The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-08-13
THE SOUTH AFRICANS
THE THREE NATIVE RACES THAT IN
HABIT THE COUNTRY.

The Bushmen, the Uottentots and the
Bantus Kafilrs These Last Are Much
Above the Level of the Others Physical
Iy and In All Respects.
When the Dntch fixed their first post
at Cape Town i'm 1862, with no thought
either Of colonization or of conquest,
but for the sake of having gardens which
could supply fresh vegetables to the
scurvy stricken crews of their ships sail
ing to the east, they found three native
races inhabiting the country. One of
these, the Bushmen, though few in
numbers, were widely scattered over
the whole of South Africa. They were
nomads Of almost the lowest kind, with
a marvellous faculty for tracking and
trapping wild animals, but neither
owning cattle nor tilling the soil, with
scarcely even a tribal organization, no
religion and language consisting of
succession of clicks Unable to accus-
tom themselves to civilized life. driven
out of some districts by the settlers and
in others no longer able to find support
owing to the extinction of game, they
are now almost extinct, though few
are still left in the deserts of the Kala-
hari and northern Bechuanaland. Be
| fore many years the only trace of their
existence will be in the remarkable
drawings of animals with which they
| delighted to cover the smooth surfaces
| of rocks. These drawings, which are
found all the way from Zambezi to the
| Cape and from Maniacland TO the At
| lantic, are executed in red and yellow
| pigments and are often full of spirit
| and character.
The second race was that which the
| Dutch called Hottentot. They were of
| reddish or yellowish black hue, taller
| than the Bushmen, but with squat and
seldom muscular figures-a thoughtless,
cheerful, easy going people, who roved
hither and thither with their flocks and
herds as they could find pasture. They
were decidedly superior to the Bush
men, whom they hated, but quite I'M
able to withstand Europeans, and their
numbers rapidly declined, partly from
the loss of their best grazing grounds,
but largely also through epidemic dis
eases, and especially smallpox, which
ships, touching on their way from In
dia, brought into the country. They are
now. as distinct race, almost extinct
in the Colony, though a good deal oil
their blood has passed into the mixed
black population of Cape Town and 1T:
neighborhood-a population the other
| elements of which are Malays and west
coast negroes, the descendants OF slave:
| imported in the last century. Farther
north, on the south side of the Orange
river, and beyond it in Namagualand
small tribes cognate to the Hottentot
still wander over the dreary plains.
Very different from these weak Bush
men and Hottentots was and is the thirC
native race, those who are called Bantr
Ga word meaning "people") by them
selves and Kaffirs by Europeans. Tho
word Kaffir is Arabic, and means an in
fidel (literally "one who denies }. Ii i
applied by Mussulmans not merely Il
these South Africans. bat 20 other heath
en-, as, for instance, by the Afghans e
the idolaters of Kafiristan i'll the liindco
Kush mountains The Portuguese prob
ably took the name from the Arabs
whom they found already settled on tn
east coast. These Bantu tribes-if w
: | may class those as Bantus who speak
languages Of what is called the BIn,r
. type-fill all east Africa from the rc
gions of the upper Nile southwark.
Those who dwell south CT the ZambcZ
! are generally strong and well mad
men, sometimes as black us a gulf @
Guinea negro sometimes vcrglng on
brown tint; and though they have tn
woolly hair and thick lips general.
: | characteristic of the negro, individual
are often found among them whose Cas-
{ of features suggests an admixturo c
8 Semitic blood. They are more proliii
! than the Hottentots, as well as physl
cally stronger and better made, and the
/. were further advanced III the arts c
! life. Some of the tribes dug out an
worked iron and copper; all of ther
( used iron. Their chief wealth lay i
4 their cattle; horses they did not possess
but where the land was fit for tillag
they cultivated it. They had no religion
, except in sort of magic, and that VOL
:. ship of the ghosts of ancestors whic
. seems to be the most widely diffused {
\ all human supcrstitions. Instead OF
!, priesthood, there were wizards or med
O cine men, often powerful as the d'
!. nouncers Of those whom the chief wishe
d TO put to death. Intellectually they WEI
/ very much upon the level of the natiy
races Of West Africa james Bryce, n
p, in Century.