The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-07-31
SOUTH AFRICANS.
The Three Native Races That
Inhabit The Country.
The Bushmen, The Hottentots,
And The Bantus or Kafirs.

AAAH ANHhf HAN AHE hAa lAAN OF AAhANH
gardens which could supply fresh vege-
tables to the sourvy-strickon crews Of
their ships sailing TO the East, they
found three native races inhabiting
the country. One Of these, tho Bush.
men, though few IN numbers we're
widely scattered over the whole Of
South Africa They we're nomads Of
almost tho lowest kind, with a marvel
Gus faculty for tracking and trapping
wild animals, but neither owning
cattle nor tilling the soil, with scarcely
even a tribal organization, no religion,
and a language consisting Of o success
sion Of clicks Unable 70 accustom
themselves to civilized life, driven ont
Of some districts by the settlers, and
IN others no longer able to find sup
port, owing 10 the extinction of game,
they are now almost extinct, though a
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 remark
able drawings OF animals with which
they delighted to cover the smooth
surfaces Of rocks These drawings
which are found oil the way from the
Zambesi to the Cape, and from Ma
niaeland to the Atlantic, 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 we're
Of a reddish or yellowish black hue,
taller than the Bushmen, bat with
squat and seldom muscular fgures-.a
thoughtless, cheerful, easy-going peo-
| pie, who roved hither and thither
with their focks and herds as they
could find pasture. They we're de-
cidedly superior to the Bushmen,
whom they hated, but quite unable to
Withstand Europeans and their nun.
bers rapidly declined, partly from the
loss Of their best grazing grounds, but
largely also, through epidemic dis
eases, aud especially smallpox, which
ships, touching on their way from
India, brought into the country. They
are now, as a distinct race, almost ex-
tinct in the Colony, though a good
deal of their blood has passed into the
mixed population of Cape Town and
its neighborhood-a population of the
other elements of which are Mslays
and west-coast natives, the descend.
ants of slaves imported in the last cen.
fury. Farther north, on the south
side of the Orange River, and beyond
it in Namagualand, small tribes cog
nate to the Hottentots still wander
over the dreary plains.
Very different from these veal
Bushmen and Hottentots was, and is
the third native race, those who are
called Bantu "a word meaning "peo
ple'') by themselves and Kafrs by Eu
ropeans. The word Kafr is Arabic
and means an infdel (Iiterally ION
who denies'). It is applied by Mussul
mans not merely to these South Afri
cans, but to other heather; as, for in
stance, by the Afghans to the idolator
of Kafristau, in the Hindu-Kusl
mountains. The Portuguese probabl
took the name from the Arabs, whor
they found already settled on the cas-
coast. These Bantu tribes-if we ma
class those as Bantus who speak lar
guages OF what is called the Bant
type-fll oil East Africa from the rt
gions of the Upper Nile southwark.
Those who dwell south OF the Fan
best are generally strong and we
made men, sometimes as black as
, gulf of Guinea native, sometimes verG
ing on brown tint; and though the
. have the woolly hair and thick LII
> generally characteristic of the African
individuals are often found anon
? them whose cast of features SUI
gests an admixture of Semit
: blood. They are more prolific than IL
v Hottentcts, as we'll as PHYSICAL
0 stronger and better made, and the
o we're further advanced in the arts
i life. Some of the tribes dug out al
worked iron and copper; oil of the