The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-06-23
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVES
The Three Native Races That L.
habit the Country.
The Bushmen, the Hottentots and tina
Bantus or Kafrs-These Last Are Much
Above the Level of the Others
in Many Respects.

When the Dutch fixed their first pos,
at Cape Town in 1852, with no thought
either Of colonization or of conquest
butfor the sake of having gardens which
could supply fresh vegetables tothe sour
vy-strickencrewsof their ships sailing to
/ the east, they found three native race:
inhabiting the country. One of these
the Bushmen, though few in numbers,
were widely scattered over the whole oil
South Africa They were nomads of al
most the lowest kind, with a marvelou,
faculty for tracking and trapping wild
| animals, but neither owning cattle mol
| tiiling the soil, with scarcely even q
| tribal organization, no religion and a
language consisting of a succession OF
clicks. Unable to accustom themselves
TO civilized life, driven ont of some dis.
tricts 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 Kalahari and
northern Bechuanaland. Before many
years the only trace of their existence
will be in the remarkable drawings of
animals with which they delighgted 10
cover the smooth surfaces of rocks,
These drawings, which are found al
the way from the Zambesi to the Cape.
and from Maniacland TO the Atlantic,
are executed in red and yellow pig.
ments, and are often full of spirit and
character.
The second race was that which the
Dutch called Hottentot. They were OF
a reddish or yellowish black hue, tale,
than the Bushmen, but with squat and
seldom muscular fgures-a thoughtless
cheerful, easy-going people, who rovei
.hither and thither with their fiocks and
herds as they could find pasture. They
were decidedly superior to the Bushmen,
whom they hated, but quite unable To
withstand Europeans, and their mum.
.bers rapidly declined, partly from the
loss of their best grazing grounds, but
largely, also, through epidemic diseases
and especially smallpox, which ships
touching on their way from India,
brought into the country. They are
now, as distinct race, almost extinct
in the colony, though a good deal of
their blood has passed into the mixed
black population Of Cape Town and its
neighborhQod-a population the other
elements 81 which are Malays and west
coast negroes, the descendants Of slaves
imported in the last century. Farther
north, on the south side of the Orange
river, and beyond it in NamnguaIand,
email tribes cognate to the Hottentots
still wander over the dreary plains.
Very different from these weak Bush
third native race, those who are called
Bantu "a word meaning "people") by
themselves and Kahrs by Europeans
The word Kaflr is Arabic, and means an
infidel literally lone who denies"). Il
is applied by Nussulmans not merely to
these South Africans, but TO other
heathen: as, for instance, by ths
Afghans to the idslaterv Of Kafiristan,
in the Hindu-Kush mountains. Thu
Portuguese probably took the name
from the Arabs, whom they found al.
Ready settled ON the east coast. These
Bantu tribes-if we may class those as
Bantus who speak languages of what il
called che Bantu type-fn all East
Africa from the region Of the Upper Nile
southwark.
Those whodweH south Of the Zambesi
are generally strong and well-made
men, sometimes as black as gulf Oi
Guinea negro, sometimes verging ON q
brown tint; and though they have Ma
wool,y hair and thick lips generally
characteristic of the negro, individuals
are often found among them whose cast
OF features suggests an admixture OF
Semitic blood. They are more prolific
than the Hottenoots. as well as physical.
~ stronger and better made, and they
were further advanced in the arts al
life. Some Of the tribes dug out ani
worked iron and copper; all of them
used iron. Their chief wealth lay in
their cattle; horsesthey did not possess,
but where Che land was At for tillage
they cultivated il. They had no re-
1igion, except in a sort of magic, and
that worship of the ghosts of ancestors
which seems to be the most widely
diffused of all human superstitions
Instead of priesthood, there were
wizards or medicine-men. often power
full as the denouncers of those whom
the chief wished TO put TO death. In
tellectually they were very much upon
the level of the native races of West
Afrioa--James Bryce, N. p, in Century.