Abstract
MR. SEARLE V. WOOD'S inquiry (NATURE, vol. vii. p. 443) whether any existing race of savages is capable of depicting animals with the spirit and fidelity of the supposed contemporary representations of the mammoth is a most pertinent one, but must be answered in the affirmative. In the Atlas to Gustav Fritsch's great work on the Aborigines of South Africa, just published at Berlin, will be found reproductions of delineations of animals, executed in caves by the Bushmen, which are certainly equal to the carvings and tracings of the prehistoric period. The originals are usually painted, but sometimes carved or scratched in sandstone or some other soft material. Five different colours are employed; the objects represented are usually the animals indigenous to the country, but the human figure is occasionally introduced, and since the arrival of the European colonists, horses and even ships have been added. It is most remarkable to find the Bushmen in this respect so far in advance of the comparatively civilised negro, who has never of his own impulse produced anything approaching to the merit of these designs. Perhaps some of your contributors will be able to state whether any corresponding difference exists in the cerebral organisation of the respective races.
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G., R. Prehistoric Art. Nature 8, 6 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008006b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008006b0
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