3-021-076 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Bushman's Cave, Eland Berg, Kat River, South Africa, 1869. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. T. Baines, '...the South African traveller...[showing] a rude design painted by savage artists..."In this picturesque valley," says Mr. Baines, "the upper stratum of rock overhangs the caves and terrace below it; and in the flooded season, when the sheet of water falls clear away, allowing the spectator to walk behind it, the scene must be beautiful. There were several animals here rudely delineated; but special care had been taken to preserve the likeness and the form of the eland, rhinoceros, buffalo, giraffe, and domestic ox; these animals, with figures of natives engaged in hunting, were easily recognisable...The weapons of the Bushmen, it is well known, are chiefly their bows with small arrows of reed, which are tipped with bone or iron, and poisoned either with a decoction of bulbs, or serpent's venom, or the entrails of a certain grub, almost every tribe using a different preparation".' From "Illustrated London News", 1869.