New-York tribune., 1905-08-26

Bantu lnto the Hunting Grounds of the Bush
w stow G. s q r 's Edited By
Mccall Theal. Lit. D.. LII D.. with % numerous ,,9 rs
milan Company
Twenty-Five years have elapsed since Mr..
George Stow drafted the preface TO his monu-
mental work the natives Of South Africa
Before the task completed or the manu-
script ready for the publisher. Mr. Stow died'
and from 1880 until 1905 the results of his lie
work have been withheld from the scientific
world and from the great reading public That
the work has survived this long entombment'
and that e quarter Of century after its COM
rletion II arrives as distinct addition to all the
knowledge that has been acquired on the sub
sect are in itself proof of its originality Had
the manuscript. indeed. been permanently lost
much of the research would have gone irrevo-
cably into oblivion; for the first half of the book
which is concerned with the origin, character.
habits and attainments OF the Bushmen. could
never have been rewritten 1t is the story OF
disappearing people-a people now almost ex-
tinct and people which. in these later days of
,ts fragnentary existence. has lost hold of most
of its own history and forgotten its old accom-
plishments
The story Of an aboriginal people in any part
of the world contains much the same tragedies.
A people which is the primitive possessor Of
hitherto uninhabted land is naturally not
warlike nation. Its foes have been the forces
of nature and the wild beasts OF plain and
forest. 1t has met no hostile tribes which 1t
has been forced to subdue before it could occupy
the land and consequently when its lands have
been invaded by Oncoming waves of warriors
who have fought their way through hundreds
thousands of miles of already occupied territory
the primitive inhabitants have been match
for such foes and their extinction has resulted.
The scattered remnants. taking refuge in mac
cessible and nhosptabe tracts of the country,
have become degraded and revengeful. and have
been looked upon by the conquerors as incurably
vicious wild beasts, ft only for instant death.
Such in brief is the story that Mr.. Stow has
10 tell of the unhappy Bushman; and the trav-
eller in South Africa at the present day will
find full confirmation of this attitude of both
white settlers and Kafirs toward the few
manning Bushmen. who are still to be found In
isolated spots. where they have been able TO
hold precarious existence. largely by raids on
the sheep and cattle which now occupy their
former wide and prolific hunting grounds.
ready proof of the incurable viciousness of these
Bushmen is always adduced. "They use pois-
Cned arrows" is invariably the excuse for the
loathing and contempt with which they re-
garded. Kaffirs may steal sheep and fight with
llnobkerrie and assegai; but poisoned weapons
are too subtle and need too delicate manipula-
their by the Bdshmen. who has compara-
lively little physical strength is deemed sufi-
Gent for his utter condemnation.
The picture Of the Bushmen presented by
Mr.. Stow is very different from the impression
gathered by the traveller in South Africa, who
has little opportunity nowadays for making any
observations this primitive race for himself
Tfr. Slows study OF the Bushmen extended from
1s43 to 1880; and even in those comparatively
early days of South African settlement it was
only by the exercise of great patience, by means
OF quiet and gentle coaxing, such would be
used in tanning the shyest of wild creatures.
that he able to discover from the Bushmen
something of their history and traditions. Of
their music and games. of all the lighter and
more aesthetic side of their lives.
Perhaps the most striking result Of Mr. Stows
researches is the light thrown by what he has
gathered concerning the Bushmen on the lives
and characters of the Early Stone Men, who in
the far past inhabited all Western Europe and
probably extended far into Asia and Northern
Africa. 1t would indeed be strange if it could
be proved that the Bushman. near kindred
Of his, in the remote past had been the aborigi-
nal inha abitant OF the British Isles-to be ousted
thence by the Newer Stone Man, he
ousted in Africa by the Hottentot and Kafflr.
Probably the hnshp between these early in
habitants of the temperate regions and the
Bushman of tropical and Southern Africa
not so close. But thing is proved. and that
is that in the of the aborigines of these
widely separated the aesthetic nature
much more fully developed than In the sturdier
races who ousted them. The drawings of the
Cave Men OF Great Britain and Continental Eu-
rope have much in common with the remarkable
animal paintings Of the Bushmen, except that
in the OF the Bushmen have many more
and better preserved specimens and a much
larger range OF subjects. The spirited action and
absence of conventiOFality in the drawings are
alike in both cases, and also the tendency TO go
10 the animal world for subjects. The sculpture
OF that branch Of Bushmen which settled among
the rocks, which offered better material for
carving than surface for painting. appears to
have been more formal and conventional but
this is probably due to the greater difficulty and
slowness of the process.
10 the Of the British aborgines all knowl-
edge Of their appearance and of such musical
ability they may have possessed is lost It
would be interesting to know whether they like
the Bushmen. possessed small and delicate hands
and feet-whether these went with their aesthetic
development-and also whether their musical
attainments were superior TO those of their
has fortunately preserved for us some of the
melodies, II so they may be called Of the Bush |
men-chiefy those accompanying games or !
dznces-and he points out that strnged musical |