OCR Rendition - approximate

328 SIR H. B. FPERE.--On the Laws affecting the that the little bottles, thickened towards the lower part so as to hold the less fluid, could by a blow in a particular direction, be splintered so as to furnish excellent arrow-heads. He could not learn that the scent was valued except as a dram of strong spirit. When captured or domesticated the Bushmen make excellent herdsmen, and often settle down as valued servants of the European farmer ; but as they learn to speak Dutch, and lose the habit of using their own language, intermarry with other races, and improve in physique by regular and abundant food, they gradually lose some of the most characteristic features of their people, and merge into other races or denominations, becoming classed as Hottentots or Bastards, among whom an unusually irascible or violent temper, short stature, extraordinary aptitude for music, and for delineation of animals or human figures is often accounted for by attributing a Bushman origin to the possessor of these Bushman characteristics. It is unnecessary to remind you of the invaluable labours of the late Dr. Bleek, and of his sister-in-law, Miss Lloyd, in noting and preserving record of all that concerns this most interesting race-their language, physical characteristics, arts, legends, and habits. I do not know that a more valuable contribution could be made to South African anthropolgoy than by enabling Miss Lloyd to complete her researches by visiting the frontier districts where alone the Bushman is still to be found in his primitive state, and by giving to the world, by printing and publishing, the unpublished collections of Dr. Bleek, and the large additions to,his "Papers on native African Races," which she has herself collected. Mr. Stowe, the Geological Surveyor of the Orange Free State, is another most zealous and trustworthy labourer in the same field. His geological researches have frequently led him into the wild inaccessible country to which the Bushmen habitually retreat, and he has taken every advantage of his opportunities to record the results of his observations which will, I hope, be speedily published, and will be sure to form a most valuable contribution to South African philology and anthropology. I may remark that we frequently hear of Bushmen in Damaraland, and in the country north and east of the Limpopo, and they are sometimes spoken of, in Damaraland especially, as living in larger and more settled communities than the Bushmen of the Drakensberg, as being of stature as large as the Namaquas, and able to smelt ore, and work it into ornaments and utensils, which they sell to their Damara neighbours. Whether or not they are true Bushmen, or fugitives and outcasts from other broken tribes called " Bushmen " from their wandering and wild habits, I could not ascertain, but it would be interesting to learn