Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-08
TYPES OF PREHISTORIC MAN.
Tribes OF Cave-Dwellers and Lake.
Dwellers Still in Existence.

From the New York Sun.
Anthropologists are finding here and there
peoples that seem to reproduce almost exactly
the cave-men and lake-dwellers Of prehistoric
times. whose remains have caused so much dis
cussion. The tribes which are thought to have
best preserved the phases of life that belonged
to primitive man particularly interest all stu
dents Of mankind, and the opportunities for
observing them are constantly increasing.
When Col Grant was descending the Nile
from Victoria Nyanza, q native, who had trav-
elled far, told him that hundreds of miles south
west of the lake, in Katangs, the great copper
country, he had seen caves SO high that from a
camels back he could not have touched their
roofs with spear. One of them, he said, was
400 yards wide, and he penetrated it from sun
rise till noon. emerging at last on the other side
OF the mountain. No credence was given this
story until Mr.. Arnot, who returned from the
katanga country while ago, said that he had
seen these caves and the people who inhabit
them. 1t is to be regretted that his work in
other directions prevented him from thoroughly
studying these remarkable Sombwe caves and
their tenants. but he promises upon his return
next spring to make them the object of care
full research.
The mountain range where these caves are
found is about 400 miles northwest of Lake
Bangweolo. On the precipitous south face of
here and there, dotted like rabbit warrens over
the front THE range. These are the entrances
to the caves, and Arnot was astonished by their
large number. One cave, he says, has two en-
frances, the distance between the openings be-
ing miles. In some caves there are streams of
running water. The walls have the appearance
OF Pumice stone, and limestone strata were also
found. In the caves and around their mouths
live thousands of natives. They till their mill
let fields in front of their subterranean homes,
o fhatr anA <hnx, No.
found them wild but peace-loving people
Living in the heart of the great country ruled
by Msidi, the most powerful potentate west of
the great lakes since the decline of the Muata
Yanyo, they are the only people from whom he
has been unable to extOrt tribute. They will
not fight unless they are brought to bay, but
upon the approach of an enemy they retire to
their caves, where they can live for months as
no one dares to follow them into the recesses
of these vast and intricate passages Arnot
won their hearts by killing two hippopotami
and twenty antelopes and inviting them to
feast. He gave $50 of them all they could eat
for seven days, and when his guests left him
they took to their caves all the meat they could
carry. He hopes to spend q long time with
them when he returns in a few months to
Garenganze.
Nowhere in Africa have the cave dwellers
been adequately studied. The information
concerning them that will vet be obtained will
be among the most interesting results of future
exploration. Joseph Thomson was able to stay
only day or two among the large number of
caves at the base of Mount Elgon, northeast of
Victoria Nyanza, which he found occupied by
whole tribes. These are artificial caves, cut
into the compact volcanic rock. and SO large
that not only the natives but their herds of
cattle are sheltered in them. They were exca-
waited perhaps centuries ago, and their present
occupants have no traditions as to their origin.
The imperfectly known Bushnen. the dwarfs
OF the kalahari waste in South Africa. find
their favorite abode in natural caves and under
the shelter of lodges of over-hanging rocks
1t was not known until recently how great
is the number of people whose homes find
their prototype in the lake dwellings of pre-
historic times. For hundred of miles along
the south and east coasts of New Guinea, in
many sheltered inlet and bay, are large
villages. numbering sometimes a hundred
huts or more. built on piles in the water and
accessible &C, from the shore only by canoes.
Thus like prehistoric man they guard their
homes against sudden surprise. Cameron in
troduced us to picturesque Lake Mohrya in
Central Africa and the large collection of
huts raised high on stills above its placid
surface. The tenants of these lake dwellings
till their fields on shore, retiring when night
comes or danger threatens to the security of
their lake huts. Young discovered hundreds
OF natives living in the edge of the great Lake
Nyassa, and reproducing phases of life that are
thought to be identical with those of the an
Gent Swiss lake dwellers But not until long
after these discoveries were made was it known
that probably hundreds of thousands of Afri-
cans moor canoes under their huts and reach
the rude floor above by means of ladders.
Along many of the Congo southern and north
ern Zambesi tributaries these villages built on
piles are seen by scores Not few tribes build
their houses on marshy and overfowed land to
render their Villages difficult to approach. Many
other tribes, particularly along the Congo
tributaries, inhabit lands that are subject to
periodical inundations, and they sensibly raise
their gable-rOOfed cabins several feet ahova
high-water mark to keep out of the wet.
An explorer on the Bussera river recently
found some strange photographic notions pre-
vailing among the inhabitants. tribe which
received him in a friendly spirit when he as
cended the river greeted him with arrows upon
his return. They told him that high water had
come very unseasonably since they last saw
him, and he was undoubtedly the cause of it:
and though he invited attention to the fact
that it had been raining necessarily, nothing
could alter their conviction that he had added
several feet to the average level Of their river.
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