before the Bushmen who are now staying with me, and who come from the Katkop Bergen, north-north-west of Valvinia. Their explanations, differing somewhat from those of !(k)ing, as far as they understand the pictures, are as follows:
The paintings from the cave Mangolong represent rainmaking. We see here a water thing or water cow, which, in the lower part, is discovered by a Bushman, behind whom a Bushwoman stands. This Bushman then beckons to others to come and help him. They then charm the animal and attach a rope to its nose, and in the upper part of the picture it is shown as led by the Bushmen, who desire to lead it over as large a tract of country as they can, in order that the rain should extend as far as possible, their superstitions being that wherever this animal goes, rain will fall. The strokes indicate rain. Of the Bushmen who drag the water cow, two are men (sorcerers), of whom the chief one is nearest to the animal. In their hands are boxes made of tortoise shell (containing charmed boochoo), from which strings, perhaps ornamented with beads, are dangling down. These are said to be of Kafir manufacture. The two men are preceded by two Bushman women, of whom one wears a cap on her head. The Kafirs in the other picture (which is from the upper cave of Mangolong) are said to assist in the ceremony, and to stand at the side. These Kafirs are three men with knobkerries in their hands and bundles of assegais on their backs. Between them are two women. The spotted appearance of one of the men could not be explained by my informant. The caricatured style in which these Kafirs are drawn, with their tail-like dresses made so long as to give them quite amphibious appearance, is very remarkable. On the whole the red Bushman looks down upon the black man quite as much as any orthodox white skin does.
The paintings from the cave of Medikane are thought to represent sorcerers, wearing gemsbok's horns, and two of them having sticks in their hands. They are said to belong to the ancient Bushmen, or to the race preceding the present Bushmen, and who it is believed killed people. The white figures, also, with steenbok horns, from the cave of the source of the Kraai River, are believed to belong to these same people. There is something reminding one much of the Egyptian mode of mythological representation of these animal heads on human bodies, but, of course, the reason for this combination of the animal and human may in each case be quite different; but this is a point which only a thorough insight into the mythology of both nations can decide.
The fact of Bushman paintings, illustrating Bushman mythology, has first been publicly demonstrated by this paper of
