The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE BUSHMEN.IllBushmen represent a debased or degenerate people belonging to the same stock astheir neighbours, and are not an independent race, much less a distinct branch ofmankind.Like the Hottentots and the .south-eastern Kulirs, the Bushmen have in theirphonetic system a group of peculiar consonants, the so-called " clicks," which areall but unpronounceable by Europeans, but which are also found in a somewhatmodified form in some other languages. Certain San tribes are said to haveas many as eight of these sounds ; but all seem reducible to four fundamentalclicks : the dental, resembling the smack of a nurse's kiss ; the palatal, like thetap of a woodpecker on the stem of a tree ;the cerebral, analogous to the pop of acork drawn from a bottle ; the lateral, which, according to M. Hahn, resemblesnothing so much as the quack of a duck. At the same time these clicks wouldseem to be almost inherent in the soil, for they are found not only in the Bushmanand Hottentot languagas, but also in all those of the southern Kafirs, excej)t theSe-Tlapi (language of the Ba-Tlapis) and the Se-Roloug (language of the Ba-Eolongs). They have even invaded the local Dutch dialect, the Boers addingthese eccentric sounds to certain words of their patois. In the alphabetsintroduced by the missionaries, the various clicks are represented by pointsof exclamation, crosses, and such like orthographic devices. Like the Indo-Chinese, the Bushman and Hottentot are toned languages, the words acquiringdifferent meanings according to the more or less elevated tone with which theyare uttered.Owing to their nomad and fugitive existence, the Sans have developed scarcelyany local industries. In the districts where they have not yet acquired a knowledgeof firearms, their weapons still are the bow and arrow tipped with poisonediron points, or even sharpened stones, glass, and chipped flints.They wear littleclothing, even the rich restricting themselves to the harass or sheepskin. But allare fond of decorating the head and body with bone necklaces, arrows, and ostrichplumes, to which the Kalahari tribes add little bits of wood inserted in the curtilageof the nostrils. Very few have learnt to build huts, most of the tribes dwellingin caves or the dens of wild beasts, passing the night round the smoulderingembers of a fire, and sheltering themselves from the wind by mats suspendedon stakes.But their life of liardships and adventures has developed in these aboriginesa surprising degree of sagacity, and those who are captured in their youthand brought up in the domestic state readily learn everything they are taught.They become skilful fishers, and as shepherds are most highly valued. But theimpulse is at times irresistible to forsake the abodes of civilised men, where theyhad at least sufficient nutriment, and again resume their savage independence,their nomad ways, and life of endless hardships. But, however wretcluHl theirexistence, they still possess a greater flow of spirits and vitality than theirneighbours, expending it in the dance, songs, and extempore recitals. They arealso artists, and on the rocky walls of their caves have in many places beendiscovered life-like representations in red ochre, and even polychrome pictiu'cs of