The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1908-08-07
AFRICAN BusHMEN DOOMED.


DE. AudOlf POch TO MAKE . Stuoy
of . Disappearing Race.
A letter received In Washington from
Dr. Rudolf Pooh, the well known an
thropologist, says:
lam about to start, under the aus
pices Of the Imperial Academy Of
Sciences Of Vienna, to make study
Of the Bushmen. The race Is rapidly
dying out, and the sole purpose Of my
expedition is to add to our knowledge
Of this people before they become ex-
tinct.
The fact has been recognized for
some years that this African race Is
destined to extinction. This Is all the
more remarkable because everywhere
else the African races are more than
holding their own.
Pestilence, war, and the evils that
the whites introduce are powerless to
obliterate them. Africa is growing
in native population.
| But the Bushmen are now reduced
to a handful, and every year they
are dwindling. Circumstances are too
hard for them, and it Is not believed
they could be saved, even by a change
In their conditions.
The Bushmen inhabit the great
desert of South Africa. There is no
running water, and yet among the
sand wastes there are depressions
where the natives find water by dig
| np}, mi In y,1o dn
the surface that vegetation flourishes
and many animals find nurture in the
desert.
The Bushmen are only few inches
taller than the pygmies Of Central
Africa. They live in rock caves or
In huts of sticks and grass. They sell
dom wear more than a leather apron to
protect their legs from thorns.
They subsist on the scant vegeta-
ton, on roots, and on the animals they
kill. Clubs, bows and arrows. and a
few spears are their only weapons.
They are primitive, but they do not
buy their wives they have been faith
full to those whites who have befriend-
ed them. and they paint and draw in
an astonishing manner. Much has
been written of the thousands of ami
NAL paintings with which they adorn
the rocks and the walls Of their caves
Why do they not abandon the desert
to- which they are confined? They
could not If they would. They are
hemmed around by pastoral and agri
cultural regions, all occupied by strong
tribes, who kill them like vermin II
they venture across the line.
If they were free to leave the desert
1t is doubtful If they would do so, fol
they are hunting people, and sucl
tribes have never voluntarily become
a pastoral or an agricultural commu
nifty. Whenever cattle have been givel
to the Bushmen they have kille'
them, for they will not herd them.
The whites have been even NOR
destructive Of the Bushmen than thei
native enemies. Late in the eighteenth
century the Dutch used to shoot thes
little people as they would game. l
Is recorded that in the ten years enc
ing in 1795 the Dutch killed 2,4sO Bust
men.
They have always shrunk from COZ
tact with civilization, and to-day, whe
they see white protectorates plante
all around them, they are retreatin
farther into the desert. The white
are invading the more fertile valley
are stalking out ranches and buildin
little settlements. are killing off tn
game that is the hereditary food c
the desert nomads, blowing the place
where the Bushmen go for berries an
edible roots, and narrowing the are
In which they can live
They seem wholly unable to live III
der new conditions. and the old col
ditions are passing away. All VIII
know them best say that their abs
lutte determination is question {
only few Washington Post.