Littell's Living Age/Volume 128/Issue 1649/Miscellany
The Cape Monthly Magazine for September contains an article of Dr. Bleek’s on his Bushman researches, the proofs of which he was to have revised and enlarged the very day of his death. It adds little to what he had said on the subject in his last official report; perhaps one of the most curious pieces of new information contained in it is a reference to a Bushman legend, in which “the rain-maker is asked to milk a nice female rain which is gentle, the rain being her hair.” Comparative mythologists have sometimes been ridiculed for seeing merely the rain-clouds in the cattle of Geryon or the long-haired swan-maidens, and they will appreciate the illustration of their views which comes from the savage tribes of southern Africa. Another point of interest is the proficiency attained by the Bushman in painting and rock-carving, reminding us of the artistic skill of the modern Eskimaux, or of the ancient inhabitants of the Dordogne caves. Dr. Bleek says –
Bushman drawings and paintings have kindly been copied for me by Mr. Walter R. Piers and Mr. C. H. Schunke. The latter in the first instance sent me a fine collection of copies of pictures scratched on rocks in the country of my principal Bushman informants; and latterly he forwarded a still more important collection of copies of paintings discovered above the narrow entrance of a formerly-inhabited cave near the Kammanassie waggon-drift, and also upon some rocks in Ezeljagtspoort. Among the paintings from the latter locality is one already pourtrayed by Sir James Alexander. The subject of it (the water-maidens) was explained in a fine old legend to Mr. D. Ballot (who kindly copied it for Mr. Schunke) by a very old Bushman still surviving in those parts. … The magnificent collection of forty-two Bushman paintings copied from rocks and caves in the districts of Cradock, Albert, Queen's Town, Kaifraria, etc., by Mr. G. W. Stow, IGS., accompanied by nineteen of his drawings of Bushman pictures chipped into rocks in Griqualand West, has been most generously sent by him to us for inspection. … They are of the greatest possible interest, and evince an infinitely higher taste and a far greater artistic faculty than our liveliest imagination could have anticipated even after having heard several glowing descriptions of them from eye-witnesses. Their publication, which we hope and trust will be possible to Mr. Stow ere long, cannot but effect a radical change in the ideas generally entertained with regard to the Bushmen and their mental condition. An inspection of these pictures, and their explanation by Bushmen, has only commenced; but it promises some valuable results, and throws light upon many things hitherto unintelligible.
Dr. Hirschfeld has written home to announce his arrival at Athens, and the successful beginning of the German excavations at Olympia. All the necessary preparations had been made for the work before Dr. Hirschfeld’s arrival by Dr. Athanasius Demetriades, the commissioner appointed by the Greek government to co-operate with the German directors. The operations are being begun in a line with the excavations made by the French in 1829, when they came upon the spot at which the character of the broken friezes and portions of the roof found indicated the site of the temple of Zeus. It is hoped by Drs. Hirschfeld and Demetriades that by following this track they may discover some of the numerous other buildings which were enclosed within the boundary-walls of the ancient Altis. It is understood that the German work of exploration will be carried on with the proper degree of efficiency for two years, at the end of which time its further prosecution will have to be determined by a commission at Berlin, presided over by Professor Curtius. In the mean while we wish Dr. Hirschfeld all possible success, and shall watch with interest for the appearance in print of the journal which he has undertaken to draw up of the progress of the undertaking.