Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South AfricaAnderson, Andrew A.
History
Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa
Anderson, Andrew A.
Africa, Southern -- Description and travel; Anderson, Andrew A. -- Travel -- Africa, Southern
Several fresh Bushmen and women came to my camp this morning. Some of
the young girls were very good-looking, and with a profusion of native
ornaments upon them made entirely of ostrich eggs. A perfect set
comprised a tiara, three inches in width, for the head; a broad
necklace, six bracelets on each arm, and eight anklets or bangles to
each leg, and finally, a rope of beads of sufficient length to go round
the loins twice and fastened in front with a piece of rimpey. These
constituted the entire dress of one of the girls. She looked like a
young African queen, and it had the effect of making her look half
pretty.
I bought two sets for six yards of print each. I think there cannot be
less than 8000 beads in each set, between each bead a piece of leather
of the same size, which becomes black, so that they look like black and
white beads, which has a good effect upon their black skin. They were
delighted with the exchange. When disrobed of their ornaments, they
threw the print over their shoulders like a mantle. The ornament had
the appearance of having been handed down from generation to generation.
At Narukus, on the Nosop river, I came upon a family of Bushmen, ten in
number, of a different type to those I had in my service, evidently a
lower caste. They have no forehead; the wool on their heads comes close
down to the eyes, and the head falling back like a baboon; projecting
mouth, small nose, a sort of hair or wool all over the chest, arms, and
legs; their eyes are small and restless, watching every movement that is
going on; the tallest man did not exceed four feet four; their skin was
of a reddish-brown. A few old skins, broken ostrich eggs, and bows and
arrows, seemed all they possessed of worldly goods.
They would have decamped and hid in the bush, but I sent some of my
Bushmen and brought them back. I asked my own boys, if they were their
brothers, meaning of the same race; they repudiated the idea, and said
they were monkeys not men, and told me there were very few ever seen, it
was very seldom they ever came upon any; they eat carrion. They are
evidently a distinct race from the Masara Bushmen who are largely
distributed over the desert. One of the women had a baby not much
bigger than a half-grown kitten; all of them were destitute of clothing.
The country through which the Oup and Nosop pass, in many places is very
pretty and picturesque. At a fountain on the branch of the Oup, I
remained several days to hunt, to supply so many people with food.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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