Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-06-24
THE SOUTH AFRICANS
THE THREE NATIVE RACES THAT IN
HABIT THE COUNTRY.

| The BushDaen, the Hottentots and the
Bantus or Kaffirs-These Last Are Much
Above the Level of the Others Physical.
1y and In All Respects.
When the Dutch. fixed their first post
at Cape Town in 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
marvellous faculty for tracking and
trapping wild animals, but neither
owning cattle nor tilling the soil, with
scarcely even tribal organization, no
religion and language consisting of a
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 a 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 a
reddish or yellowish black hue, taller
than the Bushmen, but with squat and
seldom muscular fgures-a thoughtless,
cheerful, easy going people, who roved
hither and thither with their focks and
herds as they could find pasture. They
were decidedly superior to the Bush
men, whom they hated, but quite un-
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 q 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
neighborhood-a population the other
elements of 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 Namagualand,
small tribes ccgnate to the Hottentots
still wander over the dreary plains.
Very different from these weak Bush
men and Hottentots was and is the third
native race, those who are called Bantu
"a word meaning "people'') by them
selves and Kaffirs by Europeans. The
word Kafiir is Arabic, and means an in
fidel Citerally "one who denies''). It is
applied by Mussulmans not merely to
these South Africans, but to other heath
en-, as, for instance, by the Afghans to
the idolaters of Kafristan in the Hindoo-
Kush mountains The Portuguese prob
ably took the name from the Arabs,
whom they found already settled on the
east coast. These Bantu tribes-if we
may class those as Bantus who speak
languages Of what is called the Bantu
type-fill all east Africa from the re-
gions of the upper Nile southward.
Those who dwell south of the Zambezi
are generally strong and well made
men, sometimes as black as gulf of
Guinea negro, sometimes verging on a
brown tint; and though they have the
woolly 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 Hottentots, as well as physi-
cally stronger and better made, and they
were further advanced in the arts of
life. Some Of the tribes dug out and
worked iron and copper; all of them
used iron. Their chief wealth lay in
their cattle; horses they did not possess,
but where the land was fit for tillage
they cultivated it. They had no religion,
except in sort of magic, and that wor-
ship of the ghosts of ancestors which
seems to be the most widely diffused of
all human superstitions. Instead of a
there We're wizards or medi-
cine men. often powerful as the de-
nouncers Of those whom the chief wished
to put to death. Intellectually they were
very much upon the level of the native
races of West Africa. Bryce, NJ.
p, in Century.