drawing made on the spot. Beneaith are added the notes expressed
in the manner in which they were played; or, at least, as
they sounded to my ear! although I find a difficulty in conceiving
how an instrument, giving its tones on the principle above described,
can produce either the tonum majus or the heptachordm. The crotchets,
of that part which is in triple time, were exactly of the same length
as those in the common time preceding and following; consequently,
the time, reckoning by bars, was there accelerated. The whole
piece, played once through, occupied just seventy seconds, and was
repeated without variation. There is sufficient in these few notes,
to show that he possessed an ear capable of distinguishing musical
intervals ; and they are besides remarkable, under all circumstances,
as a specimen of natural modulation. In the following year, I had
an opportunity of noting down other pieces of Bushman music,
which were in a style much differing from that which is here given.
Our female visitors, who were past the middle age, were extremely
filthy and ugly j their small blinking eyes seemed as if
nearly closed, or sunk into their head; wrinkles, filled with dirt,
covered their faces and body; their hair was clotted together in
large lumps, with the accumulated grease and dust of years, perhaps
of their whole lives; and the odor with which they tainted the air,
kept me at the distance of a couple of yards, the nearest at which a
person having any delicacy of smell, could endure their presence.
A wooden bowl, in which was left a quantity of liquid Hippopotamus
grease, was eagerly seized upon, and its contents drunk off, with an
avidity most nauseous and disgusting to behold ; while that which still
adhered to the bowl, they carefully scraped out with their hands,
and smeared, upon their bodies.
Curious to know what degree of intellect these beings possessed,
I endeavoured, by means of an interpreter, to question them on a
mountain : but the ground has been engraved in too spottedyi manner. By a mistake of
the engraver, the hair is represented too much like curls, instead of wool,, as described
at page 161. ; but this has, in some measure, been rectified by the colouring.
few moral points; but he declared they were so stupid that it was
not in his power to make them comprehend at all. The principal
question, and to which I was most desirous of having their answer,
was, one would think, so intelligible, that their not understanding it
must have been either pretended stupidity, or a wilful misrepresentation
by the interpreter: I asked what they considered to be good
actions, and what, bad; but to this they made no reply, nor could
they at all conceive its meaning. I showed them a looking-glass:
at this they laughed, and stared with vacant surprize and wonder,
to see their own faces; but expressed not the least curiosity about
i t ; nor do I believe it excited in their minds one single idea ; and
I may not, perhaps, be doing them an injustice by asserting that,
whether capable of reflection or not, these individuals never exerted
it. When asked what were their thoughts respecting the glass;
what were their notions respecting white men ; their senseless looks
seemed to say, they made an effort to think, but found themselves
utterly unable: their only answer was ; I don’t know.
They related to us, without the least emotion, and with apparent
indifference, a horrid occurrence which had lately taken
place in their kraal. This old man had three sons, one of whom
had been married several years to a woman by whom he had two
children. One of the brothers had conceived a liking for the woman,
and she on her part was not averse to change her husband; it was
therefore agreed between them, that he should be put out of their
Way. This (I shudder in relating it) was accomplished by the
atrocious demon beating out his brother’s brains as he lay asleep.
This inhuman act appears to have excited no feelings of horror in
the horde : the pair were at this time living together contented, and,
seemingly, undismayed by their own reflections on the nefarious
deed they had committed. Conscience herself seemed to have
neglected her duty, and bestial ignorance to have usurped her place.
Instead of chasing him for ever out of their kraal, the father and the
remaining brother allowed him to continue in their society on the
same terms as if nothing of the kind had happened. I saw the
murderer; he was a youth of apparently seventeen or eighteen years