. British Central Africa; an attempt to give some account of a portion of the territories under British influence north of the Zambezi. Natural history. that until recently the Bushman type was lingering on the upper plateau of the Mlanje mountain mass at the south-east corner of the Protectorate. The Mananja natives of that district assert positively that there used to live on the upper part of the mountain, a dwarf race of light yellow complexion with hair growing in scattered tufts, and with that large development of the buttocks characteristic of the Bushman-Hottentot type. They gave these
. British Central Africa; an attempt to give some account of a portion of the territories under British influence north of the Zambezi. Natural history. that until recently the Bushman type was lingering on the upper plateau of the Mlanje mountain mass at the south-east corner of the Protectorate. The Mananja natives of that district assert positively that there used to live on the upper part of the mountain, a dwarf race of light yellow complexion with hair growing in scattered tufts, and with that large development of the buttocks characteristic of the Bushman-Hottentot type. They gave these people a specific name, <: Arungu," but I confess that this term inspired me with some distrust of the value of their tradition, as it was identical with the word for ";1 The resemblance, however, may have been accidental. They declare this people to have been found on the top of Mlanje until quite recently. Similar rumours were collected by a Portuguese officer stationed at Mlanje, and by him communicated to me, quite independently of my own re- searches, and the same idea occurred to him as to myself, that the traditions referred to a Bushman type. I have at different times exhaustively searched, or caused to be searched, the upper parts of the Mlanje mountain ; but although traces of human residence in some of the caves have been reported, no definite proof of the existence of any people differing from the modern type was discovered. That is to say, traces of human habitation in those caves and hollows consisted chiefly of fragments of pottery, which is certainly not a characteristic sign of Bushman habitation. It is probably known to my readers, however, that real undisputed Bushmen are found (I have seen them myself) in South Western Africa, in the part of the British Protectorate under review, by Serpa Pinto and other explorers as far north almost as the 14th parallel south latitude, in the countries near the Upper Kuncne river. Here and there, in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
