OCR Rendition - approximate

Relations between" G, 'ili:ed and Savage Life. 329 more about them, as they are obviously a less scattered and wild race than the Bushmen of the Drakensberg. Some of the people known as " Bushmen " in the Northern Transvaal are obviously Korannas, or other remnants of mixed races or broken tribes, but there may still be others of genuine Bushman race, as known to us further south. The Bantu races, whether of the Bechuana, Kaffir, or Zulu families, are so well known that I need attempt no more than a very brief general description of the distinctive points in which they differ from the races nearest them in Africa. All are of a type clearly different from either the Hottentot or genuine Negro race. They are generally large of stature and well formed ; of a dark brown bronze colour, very rarely black complexion, and by no means assimilated in any way to a negro type, good straight legs, with moderately large but well formed feet, fairly high in the instep, and rarely " lark-heeled " like the negro. The skull is generally more of the European than of the Negro or Malay type, with a broad and moderately high forehead. The lips and nose are thick but not negroid ; the hair crisped and closely curled, but not woolly. The skin is peculiarly free from hair or even down, and this especially when the skin is healthy and well nourished,. and yet more when lubricated with fat and ochre, gives it a glossy appearance like that of bronze. These are generally the characteristics of all families and sub-divisions of the Bantu races, but they differ much inter se in the degree in which such characteristics are marked. There is much controversy as to which is the superior race in the great Bantu family, and I generally found that those who had lived longest among them were inclined to give the palm to that race with which they had been most associated. To my own eye the Gaikas, and Galekas, and some of the Zulus, afforded some of the finest specimens of the race I saw, but I would advise more accurate test by measurement and weighing before coming to any conclusion, and it would be well that the observer should note the pedigree of the examples he selects, for the national practice of " eating up " a conquered tribe, i.e., slaughtering the older folk, especially the males, and all capable of fighting, but incapable of work, and absorbing all the younger women, and all the children into the tribe of the conqueror, leads to great confusion of race-and even a superficial observer may frequently note obvious differences among the inhabitants of the same kraal, and learn that the exceptional form or complexion may be accounted for by the presence of captives of other races who had been absorbed into the tribe. after their own had been " eaten up."