In such a case there was no possibility of obtaining a steady aim, as the Bushman always kept in a state of rapid movement, jumping and springing from side to side, now here, now there, in a most uncertain manner, but always advancing, and as soon as a ball was fired at him, knowing that his opponent's gun was empty, he ran in upon him and shot him, almost at close quarters. One Boer, however, is said to have possessed such coolness that when he found himself face to face with a Bushman, he drew his ramrod, and with surprising dexterity was able to parry every shaft that was sent at him, until he came within a few paces, when no chance of a mis-shot could exist.

In the attacks of the Boer commandos upon the Bushman caves, some of the most daring of the invading force would advance upon the stronghold, under cover of rudely extemporised shields, such as a few thick branches plaited together, or one of their great duffel coats, such as were then in fashion with them, or else a closely woven Kaffir mat.

Image

Their mode of attack used to be as follows : three or four of their best marksmen were told off, who took up the most commanding position they could obtain, in order to cover the advance of the storming party, when the greater part of the force kept up a continuous fire from a more respectful distance.

Thick branches were obtained, where available, and plaited in such a way that the arrows became entangled in them or glanced off ; when these were not to be had, their great duffel coats were stretched on two cross sticks, one of which was thrust through the sleeves, thus keeping them extended as widely as possible ; arrows striking these would drive their points into the thick material of which they were composed, and then hang harmlessly. Such a shield, which gave shelter to a couple of men, would frequently be struck twenty or thirty times during the advance.

Where Kaffir mats were employed, a large one was extended upon sticks, and carried carefully forward, while several marksmen advanced under the cover. In this case, owing to the pliancy of the rushes of which the mat was made, most of the arrows rebounded on the outer side ; a few would occasionally penetrate the shield, but it was a rare occurrence that one burst through with sufficient force to do any harm.

An advance of this kind, over the rugged ground that had generally to be traversed, was one which was not only made with great caution, but considerable slowness also. In the meantime, when any of the Bushmen exposed themselves too much in taking aim at their advancing enemies, they generally fell under the bullets of those who had been told off for the express purpose.

But even with all their precaution, the attack sometimes ended in the confusion and flight of the Boers. When successful, however, the slow advance continued until the Bushmen's arrows were expended ; then, when they were no longer able to defend themselves for want of weapons, a rush was made, and they were shot down indiscriminately, some of the women and children occasionally escaping or being made captives.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:39 am, edited 3 times in total.
VED
Posts: 4734
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:32 am
Contact:

11

Post posted by VED »

11 #
THE BUSHMEN OF THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF THE CAPE COLONY


Under this title we shall notice the groups along the more northern portion of the eastern frontier, of which any recollection has been preserved. We have already mentioned those of the Bamboesberg and the Tarka and the old Tambuki tribe of Bushmen which once occupied the valley of the Tsomo and the land farther to the eastward ; those of the Great Winterberg and the Konap we shall have occasion to treat of in a later portion of our investigation.

Most of the names of the great captains of these tribes, who were certainly the patriotic defenders of their country, have long since been lost sight of. Even in the traditions which have survived of a few, most of them are known only by the names given to them by the Boers, and the writer could only discover two or three whose native names have been preserved.

One of the former class was Lynx, the chief of the Bamboesberg. Another was Koegel-man, alias Koegel-been, who had his headquarters among the rocky ledges of a hill in the Queenstown district, now named Koegel-been's Kop after him ; and it was in defending this stronghold that he received the wound — a bullet lodging in his leg, from which it could not be extracted — which gave him the name he subsequently bore. Little is now known of him, except that he offered a desperate resistance to the Abatembu and Boers who invaded his country.

Another captain who rendered himself conspicuous was called Windvogel. He was chief of the Bushmen around the mountain which was named Windvogelberg after him, in the same district. His territory extended from the Wa'cu, or Wa-'ku, to the Thorn river on the Bontebok flats.

Of the numerous and powerful tribes which once inhabited the Stormberg and neighbouring ranges, the writer was not able to discover the trace of a single name having survived, although in their day they were as determined and daring in their resistance to the encroachments of the stronger races as their co-patriots who were spread over the territory now forming the Free State and the basin of the Orange river and its tributaries, with regard to whom a number of traditions might be obtained, could some of the ancient survivors be questioned upon the subject.

Mada'kane, one whose native name has escaped oblivion, was chief of the Bushman tribe inhabiting the country from the Zwart Kei Poort below Tylden to the Gwatyu and Indwe, and along the valley of the 'Neiba, or Lower Zwart Kei, to a little below its junction with the 'Ca'cadu or White Kei. This and the one under Madura, of which we shall speak presently, were considered to be, at one time, the most powerful tribes in this part of South Africa.

Image

The last retreat and stronghold of Mada'kane was in an almost inaccessible glen, still bearing his name, about the junction of the two Keis. The surrounding country is of the most difficult character. One footpath leading to it, along which the writer rode when he visited the spot in 1869, was along a kind of elevated backbone, nearly half a mile long and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards in width, above a precipice of some five hundred feet on the one hand, while one, of at least eight hundred feet, with the 'Neiba rushing over the rocks at its foot, was on the other.

An old brother of Mada'kane, with two of his wives and their children, and one or two followers, still hid themselves among the precipices, and although several messengers were sent to them, nothing would induce the old man to grant the visitor an interview. One of his excuses was that if he did so, the man in the leather jacket (the writer), who visited all their houses and copied their paintings, would be asking him questions, when the questioner would become as wise as himself.

The resident Kaffirs of these deep glens were, to add to the difficulties of the journey, angry with the writer's Kaffir guides for bringing a white man to examine the secret recesses of their fastnesses, which they termed their hidden war-paths, that during the wars of 1835, 1846, and 1850 had afforded a secure retreat for all their women, children, and captured cattle, and that no colonial force had ever attempted to enter, declaring that the writer was the first European who had ventured to penetrate so far into this mysterious region.

Every obstacle was thrown in the way of the exploring party, almost impassable roads were pointed out to them. They had to camp out under a rock-shelter, the sides of which were barricaded with fallen trees, and lest the horses should be seized in the night by the irate natives, who had threatened to dismount the unwelcome intruders, they were securely fastened.

Two great fires were made in front, and with the aid of a watchful and faithful dog, which had fortunately accompanied them, they passed the night without further molestation, although the loud voices of the Kaffirs in a kraal, about a quarter of a mile distant, were heard the greater part of it. Early the next morning they were again in the saddle, and after climbing, and occasionally driving the horses in front of them for several hours, they arrived at Mada'kane's last retreat. Here he died, amid his native rocky glens, but whether of wounds or of old age, as he must have been a very old man at the time, the writer was not able to learn.

His brother 'Gcu-wa, the old Bushman already mentioned, was the painter of the family, and in 1869 still carried two or three of his horn paint-pots swung at his belt. He was the artist who painted the representation of a Boer commando, which adorned the wall of his brother's rock-shelter, and it was said that it was intended to commemorate the first attack the Boers ever made upon their tribe.

The palace cave of the Python, on the bank of the 'Neiba, belonged to a minor chief named Madolo, who acknowledged the supremacy of Mada'kane. Madolo was a name given to this chief by the invading Kaffirs, and signified Knees. Up to the last days of the undisturbed rule of the Bushmen, all the deep pools of the surrounding rivers swarmed with hippopotami. The Kaffirs not only drove out the greater number of the Bushmen from the more open country, but soon exterminated the great pachyderms which had lived in the rivers.

The last hippopotamus of the 'Neiba was killed in the large pool opposite Madolo's cave. The once powerful and formidable tribe of Mada'kane, attacked on the one hand by the intruding Abatembu and Amaxosa Kaffirs, and subsequently by Boer commandos on the other, was at last reduced to a miserable remnant, consisting of the old man 'Gcu-wa, the brother of Mada'kane, a younger man, a nephew of the same chief, three women, and about five little children.

These unfortunates never ventured into the open country, but always remained in the wildest parts of the river valleys, migrating from spot to spot, according to the seasons, sustaining a precarious subsistence by eel-fishing, digging roots, and obtaining honey from the various krantz nests, inaccessible to any men less nimble than themselves.

Even after they had been conquered and nearly destroyed by the intruding Kaffirs, the survivors looked upon these rock nests as their peculiar and rightful property, and not only jealously guarded any interference with them, but promptly revenged themselves upon the kraals of those who were suspected of tampering with their contents. So certain was retaliation to follow any such misdemeanour that the Kaffirs at last looked upon these nests with considerable dread, and would neither touch them themselves nor allow any one else to do so upon any pretext whatever.

Madura, or Madoor as he was styled by the colonists, to whom we have before alluded, was the chief of the second powerful tribe living on this portion of the border. He was the great chief of the Bushman clans in the country around the Klipplaats and Upper Zwart Kei rivers. His great cave was originally a few miles from the present village of Whittlesea, in the Division of Queenstown.

Here he was living when he was visited by Dr. Van der Kemp ; and there was at one time a painting in it, which Madura used to state was the likeness of this zealous but eccentric missionary. It had the figure of a 'Nadro close behind it, looking very much like the mediaeval conception of the devil, which made some of the colonists believe that Madura's artist had attempted to depict not only the worthy missionary, but also the evil being whom he had attempted to introduce to their notice.

Image

About the time of, or shortly after, the Kaffir war of 1835 he retired from the more immediate border, and located himself near the spot afterwards called Bushman school, near Glen Grey, in the same division. Here, about 1839, a mission was established, and hence the name of Bushman school. When visited by Mr. Backhouse, he said that he had been brought up among the mountains, that he had not seen his mother for a long time, although he hoped that she was still living, if she had not been devoured by the great serpent, or by the tigers of the mountains.

That the reptile to which Madura alluded was not a mythical idea of the native mind is certain, and it is equally certain that at no distant period pythons of considerable size were not uncommon in the valley of the 'Neiba, or Zwart Kei, as is proved not only by the traditions of the natives respecting them, but by the accurate Bushman drawing in the cave of the Python ; and as a coincidence there is a representation of this great serpent, some seven feet long, in one of Madura's rock-shelters on the Klipplaats.

The great serpent spoken of by the natives of South Africa is supposed by some to have been extinct in the Cape Colony for a long period, but thirty or forty years ago the Kaffirs declared that it was then to be met with in some of the rocky and woody glens towards the coast, and in 1849 the writer himself saw one some seven or eight miles from Grahamstown, near Broekhuisen's Poort, which was from fifteen to eighteen feet in length, and much thicker than a man's arm. There are several other well-authenticated instances of this reptile having been met with since 1820, the date of the arrival of the British settlers.

Not only had the Kaffirs of the coast tribes a superstitious reverence for it, allowing no one to kill it under pain of death, but some of the old Hottentots also imagined that it possessed miraculous and magic powers.

In 1849 Madura's station consisted of a few huts and a small chapel. In the war of 1846 he took part with the government against the Abatembu and Amaxosa Kaffirs. In 1849 he had still about three hundred men under his jurisdiction, including Bushmen, Hottentots, Fingos, and several others who had fled to him for an asylum from adjacent tribes, on account of charges of witchcraft brought against them by their own people. There were still occasional invasions and occupations of his country by the tribes in his vicinity, for the sake of the grass and water found there. He then appeared to be about sixty years of age, and would consequently have been born about 1789. His people all cut off the first joint of the third finger of the right hand.

The regulations enforced upon this chief certainly tended, in no inconsiderable degree, to accelerate the extinction of his tribe, and to prevent, by the imposition of a most unreasonable impost, any chance of their improvement.

His country was proclaimed to be within the bounds of the Cape Colony. He pleaded that the land belonged to his forefathers, and that the Tembus were intruders who had forcibly taken possession of a large portion of it. His remonstrances were unavailing, his country was absorbed, without the slightest reservation being made for the ancient owners, and instead of encouragement to induce them to settle down to the peaceful occupations of quiet citizens, a demand of one pound a year was made upon the head of each family as a quitrent !

They were not a conquered people, they were living in a country which, as Madura said, had belonged to Bushmen from time immemorial. They had not made war upon the Colony as the frontier tribes of Kaffirs had done, on the contrary they had done good service in defence of colonial territory and in retaking cattle and other stock which had been captured by the enemy, and now they were rewarded for those services, in what way let the old chief Madura describe.

He said the land was the land of his fathers, and that now, although he and his people had served the government for three years, they were told they must pay for living upon it ! Where was the money to come from ?

Such a thing, if forced upon them, must entirely ruin them. These reasonable representations met with no response, and this wrong certainly formed the first step towards the final expulsion of himself and his people from a territory which had descended to them from their remote ancestors. Madura's case appears a particularly hard one. A demand was made, for the miserable allotment of land marked out for himself and his followers, of a sum which was equivalent to three hundred pounds per annum, being at the rate of one pound for each of his male followers. Had the same quantity of land been granted to a farmer, the sum would not have exceeded fifty pounds.

About the time of the Kaffir war of 1850 he retreated from the Glen Grey portion of the country to a great cave on the banks of the 'Ca'cadu or White Kei, opposite the site of the present St. Mark's mission station. It might well have been termed the cave of the Springbok, from its symbolic painting, which consisted of a troop of about one hundred and fifty beautifully painted springboks. Here he was living when Archdeacon White established the mission at St. Mark's. In 1856, when the chief was about eighty years old, he again fell back with the shattered wreck of his once powerful tribe towards the fastnesses of the Drakensberg, since which time he has been lost sight of, and his ultimate fate is buried in oblivion.

Image

The Bushmen of the Zuurveld.

Before the first Dutch elephant hunters crossed the mountains that bound the long kloof, the inhabitants of the tract of country which they called the Zuurveld were numerous Bushman tribes, a number of clans of a mixed race called Ghonaqua, whose various sections showed different grades of intermixture according as the Kaffir, Hottentot, or Bushman element predominated, and a few straggling parties of fugitive Kaffirs, who seemed generally to fraternize with one or other of the different hordes of Ghonaquas. As we proceed with our investigation these points will be made perfectly clear, especially when we treat of the eastern advance of the early Dutch settlers, when we shall be able to clear up the mystery of the origin of the Ghonaquas.

Image

All the travellers of the last century are unanimous in stating that after passing the Gamtoos no other people were met with than Bushmen, Ghonaqua, and wandering or emigrant Kaffirs. If numerous Hottentot tribes ever existed there they had certainly most mysteriously disappeared before these travellers visited the country, without the aid of either Dutch oppression on the one hand or Kaffir intrusion on the other. Lieutenant Paterson, who travelled through it in 1779, is explicit on the subject, as he informs us that the Zuurveld was then called Bushmanland.

He says that when at the Zwartkops, he was overtaken by a Boer, an old German named Kock, who was on his way to this portion of Bushmanland, and who was well acquainted with the country and the manners of the natives. He therefore became a welcome companion, as the place where he lived lay in their way. Near the Koega they were visited by two Kaffirs, who very seldom ventured so far out of their own country.

Image

Several Boers had already in 1779 squatted near the Sunday river ; they were possessed of numerous herds of cattle, but seldom troubled themselves either to build houses or cultivate land. Jan Kock lived on a place called Sand Flat. This was then a portion of Bushmanland.

When Sparrman travelled through the country a few years previously, no Boers had attempted to settle in it, with the exception of one Gert Scheepers, who had located himself on the site of the present town of Uitenhage. The only Europeans who then visited it came for the ostensible purpose of elephant hunting, and also, according to the evidence obtained by Sparrman, to indulge in their old and favourite amusement of kidnapping Bushman children whenever a favourable opportunity offered.

Thus at the Lower Sunday river, or t'Nuka-t’Kamma, i.e. Grassy Water, three old Bushmen came to visit the travellers ; they distinguished themselves by the name " good Bushmen," probably from the circumstance of their grazing a few cattle and not living by rapine like others of their countrymen. They complained of the Boers having been with them, and having carried off all their young people, so that now they were left alone in their old age to look after themselves and their cattle. Sparrman also tells us that when other food failed these Zuurveld Bushmen, they lived on the gum arable from the mimosa for many days together.

In those days all the rivers and other watering places had Bushman names. Pitfalls excavated by them were frequently met with, while Sparrman procured Bushman guides at t'Nuka t 'Kamma to take him through the country. He gives us a number of names of various localities now known only by their modem colonial designations ; thus, 'Kensi 'kunni aati (let not the ugly drink here !) was that of the Little Bushman's river.

After passing the Bushman's river, they came to Muishond Kloof, near which was a valley with good water called t’Kur- t’keija-t’kei-t’kasibina ; leaving Assagai Bush and crossing Nieuwjaars Drift, they came to t’Kurekoi-t'Ku ; two hours from this they arrived at 'Quamma’ dacka, then passed the Little Fish river, and afterwards the t’Kau t'kay or Great Fish river.

The Zuurveld Bushmen in Sparrman's time appear from some cause to have congregated along the course of this last river, and especially towards its mouth, or the portion now called Lower Albany ; and thus formed a cordon of so formidable a character that the Kaffirs for a considerable time could not break through it in any large numbers. The gathering along this particular line may have been occasioned by a desire to remove as far as possible from the Boers on the west, with their kidnapping propensities, and from the Kaffirs, who were steadily crossing the Kei and occupying the country between that river and the Keiskama.

The last Bushman captain who ruled over this portion of the country was named 'Kohla, who was termed by the colonists Ruyter. In 1775 he had his great kraal near the mouth of the Great Fish river. Sparrman during his visit was able to collect a considerable amount of information about him, from which we are able to extract the following outline of the history of this chief. What his fathers were, whether he was one of their hereditary chiefs or a patriot leader who rose by his own energy and enterprise, is now lost, none of his earlier history having been recorded.

He was at one time in the service of a farmer in the Roggeveld, where, having a quarrel with a companion, he killed him, and then, apprehensive of the consequences, as according to the laws of the colony his certain fate would be the gallows, he fled from justice.

After a variety of adventures he arrived at length in the country near the Bushman's river. His principal home there-after was between this river and the t’Kau-t’Kay, or Great Fish river. Here, by his intrepidity, he was raised to the chieftainship of a horde of Bushmen. The cave paintings near Salem are probably the productions of the artists of this tribe. At the head of these people he subdued several other tribes, and afterwards made them take arms against the Kaffirs. He inspired his adherents with such confidence in his leadership that they never questioned any order which he issued, while the conquests he made supplied them with plunder.

The respective methods of fighting of the Kaffirs and Bushmen differed considerably. The Kaffirs used assagais, which they could not employ with any certain effect at a greater distance than twenty or thirty paces. Of these weapons they did not carry into the field more than three or four, so that they were soon disarmed in case their antagonists were bold and nimble enough to pick up these weapons as soon as the Kaffirs had hurled them.

Image

They used a shield of ox hide large enough to cover their bodies completely, on shrinking themselves into a smaller compass. When they were in actual engagement they shifted their bodies continually from one side to the other, so that they could not easily be hit, taking care all the time to keep their assagais in readiness to throw at any unguarded part of their antagonists.

The Bushmen, on the other hand, who were without shields, were more than a match for the Kaffirs in the open country as long as they could keep at a good distance by reason of their bows and poisoned arrows, which, although they did not immediately make so painful a wound as the assagai, were more dangerous in the end, and it was in consequence of this circumstance that 'Kohla's Bushmen beat the Kaffirs for so long a time.

While his daring rendered him formidable to the Kaffirs, he took care, by inflicting the punishment of death on his subjects for the least fault, or even on the suspicion of a fault, to exact, and for a considerable period to enjoy, the most servile submission and implicit obedience from the simple uncultivated mortals he had gathered together. He used frequently with his own hand to put to death one or more of these slavish vassals, and would immediately throw his javelin through the body of any of his attendants that hesitated, at his nod, to dispatch the man whom he had marked out as the victim of his revengeful and cruel disposition.

When the Christians reproached him with his barbarity and bloodthirstiness, he replied, " It was in a lucky hour when I conveyed myself out of your authority. You would have hanged me for having killed an antagonist, as if I had committed a crime, whereas to kill an enemy is reckoned a laudable and manly action."

To the colonists he always behaved as a true and faithful ally, and in return for the tobacco and other articles which they presented to him, used to help them to make slaves of such straggling Bushmen as did not live under his jurisdiction. By keeping the Kaffirs at a proper distance, he not only served his own turn, but was likewise extremely useful to the colonists. But, however cautious he was to maintain peace with his more powerful neighbours the Christians, yet when he was in the meridian of life and at the zenith of his power he received them with an uncommon degree of pride and arrogance, which they could not easily brook from a man they looked upon as a vagabond. He succeeded, however, in keeping up his importance with them as well as with his own people for many years.

But ultimately the despotic conduct and daring that had been the stepping stones by which he had made himself so famous and for some time so powerful and so much feared, led to his downfall. His subjects, weary of the ambition and severe discipline of their chief, took an opportunity of deserting him at a time when he was gallantly marching at their head against the Kaffirs. He was deserted almost in the very face of his enemies.

Being no longer so swift of foot as he had been in his youth, he was not able to make his escape, and was consequently taken prisoner, but being recognised as a chief, his life, according to Kaffir custom, was spared, and he was sent back to his people, yet not without menaces of having his eyes put out if he should rise against them in arms in future.

This misfortune and the salutary lesson given to him by his enemies were not so efficacious however as to divert his hostile intentions against the Kaffirs, as soon as he had collected together a number of his people. The recollection of the days of his former victories, when he had pushed his attacks upon them to the east- ward of the 'Kaisi-kamma, still inspired him. In 1776 he endeavoured to incite another petty Bushman chief against them, and had received from him promises of assistance as soon as he could get iron to head his arrows with and make the other necessary preparations.

Notwithstanding this proof of his indomitable resolution, many were apprehensive, and not without reason, that the old warrior and tyrant would meet his death in this expedition, which, tired of himself and his adverse fortune, he seemed to be in search of.

The tract of country situated near the mouth of the t’Kau- t'kay, or Great Fish river, was the situation which he preferred for his principal residence. In 1776, at the time of Sparrman's visit, he was old and infirm, and barely a director of some two hundred people. He was wont, at this time, to receive his Christian acquaintances in the most friendly manner, and with tears in his eyes to ask for tobacco, no longer by way of tribute, but as a present which he was willing to receive from their bounty.

In 1779 the old Bushman chief had fallen back from the advanced position he held near the mouth of the Great Fish river, in Sparrman's time, to near the Bushman's river, where Paterson found him. The fire of the old warrior was not yet altogether extinguished, he had still some two hundred Bushmen and Kaffirs in his service, and a few hours before Paterson's arrival he had fought against a number of Kaffirs, beaten them off the field, and taken a number of their cattle. The exact date of his death is not known.

According to custom he had appointed the youngest of his three sons to be heir to his possessions and chieftainship. None of them, however, inherited the father's talents and abilities in a sufficient degree to enable him to establish himself in the succession at his father's death.

In 1813 Mr. Campbell was visited during his stay at Bethelsdorp by Benedictus Platje Ruyter, who said that he lived a day's journey off. He was dressed in a short blue jacket and white trousers, and had a white lace epaulette on his right shoulder. He held in his hand a formidable staff, about six feet long, with a brass head on which were His Majesty's arms, presented to him by Government. He said that all that country and also the Zuurveld belonged to his grandfather, but they had been deprived of it by the Boers and Kaffirs. He complained bitterly also of the Boers for the cruelties they had perpetrated upon his countrymen.

Image

The decline of the power of the Bushman chief 'Kohla most decidedly marks an epoch in South African history with regard to the intrusion of the stronger races. With all his faults, he must ever be looked upon as the last great chief of the Coast Bushmen, the one who made the last expiring effort to maintain the independence of his race in that part of the ancient hunting grounds of his forefathers which bordered on the sea-coast ; and his name, as a consequence, is worthy of preservation in the history of the country.

True, he was a savage ; true, he committed many atrocities and lavishly shed the blood of his own people ; but for a time he strenuously endeavoured, and successfully, to beat back the wave of barbarism which on several occasions, since he gave up the struggle, has threatened to sweep the entire country from the Umzimvubu to the Cape. It was only when he disappeared from the scene that another and more terrible feature was given to the struggle which followed.

It was no longer a struggle between the advancing Kaffirs and the repelling Bushmen, for the latter, at least those of the Zuurveld, were numbered among the men of the past. The two great rival races, the black and the white, met for the first time in that portion of South Africa face to face, and from that moment it became, with little intermission, a continuous struggle between the bullet and the assagai, which even in the present day is not decided.

Along the coast the Bushmen were crushed ; and the Kaffir clans, after one or two weak and unsuccessful attempts to penetrate to the north-west, in the direction of De Bruyn's Hoogte, poured over the Great Fish river, when the Zuurveld became for upwards of a generation the battle-ground of the two intruding races. By some it has been asserted that the country above described was a portion of the possessions of the Hottentot race from time immemorial. This assertion is purely mythical. The Hottentot was not an aborigine.

It is true that broken tribes of them were found scattered through many parts of the eastern districts at the commencement of the present century, when they were first visited by missionaries, but they were driven there by the emigrant Boers. It is also true that a considerable number of them, who had managed to evade the thraldom of their hard taskmasters, were roaming over some portions of the country towards the close of the last century, leading the same kind of unsettled, nomadic, life as they and their forefathers had before done in the western districts, and as was their wont, not only plundering one another when occasion offered and making depredations upon the Dutch colonists who were gradually filling up the country and obtaining farms by the usual method of self- appropriation, but also making raids upon such of the Kaffirs as they thought they might be able to relieve of a few head of cattle with the least risk to themselves.

That the Hottentots were treated with great cruelty by many of the old colonists few will be prepared to deny, outrage begat outrage, and atrocity atrocity, but on the other hand many abhorred the treatment which these miserable people received, and did what was in their power to ameliorate the condition of compulsory servitude to which all those who lived within the pale of the law were reduced. It was thus that a considerable exodus of them occurred as soon as a door of escape was opened for them, but this was not until after the Bushmen of the Long Kloof mountains were subdued, many clans of them exterminated, and the remnant enslaved.

In 1775 Kabeljauw river was the last place to the eastward where Christians were permanently established, near the Gamtoos was a small kraal of natives under a captain named 'Kees ; but it seems open to question whether these were of pure Hottentot blood or not. In 1776 a small society of Gunjeman Hottentots was found on the Zwartkops, either on or in the immediate neighbourhood of the farm of Gert Scheepers.

The ancestors of these Hottentots at the time the Dutch first invaded this part of the continent inhabited the tract of country about Table Bay, and therefore in all probability were nearly connected with the 'Koraquas, the progenitors of the present Koranas. They were without any chief or captain, and lived on friendly terms with the farmer and most likely were in a state of semi-vassalage under him.

From this point to the banks of the t'Kau-t'Kay, or Fish river, as before pointed out, there were a few scattered kraals of Ghonaqua and Bushmen, and thus it seems certain that in the middle of last century no large Hottentot tribes existed in the country. Had this been the case, such close and accurate observers as Sparrman, who passed through it twice, and Paterson, who followed him, would doubtlessly have recorded the fact.

In favour of an earlier Hottentot occupation, it has been advanced that these natives make a sort of general declaration that the country was theirs. Such claims were afterwards set up for Waterboer, Moshesh, and others, to the exclusion of the aboriginal Bushman owners. Another argument brought forward has been that some of the leading captains being able to trace their lineage back several generations, they have been in possession of the land they occupy for at least that length of time.

The same reasoning has been adopted by some writers with regard to the proprietorship of areas of country occupied by some of the Kaffir and Basutu chiefs, but to state that because a man has a lengthened pedigree his remotest known ancestors must have been the owners of the soil occupied by him is an absurdity too transparent to need serious refutation. The writer, when he first entered upon this enquiry thirty years ago, never met an old Hottentot who did not assert that his forefathers came from the west, or the Cape.

In the year 1776 Baron Van Plettenberg, governor of the Cape Settlement, rescinded the order forbidding the inhabitants settling in portions of the country east of the Kabeljauw, and several Boers in consequence removed to the Sunday river in order to settle there, while some farmers trekked with their wives, children, and cattle into the 'Krake-kamma, on account of the government having given them permission to do so. Thus it was that the two streams of migration were already commencing to overlap. A small kraal of Kaffirs, the forerunners of the great host which was to follow, had even at this early stage penetrated as far to the west as the Zwartkops, and established themselves a short distance from Gert Scheepers.

The elements of future strife were therefore gathering, which at no distant period were to burst into a flame, whose violence caused for many years an immense amount of misery and suffering.

Image
Last edited by VED on Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:42 am, edited 4 times in total.
VED
Posts: