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Konn, A. J. 1960a. Ecological notes on Conus (Mollusca: Gastropoda) in the Trincomalee region of Ceylon.

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Koun, A. J. 19606. Spawning behaviour, egg masses and larval development in Conus from the Indian Ocean.

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Tureve, J. 1910. Mollusca: B. Polyplacophora, Gastropoda marina, Bivalvia. In: SCHULTZE, L. Zoologische

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(continued inside back cover)

ANNALS OF THE ANNALE VAN DIE

SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM SUID-AFRIKAANSE MUSEUM

VOLUME 87 BAND 87

Fig. 1. Nama women with painted faces. A. Bondelswart woman at Gibeon wearing paint of

powdered camel-thorn wood and chewed raw fat as protection against the sun. B. Bersebaner

at Kranzplatz, Gibeon, with ‘gemsbok face’ made with paint of dark powdered camel-thorn

wood and chewed raw fat. C. Bersebaner at Kranzplatz wearing salve of red ochre and chewed

raw fat. In the background is the woman with the ‘gemsbok face’. D. Woman at Soromas with

a painted mask; the red ochre was taken from her pouch and ground on the stone at her hand.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

ANNALE VAN DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE MUSEUM

Volume 87 Band

March 1982 Maart

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO

ROCK PAINTINGS

IONE RUDNER

Cape Town Kaapstad

The ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

are issued in parts at irregular intervals as material

becomes available

Obtainable from the South African Museum, P.O. Box 61, Cape Town 8000

Die ANNALE VAN DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE MUSEUM

word uitgegee in dele op ongereelde tye na gelang van die

beskikbaarheid van stof

Verkrygbaar van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum, Posbus 61, Kaapstad 8000

OUT OF PRINT/UIT DRUK

IE AGES, 83) KI Zs Ss east), SES), 4 72)).

6(1, t.-p.i.), 711-4), 8, 9(1-2, 7), 10(1-3),

11(1-2, 5, 7, t.=p.i.), 15(4-5), 24(2), 27, 31(1-3), 32(5), 33, 45(1)

EDITOR/REDAKTRISE

Ione Rudner

Kopieregnavrae aan die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum

ISBN 0 86813 030 3

Printed in South Africa by In Suid-Afrika gedruk deur

The Rustica Press, Pty., Ltd., Die Rustica-pers, Edms., Bpk.,

Court Road, Wynberg, Cape Courtweg, Wynberg, Kaap

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ROCK PAINTINGS

IONE RUDNER

South African Museum, Cape Town

(With 28 figures and 45 tables)

[MS accepted 17 September 1981]

ABSTRACT

Ethno-archaeological information from historical and contemporary records and personal

ethnographical and archaeological fieldwork is examined and correlated. The monograph is

meant as a contribution to the study of rock art and a foundation for experimental research on

rock paintings and their preservation, as well as a comprehensive source of reference.

Recorded theories and experiments on substances used for rock paintings are noted and

the use of these substances by the historical Hottentots, the present-day Nama, and the

Bushmen is investigated; the conclusions are related to the rock paintings and the information

obtained by examining them visually.

Pigments and paints were used by Khoisan peoples in prehistoric and historic times; many

of the practices have survived in some form or other; similarities between those of the Nama

and Kora and between the Nama and some Hottentot-speaking Bushmen have been noted.

Much of the recorded information is shown to have been based on plagiarism and

speculation, with very slight primary information on the substances used by the rock painters.

Indications are that the most likely binders for the rock paints would have been various fats,

and perhaps water; mainly earth pigments would have been used, and possibly plant pigments,

which might not have lasted. Evidence for the use of some of the binders suggested in the

literature was not found, and it is questioned whether others were as widely used as has been

claimed. Further information must come from chemical tests and other laboratory experiments.

CONTENTS

PAGE

NifROXUE CU OM oy 5 cube teen ei nO Cn ee ein ion Oras omni ciao eererren 3

PNA S¥AN GIMME HOGS i sy suoeston uations -Teteneecne ache to aes Ee ae one 3

WiHOMW eres the vantiSts aden ior terate «oh nteemers fans eeeie ienvartioeieres 5

SH ETININOLO Rar rwee Moreh rok cies ac aeae Ve eae evonekoner ete Nee eSNG eters 8

Reeyatontables mets cree rcnnc es oiciaete cen eres neve toaeeeraicoynet 9

Ripments;and paints; world-widen.. acerca arias ete ease 10

(GNC lige bon Romain Hemet ou one tient to suber a actin eae eee 10

Pigments and paints of black peoples in southern Africa........ 11

Rockspaintines world-wide rpereaasacreen nice reece 15

Theories and experiments regarding southern African rock paintings 25

AMETOG UCHON Mere acters rony Teves eit achat out ued va eae ees. 25

DICCUSSOM Biel SUINTMEIDY obo oocoonodsscuspooocabodouseonoUeE 25

Mediaby erent a tractranlctvteironin Shem eh cae ot or DS

ESTSAT ACS NUS) cae nt ee Mic ants tee oeoner One tEi RO TORS. tars oe cc oo, cecaeece ete 39

shechniquestancetoolsinm air een aee reer eer: 46

CONCLUSIONS yt ee eis Cr eeenic oe Oe eon 49

AI CRG Atay ermine Mots ateaat Acacia cincitealie eo ere erayt hee teuee 50

Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 87, 1982: 1-281, 28 figs, 45 tables.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

PAGE

Pigments and paints of the historical Hottentots................... 68

Introductions soos syiccin veces Hee ee Cee LOE PSC Oe Re 68

Mihestribesandithemmeconomicsimee erate tenant 68

SOULcES OfInformationine ne ee aeeeen eee 70

Discussioniand!summaryer cease eater ae 71

13 eee aie ae terete ieia Maton cc Ce oI SU d.o.cto0'o ole cro ¢ 72

Oo) ee ene ee Cee RRA EER Oy OS Ga au oo dc co 83

OIG oes anne erat ears aioe cc ASE eo ee Tee 85

BOOM) 5 sierscs0s aoeia cleat dat oSeeye eoleueis temeueacte stele eee 87

Sfomach liquid) o2.0)..o.ofcc mechs ce eeiscee aetna eee 90

Wate Doi. es ne ea uretacdlicaasnie. oor a ee teva gure ae aL AR ene 90

MKS ssaiicie bee ate then aa wlae w, Scone dan ait eee eee 92

BOS. of sisiack sca sels sis a tven shane aio tfecigs Gee Slots ey le Ree eee 92

Plant: Sap eeisvayay chs wivescustedtecsceeins pananianiaatal a ace ero Ree 93

GUI 22 arals) rch ete oaots lotst edaee cots aparedaiens etter he nae 94

FONG oss. sacs, sven aed teiince et edaeter dey tons eh eee haere 94

J ghitt 0 See ae enema nono Gaidaddos.as5 95

BBWC as: sctencte stig sus exscta satis gen clasp cary aac eee 108

Patterns made with cosmetic pigments and paints.......... 112

Conclusions siti yageene aw deine a oe entecetaule greta coer eo 114

Whe data «seats scree resented ey. a. te care tt sara Sone asso CEES eee 116

Pigments and paints of the present-day Nama..................... 143

INfrOdUuChlOn)s 5 rcs sien Gis nin Sie sale nnm cutee ote, cette eee 143

Whe data. a. 5 sarees rete a ott sid te claarstan re scree sacs eee 144

GIDEON ss asres tes eta wie op ste ay sane, intel vas oeuege oa 144

TSCS iis a5 tials eoeccdce atone) ctatin ss eds eisesergarel ose Soca ae eee 146

BO rSeb a. 5 sccenstadolvayin tues och icceonivnte haters cl ne gh ah hae ee 147

SOMOMAS 'ss5 =, sears Serhtatha A aGdueser scons eeneyeusct sisal Sae ee Ree 150

Kole im Rearas a oscisicscevt cag sceuc anno i eeeke aitiveloes Geen eee nee 153

DiscussionyandisummMabyaer eet eee ere 154

Pats essidhs sic ajdaccins a pttin 30 gue Gaede usies aanaettnere Sin cheater ee ae 154

PUM gas, avs Scvah eth Gio ace ctw vas an ou lea tetes ohstste Gates] eee eee 155

WING: os a cotgsra.s is av na scecaaccininiin.8 an ay eG edey ena eee 158

BOOM essays seins cinta ais a maens ortyenssayn ose sucka Ree eee ees 158

Stomachiliquid) chia sd Uneatets oe cd ecerete tons ae eee 159

Water cuss section a deaiheuatiomteencaita peace ie nee ath eee eee 159

GUM 5 eink Saale des ons ena etch o Roe 161

Other substances... 3.0626 < dete wcities = oneal ieee 161

PIBMENUS |. 32 eh is. te ioretoedla's eh woeae tation yale aoc aa 161

Buch 5... seh .cs Sreractod apg what sianaia athe Bs Gig sa beeen eee ee ee 169

Patterns made with cosmetic pigments and paints.......... 171

COmCHUSIOMS seis. 2 soc ecic noua Catehas ds eletect engi ant oie isteteredeta sete e esl ee ae 173

Pigmentsiand| paints of the Bushmen s.r aee eri eeeel 175

Introductioms... 2 cataet xe teeh sies bose acteeea oe tated een eee 175

GTOUPIMAMES <5. ous ost eseasttae saraar ee cre On Coe eR 177

Sourceslofintonmationearie ae eet ene 177

Discussionfand/summianye eer eer eee etree eee eae ee 178

Patsy ui bei Ancien Ree ee 178

Diy a eee ar ects Sears Gamay ols eo'o boc 049 c 185

WANE: oie ese seus eta th onsen Siewlcedy becky ake neler ees eee 185

BlOO ohidisies to. Socios oaeez nana re ee eee 185

Stomach liquid! os, .0...4 i c.cicn screws nee meee 188

WALEL S068 anedercarayasscs nenrienendueieyoureclcats Sen ORE nen eae 188

MEI ae seo acer tp ave citedennre icin tt eest Clon alege oe y Ree ae Pe 190

12 eee eee ee Aamo On oA Ne. OG Ate G00.020¢ 190

Plant’ Sapis entices. vsetie 2. Ue ie ola ee eae Re eee 191

(Cl (inn er er Men Sioa pai.o cod ica oc 191

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 5)

PAGI

[BRC NCM ir merero gina 6 BA Ain cain A OM EIOIT D Cadidhd Oc col aceon TaN 193

Rerspirationirrmcrs-icinataprct it serteten aces oct ier 193

LCT ro aomain ted aioe no obaonn ap ogan cco omie. 600 Fula ood 194

BUCA Pic oeen cis apereevaeteis ede merc nean erieeecstoteher dor sistas 204

Patterns made with cosmetic pigments and paints.......... 204

Gonclusionsin.s teres re gre ere eee tern sree Oban ers wrest is ie lhe Jor 210

JUNERG ELC sin eres otinan Sear oan ane Cemrorc Dac cin ia cia pire orice 212

Archaeological evidence for the use of pigments and paints......... 233

Generalifinds fromvarchacolopical’sites sawed ieee ls: 233

Redibunalstandsbunalistonesa-r seers rie rite 236

CACC OOH Gp man ee onoitne tinno.o Unmahaar mere.cmmne. cen 238

Bip mentmnin One ycsssise ctilisi-vuie cat erent tetris) tele ae 242

Summanyanciconclusionsin- cme sor eerie einccie secre ere 244

Relating Khoisan pigments and paints to the rock paintings......... 246

Biomentsiand| colours sssscr 10sec sett aor easels ie = 246

Media and techniques of application.................. eee 254

BodyApalntsum mOckspalntingSiy. ae ieie ici 257

LW CATON Cie ce nrcrcg. yay s-aiotetoicn tersrere auevewosakanotoey syerekeacwrateerneate cuore og cmts 263

Conclusions ssa se fous Neyy aisee Neves a ero eins oe See le ons 264

PCKNOWIEAPEMENES) 720.1. \oyssnrer vores rote eye le rorerse oleae) vis ionews see Set seers eho 268

IRELETEN CES yar hae ee Sy asser dyer ansvonieoe epee eh Oakes Saioneiats 269

AS PPeN dix ISO ta DIES sce arate tecimitty Vovororata ne eters eleyrs tots fave 281

INTRODUCTION

AIMS AND METHODS

The study of rock paintings cannot be complete without an investigation of

the pigments and media used in the paints—‘der Ausgangspunkt der Kunst ist

das Wissen um die Farbe, um den Wert der Farbe . . .” (Ktthn 1952: 33).

The purpose of this study is to record as much information as possible on

the pigments and paints that were, or may have been, used in the rock paintings

of southern Africa as a contribution to the study of rock art, and to provide a

basis for future researches in connection with the rock paintings and their

preservation. It is also meant to serve as a comprehensive source of reference to

the pigments and paints and related practices of the Khoisan peoples.

The serious problem of the deterioration of rock paintings has often been

noted in the literature; there have been pleas for action and there have been

minor, usually individual, attempts at preservation and conservation, sometimes

with unfortunate results. One form of conservation, the recording of rock art,

has been undertaken mainly by spare-time workers at great personal cost in time

and money (see Rudner & Rudner 1970: 245-263).

In 1974 the National Monuments Council of South Africa obtained addi-

tional funds from the State to investigate the preservation of rock paintings, and

asked the National Building Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and

Industrial Research in Pretoria to undertake the work—its experience, know-

ledge and facilities in regard to the preservation of stone in buildings made it

eminently suitable for the task. A Steering Committee composed of various

experts, some on rock paintings, was appointed and a programme was drawn up.

It was realized that this would be a long-term project that would have to start

4 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

from scratch, as investigations into previous projects of this nature revealed that

they had been short-lived and the work unrecorded and were, therefore, of little

or no value. Initially, thorough in situ surveys in all the main rock painting

regions were undertaken and fully documented; tests are being conducted in the

field and in the laboratory (see Loubser & Van Aardt 1979; Webb 1980). But

very little is known of the paints that were used by the rock artists. This study of

the pigments may assist future laboratory investigations in further determining

the composition of the paints and methods of preservation. Such experiments

require experts and sophisticated equipment—the author has not undertaken

any tests beyond the few deemed necessary for purposes of discussion.

A. J. H. Goodwin taught that archaeologists in southern Africa could not

afford to neglect a thorough study of ethnology, to adopt where necessary

ethnological approaches to a study of our later prehistory, especially. This

concept has again been recognized in the past decade or so. The main part of

this monograph is devoted to the pigments and paints, as well as allied

substances, that were or are still used by the Khoisan peoples, descendants of

the rock artists (see below), and includes fieldwork undertaken by the author

among the Nama people of South West Africa. Particular attention is paid to

ingredients for paints suggested by previous workers; these are dealt with

initially in the third section on the theories and experiments regarding southern

African rock paintings.

Archaeological evidence, including the evidence from the rock paintings

themselves, is used to augment the information.

For comparative purposes, the first section of the monograph deals briefly

with the use of pigments and paints worldwide, including those of the black

people in southern Africa, some of whose practices might have influenced the

Khoisan peoples, and in rock art in countries outside southern Africa.

The final section correlates the information regarding the Khoisan pigments

and paints and the rock paintings. Information from the author’s research and

fieldwork on rock art throughout southern Africa is incorporated.

The Data for the various sections (in smaller type) are meant to serve as

sources of reference and additional information, if required, and need not

necessarily be read as part of the whole. As this information is collated in the

various summaries and discussions, there will obviously be overlapping and

repetition. To be of some meaning from the ethnological point of view, the data

include references to how the substances were used, and why; but as this is not

an ethnological study per se, this information is noted only briefly. Misunder-

standings and misconstruing of information occur all too often in the literature,

therefore original statements have frequently been quoted verbatim in the data

and, because of faulty translations, the original works have also been consulted

where possible.

But it is necessary first to explain why it is that the pigments and paints of

the Khoisan peoples form the basis of this study: the following pages deal briefly

with the identities of the rock artists.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

WHO WERE THE ARTISTS?

In a later section dealing with past theories and experiments in connection

with the possible ingredients for rock paints, some of the information from the

literature also contains references to the identity of the rock artists. This is listed

in Table 1.

TABLE |

Who were the artists?

Remarks Category

Somerville 1799-1802 Bushmen Painting unknown in NW Cape U

Baines 1842-53 Bushmen, Baviaans R. G?

Hahn 1879 Bushmen, S.W.A. Bushmen painted A? B?

Hahn 1881 Hottentots, S.W.A. Hottentot women painted A? B?

Kannemeyer 1890 ‘Bushman’ paintings U

Bent 1892 ‘Bushman’ drawings Rhodesia G?

H Stow before 1882 Bushmen Painters with horn pots A? B?

Von Luschaw 1908 Bushmen : G

Dornan 1909 Bushmen ‘Most made 50-70 years ago’ U

Balfour 1909 Bushmen ‘Particular individuals’ U

Bleek, E. & D. 1909 Bushmen U

Moszeik 1910 ‘Eingeborenen’ A Boer saw painters B

Péringuey/AWH 1913 Bushmen, Glen Grey ‘Old Thembus assert’ (e

Melle 1916 Shona, Rhodesia ‘People say’ Ch

Dornan 1917 Bushmen (Masarwa), Bechuanal. B

Dornan 1925 Bushmen, Bechuanal. A? B?

Dornan 1925 ‘Half-bred’ Bushman Saw ‘half-bred Bushman’ paint A

Schapera 1925 Bushmen U

Lebzelter 1930 Bushmen Told by a farmer Ch

Dunn 1931 Bushmen D?

Mason 1933 Bushmen, Drakensberg Black informants Ch

Wells 1933 Bushmen, Drakensberg Black informants Ch

Battiss 1948 Bushmen GU

Ellenberger 1953 Bushmen, Basutol. (e

Willcox 1956 Bushmen DF

Kennan 1959 Bushmen, Basutol. U

How 1962 Bushmen, Basutol. “‘Basotho say so’ B

Willcox 1978 Bushmen, Drakensberg Eyewitness, 19th century FE

Out of these and dozens of other such references found but not listed here,

only a very few were based on primary information, a few seemed to be reliable

secondary information, and the vast majority consisted of plagiarism, hearsay

evidence, or guesswork.

Hahn (1879) knew of Bushmen artists at work in southern South West

Africa; Stow (1905: 230) wrote in the last century of a Bushman in the Maluti

Mountains who was killed while wearing a belt to which were attached small

paint-pots of horn; Dornan (1917, 1925) had heard of Bushman painters in what

is now Botswana, and watched a ‘half-bred Bushman’ painting on a rock for a

reward of 5 shillings, which rather detracts from the authenticity of the event;

Moszeik’s (1910: 29) information from a farmer who said he had seen Bushman

painters was repeated by Ellenberger (1953: 160) without acknowledgement;

How (1962: 35-36, 38) had a Basotho man, who had painted with his Bushman

half-brothers, paint experimental pictures on stone.

The only Bushman ever to have been seen to make a painting by a trained

observer was a young Drakensberg man captured by a commando and appren-

ticed to a farmer (Willcox 1978: 84).

6 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Nearly all the early writers attributed the rock paintings to Bushmen,

indeed, they were, and are, frequently referred to as ‘Bushman paintings’, also

by black people such as the Basotho (Laydevant 1933), and it was in the

mountains in and around Lesotho and Natal that the last Bushman artists

painted their pictures on the rocks (e.g. Stow 1905: 25-26; Ellenberger 1953:

148: How 1962: 15, 26).

There is no doubt that most, if not all, the existing paintings in the

Drakensberg areas, at least, were the work of Bushman artists, but their

tradition of painting has been lost (e.g. Bleek 19285), and even the memory of it

no longer survives.

Various researchers have given drawing materials to Bushmen and tried to

find some significant similarity to the rock paintings in the results. Moszeik (1910:

8) cited several instances: C. T. Neuhaus showed coloured sketches made by a

Bushman to the Berliner Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologie, Ethnographie and

Urgeschichte—although they differed in many respects from the rock paintings,

he still thought them ‘characteristic’; and Moszeik (1910: 12) described pencil

sketches made by Bushmen at Rietfontein (‘Dist. Mier’) that were thought to be

reminiscent of crude rock paintings. According to Thomas (1959: 13), paintings

made by Bushmen with paints and paper ‘could be said to resemble the paintings

and engravings on the rocks —but which paintings and engravings out of the many

styles? Reuning & Worthy (1973), in the course of psychological studies, thought

that drawings made with poster paints by Bushmen, including figures and designs,

resembled those found in rock paintings and petroglyphs, but that they were

generally not nearly as ‘sophisticated’ as those of the rock art. I. Rudner (1970)

found that drawings made in sketchbooks by several Bushmen (adults and

children) for Bleek and Lloyd in the last century were disappointingly unlike

those on the rocks, and any resemblance could be ascribed to the fact that some

were as crude as some of the crude rock paintings. In fact, the author believes that

to be the case in all such experiments which can, at best, indicate individual talent

only. Not all the Bushmen were artists—there are several references in the

literature to specific artists in a community (e.g. Stow 1905: 200, 230; Dornan

1909; Ellenberger 1953: 148)—and one may as well give painting materials to

people picked at random in a supermarket and compare their pictures with those

in the National Gallery. And to ask a !kung Bushman from the Kalahari, who had

never painted or seen rock paintings, his opinion of rock paintings in the

Brandberg (Biesele 1974) is equally futile (see J. Rudner 1975).

But there were others who attributed some of the paintings to the historical

Hottentots: Angas (1849: 3) wrote of ‘Hottentot and Bushman drawings in all

the caves of South Africa——one does not know on what grounds he did so;

Hahn (1881: 140) noted that Hottentot women in South West Africa painted

ritual marks on stones, but was he referring to the same group of painters whom

he had called ‘Bushmen’ in his 1879 publication?

H. Vedder told J. Rudner in 1956 (pers. comm.) that the sons of ‘Captain

Witbooi’, the Nama headman, were excellent painters who painted ‘photo-

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 7

graphically accurate’ pictures of ostriches, houses, people, trains, etc., on the

walls of a school—but there is no known tradition of rock painting among the

Hottentots. However, the virtual absence of historical records of their painting

on rocks does not mean that they or their ancestors had not done so in

prehistoric times. Rudner & Rudner (1959a; 1970: 230-232; 1978: 60; J. Rudner

1957) suggested that Hottentots might have been responsible for some of the

paintings, particularly some of those in the south-western Cape and South West

Africa that are stylistically different from most of the paintings in the

Drakensberg areas and depict different people—often dressed like the historical

Hottentots—from the agile little hunters depicted in the paintings of the latter

areas.

It is likely that the Bergdama—black Nama-speaking hunter—gatherers in

historical times who had lost their language and culture and adopted those of the

Nama people—might have made some of the later and stylistically different rock

paintings in the mountainous areas of South West Africa, such as the Brand-

berg, which they once inhabited (J. Rudner 1957; Rudner & Rudner 1970: 232;

1978: 60).

Black people might have painted some, relatively few, pictures on the

rocks: in Rhodesia some paintings were said to have been made by the Shona

people (Melle 1916) as well as others (see Summers ed. 1959), and some of the

crude pictures in the northern Transvaal that appear to be late could have been

made by black people (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 103), for they, too, use

pigments and paints (see next section herein).

Some extravagant theories that show an ignorance of, and disregard for,

local ethnography have, unfortunately, been postulated regarding the painters

and rock paintings. Regarding the paintings in South West Africa and Rhodesia

(now Zimbabwe), including the so-called ‘hook-heads’ (Rudner & Rudner 1970:

179 et seq.), Boyle (1951) noted that ‘the red-headed population is allied to a

group with Mediterranean and Semitic elements’; she saw a painting of ‘a

Phoenician lady’ in Rhodesia; the ‘White Lady’ painting in the Brandberg was a

reminder that ‘in the palace of Knossos in Crete . . . such a costume of sweater,

shorts and hood was worn by the young girl bull-fighters . . .’; Boyle ‘plunged

into research’ as she put it, and surfaced with Isis-—Diana of Crete and an

involved story from Latin classics to fit the paintings in the remote Namib Desert

to her satisfaction—but did not commit herself to identifying the artists. Not to

be outdone, Breuil (1955: 10 ff., 31) referred to ‘connections’ between the

paintings in the ‘White Lady’ shelter and those of Egypt and Crete, and the girl

bull-fighters of Knossos, with special reference to, inter alia, Sebek, the Croco-

dile-man in the service of Set, the Egyptian God of Evil; Diana and the Golden

Ass of Apuleius; Isis in her Cretan form of Diana; her husband Osiris;

Phoenician art; Knossos, and much more—all connected, according to him, with

the pictures in this one desert shelter.

There have been others too; their far-fetched and untenable theories are

unfortunately quoted and find favour with laymen.

8 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

But the evidence is all there to prove that, already over 25 000 years ago

(Wendt 1976; see section on archaeological evidence herein), the rock artists

were the indigenous peoples of southern Africa who painted pictures of them-

selves and other people living around them, their possessions, incidents, cere-

monies, mythological creatures, animals, and designs that might have had some

meaning. The Khoisan peoples were the main rock painters, and it is, therefore,

their pigments and other ingredients for paints that are being investigated here.

TERMINOLOGY

‘Hottentot and ‘Bushman’

In historical times the terms ‘Hottentot’ and ‘Bushman’ were often loosely

and inaccurately used. They cover a spectrum of people, a circle rather than a

range, On opposite sides of which are nomadic pastoralists, Hottentots, and

hunter—gatherers, Bushmen, with marked differences both in the substance and

the spirit of their lives, with different economies and different, distinctive

languages, social structures, customs, traditions, and beliefs. But the spectrum

then also includes an overlapping or blending of these aspects round and across

the circle, which will continue to confound scholars. A culture is more than just

an economy and/or a language, and there is too often a disregard of other, less

obvious cultural aspects that have, admittedly, often gone unrecorded or been

poorly recorded in historical times. But to identify these various groups is a

study in itself. The introductions to the sections on the historical Hottentots and

the Bushmen will augment these notes (pp. 68, 175).

There is a tendency today to use alternative terms, ‘Khoi’ and ‘San’,

because the old terms have been used in derogatory fashion or sound deroga-

tory. That being so, some other national names in common and unquestioned

use will not bear close scrutiny. It can be pointed out that the political

delegation of one population group in South West Africa call themselves

‘Boesmans’ (Bushmen), not ‘San’, while another group call themselves ‘Baster’.

‘Hottentots’ as such no longer exist and in South West Africa the people refer to

themselves by their old tribal names or use the general term ‘Nama’, which once

denoted a group of certain tribes only and cannot be used as a general name for

all the historical tribes. The Nama people do not refer to themselves as ‘Khoi’.

‘Bushman’ today refers to the remaining hunter—gatherers, regardless of differ-

ences in languages and the spectrum of other cultural differences, whose way of

life is rapidly changing.

‘Saan’ or ‘San’, a Hottentot term, has been in use for a specific group of

hunter—gatherers, i.e. the Hottentot-speaking ‘Bushmen’ of the Namib Desert,

Kaokoveld, and lower Orange River areas (see Schultze 1907; Vedder 1938:

124-128; Sangiro 1951: 104; Westphal 1963) who ‘stood in close relationship to

the Nama in religion, law, and custom, . . . one of the oldest of the Nama tribes’

(Vedder 1938: 78 ff., 124-128, see also pp. 95, 106, 119). This term, too, for that

matter, had a ‘low meaning’ (Hahn 1881: 3).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 9

In the author’s opinion the use of the terms ‘Khoi’ and ‘San’, so prevalent

today, belong in a biological context, but the use of the historical names,

‘Bushman’ and ‘Hottentot’, is more logical in historical context, particularly

when quoting early literature when their replacement could amount to tamper-

ing with the evidence. It is difficult, even impossible, to know whether the

previous authors always used the terms correctly, and their use in this study,

therefore, follows the original references, spellings and all, particularly in the

data sections and tables.

The general term ‘Khoisan’, which covers the entire spectrum and is

entrenched in the literature, is useful, particularly when used in biological and,

especially, archaeological context when closer identification is virtually impossi-

ble. It was apparently first suggested by Schultze-Jena (1928), but already in the

last century Hahn (1881: 96) had suggested a similar general term, ‘Satsi-

Khoikhov’.

Terms for pigments

The terms for the pigments, especially the various forms of haematite, have

been too loosely used in the literature always to identify the minerals accurately,

therefore the original terms have been retained, also in the discussions where

reference is made to information in the literature.

KEY TO TABLES

In the tables relating to the substances connected with paints that were used

by the Khoisan peoples, the following abbreviations occur:

under ‘medical’

i = used internally

e = used externally

xX = unsure, either or both of the above

under ‘with pigments’, etc.

m = mixed with, i.e. mixed with another substance before being ap-

plied, if so stated

u = used with, i.e. not mixed with another substance but used at the

same time, e.g. powdered pigment applied to a fat-besmeared

face

x = unsure, either or both of the above

under ‘users’

m = men c = children

w = women u = unspecified sex

under ‘body parts’

f = face 1 = leg

h = hair a = arm

b = body u

unspecified body parts

10 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

PIGMENTS AND PAINTS WORLD-WIDE

GENERAL

Although this study is confined to the pigments and paints used by the

Khoisan peoples and those used in the rock paintings in southern Africa, other

people of different cultures all over the world and throughout the ages have used

colouring materials—this is discussed shortly for comparative purposes.

Traces of ochre excavated at Oldevai Gorge in northern Tanzania showed

that early hominids used the pigment a million and more years ago (Tobias

1980). Palaeolithic men and women painted themselves, their dead, their

material objects, and the rock walls of the shelters and caves that they inhabited.

The cave of Terra Amata at Nice was occupied an estimated 300 000 years ago

by Acheulean people who collected and used red ochre, and elsewhere in

Europe various excavated sites yielded the pigment (Tobias 1980). In southern

Africa there is abundant archaeological evidence for prehistoric pigment mining

or digging and the use of pigments (see section on archaeological evidence),

while the use of pigments for rock paintings was universal (see below in this

section).

Almost everywhere the main colour was red, and the main pigment haema-

tite, a ferric oxide, the so-called ‘bloodstone’ used symbolically for blood (see

Dart 1968), particularly in burials. Haematite burials occur throughout the world

and clearly had a religious significance (James 1957). One of the oldest known is

that of a Neanderthal man in France, c. 35 000 to 40 000 years old; other ancient

European red burials have been found in Wales, Bavaria, and northern Russia;

there are prehistoric red burials in Anatolia and North America; and red burials

have been found in Japanese, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman tombs (Boshier &

Beaumont 1972, see also Kuhn 1952: 33; Tobias 1980).

The ancient civilizations in the East made extensive use of paints, particu-

larly for decorative pottery and murals, and passed on their recipes to their

descendants. The Egyptians painted their murals with a variety of paints for

which they used earth pigments, often ferric oxides; they used tempera paints—

possible binders were gelatine, glue, gum, albumen (white of egg), and certainly

beeswax (Lucas 1948: 391 ff.). Beeswax as a medium was well known to the

Romans (Lucas 1948: 402).

Earth pigments are used also for modern paints. Binders depend on the

type of paint required: permanently water soluble opaque colours are bound

with gum (plant resin), dextrin, cellulose glue, or animal glues (bone and hide),

or mixtures of these. Emulsion and dispersion paints are bound with egg

tempera (whole egg, linseed oil, and water), casein tempera (casein = casein

glue = cream cheese and slaked lime or casein and linseed oil), or gum tempera

(e.g. gum arabic and oil). Temperas bind waterproof. Animal glues and dextrin

binders (starchy gum) remain water soluble (Schoner n.d.). Although the

modern paint industry has devised paints with a variety of new media, it still

largely makes use of mineral pigments.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 1]

As a matter of interest it may be noted here that a Spanish matador artist

paints with blood (Foto-Rapport 1976: 16-21). The method was not described in

the report, nor was it stated how long he expected the colour to last. The use of

blood is not unique, e.g. in 1670 Bolling (in Raven-Hart 1971) wrote that hippo

blood was used by painters in the East Indies as colouring (‘farve’), and blood

has been used in paints in other parts of the world (see below in this section).

Further notes on blood appear in the section on theories and experiments

regarding rock paintings in southern Africa (pp. 30-34).

Still today men and women in so-called primitive societies use mainly earth

pigments for cosmetic, often ritual, purposes, as well as for decorating objects

and for rock paints. As southern Africa is the study area here, the practices of

the black peoples in that region are reviewed briefly below, followed by a

summary of research on rock paints elsewhere in the world:

PIGMENTS AND PAINTS OF BLACK PEOPLES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

The various black peoples of the subcontinent make use of traditional

pigments and paints, although these practices are disappearing with westerniza-

tion. The following is an indication for comparative purposes of the materials

used by the main ethnic groups. Those used by the Khoisan peoples are fully

dealt with in subsequent sections. It is not known to what extent these various

groups influenced one another in the use of paints, but at least the use of

specularite by the Kora has been attributed to Tswana influence (see section on

historical Hottentots), and there might have been other instances. There are also

indications that black people might have painted on rocks (see herein).

Among the Transkei Nguni the powdered pigment is usually mixed with

water to a paste or to a thinner dye, depending on its use; sometimes fat,

marrow or butter is used, or fats may be applied afterwards once the paint has

dried. The pigment may also be applied in powdered form. Red ochre is the

main pigment, but yellow is also used, as well as white clay and charcoal. The

paints are used by both sexes, but mainly by women, cosmetically, ritually, for

colouring objects (mainly garments), and for painting interiors and exteriors of

huts. Various early travellers recorded these practices (e.g. Alberti 1807: 20-21,

37, 40, 41; Steedman 1835 1: 18, 71, 259; Baines 1842-53: 39; Fritsch 1872: 17;

Angas 1849: 49), and some are still in vogue today, sometimes with the addition

of modern substances such as petroleum jelly, washing blue, or other store-

bought paints (e.g. De Lange 1963; Elliott 1970; Broster 1976; West & Morris

1976), and even among children (Mertens & Broster 1973) (and Fig. 2 herein).

Plant pigments from roots and fungi were also used cosmetically (De Lange

1963: 89).

Among the Zulu people, red ochre mixed with water or fat is used

cosmetically; the fat mixture is liberally applied to women’s hair, especially in

building up the elaborate traditional head-dresses; it is used ritually and medici-

nally; pig’s fat is often the binder, sometimes petroleum jelly; fat may be used

on its own; white clay is also a pigment (e.g. Angas 1849: 75; Tyrrell 1971; West

12 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 2. Pondo child with painted face, Port St Johns,

Transkei coast (from colour photograph by

Sigurd Rudner).

& Morris 1976). The women use powdered tamboti wood (Spirostachys africa-

na), an oily red or dark-brown wood, as a perfume (Palmer & Pitman 1972).

Prehistoric haematite mines are known in Swaziland (Boshier & Beaumont

1972), and the people there still use the pigment. Battiss (1948) recorded that

red paint was made by boiling haematite powder in an oily solution made from

wild castor oil seeds. Swazi diviners dress their hair with soap and red ochre and

shine it with butter or petroleum jelly (West & Morris 1976).

In Lesotho red ochre is often mixed with fat, sometimes with water, and is

used cosmetically, ritually, to colour objects, and to paint hut walls; yellow

ochre and white pigments are also used (e.g. Arbousset & Daumas 1846: 249,

290; Christol 1911: 38; Frobenius 1933: 616; Ellenberger 1953: 183; How 1962:

35-36). Specularite, a metallic form of haematite, is heated and ground for a

powerful medicine believed to have magical powers (How 1962: 34). Girl

initiates are plastered with white clay (West & Morris 1976). Certain Lesotho

groups smear the heads of initiates with ‘ochre’ and fat, others use fat and

sehama, a term used for all black minerals such as graphite, stibnite, and

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 13

pyrolusite (Walton 1954). Some groups decorate their bodies for ritual pur-

poses—they paint stripes and patterns strongly reminiscent of the patterns on

some of the figures in the rock paintings of the Drakensberg and adjacent areas

(J. Walton, Cape Town, 1980 pers. comm.).

Among the Northern Sotho, the Pedi people use earth colours for painting

huts and walls; boy initiates have their faces painted white (West & Morris

1976); even little girls have their hair red-ochred (Tyrrell 1968).

The colourful geometric patterns on the walls of Ndebele houses are painted

with earth colours, but store-bought paints are also used. The colours wash off

and the walls are repainted from time to time (Tyrrell 1968). Women diviners

redden their hair; brides use powdered slate in their hair (West & Morris 1976).

Venda girl initiates are rubbed with red ochre and the traditional pottery is

painted with natural pigments (West & Morris 1976).

Tsonga girls paint their faces with white clay, red ochre, and washing blue;

the faces of girl initiates are painted white (West & Morris 1976).

The Valley Tonga women use fat on their bodies, sometimes with ochre,

especially for ceremonial occasions; hair is treated with ochre and fat (Tyrrell

1968).

The Shona used oil and charcoal in their hair (Baines 1842-53: 27; Ander-

son 1888: 351).

Mauch (1871-2: 210 et seq.) recorded the copious use of fats on their bodies

by the ‘Makalaka’, including ground-nut oil and cream, but did not mention

pigments.

The Ntwana women of eastern Transvaal (of Tswana origin) have a hair-

style of clay, wood ash, and butter sprinkled with mica dust; when a woman

wears red ochre, it denotes that she is ‘taking a journey’ (Tyrrell 1968: 73, 76).

The various Tswana peoples were particularly fond of haematite, especially

the metallic form, specularite, which they mined themselves (Burchell 1822-4 2:

182) and mixed with grease for a cosmetic paint (e.g. Harris 1852: 43; Fritsch

1872: 151; Bain 1949: 13). White clay, red ochre, black, and grey pigments were

also used (e.g. Fritsch 1872: 207; Leyland 1866: 55; Chapman 1849-63 1: 92;

Stow 1905: 522, 523). The elandsboontjie root (Elephantorrhiza elephantina)

pounded and mixed to a paste with water, is used for tanning and colouring

hides red (F. M. Barbour, McGregor Museum, Kimberley, 1972 pers. comm.).

The Herero (also known as Damara in the literature, from the Hottentot

Gomacha Dama or Cattle Dama), are possibly the most prolific users of red

ochre for cosmetic purposes in southern Africa. Both men and women who still

use traditional dress mix red ochre with grease, usually butter (which is made

but not for eating), to rub into their hair, over their entire bodies, and on their

skin clothing; it is used by the Himba (traditionally cattle-owners) (Fig. 3) and

the ‘poorer’ Tjimba of the Kaokoveld who were previously without cattle (e.g.

Tindall 1839-55: 59; McKiernan 1874-79: 40; Chapman 1849-63 1: 167; Fritsch

1872: 216; Galton 1889: 60, 115-117; Van Warmelo 1951: 36; Moller 1899: 217;

Bannister & Johnson 1978; personal observation 1974).

14 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 3. Himba women coloured from top to toe with red ochre, eastern Kaokoveld 1974.

In the Waterberg of northern South West Africa there was an open-pit mine

for ‘Raseneisenerz’ which the Herero women ground on hollowed stones and

mixed with sheep fat or butter for a cosmetic; this was the same iron ore that the

Kwanyama of Ovamboland used for smelting iron (J. Gaerdes, Okahandja

district, 1971 pers. comm.). The women also use the finely ground rind of

Okatjikwe (Nicolasia felicioides) (Otto 1979).

Along the Okavango River, the Mbukushu women plaster the front of their

hair with clay and fat, and their hair is elongated with string or fibres and fat

(Mertens 1974). The ‘Vambunza’ (Mbunza) rub butter on a corpse (Forg 1968),

but in this instance pigments were not mentioned.

The Ovambo use butter and animal fats, sometimes mixed with pigments, for

cosmetic and ritual purposes; the earth pigments are red ochre, ‘yellow clay’, and

white earth (e.g. Jordon 1883: 526; Anderson 1888: 250; Galton 1889: 123, 130;

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 15

Lebzelter 1934: 219, 235; Vedder 1938: 71). In marriage rites, ‘white earth’ is used,

and young Ndonga girls used a mixture of fat, ‘black ochre’ and a resin-like Juice in

their hair (M6ller 1899: 165, 175). The oily red wood of Spirostachys africana

(tamboti) is ground and mixed with fat or butter for a cosmetic for women (Palmer

& Pitman 1972). In 1974 the author bought a bundle of this wood, gathered for

cosmetic purposes, from an Ovambo woman at Oniipa. Store-bought pigments are

now also used (J. Gaerdes 1971 pers. comm.).

The Bergdama (officially and confusingly called Damara, a historical name

for the Herero) used salves of fat, ochre and buchu, or only fat (Lebzelter 1934:

117, 139; Vedder 1928a: 58). Their witch-doctors sometimes smeared their faces

with blood (Vedder 1928: 64).

In Angola the Ngangela women paint their bodies black, white and red;

pigments are mixed with castor oil and used for ritual and magical purposes, not

for ordinary decoration; the Nyemba women paint their hair, necks and shoul-

ders with powdered red wood mixed with water and oil, in contrast to the people

in the eastern areas where ‘burnt earth’ is used (Schachtzabel 1923: 96, 108,

179). Powdered red wood, called /ucula, is mixed with butter and used as a

cosmetic in southern Angola; bodies are painted white and huts are painted with

patterns for protection against evil spirits (Bolinder 1952: 48, 64, 85). Chokwe

women use red clay in their hair (Bolinder 1952: 86).

Uses for blood were not often recorded and, apart from its use by

Bergdama witch-doctors, no mention was found of its use as an ingredient for

paint, although it might have been used in this way. Just a few references are

mentioned here: the Herero saved it for consumption (Alexander 1838 2: 167);

Mauch (1871-2: 196) saw it kept for eating in Matabeleland; the ‘knobnose’

people living between the Drakensberg, Transvaal, and Delagoa Bay made hut

floors of clay, washed over with cowdung and finished with blood—the surface

was polished with a stone (Dunn 1931, fig. 1, legend).

To summarize: the various black peoples of southern Africa use earth

pigments—mainly iron oxides—for cosmetic, ritual and medicinal purposes, and

to colour walls and objects such as pottery; charcoal may be used for a pigment,

and plant pigments are also used, usually to a lesser extent; some red woods are

ground for cosmetic pigments as well as perfumes. The traditional media are

mainly various kinds of fat—animal fat, marrow, butter, vegetable oils and, less

often, cream, while petroleum jelly is a modern addition; sometimes water is a

medium; one reference was found where oil and water were used together with a

plant pigment—this would have had the effect of an emulsion; plant sap seems

to have been used very rarely; one instance was found where blood was used

ritually on faces, but there might have been other instances not traced.

ROCK PAINTINGS WORLD-WIDE

For comparative purposes, the pigments and paints that were used, or

thought to have been used, in rock art elsewhere than in southern Africa are

briefly recorded here, as well as problems experienced in that field of study. This

16 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

does not in any way imply a connection between the rock paintings of people

elsewhere in the world and those in southern Africa, although this is quite

possibly the case in territories immediately north of the subcontinent, but that is

not relevant here. What is known about paints in the southern African rock art

is discussed in the next section.

Europe

According to Kuhn (1952: 30-32), in Palaeolithic rock paintings all shades

of colours were used with the exception of green and blue; black was manganese

ore, iron oxide and carbon; white was marl; ochres were used for brown, reds

and yellows; violet, which occurs ‘often’, is not easy to identify; grinding-stones,

on which the pigments were powdered, have been found; as the paint feels fatty,

it seems to have been mixed with fat; the chemical analyses undertaken (up to

1952) did not yield any satisfactory results as the vegetable ingredients that had

possibly been used would have leached out; possibly white of egg, blood, honey,

tallow, bone marrow, fish oil, and resin were used as binders; apart from blood,

all the other ingredients are no longer chemically detectable. Kthn quoted

Obermaier (1938) as suggesting fat, blood serum, and white of egg as binders in

the paints used for eastern Spanish rock paintings, and said that Herberts

(1940), who undertook work on the composition of paints and conducted many

experiments, found that moist rock rejects fat; his best experiments were with

blood—the mixture attached to both dry and moist rock, especially when water

was added, but he found that blood darkened fast and, with it, the paint;

Herbert concluded that not fat but water had been the medium. Kuhn concluded

that the lime sinter leaching out of the rock and creating an enamel-like layer

protected the paintings; he mentioned that crayons were certainly used in some

caves, and at Altamira such crayons had been found on a rock ledge.

Ucko & Rosenfeld (1967: 57 ff.) wrote that the paints of Palaeolithic man

were all derived from natural earth pigments, including all shades of ochres, but

reds and browns were the most common. ‘Red ochre occurs naturally but could

also have been obtained from pure yellow and brown varieties through burning.

Black and a violet black were obtained from manganese oxides. Black pigments

from charcoal or from the soot of fatty substances such as animal fat, bone, etc.,

may have been used, but since they consist essentially of carbon they are under

certain circumstances less likely to be well preserved than the manganese black.

Blue and green are unknown in palaeolithic art, although organic dyes may well

have been used.’ Outlines and infilling are discussed. ‘It is not always known

whether the pigments were applied directly on the walls in the form of crayons

. . or by rubbing on as powdered pigments or as a paste. The evidence suggests

that there were several ways of preparing paints and different techniques were

probably employed . . .; one form of paint was undoubtedly applied liquid and

probably applied with a brush or tampon.’ Stencilling might have been done by

blowing powder, paste or liquid, and hollow tubes of long bone might have been

used. Handprints were made with hands coated in paint.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 17

Almagro (in Pericot Garcia & Perell6 1964) recorded that chemical analyses

of paints from Spanish Levantine paintings had not yielded significant informa-

tion. Pericot (in Pericot Garcia & Perell6 1964) concluded that Levantine artists

used dry oily paint with various kinds of grease content, while the northern

Cantabrian paintings are more like pencil drawings. Porcar (in Pericot Garcia &

Perell6 1964) found that the colours of Levantine paintings at Gasulla and

Valtorta were more intense when moistened and ranged ‘from light to dark-red,

bluish to violet manganese, flat to intense black’.

Garcia Guinea (1975) noted that during excavations at Altamira in 1924 and

1925, Obermaier found ‘red and yellow ochre pencils of different shapes, wood

carbon and greyish-white loam representing the materials used for blending the

colours. He also found red, yellow or grayish-white clay.’

North America

Grant (1967: 13-14) recorded the following regarding the rock paintings of

the American Indian: most of the rock paintings found in North America are

painted in various shades of red, ranging from bright vermilion to a dull

brown-red. Sometimes they are in black and, rarely, in white. Occasionally blue,

green and yellow were used. The enduring pigments were earth colours. Red

was almost universally made from ‘iron oxide hematite’. Some tribes heated the

mineral in areas where a naturally brilliant earthy haematite was unavailable.

Yellow came from limonite, white from chalky deposits such as diatomaceous

earth or minerals such as gypsum and kaolin. Black was from manganese ore,

charcoal, or roasted graphite. Greens and blues probably came from copper

ores. Where haematite was unavailable, ‘burnt clay’ was used. In British

Columbia yellow ochre was baked to get a red pigment: it was powdered,

kneaded with water into balls the size of walnuts, flattened into discs, and baked

on a hot fire. ‘The earthy ores were ground fine in stone mortars and often

moulded into cakes for storage for body painting, rock painting, or any other

decorative use. For rock painting the pigment was reground and mixed with

some sort of oil binder to give it permanence. The type of binder certainly

varied from place to place, but animal oils, blood, white of egg, and vegetable

oils were all readily available and any would serve the purpose. The Yokuts. . .

in California often used sap from the common milkweed Asclepias mixed with

oil from the crushed seeds of the Chillicothe Echinocystis.’

‘The application of the paint to the rock surface was usually done with

brushes, some of which have been found in cave shelters. They were made from

frayed ends of yucca, twigs or bound masses of fibre. . . . Pointed sticks may

have been used . . . and for some of the cruder paintings it is obvious that finger

painting did the job. Occasionally the drawing was made directly on the rock

with a piece of hematite or a lump of charcoal.’

‘Small paint mortars, sea-shells and the like were used for palettes and small

depressions were sometimes ground in the rock below the painting to hold

colours, traces of which can still be seen.’

18 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

In writing of the Indian rock paints of the Great Lakes, Dewdney (in

Dewdney & Kidd 1967: 17) concluded that there can be no doubt that almost all

the Shield pictographs were painted with red ochres, a majority by using a finger

for a brush, but binders were more problematic. Red was the sacred colour for

the aborigine in many areas of North America. Iron-stained earths and rusted

iron ores usually occurred locally or could be obtained by trade. Colours range

from rusty orange, misnamed vermilion by some, to purplish brick-red. ‘We can

scarcely suppose that the same binding agent was used by every Indian who

painted a rock. But it may be that some binders were more permanent than

others. Certainly most of the pigment now is difficult to scrape off with a knife.

Why? I found a clue to the answer in a non-Indian painting on the Red Rock

site. Applied while dripping with the binder—presumably the linseed oil com-

monly used until this mid-century—the burnt sienna pigment, though still

strong, rubbed off easily, leaving only a faint pink stain on the rock. The

pigment was so suspended in oil that it was separated by a thin film from direct

contact with the rock grains.’ He deduced that the water-soluble fish glues or egg

fluid available to the Indians would create more opportunity of contact with the

rock grains than the equally available sturgeon oil or bear grease. ‘By the same

reasoning little or no binder (i.e. water alone—if no rain blew on the face while

the paint was drying—would provide the ideal condition for such bonding.’

Paintings on a cliff face on the shore of Lake Superior were exposed to waves

and shore-ice, driving rain and snow, and were at least a century and a half old

but had endured.

Less used colours were black, yellow and white, according to Dewdney (in

Dewdney & Kidd 1967: 6). ‘The Shield aborigines knew how to use heat to convert

the hydrous yellow ochre into the anhydrous red oxide.’ An Indian described for

him how he reddened earth by bringing it to a white heat in a frying-pan, then mixed

it with oil rendered from whitefish gut. The reddish-brown paint was used to

waterproof his log cabin and paddles, and it dried with a slight gloss. ‘As early as the

1740s James Isham in his “Observations” reported that “‘the Glue the Natives saves

out of the Sturgeon is very strong and good, they use itt in mixing with their paint,

which fixes the Colours so that they never Rub out”’.’ Dewdney suggested the use of

spittle. At sites the paint had smeared downwards ‘as if a blowing rain had partially

dissolved it before it had set; this suggested a light, water-solvent binder.

Geologists tell me, too, that the red oxide is partly soluble in the carbonic acid

formed by rain that has picked up carbon dioxide from the air, but that it also has an

adhesive action in the formation of some types of rock’ (pp. 21-22). Analysis

identified one sample of paint as a ferric oxide, ‘but the traces of organic material

which would indicate the binder were so slight that carbon-dating was out of the

question’ (p. 30). At one site the paint (‘a dull wine-gray’) seemed to have been ‘a

dye, rather than a pigment, applied with a small stiff brush . . . some lines have a

sharp, clear edge, even where the rock is rough’. One theory was demonstrated: a

line was made with a piece of haematite, then a wet finger was used to broaden the

line (p. 39). Some pigments were transparent (p. 73). At one site white pigment had

—

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 19

been mixed with both yellow and black (p. 94). At several sites large areas of rock

had been smeared with red ochre that would have required more red ochre than was

available to an individual, and it might have been made by a group for ritual

purposes (p. 126).

Kidd (in Dewdney & Kidd 1967: 169) noted that the Indians used pigments

for body paints and to paint their belongings as well as rock paintings. The white

pigment in rock paintings might have been guano or a white earth. Although

preliminary tests were made to determine the nature of the binder, it remained

unknown. Good binders were known to the Indians. Gull’s eggs and bear’s

grease were suggested, and ‘beaver tails and fish roe, the hoofs of moose and

deer, could all be used to make glue, and fish and rabbit skins may have been

uitilized also’. Apparently the binder leached out in time, leans the pigment

firmly attached to the rock.

Short methods for the identification of pigments in North American rock

paintings were based on determining the cation or metallic component of the

pigment (Littmann 1975). ‘Semi-micro methods have been devised for the

identification of the metallic components comprising the pigments used in

mesoamerican mural paintings. These methods are based upon samples of

10-15 mg for each of the colors to be studied and include the reds, greens, blues,

blacks and browns. The analyses are performed on individual samples for each

color, thereby eliminating the need for long and tedious analytical procedures

which are difficult to apply to the small amount of material often available.’

In Canada a scientific study of rock paintings was started by a co-operative

effort between the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Trent University

Rock Art Project with the primary objectives to study the causes of natural

deterioration, methods of preservation and dating, to determine the pigments,

binding media, and rock types used by the rock artists, bonding between

pigment and rock, and the apparent fading of paintings. Samples examined by

means of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray microanalysis were found to

consist of a four-layer structure: the base rock, a white underlayer (initially

thought to have been a primer), a pigment layer (anhydrous iron oxide, Fe 03)

intimately mixed with the underlayer, and a surface overlayer. The underlayer

and overlayer consisted of identical aluminium silicate formed by groundwater

seepage; both were impervious to water and acted as protective coatings to the

paintings, but also obscured and gave some paintings a ‘faded’ appearance,

while the pigments themselves did not fade. However, due to temperature

variations, small particles of these layers broke off from the parent rock,

destroying the paintings (Taylor et al. 1974). (Further details regarding the study

are not relevant here.)

South America

Gardner (1924) made a study of rock paintings in north-west Cordoba,

Argentine: the colours were white, light bluish-grey, black, dark grey, possibly a

faded black, and red, ‘the remainder in combination of these and other colours’.

20 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

White predominated, then black, then red. White and red were probably limestone

and ‘ochre’, black might have been organic, such as charcoal or soot, except in a few

cases where pyrolusite (MnO,) seemed to be indicated. White might also have been

bird guano. Samples of white, red, and black paints were microscopically and

chemically tested: two white samples were hydrated oxide of calcium only slightly

altered to carbonate by atmospheric condition, i.e. slaked lime; the aborigines of

that time (not later than the middle of the sixteenth century) were apparently

acquainted with the process of lime-burning; a third white sample was sulphate of

calcium with phosphate of calcium; ‘the use of calcined bones might account for the

phosphate of lime content but its presence also seems to confirm. . . excrement of

the larger Raptores’. Gypsum was uncommon in the region. Red was oxide of iron,

common in the region in red form. The black sample was organic matter, perhaps

soot. These colours might have been employed for painting designs on pottery and

for markings on the face. At sites of ancient aboriginal settlements in north-west

Cordoba, nodules and cakes of red, black and yellow were discovered and analysed

and found to be ‘ochre, perhaps burnt’, dioxide of manganese (pyrolusite), and

limonite, respectively.

Ceylon

In Ceylon the Vedda women made crude rock paintings for amusement

(Seligman n.d.). Further details were not given.

Australia

The colours used in Aboriginal paintings in Arnhem Land are red, black,

yellow, and white pigments ground to a thin paste on a flat stone. A fixative is the

sap of a bruised orchid bulb, rubbed directly on the painting-surface. The brushes

are strips of chewed bark, thin sticks, and a single feather, or strands of palm leaf

(Mountford 1954, preface). All Aborigines are natural artists, according to

Mountford (1964: 9); he had yet to meet one who could not or did not want to paint.

Older paintings are renovated. In Mountford’s photograph at page 15 the

renovator seems to be painting with his finger. “The colours for bark painting are

made from red, yellow, black and white pigments which are ground, with water, on

a coarse-textured flat stone until they are of a cream-like consistency. Some of the

pigments are obtained locally, others by trade. . . . Fora fixative the artists utilize

the sap from the broken bulb of one of the tree orchids. On most occasions this sap

is rubbed on the inner surface of the bark sheet, although. . . itis often mixed with

the pigments on the grinding-stone. Three kinds of brushes are used: a narrow strip

of bark, chewed at one end for the broad lines; a thin cylindrical stick for the dots;

and a flexible brush made from either a few fibres of palm leaf or a single, small

feather for the fine parallel lines.’

In the rock shelter at Owalinja, the Pitjandjara Aborigines renew the old

paintings annually; the paintings in ‘yellow cobalt ochre’ that are on older red,

black, and white paintings at Owalinja show later trade contacts with the

neighbouring Jankundjara (Tindale 1972: 240).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 21

In male initiation, manganese dioxide, traded from the south-east, or

charcoal and grease are rubbed over the forehead of the Pitjandjara initiate

(Tindale 1972: 257). Bernt (1972: 204) noted that in the Australian Western

Desert, where the Walmandjeri and Gugadja are, a blood rite is performed in

male initiation when a man is given arm blood to drink, and some is also spurted

over him. Initiated Aborigine youths renewed the rock paintings of their clan, ‘a

reproduction and fertility rite observed by Elkin insAustralia and corroborated

by Frobenius in Senegal, where the initiated youths are given the task . . . of

renewing the rock paintings of their clan, sometimes with blood, sometimes with

red colouring matter’ (Lajoux 1963).

According to Clarke (1976), naturally occurring pigments used by Abor-

igines in rock paintings in Western Australia are a red pigment (mainly haema-

tite, Fe,O3) from a red ochre mine worked until historic times by Aborigines,

and a white pigment, huntite (Mg3;Ca (Co3),), still collected and used by them.

Little is recorded of traditional Aboriginal methods of preparation. The ochre is

still used for body painting, but there are no contemporary records of it being

used in rock paintings. In samples of red paint from the closest painting site to

the mine, no trace of an organic binder was found. In the Kimberley Region of

Western Australia, recent paintings in colours were made on white backgrounds

with ‘white ochre’ (sic); some of the Aboriginal artists are still living in the area.

The white pigment occurred as irregular nodules up to 15 cm long in a clay-rich,

weathered, basic volcanic rock; it is huntite, a rare alkaline mineral, used for

body painting and decorating artefacts. (See also Clarke 1978.) When used for

rock paintings it was sometimes mixed with other pigments, then applied as a

paste with the fingers. No trace of an organic binder was found. It is not very

durable, and the paintings are no longer being retouched as in the past. (Clarke

has since acknowledged that the term ‘white ochre’ is incorrect (Patrick Baker,

Fremantle, 1981 pers. comm.).)

Chaloupka (1978) noted that in the Northern Territory ‘the pigments used

in rock paintings are naturally occurring ochres, hematite, manganese oxide and

charcoal. As earth originating colours they do not “‘fade”’ but weather away and

are affected by the same process of mechanical, chemical and biological weath-

ering as the rock surfaces they have been painted on. ... The red ochres,

especially those of hematite base, have great staining properties, penetrating the

sandstone surface at times to a depth of four millimetres, depending on the

rock’s composition. Limonite particles and those of white ochre [sic] (with the

exception of huntite) are larger and less dense, necessitating thicker application

and usually no penetration of the paint-rock interface occurs.’ Binders were not

used.

North Africa

Lhote (1959: 179-180) experimented with ‘ochreous schists’ found at the

Tassili paintings ‘and identical with those employed by the prehistoric Tassili

artists’. The schists yielded the same colours and there was no difficulty in

22 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

painting on sandstone, which absorbed the colour; ‘all prehistoric paintings with

a red-ochre base have so deeply penetrated into the substance of the stone that

they are now indelible. The yellow ochres . . . are not so stable, although they

do resist water quite well. The whites, however, are much more delicate and

must be treated with care.’ (He did not say what he used for binders.) Lhote

(1959: 196-197) found that there were a ‘multitude of tints to be observed in the

Tassili paintings. . . . Generally speaking, a simplified palette consisted mostly

of red ochre, a kaolin white and oxide of manganese.’ The schists ranged in

colour from a very dark ochre, almost chocolate, various reds and yellows,

ending up with a markedly greenish tone. The media are not known but, based

on analyses made of remains of paintings at Jebel Uwenat, included both casein

(from milk) and acacia gum. ‘Consistency of the ochres was not the same in all

epochs’—some coatings were quite thick, others had been more fluid and had

penetrated deeper into the surface of the rock.

Lajoux (1963: 31-33) found that at Tassili ‘a close examination of the

paintings shows that a large proportion of the works of the archaeic period were

thickly painted, or rather pasted, especially with the white colouring matter

frequently used by this ‘‘school”. This layer .. . is scarcely perceptible in the

naturalistic paintings. The painters of this period must have moistened their

colours with a very fluid solvent, water or milk (casein is an excellent fixative,

and experiments carried out by Dr Pietsch on the colouring materials of the

Libyan rock paintings have revealed its presence).’ The colour soaked into the

sandstone. The early period paintings did not last as long as those that had

soaked in. Pigments at Tassili were abundant schists. There are few indications

to tell how the painters had worked.

East Africa

‘Sandawa informants in Tanzania told Dr Eric Ten Raa that the syrupy

urine of the dassie or rock hare was used as a binding agent for pigments in rock

painting’ (Biesele 1974).

Zambia

In Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), Holiday (1961) experimented with

pigments and binders on slabs of rock. He did not name the pigments, but

among his media were egg white (albumen), yolk of egg, and whole egg. After

drying in the sun, the paint was subjected to hot water and scrubbing. The

samples with egg yolk and albumen, and only albumen ‘came away more rapidly

than egg yolk which seemed to be the more permanent’. Marrow fat with

pigments gave the consistency of commercial floor polish and was highly

unsuitable for painting fine lines, but could be smeared on. When the sample

was left in the sun, the paint penetrated the rock and left a dark stain round the

painting; even after exposure to the hot sun for several days, the pigment came

off when rubbed, but it might have dried in time. With scrubbing, most of the

pigment was removed, leaving a dark oily stain. Some Zambian paintings show

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 23

the characteristic staining that comes from fat. Vegetable oils (not identified) did

not dry and showed the characteristic staining of the rock. Castor oil is

indigenous, and ‘musikili’ oil is used with ochre for body painting in Zambia, but

appears to be non-drying—these oils were not used in the experiments. Upon

weathering, the paint with vegetable oil seemed to be ‘fairly resistant’, but it was

not as permanent as paint with egg yolk. Sap from Euphorbia, a wild rubber

tree, and a wild fig became clear and tacky on exposure to air. It adhered to the

brush, but when diluted with water made a good medium for paint that dried

with a slightly glossy surface and was not tacky to the touch, contrary to the

reports of other experimenters. A medium of gum arabic (acacia gum) dissolved

in water gave a paint that was firm with a durable surface, and became soluble

only after prolonged wetting.

Photographic tests on the samples with ultra-violet and fluorescent light

showed that kaolin, haematite, and carbon fluoresced when mixed with fat, but

not on their own. Traces of weathered paint showed up when photographed, but

results with superpositions of layers of paints were not satisfactory. (See also

Clark 1954.)

Summary

The Palaeolithic artists of Europe apparently used mineral or earth pig-

ments and charcoal for the rock paintings; organic dyes and blood have also

been suggested. Suggestions for media were fat, marrow, tallow, fish oil, egg,

blood, honey, resin, and water. Blood was said to have been detected in tests; it

darkened in experiments. Paints were liquid or paste, and crayons were found in

caves; the artists made handprints and had a stencilling technique.

North American rock painters used earth pigments, mainly red ochre;

haematite was heated; charcoal was used and guano and dyes might have been

used. The media suggested were animal and vegetable oils, animal and vegetable

glues, egg, blood, and spittle. Some binders seem to have been water solvent.

Media were not identified by tests (by 1967), but pigments were identified (by

1975). Crayons or fingers were used for painting, and brushes of twigs and fibre

were found as well as small paint mortars and containers such as shells. Some

Indians still fashion haematite and water into cakes, which are reground and

mixed with oil for body and rock painting, etc. Others still use Asclepias sap and

oil seeds. Heated iron oxide and fish oil serve as a paint for waterproofing cabins

and paddles, and fish glue was known to have been a medium for Indian paint in

historical times. It was suggested that water or water-soluble substances for

media would have created better bonding and more lasting paints than other

substances. Pigments were identified by determining their metallic components.

Other methods for determining paints were scanning electron microscopy and

X-ray microanalysis.

In South America the rock artists used earth pigments and, possibly,

charcoal; iron oxides, slaked lime, and sulphate of calcium were identified in

tests; bird guano was suggested. Cakes of pigment have been found at sites.

24 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Earth pigments, including haematite and huntite (white), were, and are

still, used in Australian rock art; blood is used when renewing paintings in some

rituals. The media used are plant sap and water, and sometimes the pigments

are used without a medium. Rock surfaces may be prepared by rubbing with

plant sap. Fingers and brushes of bark, sticks, or feathers are used to apply the

paints. In initiation, blood or grease and charcoal are smeared on bodies.

Rock artists in north Africa used earth pigments; analyses showed that

casein (milk) and acacia gum were binders. Water might have been used. Some

paints were thick, others fluid.

Dassie urine was said to have been used as a binder by rock painters in

Tanzania.

Media suggested for Zambian paintings were egg, fat, vegetable oil, gum,

and water, but their presence in the paintings was not proved.

The paints suggested for South African rock paintings are discussed in the

following section.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 25

THEORIES AND EXPERIMENTS REGARDING

SOUTHERN AFRICAN ROCK PAINTINGS

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written about the pigments and paints used in the rock

paintings of southern Africa. This information is presented in chronological

order in The Data at the end of this section, and serves as full references for the

discussion and summary in the following pages where detailed references are not

repeated. The terms for the various mineral pigments follow those of the

original authors whose identifications might not always have been accurate.

DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY

The information on the various media and the pigments, as well as the

techniques of painting, has been assembled in tables in chronological order. It is

difficult, often impossible, to judge the authenticity of the data, but the

following list of categories has been devised to give an indication, at least, of

how the various writers and informants seemed to have come by their informa-

tion or conclusions. This is reflected in the last column of each table in this

section. In the circumstances, it is not claimed that this assessment is accurate.

Category

A First-hand knowledge—painter or observer

B_ Second-hand knowledge—from painter or observer, i.e. from an A

person

C_ Third-hand knowledge, i.e. from a B person

Ch Hearsay evidence

D_ Deductions from examining paintings, archaeological evidence,

ethnographical parallels, e.g. body paints

E Deductions from experiments

F Information from the literature, acknowledged

Fu Information from the literature, unacknowledged

G Suggestions, guesswork

U_ Unauthenticated—could be any of the above

The information from the data about the identity of the rock artists is listed

in Table 1 and will not be discussed further (see also Who were the artists? in the

main introduction).

MEDIA (Table 2)

Fat

Nearly all the approximately forty authors listed gave fat as a medium for

the rock paints. Most of them did not specify the kind of fat. There were 2

references to ostrich fat, 1 to bird fat, 1 to vegetable fat or oil, 7 to marrow, and

1 to brains.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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28 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Just how authentic is this information, judging by the available evidence? Of

those who mentioned the use of unidentified, presumably animal, fats, both Hahn

and Dornan had known of ‘Bushman’ artists in their time in South West Africa and

Botswana respectively, but neither stated categorically that they had seen them

painting, in fact, Dornan (1917) said that he had been told of it; Dornan (1925) once

saw a ‘half-bred Bushman’ painting and using melted fat—the painter was paid for

his efforts. This information could be category A or B.

It seems that Hahn meant that fat, honey, and gum had been used together

in South West Africa (category A or B), but gum would certainly have had to be

dissolved in water to have been effective as a medium. It seems like a sticky

paste that the artists might have had to apply with their fingers.

Baines had received his information from ‘an old Hottentot’ who said he

had seen painters at work, and Ellenberger’s information came from an old

Basotho woman who had also seen painters—both B category evidence.

Apthorp’s information from the eastern Cape falls into category C. It is not clear

from Wells whether his information falls into category C, or whether it is

hearsay evidence (category Ch)—according to Mason, none of the informants

who had spoken to the researchers, including Wells, had seen rock painters.

Black indigenous peoples in southern Africa also mix pigments with fat (see

previous section) and the informants might have been drawing on their own

experience. Rudner & Rudner used ethnographical evidence when they sug-

gested fat for rock paints (category D); a few, such as Muller, Moszeik,

Magennis, Huwiler, and Johnson arrived at their conclusions by means of

experiments, based variously on suggestions in the literature, their own deduc-

tions and, probably, some guesswork.

Most of the other evidence seems to fall into the last categories, i.e.

information from the literature (acknowledged and unacknowledged), deduc-

tions (perhaps from ethnographical knowledge), and guesswork. It is not known

why Schapera mentioned fat ‘of certain animals—he did not say which animals.

Vinnicombe was apparently quoting Moszeik, Adam, and a letter when writing

that ‘mortar stones containing pulverized ochre mixed with animal fat’ had been

found in painted shelters—but Moszeik (1910) said no such thing and Adam had

misquoted him.

Durability of red ochre mixed with grease was illustrated by Burchell’s

remark that the red stain on his waggon was difficult to remove.

According to Holliday (1961, see previous section), the presence of fat can

be revealed by the use of ultra-violet photography.

Currlé’s evidence regarding the use of ostrich fat with red mushroom

powder falls into category B. Rudner & Rudner suggested its possible use for

painting fine lines as it remains fluid when rendered (category D).

Muller suggested ‘vegetable fat’ (the only such reference found) from an

examination of a painted slab.

Vinnicombe misquoted Wells (1933) as saying that the use of eland fat was

traditional—it was Mason (1933), published in the same journal, who wrote

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 29

that, and his information had come from black informants who had not seen

painters. Eland, as other big game, carry more fat than smaller antelope that

generally have little fat, and the big game are, therefore, prized for their fat (see

section on the Bushmen). Péringuey was wrong in saying that the only antelope

with fat was the eland—the bodies of all antelopes and, indeed, mammals

generally contain fat (Acting Director, National Zoological Gardens, 1970 pers.

comm.}. In some areas such as South West Africa, the gemsbok is prized for its

fat.

The information regarding the use of marrow falls into the lower categor-

ies—it is either guesswork or otherwise unauthenticated. Strey did not give the

reference when he quoted Hahn as saying that ‘ostrich marrow’ had been one of

the media with fat and honey, and it is not in the paper where Hahn mentioned

fat, honey, and gum as media. Unlike other birds, some ostrich bones do

contain marrow—the tarsometatarsus, tibiotarsus, and humerus are completely

filled with marrow, while the femur is filled with spongy bone; the ostrich also

has a thick layer of abdominal fat (W. B. Appel, Die Klein Karoo Land-

boukodperasie Bpk., Oudtshoorn, 1979 pers. comm.).

What are the properties of oil-based paints? According to Doerner (1949),

fatty oils in paints used by artists (not rock artists) are of vegetable origin and

are either drying or non-drying; semi-drying oils that are closely related are the

fish oils and animal fats. The drying of fatty oils is the result of absorption of

oxygen from the air, and water in small quantities is a necessary factor in the

drying of fatty oils. In the open and under unfavourable conditions the oil coat

may disintegrate owing to the effects of the temperature: the once elastic ‘skin’

becomes brittle, cracks, and can be rubbed off like a powder resembling flour.

Quiet air, coolness and darkness retard drying. Fatty oils turn yellow, and white

paint may become yellow. Temperature affects the fluidity of oil. Battiss

suggested that ‘oil’ was not used in rock painting as this would lead to shrinking

and cracking—but this is not likely if the paint had impregnated the rock.

Experimenters outside southern Africa found that fat was not a good binder

(e.g. Dewdney in Dewdney & Kidd 1967; Holliday 1961—see previous section).

It has been noted that North American Indians used fish oil and fish glue in their

paints, but there is no evidence for such use in southern Africa, nor is it likely

that these substances were used.

The author experimented with rendered beef fat (which is not the softest

kind of fat) placed in a container in the sun for a few minutes to melt. Some of it

was mixed with fine ash, some with charcoal (the only pigments available at the

time), and similar mixtures were made with the addition of a little water to form

emulsions, while other mixtures were made with water and the pigments only.

The ‘paints’ were applied with chewed match ends to a rough pebble of Table

Mountain Sandstone.

The sun-warmed fat-and-pigment mixtures applied well to the stone with

fine lines possible and set quickly, the mixtures with water only could be applied

equally well but the charcoal seemed to ‘float’ a little until the water had

30 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

penetrated the stone, and the emulsions could be applied best of all with finer

lines than with the other mixtures. The ash with fat only was a darker grey than

the other ash mixtures and the water paint was the lightest. The black appeared

to be the same intensity in all three mixtures with charcoal. In both kinds of

mixtures where the fat only had been used, the paint on the stone was slightly

thicker. Three weeks later the stone was placed under a normal garden spray,

the painted surface vertical. After 6 hours the ash-and-water paint had run a

little so that the upper part of the painted stroke was thinner than the lower

where the excess paint had accumulated. The charcoal-and-water paint had all

but disappeared, and the other paints were unchanged.

There is no doubt that warmed fat would have been a suitable medium,

particularly soft fat, but that an emulsion of fat and water would have been

better. Only time will tell which of these paints will stand up best to weathering.

The author cannot see any point in rubbing and scrubbing experimental paint-

ings (as has been done) as this hardly simulates natural conditions. The majority

of the paintings that have been preserved are in sheltered positions and untold

numbers in protected positions must have disappeared.

Urine

Urine as a medium was suggested by four writers, one of whom (Willcox

1956) submitted that analysis of some paint had shown a high nitrogen content

consistent with urine having been the medium. Huwiler’s experiments with urine

as a medium proved negative.

Human urine normally contains amino acids, but there are relatively few

and they are fugitive (R. Stead, Blood Transfusion Service, 1979 pers. comm.).

(See also Blood below.)

Moszeik’s information from another person that Bushmen had used ‘rock

rabbit’ excrement for paint probably falls into category Ch information: the

excrement usually consists of a mixture of dung and urine and was found in tests

to consist mainly of carbonates (see Fig. 4). The Sandawe in Tanzania were said

to have used ‘dassie urine’ as a binding agent for pigments in rock paintings,

according to Biesele (1974) (mentioned previously).

Blood

According to How, a Basotho man who had seen Bushmen painting, said

that blood was a medium; he had wanted eland blood for experimental paintings

(category B information). His painting that had been left outdoors did not last,

those kept indoors lasted for years. Ellenberger said that the Basotho ‘insisted’

that blood had been used in paint—for lack of further information this must be

regarded as category Ch evidence. How suggested that paint mixed with blood

and ‘black earth’ may become brown, but it is not clear whether it was meant

here that blood gave the brown colour. The closest evidence that blood was used

in rock paintings came from Lesotho only, but it was in these Drakensberg

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 3]

regions where the last painters operated (with the exception of Hahn’s evidence

on South West Africa and Dornan’s evidence on northern Botswana) and where

information could still be obtained earlier this century. Dunn, who worked

among the Bushmen, said only that blood was formerly thought to have been a

medium. He believed that plant sap was used with pigments. Moszeik quoted

Bent as writing that blood was a main ingredient for paint. Friendly’s informa-

tion was probably from the literature. Others quoted Denninger’s experiments

without necessarily accepting his conclusions on the presence of blood in rock

paints. Butzer et al. probably obtained their (unreferenced) information about

the presence of ‘albuminous binders’ in rock paints from Denninger’s work.

According to Vinnicombe, her experiments (not described) showed that the

durability of the paint was increased when blood was added, but the duration of

the experiment was not given. Huwiler found that blood used on its own could

be removed only with hard rubbing or washing, and used with pigments it could

be washed off, but he did not state how long the paint had been allowed to set.

Willcox apparently accepted Denninger’s conclusions, but said that, when blood

was used as a medium, the painters would have had to work very quickly before

the blood clotted or they might have had a method of drying and reconstituting

the blood to prevent it from clotting.

The greatest protagonist of blood as an ingredient for paints was Dennin-

ger. He maintained in one report (c. 19665) that all rock paintings examined in

South and South West Africa had been painted almost without exception with

animal blood or blood serum as media. He was quoted in this by Pager. But in

the same report, and others, Denninger (1963, c. 1966a) conceded that there

were paint samples in which amino acids were not found, or in which binders

were not found and had perhaps not been used. He concluded in his report of c.

1966b that those samples without amino acids either did not contain albuminous

media or were older than 2 000 years (the time taken for amino acids to

disappear, according to his method); elsewhere (Denninger 1963) he came to the

strange conclusion that because in ‘all samples containing amino acids protein

containing fixing agents were used, therefore those without amino acids must

have had similar fixatives and were therefore over 2 000 years-—and he repeated

this assertion.

In various of these reports Denninger remarked on a sinter that had formed

over some paintings and would have acted as a protecting layer; Ktthn (1952)

also suggested that the sinter over some Spanish rock paintings would have

protected them (see previous section).

One can point out here that spittle contains amino acids and so does

marrow (R. Stead 1979 pers. comm.).

Denninger made experimental paint with the fresh blood of a sheep as an

ingredient: it was claimed to be waterproof after 6 months, undamaged by water

and brushes.

When referring to a dark-brown painting, Denninger wrote that ‘it is fairly

certain that it is a painting of ochre fixed with blood and executed approximately

32 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

within the last 50 years’, and that the iron in the blood first darkens in colour

and ‘after a few centuries’ starts to become lighter brown. ‘Since such iron-

brown paintings, which have shown themselves to be very old by the absence of

amino acids (over 2 000 years) have been found at other sites ... it can be

concluded that blood was used as a fixative.’ Statements such as this defy all

logic, and it also seems that Denninger believes that the colour of these brown

paintings, over 2 000 years old by his reckoning, is partly due to the blood

apparently used as a medium.

A closer look at some of these statements about blood by Denninger and

others is necessary.

Blood starts to congeal within a few minutes. Various authors (How 1962,

Willcox 1971) have suggested that when using blood the artists would have had

to work quickly. The use of serum, which remains fluid, has been suggested

(Denninger 1963, c. 1966b). How would the painters have obtained serum? The

process is simple: whole blood need only stand for some 24 hours or so when the

clear, yellowish serum comes to the top and the thick matter sinks to the

bottom; 1 litre of blood will yield 300-400 millilitres of serum (R. Stead 1979

pers. comm. ).

But there is also a simple and effective way of preventing blood from

clotting. Acting on information received during fieldwork among the Nama

people in South West Africa (see section on the present-day Nama), the author

used a bowl of freshly taken blood from a slaughtered sheep and whisked it with

little bunches of twigs, discarding each bunch as it became clotted with fibrin.

The blood that remained was kept in a refrigerator for 14 days, when it was

discarded. It had not congealed but had darkened slightly. On the farm in the

Carnarvon district where this experiment took place, the coloured workers also

knew of this method. It was known to the early nineteenth century settlers who

used such whisked blood with ‘stale milk’ or vegetable oils, quicklime or cement,

to which they added ground earth pigments for painting the exteriors of houses,

especially the woodwork (Lewcock 1963).

At the Maitland abattoirs, Cape Town, the author found that a 2-litre jug of

blood freshly taken from an ox congealed in 4-5 minutes to a stiff, jellied mass

with very little liquid in the container. (Farmers catch blood from slaughtered

animals by letting it run along a channel or funnel into a wide basin, thereby

allowing it to cool and retarding the congealing process (P. Pretorius, South

African Museum, 1980 pers. comm.).) At the abattoirs a second jug of blood

was poured into three separate jars within a minute of having been taken from

an ox. That in one jar was whisked with twigs to remove the fibrin and remained

uncongealed for a week before being discarded. The second jar also contained a

handful of small pebbles, and the blood in this jar was thoroughly shaken to

break up the fibrin (butchers use this method when making blood products (A.

J. Louw, Director Maitland Abattoir, 1980 pers. comm.)); it had not congealed

even after a week, but had a thick, finely granular consistency. The blood in the

third jar was not disturbed, and separated into a congealed mass with a very

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 33

small amount of clear, yellowish serum on top. The red colour of the three lots

of blood was the same after a week.

Various experimental mixtures with and without pigments and fat were

painted on a slab of coarse quartzitic sandstone but it is still too early for

adequate results.

Some years ago some of the sheep blood without the fibrin was smeared on

a fairly rough slab of quartzitic sandstone by means of a stick. The stone was left

on a high ledge facing west under a verandah in the south-western Cape, where

it remained for years, untouched by direct sunlight or rain. After some days the

red blood had already turned dark brown, it became black, after less than 2

years it had started to fade until it was a light brown, and before 4 full years had

passed there was no visible sign that there had ever been blood smears.

According to Schwerd (1962: 44-46), blood spots become brown when they dry

and become increasingly ‘grey’ as they age, especially if exposed to direct

sunlight—this is due to the ultra-violet rays; he stated that 10 hours of sun has

the same effect as 6 days of diffused light, and fresh blood is more water soluble

than old blood.

Denninger’s suggestion, or implication, that ‘very old’ brown paintings in

which amino acids had not been found, had had blood in them apparently because

of the brown colour, and that the blood in the paint starts to fade ‘after a few

centuries’ is strongly questioned. It may be that blood will take longer to fade when

mixed with other substances, but blood used on its own would not have lasted as a

colour for more than a few years. Forensic specialists have not been able to supply

the author with positive information, and long-term experimentation is necessary

to arrive at the answers. (See also blood under Pigments below.)

Conflicting statements by others about the durability of paints mixed with

blood in experiments have been made; these, too, will require testing under

properly controlled conditions.

It is not clear why Denninger mentions the presence of only ten amino acids

in fresh blood, when various other experts who have been consulted maintain

that there must be twenty or more, nor is it clear why he claims that the, often

few, amino acids detected in paint samples must be those of blood and blood

only. The following notes have been supplied by R. Stead of the Western

Province Blood Transfusion Service (1979 pers. comm.) after consultation with

colleagues: ‘In the first place I think that we have a problem of terminology in

translating German to English, since the term albumin (or albumen) is used

frequently in place of the term “protein” in our English terminology. I suspect

that on several occasions Dr Denninger is referring to proteins in general,

whereas we would interpret him to be referring to albumin (i.e. possibly derived

from blood). Secondly, we have reservations about the technical aspect of amino

acids terminations as used by Dr Denninger. He is using a relatively crude

technique, which distinguishes ten groups of amino acids, and hence changes in

any one of these groups could be attributed to several causes. Modern tech-

niques permit one to identify twenty or more amino acids, which provides far

34 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

greater specificity in detecting differences between proteins of differing origin,

or changes in a single protein during weathering. Bearing in mind this limitation

on the technical side, we come now to the general question of amino acid

availability as a means of estimating the age of a painting. Naturally this is a

specialized field in itself, and I can only offer a few questions as they arise to me

as a non-specialist viewing the conclusions which have been drawn from this

work. It seems vital if one is to maintain a close relationship between ageing and

amino acid content, that the weathering conditions be tightly controlled and I

find it difficult to imagine either that weathering conditions are insignificant, or

that they have been sufficiently well controlled in so many diverse locations and

conditions of temperature, humidity, etc. For example, a protein which was

mixed with an alkaline white wash and subjected to European weathering

conditions, can hardly be compared with a protein in a dry, hot rock painting

environment in Africa. Even assuming that one has dealt with this problem, a

second problem arises, namely the question of protein source. I seriously

question Dr Denninger’s claim to be able to identify a protein source from the

amino acid profile obtained with his procedure. Even if one were able to define

protein source from the amino acid profile, one still has the problem of

differentiating in a given painting between the effects of ageing and differences

due to protein source alone. A simple example of this problem springs to mind

in the comparison of clotted or unclotted blood. If blood were used as a base

before clotting occurred, the base would contain fibrin, whereas if serum were

used (i.e. after clotting) the fibrin protein would be absent. Different amino acid

profiles should result, due to difference in protein source alone. How does Dr

Denninger account for these differences without knowing a priori what the

protein source is? In summary then, Dr Denninger’s results raise more questions

than they answer. It may be that these issues have been tested and dealt with

elsewhere, but this is not apparent from the paper which you have given me.’

(Nor is it apparent from any of the papers that the author has seen.) On the

question of clotting, R. Stead wrote as follows: ‘One could imagine several ways

of preventing clotting in the field, so to speak. Clotting might be delayed by low

temperatures (i.e. in winter), by continuous agitation of the blood, by dilution,

or even by addition of certain inorganic components (e.g. clay) which might be

used as a component of the paint, and which might bind calcium ions and hence

prevent clotting. The classical method of defibrination involves agitation in the

presence of small particles (e.g. twigs) which serve to bind the fibrin chain as it

begins to form. One could also imagine clotting being prevented by natural

antagonists such as snake venoms, some of which would also cause lysis of the

erythrocytes, producing a more intensely coloured liquid.’

The suggestion that blood might have been used by rock artists is not

unique to southern Africa—in a previous section it was noted that the use of

blood or blood serum was suggested for European Palaeolithic paintings and for

North American rock paintings, and that it was used for painting in the East

Indies in the seventeenth century.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 35

Water

According to Apthorp, water and fat (together?) were used with pigments

for rock paintings (category C information). Huss & Otto suggested the use of

water with soot or kaolin for making crayons, or with ochres for paints (D? or

G? category); Schapera did not say how he arrived at the information that water

or saliva had been a medium; How’s experimental painter used water with

ochre, and Huwiler’s experiments with water and pigments proved negative.

As water is always freely available, it could have been an obvious medium

for paints and must have been used sometimes, but whether these paintings

lasted is another matter; perhaps those in protected shelters might have en-

dured.

It was noted previously that some peoples such as the black people in

southern Africa and the Australian Aborigines mix pigments with water, and

Dewdney, in his study of North American rock paintings, suggested that water

mixed with pigments would have provided ideal bonding to the rock. Red ochre,

which is fine-grained, has excellent staining properties, but other pigments such

as the white kaolin and gypsum, which are not as fine-grained, are known not to

be as durable.

Milk

Battiss suggested milk and salt as media, possibly because of knowledge of

paints used by artists. Willcox included milk in his list of media suggested by

others. Friendly mentioned milk without giving his source of information—it was

possibly taken from the literature. Where would hunter—gatherers have obtained

milk other than when they had stolen cattle or killed a lactating animal? The

Bushmen did, indeed, acquire a few head of cattle from time to time, and some

had small herds in the nineteenth century (e.g. Campbell 1822 2: 287); and the

Hottentots were mainly herders; but there is as yet no scientific basis for this

suggestion of milk as a medium, and in the next sections on the Bushmen and

Hottentots the use of milk will be examined (as well as of other suggested

substances) to see whether there is any traditional basis for this suggestion.

As noted above, traces of milk were said to have been found in paintings in

north Africa, and its presence or absence in our paintings could perhaps be

ascertained chemically.

Egg

Battiss suggested egg as a medium for rock paints. Johnson suggested egg

tempera and found in his experiments that fine lines were possible with it as a

medium, and that it produced the best results, but he did not give his exact

ingredients. He stated that in thin layers at ordinary temperatures the albumen

becomes insoluble in water. Steyn & Steyn misquoted Johnson in saying that egg

tempera was ‘one of the most popular’ media for rock paintings. Huwiler found in

his experiments that paint with white of egg applied well but came off with hard

rubbing or washing. Denninger dismissed the possibility of albumen-containing

36 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

(albumen in egg, etc., albumin in blood) whites of egg (why not whole egg?) having

been used as ‘their binding action is not resistant to solution by water to the degree

required for the preservation of paintings on outdoor sites’. (Information on

tempera paints has been noted in the previous section; see also here below.)

All this remains conjecture and there is, as yet, no chemical evidence that

egg was used as a medium for rock paints. Egg has also been suggested as a

medium for paints used by rock artists in other parts of the world, but no

evidence for its use was traced.

In his book on materials for modern artists, Doerner (1949) stated that egg

white is very brittle and comes off easily if too much is used, or if it is used by

itself as a ground (p. 26). Painting with egg yolk on dry walls was formerly a

common practice and egg yolk and lime combine very solidly. The colours are

ground to a stiff consistency with a little water and mixed 1: 1 with yolk of egg.

The painting would become ‘as hard as stone’; ‘indoors it is absolutely reliable,

but out of doors only where sufficiently protected’ (p. 300). Egg tempera

consists of whole egg, oil, and water mixed in that order (p. 213). One can use

the egg yolk alone—yolk of egg will absorb an amount of oily substances equal

to its own oil content. White of egg contains about 85 per cent water, very little

oil and about 12 per cent albumen, the specific adhesive substance of the egg

white, of which the yolk contains more, about 15 per cent. ‘Egg white becomes

hard when heated to about 70 °C, but also when simply exposed to sunlight.’

The egg (whole egg) emulsion dries, forming a very elastic skin, which becomes

waterproof and unusually hard, much more resistant than oil colour (p. 214).

Egg yolk was used as tempera in medieval recipes, by itself, and with water,

sometimes with the juice of fig sprouts. Egg tempera is today the most used

tempera. It adheres well to all grounds, and becomes gradually insoluble in

water. It gives a smooth, soft brush stroke. Egg white was also used for tempera

in the early Middle Ages. ‘Egg white sets when exposed to light, that is to say, it

becomes insoluble in water’ (p. 216).

Plant sap

Several people suggested the use of plant juices for mixing with the

pigments and even their use as paints, but some plant latexes, which are white

when fresh, dry colourless. The closest to any acceptable evidence were the

deductions by Péringuey that the juice of an ‘Asclepiad’ might have been used

because it was called ‘Bushman’s paint plant’ by the Basotho, Ellenberger’s

information from the Basotho that plant juices had been used, and How’s

information that the juice of ‘Asclepia gibba’ (Motsoko oa Baroa, motsoko of

the Bushmen) had been used with white clay (category B?). How suggested the

use of various other plant juices for media, without saying why. The guess by De

Laport and Péringuey that the red infusion of the elandsboontjie root could have

been used with pigments (or by itself) for paint is a probability, as farmers are

known to have used it. Huss & Otto’s suggestion of aloe juice was apparently

copied by Lebzelter.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 37

(It was noted previously that Indians in California use Asclepias sap and

vegetable oil for a paint. Doerner (1949: 211) noted that there are in nature a

large number of emulsions for present-day artists, such as egg, especially the

yolk, milk, the milky juice of young fig sprouts, the dandelion, the milkweed,

etc?)

Botanists have supplied the author with information on the plants men-

tioned above. The elandsboontjie, Elephantorrhiza elephantina is very common

throughout the highveld of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. It is also found

in parts of Natal, Lesotho, Swaziland, South West Africa, the Kalahari, and in

parts of the north-western and eastern Cape, but not in the south-western Cape

(J. P. Rourke, National Botanic Gardens of South Africa, 1970 pers. comm.)

(see also Plant pigments in section on the Nama).

Information on How’s suggested plants came from A. Jacot-Guillarmod

(Rhodes University, 1971 pers. comm.): ‘Motsoko oa Baroa means ‘‘Asclepias

of the Bushmen” and this name is still regularly used for two species of

asclepias, A. eminens and A. gibba. Rete la nt ja could be species of Asclepias,

Asparagus, Eulophia or Euphorbia. Most often it is applied to Euphorbia striata

Thunb. Sehloko may apply to Parapodium costatum—I do not know for cer-

tain—but sehamela poli certainly applies. ... All Asclepiads contain a milky

latex, as do Euphorbia species. Euphorbia clavarioides is a cushion type of

Euphorbia which is regularly scarified by Basotho herdboys and the dried latex

later collected for use as chewing-gum. This is the species most likely to have

been used for large-scale collection of latex, together with the larger Asclepiads

such as Parapodium spp, Xysmalobium spp, Pachycarpus spp, etc., all fairly

common formerly. Another possible Euphorbia species is E. epicyparissias, still

fairly common. I include a list of Sesotho names for the scientific names of all

those I mention ... but, please note, with no absolute certainty that the

specimens will be in complete correspondence with what I give—some parts of

the country have different terms or a slight shift in naming.’

Asclepias eminens montsoko; montsuku; motseko; motsoko; motsoku; mot-

sukunyane-sehoete

A. gibba as for A. eminens

A. species lerete-la-ntja; rete-la-ntja

Asparagus species rete-la-ntja

Eulophia clavicornis vars. rete-la-ntja

Euphorbia clavarioides sehlehle; sehloko; thethebale

E. epicyparissias sehlakoana-se-senyenyane

E. natalensis sehlakoana-se-senyenyane

E. striata matsoane; mohlatsisa; mositsane

E. species rete-la-ntja; sehloko-se-seholo

Pachycarpus rigidus leraka-mpshane; leshokhoana; maraka-mpshane; mpsha-

tle-ea-thaba; phoma-metso; pho tsehla; tsoenyaling

P. vexillaris leshokhoa

P. species sehoete-nchoatle

Parapodium costatum sehamela-poli

Xysmalobium parviflorum leoto-la-khoho; ntsime; tsoetla

X. undulatum leshokhoa; poho-tsehla

X. zeyheri lithelo; sehoete-mohlaka

38 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

This list of names was sent to S. Talukdar of the then University of

Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland at Roma, who sent the author samples of

some of these plants, listed as follows (S. Talukdar 1971 pers. comm.):

Asclepia eminens montsokoana (montsoko in your reference)

A. species lereta-la-ntja, rete-la-ntja

Asparagus dentatus leraratau (rete-le-ntja in your reference)

Euphorbia clavarioides sehloko

E. striata matsoane, mohlatsisa, mositsane

Pachycarpus rigidus leshokhoana

Xysmalobium parviflorum monkiling (leoto-la-khoho in your letter)

X. undulatum leshokhoa, poho-tsela

‘The collectors were shown herbarium specimens and noted that the names

given by you do not always agree with theirs.’

The plants, or parts of plants, had been collected in April, i.e. after the

summer rains, and were in a fresh state, having been brought to Cape Town by

air. Those parts that would yield sap were grated and the pulp was then

squeezed in an orange press—the results were minimal. For instance, a root of

Xysmalobium sp. 200 mm long and c. 1,5 mm in diameter, and another of

X. undulatum, 300 mm long and up to 40 mm in diameter in places, each

produced about 15 ml (1 teaspoonful) of sap. A root of Asclepias eminens,

300 mm long and 15 mm in diameter, produced only enough moisture to leave a

sticky feeling on the hands. With Pachycarpus rigidus there was a little latex

apparent on breaking the 100 mm piece of root, but none was apparent after

grating and squeezing. The root of Asclepias sp. showed spiderweb-like strands

of sticky latex, but there was no juice to be extracted. Others produced less or

no sap. It may be that with heating more sap could have been obtained but, in

any event, a great deal of plant material and a lot of preparation would have

been necessary had the artists used such materials. Infusions in water might have

produced some sort of binder.

Gum

Hahn noted that the Bushmen painters in southern South West Africa used

fat, gum, and honey as media—he might have meant that they were used

together. Others mentioned gum as a medium, but it amounted to no more than

speculation, or plagiarism.

Lhote (1959: 196-197) claimed that tests showed the presence of acacia gum

in north African rock paintings. Gum has been a constituent in some European

paints for centuries and was used in ancient Egypt. There is every likelihood that

our own rock artists might have found it a useful ingredient for their paints, too,

but water would certainly have had to be added. Whether the paintings would

have lasted is another matter.

Honey

As mentioned before, Bushmen painters in South West Africa were said to

have used honey in their paints, and, according to a letter from A. W. H[ey] to

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 39

the Daily Despatch (quoted by Péringuey), in the eastern Cape honey was

applied to the rock and a crayon of stone was rubbed over it—this information

had come from old Thembus. Péringuey thought that honey would eventually

‘scale off’, but that a fatty substance would not. Hey (1954) repeated years later

that honey was said to have been used. Information by others on the use of

honey amounted to suggestions only. Johnson found in his experiments that it

washed off—the ants that went with it would no doubt have destroyed the

painting in the end, anyway; and Huwiler’s experiments with honey proved

negative.

‘In Spanish recipes (Pacheco 1649) rye paste mixed with olive oil and honey

is mentioned. On top of this two oil coats were applied. No wonder such

grounds would not last!’ (Doerner 1949).

Other media

Other media that were suggested were: saliva, by Dornan (category B),

copied by Schapera; salt, by Battiss (a guess); bile, by Johnson who found it to

be ‘successful’ in his experiments, but that a large quantity would have to be

‘laborously procured and mixed’—he did not say why he had chosen it; wax

resin, by Johnson, also only a suggestion; beeswax, which proved negative in

Huwiler’s experiments; and gelatine, which proved to be good in Huwiler’s

experiments but it required the cooking of bones to get it—the two latter media

were guesses.

Both the Egyptians and the Romans used beeswax in some of their paints

(noted previously), so there must be some way in which it can be successfully

included in a paint.

Scholars of rock paintings in North America suggested the use of animal

glues as binders, and there is definite evidence that fish glues had been used by

the American Indians for paints.

In subsequent sections it will be examined whether or not the Khoisan

peoples were known to have used such substances in any way. A use for stomach

liquid was not suggested, but it is known to have been used by Khoisan peoples

in the absence of water—such use will be examined later.

PIGMENTS (Table 3)

Reds, browns

Earth pigments

Various iron oxides for use as pigments in the rock paintings have been

mentioned and the various names for these have been used loosely and probably

inaccurately sometimes. The colours of these mineral pigments, which occur

widely, range from metallic greys with red in them, to reds, browns, yellowish

browns, and yellows.

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 43

Red oxide (ferric iron, Fe,O,) ranges from light to dark red; the main iron

ore is haematite. Crystalline forms are the varieties specularite (brilliant flakes),

and kidney ore (rounded masses with radial structure), which are bluish grey to

black and metallic with a reddish streak. The earthy, powdery forms are red

ochre. Hydrous ferric oxide (2Fe,03. 3H,O) varies from yellow and reddish

yellow to brown and dark-brown varieties; the principal ore is limonite. Goe-

thite (FeO(OH)) is distinguished from limonite in being crystalline, and may be

brownish black, yellow, or red.

The ferric oxides are fast colours.

Péringuey deduced that specular iron was used in paints because of caches

of this mineral found in pots or in ostrich egg-shells. He mixed some with fat as

an experiment. Hahn mentioned the use by Bushman painters of ‘fatty red

stone’, and by Hottentot women painters of red ochre. He did not state

categorically that he had actually seen the painters at work, and his identification

of the painters appears to be ambiguous: in the 1879 reference it is ‘Bushmen’,

in 1881 it is ‘Khoikhoi’, but the areas mentioned seem to be the same; it could

be that he was referring to the Hottentot-speaking Saan Bushmen (see p. 8).

Stanford’s informant mentioned the use of earth pigments and apparently knew

of painters, but whether he actually saw them painting is not clear. The

information about painters and their paints, including iron oxides, from Dornan

may be category A or, more likely, B information; although he did see a

‘half-bred Bushman’ making paintings, he did not say whether this was by

chance or at his request. How’s information about pigments clearly falls into

category B.

Category C information came from Apthorp, copied by Péringuey. Hearsay

evidence (category Ch) came from the letters of Wood, Péringuey, and ‘A. W.

H.’, and also from Wells, who mentioned ‘coloured minerals’, which would have

included iron oxides.

Some people arrived at their conclusions about the use of iron oxides as

pigments by deduction or by experiments or both. Of these Segal and Denninger

actually analysed the paints to conclude that among the ingredients there had

been iron oxides. And the last categories in the list, F-U, were well represented.

Burchell and Magennis found that iron oxide pigments with fat made a

tenacious paint, but Roberts said that, according to another source, ‘it could be

immediately rubbed off’ no matter how long it had been left to dry.

Other pigments for red that were mentioned were ‘calcined moist siderite’

(an iron carbonate) and ‘heated limonite’ (both found in tests by Segal);

‘ferruginous shale’, identified from a sample found in a cave by Hey; martite,

suggested by Stevenson-Hamilton; and cinnebar, suggested by Battiss who said

it may turn brown.

Battiss thought that some paintings in ‘shallow bas-relief’ had preserved the

underlying rock, while the rest of the rock had eroded slightly. It is difficult to

comprehend how he arrived at the conclusion that ‘dark red’ bodies of eland

paintings had ‘gone brown’.

44 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Blood

Blood for a red pigment was suggested by Squire and Balfour, both

unsubstantiated suggestions; Péringuey stated that blood was not used, but that

was equally unsubstantiated. Denninger claimed that his-experiments proved the

presence of blood in the paints, and he stated that blood had also been a

pigment. The author has proved experimentally that had blood alone been used

for paint, the red colour would have faded away completely after only a few

years, but it could well be that the addition of other substances could retard the

process. However, the blood would not have remained the initial bright red.

Butzer et al. were possibly following Denninger in stating that animal blood

had been a pigment in the paint (no references given), and there are others who

also quoted Denninger.

Properly controlled experiments are now necessary to establish the facts.

Plant pigments

Very few plant pigments were mentioned in the suggestions regarding

ingredients for rock paints. Currlé’s evidence of a red pigment from a

‘mushroom’ falls into category B.

The history of the information regarding the elandsboontjie root as a red

pigment seems to be: Péringuey had heard of its use (he did not say how he had

heard of it), and asked De Laporte, who was at the Sabi Game Reserve, for a

sample; the latter experimented with an infusion that was apparently successful

as a paint or dye; Péringuey wrote back giving the botanical name; Stevenson-

Hamilton took up the theme 15 years later in connection with paintings in the

Sabi area, with the information sounding so much as if it had come from the

Péringuey—De Laporte correspondence that it is possible this information had

one source only.

Van Riet Lowe’s (1951) statement that plant materials had not been used is

pure guesswork, although the colours might have faded if used. Ellenberger did

not substantiate his statement that plant pigments were seldom used in the

paintings.

Pink

Pink was mentioned by Kannemeyer, and Pager quoted Denninger that

‘burnt ochre’ and quartz formed this colour in the rock paintings. Red ochre and

a white pigment such as gypsum would do as well.

Yellows

According to most of the references, yellows came from iron oxides. The

information from Hahn that ‘Bushmen’ in southern South West Africa used

‘marl’, and from Dornan that ‘clay’ had been used for yellow could be in

categories A or B; Stanford’s information that ‘iron ochre’ was used could be

category B; category C information came from Baines, who mentioned ‘earths’,

and Apthorp, who mentioned ‘clay’ and was copied by Péringuey; Pager quoted

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 45

Denninger’s findings regarding ‘burnt ochre’. The rest of the information of

yellow pigments rested on deductions, sometimes with experiments, guesswork,

and quoting the suggestions of others. Among the pigments mentioned were

iron oxides, iron pyrites, dolorite, and sulphur.

White

Hahn wrote of the use of lime by ‘Bushmen’, and Dornan wrote of ‘white

clay’ (category A or B). The information of Baines (‘earths’) and Apthorp

(‘clay’) seems to fall into category C, and that of Roberts on the use of the

kernel of ‘stamvruchte’ is hearsay evidence. How’s informant ‘thought’ that clay

was used by Lesotho Bushmen artists, probably influenced by the fact that the

Basotho themselves used it for ceremonial purposes, as noted in a previous

section. Denninger identified gypsum and kaolin in some paint samples.

The other evidence falls into categories D and below—the pigments men-

tioned were chalk, zinc oxide, volcanic sandstone or tuff, kaolin, burnt bone,

natrolite, earth, gypsum, quartzite, calcite, talc, ash, and marl.

Willcox suggested that plant latex might have been a white pigment.

Holliday (see previous section) found that sap from Euphorbia, a wild rubber

tree, and a wild fig became clear and tacky on exposure to air—further

experiments are necessary to find out whether some plant saps do retain their

white colour.

The suggestion of bird droppings for a white pigment apparently originated

with Somerville (1799-1802), and was repeated by Goodwin (1946, see also

Goodwin 1936), but also in 1924 Gardner had suggested the use of bird guano in

South American rock paintings (see previous section). After Goodwin, this was

mentioned by Battiss, then Willcox, Johnson, Huwiler, again Willcox, and

Butzer et al., but no scientific basis for this was given.

Of the white pigments most frequently suggested, gypsum is slightly soluble

in water; china clay, or kaolin, and talc are practically insoluble in water.

Students of rock art have remarked on the fact that the white paints are usually

not as durable as the iron oxides.

Black

The pigment most often mentioned for black was charcoal. Here, again,

Hahn’s information may belong in category A or B. How’s experimental artist

used charcoal (category B); Baines mentioned charcoal and ‘black stone’, and

Apthorp mentioned charcoal—both category C information; Denninger found

charcoal in paint samples. The rest of the information falls into D and lower

categories and, besides charcoal, includes ‘glansruss’, soot, burnt bone, magne-

tite, lampblack, manganese, graphite, and shale. The charcoal designs seen by

Huss & Otto at the Kei River could have been late paintings, and the ‘artists’

might have been children, perhaps black children.

46 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Blue

Kannemeyer, Dornan, and Willcox merely mentioned that blue had been

one of the colours used. Burkitt (1928) and Bleek (1930), perhaps from Burkitt,

suggested phosphatic nodules for blue pigment. This is an extremely rare colour

in rock paintings in southern Africa.

Green

Willcox mentioned green as a colour but that the pigment was unknown.

Rudner & Rudner found that the apparent light green in a painting was yellow

on black. Huwiler suggested the use of quartzite with mica and calcite for green.

Schoonraad found green paintings in the vicinity of copper mines with surface

outcrops of malachite, the possible source. Green is a very rare colour in the

rock paintings.

Other

Moszeik had heard that dassie excrement was used as a pigment; Scully

suggested ‘plants’ for pigments; and Mason mentioned finding a purplish-black

pigment in a cavity in sandstone.

TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS (Table 4)

The techniques and tools employed by the rock artists may give an indica-

tion of the consistency of the pigments and paints that they used.

Crayons

Several workers mentioned the use of crayons for rock paintings. Dornan

did not say whether he had seen the crayon that was made with the pigment and

boiling fat, and it may be, like some of his other comments, category A or B

information, but he did see a crayon being used by a ‘half-bred Bushman?’ artist.

‘A. W. H.’ (quoted by Péringuey) was told of the use of a crayon. Others

deduced from studying the paintings that crayons of some kind had been used on

occasion, and there were the usual guesses and unsubstantiated statements.

Feathers

Baines was told by an old Hottentot that the artists used a feather as a brush

(category B information); Dornan got his information about the use of feathers

by watching the above-mentioned Bushman artist at work (category A informa-

tion). Other references to the use of a feather as a brush, particularly for fine

lines, fall into category D, and some are apparently guesses.

Brushes of feathers

Dornan received information that brushes made of ‘ostrich feathers’ were

used by ‘Masarwa’ artists (category B information). How saw a Basotho man

(who had watched Bushman painters) using a brush made of feathers. Christol

did not give his source of information about the use of feather brushes.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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48 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Brushes of hair

Stanford was told that brushes made of the mane or tail of gnu were used

(category B information). Ellenberger obtained the same information from a

Basotho woman. Other information about such brushes amounted to deductions

from studying the paintings, and unsubstantiated statements.

Tendons

Balfour wrote of ‘specially prepared tendons’, without giving his source of

information. Schapera used this information. Ellenberger wrote of ‘sinews’,

perhaps using this information unacknowledged as he had so often done in other

instances.

Bone

Moszeik published category B information from a farmer that pliable bone

splinters had been used with which to apply the paint. In the same year Whyte

found sharpened bone splinters in Natal rock shelters, which he thought might

have been used for this purpose. Ellenberger published Moszeik’s information,

unacknowledged, and claimed to have found such splinters in northern Lesotho.

Three others suggested bone splinters or spatulae, perhaps influenced by some

of the foregoing.

Stick

Three writers suggested that sticks might have been used to apply the paints

to the rock; one of them was Ellenberger who received other information from a

Basotho woman, but it does not seem that he obtained this particular informa-

tion from her.

Grass

Apthorp had been told that a split grass stalk served as a brush (category C

information).

Burnt stick

The first reference found to the use of a ‘burnt stick’ for making the outlines

of the pictures was that of Dornan (1917). He had been told of its use and later

wrote of seeing it used (categories B and A respectively). Schapera copied this

information.

Finger

Various students of rock art deduced that paints were sometimes applied

with the fingers, particularly in the late paintings, and have described ‘finger-

smears’ and ‘finger-dots’ among the paintings, as well as handprints where paint

had been smeared on a hand that was then applied to the rock. (There were too

many of these references to include in the data section.) Stylized handprints,

where only a portion of the hand had been smeared with paint, are known

(Rudner & Rudner 1970).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 49

Engraved outline

Péringuey claimed that a painting that he examined had an engraved outline.

He later exaggerated in a letter that this occurred ‘often’. Van Riet Lowe (1952)

recorded some such sites elsewhere, but the author has not seen anything like it

in the rock art. Some lines might have been made later than the paintings.

Horn container

Stow recorded before 1882 that paints were kept in horn containers (cat-

egory B information). Moszeik wrote of horn containers for paint, probably

having obtained this information from Stow (1905), which Schapera and Friend-

ly must have done.

Palettes, grinding-stones

Dunn found a ‘palette’ in a deposit as well as grinding-stones, and suggested

that they had been used for pigments as traces of colour had been seen on them.

Others, too, found similar objects (see Archaeological evidence). Péringuey had

a bivalve shell that bore traces of pigment.

Other techniques

‘A. W. H.’, quoted by Péringuey, had been told that honey was first

smeared on a rock-face and a clayey stone was then used to draw on that.

Willcox and Vinnicombe reported finding white paint applied as a primer or

outline, with colours painted on that afterwards. In a previous section it was

noted that investigators in Canada initially mistook a natural deposit on the rock

under the paintings for a primer, although it may not necessarily have been so in

these southern African instances. Various authors wrote of the apparent durabil-

ity of some paintings, with the red pigments generally lasting better than the

white and black ones; this may indicate different media, but it has been noted

previously that ferric oxides have good staining and lasting qualities. Others

wrote of the disintegration of the rocks, which damaged the paintings; detailed

information in this regard would be a study in itself.

If, as Ellenberger wrote, a ‘small image’ was first made on a flat stone, some

of these should be found in future excavations.

CONCLUSIONS

From the above information one can only conclude that there is very little

reliable information on the paints used by the rock artists, and that the little

primary and secondary information that there is cannot always be accepted

entirely without reservation. A close look at the authenticity and sources of

information reveals that too many writers have accepted uncritically the in-

formation supplied by others, that there has been a considerable amount of

copying, including plagiarism, and that some have added nothing but conjecture

and confusion, but have sometimes still been quoted uncritically.

50 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

It seems that the media might have been animal fats (sometimes heated,

and perhaps with a little water added at other times), water, blood, plant sap,

and honey. Although other media were possibly used, it cannot be proved from

the above information, nor is there sufficient evidence here to indicate how

widespread the use of these media had been or how well they would have lasted.

Earth pigments seem generally to have been used, and there is limited

evidence regarding the use of plant pigments.

The techniques apparently included the use of feathers, brushes of feathers

or hair, sticks, bone spatulae, and crayons, and certainly fingers with which to

apply paints. Horn containers, grinding-stones, and ‘palettes’ were used.

Experiments with paints have sometimes produced conflicting reports. Only

properly controlled experiments with various media and pigments will indicate

which paints might have been practicable and would have endured. Some paints

would have had to be applied as a paste, others would have allowed fine lines to

be made.

Ethnographical information regarding Khoisan pigments and paints may

provide useful evidence and will be examined in the following sections. Particu-

lar attention will be paid to the use of the substances suggested above, however

unlikely some may seem.

THE DATA

W. SOMERVILLE (1799-1802)

In the north-western Cape, near the Gariep River ‘none of the Bushmen hereabouts are at

all acquainted with drawing. When it is practised the younger people are the artists . . . their

black is charcoal—Red, Iron ore—and White they collect from the dry excrement of water

fowl’ (p. 189).

J. Barrow (1806)

The Bushmen used ‘charcoal, pipe clay and the different ochres’ for making rock paintings

(p. 193).

W. J. BURCHELL (1822-4)

A Kora man at Klaarwater wore a kaross ‘which together with his whole body, were so

covered with red ochre and grease that the part of my waggon against which he leaned was

painted, or rather soiled, with a red stain which was found not easy to be extracted’ (1: 490).

T. Barnes (1842-53)

He assumed that Bushmen had made the paintings at Baviaans River: ‘Their pigments

appeared to consist of red, yellow and white earths and charcoal, mixed, as an old Hottentot

informed me, with fat which, indinated by the scorching sun, rendered them indelible; and laid

on... with feathers of different sizes’ (p. 116). Elsewhere he noted that Andries, a Hottentot,

had ‘seen the Bushman artists at their work; they mix red, yellow and white clay or charcoal

and a black stone finely powdered, with fat and with pencils formed of variously sized feathers

imitate . . . the various animals of the country.’

T. HAHN (1879)

‘All’ the Bushmen in southern South West Africa were still painting on rocks; old men and

women taught the children and they painted for pleasure; it was called //hai. (He gives

explanations for the painted signs or designs and mentions various sites with paintings, but does

not say whether these paintings were the ones that these Bushmen had been making.) At

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 5]

'horab, about ‘30 English miles’ south of the mission station, Bethanien, Bushmen were still

painting. Coal, yellow marl, torob or fatty red stone (‘Rothelstein’) and lime were used and, to

make the paints more durable, they mixed these with fat, honey and gum arabic, but the

proportions were not known.

T. HAHN (1881)

‘. . the Khoikhoi women on certain occasions anoint themselves with red ochre, and also

for the purpose of worship make marks with red ochre (forob) on certain sacred stones and

cairns.’ Hahn suggested that ‘the painting of the sacred stones with red ochre was merely an act

to replace the cruel offering of human blood by a simple, symbolical ceremony’ (p. 140).

D. R. KANNEMEYER (1890)

For ‘Bushman’ paintings ‘the “querrin’’, or pigment was formed of charcoal and differently

coloured ochres and clays, and mixed with “’tzuin”, the marrow of the “’tghaa” or eland.

Black, red, white blue, pink and yellow were the prevailing colours used ... succeeding

generations painted a fresh layer over them. . .’. (Kannemeyer describes the paintings but does

not authenticate this information. )

J. T. BENT (1892)

‘The rock is literally covered with these drawings in colours of red, yellow, and black,

which had evidently eaten into the granite, so that the figures are preserved to us.’ Bent called

the Rhodesian paintings ‘Bushman drawings’ (p. 292).

R. P. Impey (1896)

He described paintings (including a life-size figure of an ox) along a tributary of the Buffalo

River in ‘Mooirosis’ country: ‘The pigment or paint used, I believe to be, for black, charcoal;

for white, chalk or white clay, for all the other shades of light yellow to dark reddish-brown, a

substance found in nodules of stone in which, on being broken open, is found a small cavity

containing some kind of oxide of iron in an extremely fine powder, of all shades. . . . These

substances, when mixed with fat, give a good standing paint not easily obliterated by rain.’

T. Muir (1896)

At a meeting of the South African Philosophical Society in 1892, Muir asked if anyone had

studied the question of pigments used by the Bushmen. He proposed that the subject of

cataloguing and preservation of the paintings be remitted to Council.

W. A. Squire (1905)

‘The methods by which the rude artist achieved his object were obviously simple. Coloured

earth, pounded stones, charcoal, blood, mineralised clay with bird fat constituted the pigments

in the little hollows worn in the flat stone which was the primitive palette.’

G. W. Stow (1905)

(Stow died in 1882; the editor of his manuscript added later information.)

In mentioning the Bushman artist shot in the Witteberg Reserve for horse theft, who had

ten small horn pots hanging from his belt, each of which contained a different coloured paint,

Stow did not give any further information on the paints (p. 230).

The brother of a Bushman ‘chief’ was the painter of the family, ‘and in 1869 still carried

two or three of his horn paint-pots swung at his belt’ (p. 200).

The rock of a cave ‘near the southern border of Basutoland’ with a painting depicting an

attack of a commando on Bushmen, ‘is a soft, friable sandstone, and a certain amount of

disintegration has taken place’ (pp. 25-26).

F. von LuscHaw (1908)

The Bushmen always used indigenous earth pigments which they ground with fat.

S. S. Dornan (1909) (see also Dornan 1917, 1925)

The paintings in Basutoland were mainly brown and black, with occasionally blue and

yellow. Most were made ‘within the last 70 years, many 50 years’. ‘Every little clan seems to

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

have had its painter.” Basuto boys ‘smear them with red clay’. ‘A chase of eland by horsemen

could not be older than 1820 when horses came to the Basuto.’

H. BALFour (in Tongue 1909)

The colours were ochres, carbon, blood, zinc oxide, etc. mixed with fat or marrow-oil.

Brushes were feathers and specially prepared tendons. Painters were particular individuals in a

(Bushman) tribe ‘we are told’.

E. & D. BLEEK (in Tongue 1909)

The colours for the rock paintings ‘are said to have been mixed with animal fat. The exact

manner has apparently never been disclosed by the Bushmen.’

O. Moszeik (1910)

He discussed weathering of rock paintings and changes in 15 years, e.g. a picture that had

been ‘perfect’ in 1896, had almost gone by 1908 (pp. 2-4). People who had been on farms in the

north-eastern parts of the Colony for three generations, said that the paintings had changed

very little, if at all (p. 24). There were no paintings in Bushmanland, perhaps because of the

shortage of plants that supplied the painters with the colours (quoting Scully) (p. 8).

The Bushman artist probably had palette, grinding-stone, and crayon, brush and paints of

different kinds. He cites Dunn (p. 29). In an excavation in a ‘Bushman’ cave, Moszeik found a

crayon of ‘hard stone’, 15,5 cm long, ‘square’, and as thick as a thumb; at one end the edges

had been worn down to a rounded end, but the other end was unchanged. A triangular slab of

sandstone from the same place, double the size of a hand, had a light, fairly evenly worked

depression in the middle; it was ‘fairly certain’ that it had served for grinding the pigments as it

was too small and fragile for other purposes. An old farmer (‘Boer’) who saw painters, had told

him that the ‘indigenous artists’ trimmed bone splinters with sharp stones to thin, pliable

spatulae with which they applied the paint (p. 29).

The colours were kept in small horns on a belt (from Stow 19057).

He once discovered in a cave ‘almost 1 to 2 feet’ below the surface, nine different

earth pigments among the stone tools. The colours (in the paintings) occurred in the order:

red, white, brown, yellow, black, blue, grey, violet and, possibly, green. He had not seen

the last rare colour; it could have been another pigment changed by atmosphere. Moszeik

mentioned that Scully said the pigments came from plants and that others suggested this too.

The fruits and roots of Rubia tinctoria produce a red paint, according to the ‘natives’.

It is widely distributed in the Cape. Bent had suggested blood as a main ingredient for red

paint (reference not given) (p. 30). He quotes Impey (1893) on paints (the correct date is

1896 herein).

Various ‘natives’ had said that the Bushmen used the pitch-black excrement of dassies for

paint (p. 30).

A chemist made tests on scrapings from badly preserved paintings from various sites. It

was found that, apart from black, all the other pigments were earth pigments. Red and brown

were ‘Bolus’ (coloured clay containing iron oxides) and haematite; yellow was ‘iron ochre’;

white was zinc oxide; black was charcoal or ‘glansruss’. Blue gave no satisfactory result, only

iron and silica that probably came from the rock. He believed that this proved that at least in

those areas the Bushmen generally used only inorganic pigments common all over South

Africa. Instances in the literature regarding blue paintings are mentioned.

In the purest form the many shades of red, yellow and brown occur as a fine powder in

small hollows in the sandstone. The pigments were finely ground with a stone on a stone slab,

and mixed with bone marrow of game animals; according to Hahn, gum was added as well

(p. 31). Red lasts longer than white. Black does not last long either (p. 32).

Moszeik made the following experiments: he collected earth pigments that were finely

ground and mixed with sheep marrow or water to a thin ‘gruel’. A sandstone slab was painted

with each paint, dried, and left in running water for 3 weeks. The paint with fat in it was not

noticeably affected and only the white had washed off, while of the paints made with water

almost no traces were left. This proved that the paint used by the Bushmen could not have

been anything but oil paint (p. 33). He mentions Péringuey’s (1910, herein) comparison

over the years of paintings copied in the early nineteenth century and again early this century

(p. 33).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS >),

L. PérinGuey (1910)

At a meeting of the Royal Society of South Africa, he showed some copies of ‘Bushman’

paintings published in colour in 1838 (by Sir James Alexander, from a copy by Maj. C. C.

Michell); they were again traced in 1872 (by Schunke—Holloway) and again in 1907 (by

M. Wilman). The colour of the originals had not faded. (See Willcox 1959 herein.)

W. E. STANFORD (1910)

‘Silayi’, who lived among the Bushmen in the Drakensberg in about 1850 (but was not

himself a Bushman), said material for painting their caves was ‘taken out of the ground’. ‘Some

kinds were prepared at the fire. They could paint very well.’ The brushes were ‘hairs taken out

of the tail or mane of a gnu’, tied together and fastened on a thin reed.

A. D. Wuyte (1910)

(In 1910 the Philosophical Society of Natal enlisted the aid of the Natal police in finding

and recording rock paintings. Two troopers, J. A. Hill and A. D. Whyte, were particularly

conscientious. The latter’s report expressed concern at the rapid fading and exfoliation of

paintings (84 were removed to the Natal Museum).) Whyte found pieces of a red paint that was

‘a greasy substance interleaved with yellow sandstone, and when exposed to the air hardens

very quickly. After mixing some with a little water I tried it on a rock, leaving it to dry

thoroughly.’ It was impossible to rub off. He thought that sharpened splinters of bone that he

found might have been used to make the outlines of the figures.

F. Curistor (1911)

The colours for the rock paintings were brown-red, black, white, and yellow pigments; soot

and burnt bone could have been used for black; others were earth pigments abundant in the

country. The earth pigments were mixed with the juice of certain plants, one of which was

Gomphocappus revolutox, an asclepiad called ‘Motsuku oa Baroa’. (See also Péringuey 1913,

1914; How 1962, herein.) Brushes were made of feathers. Christol does not claim here to have

seen painters, but How (1962) wrote that he ‘arrived in Basutoland whilst a few Bushmen were

still painting in the vicinity of his mission station’.

We Guscunry, (1911)

In Bushmanland ‘the Bushmen have left no record in the shape of paintings on the rocks,

which are so common in other parts. This may perhaps be accounted for by the porous nature

of many of the low krantzes in which the caves they occupied are situated. It may be, however,

that the plants from which their pigments were obtained, do not grow in this arid region’

(pp. 15-16).

L. Curr e (1913)

A farmer gave the information that the Namaqualand Bushwomen painted their faces with

pigments and fat (see Data in Bushman section); one pigment was a fine red powder, ajous,

from a mushroom. ‘Preferably ostrich fat is used by them for painting on rocks with this ajous

powder, as this special fat is said to cause the paint to become lasting and hard, imparting with

age a dark brownish colour similar to enamel.’

SouTH AFRICAN MUSEUM CORRESPONDENCE 1913-19

Wood to L. Péringuey 28 April 1913

He sent a cutting from the Daily Despatch, East London, enquiring about Bushman paint,

and said the old Boers had said that the Bushman’s paint was as a rule merely the ochreous

powder in the nodules; ‘mixed with animal fat it made a good adhesive paste. The old Boers

used to paint their names on their waggons with the same stuff—ochre and fat.’

L. Péringuey to Daily Despatch 18 May 1913

He mentions a letter dated 21 April 1913 in the paper from a reader, ‘A.W.H.’ of

Dordrecht (see Péringuey-Hey 1913-14 correspondence and Hey (1954) herein): ‘The writer

4 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

quotes some old Tembus for the assertion that the materials used by the Bushmen in their part

of the country, i.e. the northern portion of the Glen Grey division, were wild honey and the

clayey stone found in many of the mountain river beds.’ Péringuey quotes the letter: ‘Upon

choosing a site for his work, the artist, after tracing the outline of the figure intended, applied

the honey to the rock, and then using the coloured stone, as we now use a crayon, completed

his picture.’ Péringuey goes on to say: ‘There is only one woman alive who could, if she would,

tell us of the modus operandi. She is the relic of the last Bushman painter known to have

inhabited Tsolo. In spite of my requests to that effect, no information has been obtained from

her. . . . It is generally accepted that fat was the medium utilised for mixing with red or yellow

ochre, white clay or charcoal. The Basutos, however, give the name of ‘Bushman-paint-flower’

to an Asclepiad, the milky juice of which is reputed to have been used in the preparation of the

paint. It must be remembered that both honey or caoutchouc would scale off more readily after

a short time than a fatty substance sterilised by the oxide of iron which ochre really is and

thereby made more lasting. . . . An analysis of the red material of some of our paintings at the

Museum has shown that oxide of iron and not blood was utilised for the red paint. But we have

also a Bushman pot filled with specular iron which may or may not have been utilised, either

for daubing the face or for paint.’ He dismisses the use of honey for daubing the face or for

paint. He and an artist examined a very large panel of paintings and found that ‘the outline of

several is graved as well and this style will be found more common than one imagines’. The

artist had suggested that a brush had been used, Péringuey suggested a stick flattened at one

end, but not a crayon. Proof of facial decoration was ‘on a round flat stone’ (perhaps the

Coldstream ‘burial stone’, SAM—AA6008, see Fig. 21 herein and Rudner (1971)). He suggests

that palettes were used for face or body decoration. His son had brought from a midden on the

Cape Flats ‘a bivalve sea-shell which had also served as a palette as shown by the rusty red

paint still adhering to its hollow cavity’.

L. Péringuey to Col. Stanford, eastern Cape, 4 June 1913

He asks that an old woman at Tsolo be interviewed regarding paints. Stanford refers the

matter to M. Apthorp, Department of Native Affairs, who informs Péringuey (11 June 1913)

that the Department is trying to contact her as well as another native.

M. Apthorp, Pretoria, to Péringuey 14 July 1913

‘I regret to say that both Mamxabele, the old woman, and the native mentioned in the

communication are dead. The magistrate of Tsolo, however, got into communication with her

son and the former has furnished the following report.’

‘Her son, Lindiso, states that he was told by his mother during her lifetime that white, red

and yellow clay and charcoal made from the wood of the ““Kafferboom” tree were mixed with

water and the fat of the bushbuck or other animal. The pigment was then applied to the rocks,

etc. with a piece of grass which was sometimes split to make it resemble a brush. Poponi, a

relative of Lindiso’s, corroborates him and says that he remembers, on one occasion, seeing

Mamxabele’s husband mixing and applying some paint.’

Péringuey to A. W. Hey, Dordrecht, 6 July 1913

‘A few years back I asked one of our assistants to copy anew and examine some Bush

paintings that had been copied in 1824 or 1826 and published in chromolithography. On

comparing her tracings and colouring with the latter it was found that the latter was exactly

alike. Thus 85 years had made no difference.’ (See also Péringuey 1909: Willcox 1959;

Rudner & Rudner 1970 herein.) Péringuey added that the eland is the only antelope with

fat and that the pictures were often first cut into the stone, then painted, particularly

the eland.

Péringuey to A. W. Hey 6 January 1914

‘Tam much obliged . . . for the specimens of (colouring) stones which you found in different

caves. ... White: the stone sent is a porous sandstone or tuff from a volcanic rock. I have

heard of a lump of possibly the same stuff having been found buried one foot under ashes in a

shelter in the Ceres District, where nearly all the drawings were executed in white. The yellow:

the specimen is a rotten dolerite. The red is a ferruginous shale, from the Burghersdorp beds.

You thus have the three pigments which plus charcoal are the colours used in your parts. . . .”

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 55

J. Muller to Péringuey 24 January 1914

J. Muller, the Assistant Government Analyst at the Government Chemical Laboratory in

Cape Town, submitted to Péringuey an ‘analysis of a certain native paint adhering to a slab of

slate and also pieces of haematite’. The slab of slate (No. 33) had a red coating of iron oxide,

thicker in patches. ‘Some of the paint was removed and carefully examined for the presence of

an oil or resin with the result that although a fairly considerable proportion of organic matter

was found to be present, it is quite impossible to determine its exact origin.’ The mineral pieces

proved to be crystalline haematite. ‘When finely ground in a mortar gives a dark somewhat

reddish powder but not nearly so red as when a vegetable or animal oil is used in the crushing.

Smears of this were applied to different bits of porcelain and stone and, although not identical

in shade and colour, they simulate closely the colouring on the slab. It seems highly probable

that some crushed form of the mineral has been used together with some fat or oil and applied

to the slab. The fat or oil would through time oxidize and by constant use of the slab be

gradually removed, leaving so little of the final product that identification after all these ages

becomes impossible. I return herewith the Slab No. 33. Certain streaks on the opposite side

have been made in the laboratory here from the dry, powdered haematite, and together with

the oil the difference being quite marked.’

Péringuey to C. R. de Laporte, Sabi Game Reserve, 16 September 1914

He asks for a sample of elandsboontjie root, alleged to have been used as a pigment for

‘Bushman’ paintings; he also wants leaves and a flower for identification.

De Laporte to Péringuey 17 October 1914

He says the plant grows ‘all over’ and in most parts of the Cape Colony, and in the Sabie

Reserve ‘where the Bushman paintings are’; he had not found paintings ‘in the Low Country

proper where it does not grow’. ‘I made experiments with red iron ore, haematite, limonite,

etc. but the solution did not penetrate well and washed off, but with a strong solution, or rather

infusion, of the Elandsboontjie Root I imitated the paintings on granite ... and although

appearing rather faint at first, the colour grows a deeper dull red and better defined as time

goes on and does not wash off. This may . . . be attributed to the tannic acid contained in the

Elandsboontjie Root.’

Péringuey to De Laporte 10 November 1914

‘I find the Elandsbontjes is called Elephantorrhiza burchelli and it is possible that with its

help in solution, or mixed with the iron ore, the paint becomes more firmly, set. But I have

sworn evidence that the pigment used in the Transkei was red or yellow ochre mixed with fat. I

have reproduced the same paint with specular iron mixed with fat. On the other hand, the

milky juice of an Asclepiad may have been used for the mixture, because the Basuto call this

plant the Bushman’s paint plant.’

W. B. Magennis, Cape Town, to Péringuey 14 March 1915

He sent a sample of red pigment to the museum, believed to be that used by Bushman

painters. ‘This red pigment was handed me by Mr Pocock who stated that he had received it

from Mr J. D. Nel of Vondeling in the Clanwilliam district . . . had come upon it near an old

Bushman encampment on his farm. Mr Pocock . .. mixed some with fat and rubbed it on

stones and its tenacity is beyond question. . . . It is thought that this is the pigment used in

Bushman paintings.’

J. G. M. Melle, Rhodesia, to Péringuey 24 January 1916

‘People say these rock paintings were made by native Mashonas. The paint consists of red

haematite mixed with the milky crudation of some bush and applied with a feather or a portion

of the so-called Kaffir-boom plant teazed out.’

C. J. van Zyl, Carnarvon, to Péringuey 4 April 1919

He was sending a sample of ‘paint’ for analysis. ‘I was digging a furrow for irrigation works

and about two feet from the surface I discovered this paint in an ostrich egg—it was close to an

ancient kraal of Bushmen.’

56 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Péringuey to Van Zyl 10 April 1919

The sample was specular iron, wrote Péringuey. ‘This is now the third time that this

product generally found in small lumps on quartz, or obtained from micaceous schists pounded

fine by man’s agency, is connected with the Hottentot or Bush culture. At Port Nolloth a clay

pot was found with a good deal of it in it; another one from the Zuurberg is half filled with it

[Péringuey described it (1911) and later Schofield (1948) as Zuurberg, but Goodwin (pers.

comm.) maintained that it was the Frazerburg pot, SAM—AAS5344, see also Caches of pigment

in the archaeological section] and now there is your addition. I found that if mixed with fat it

gives the red colour of the Bush paintings, and it was, therefore, used for painting both their

body, and the rocks when inspiration took them.’

N. RosBerts (1916)

‘In many parts of Natal and the Cape Province a round stone which contains a nucleus of

ochre is found in the vicinity of Bushman caves, and this is popularly supposed to have

provided these pigmy artists with at least one colour. This theory, however, has been

challenged by the magistrate of Polela, who reported to the Department of Justice as follows:

“The paints used by the Bushmen are a lost secret with the exception of dark red, which I have

found in two places. The paint is a greasy substance interleaved with yellow sandstone, and

when exposed to the air hardens very quickly. ... The fine, rather sandy, substance often

found inside round stones in the bed of the rivers, and so often asserted by many people to be

the real Bushman paint, is no such thing, although the same colour can be obtained, for this

reason—that, however many coats be applied, and no matter how long it be left to dry, it can

be immediately rubbed off.” [A footnote here reads, “Vide Pretoria News, February 13th

1913”.] The natives of the Mahabene [mountain] confidently assert that the white paint of the

Bushman was obtained from the milky kernel of the Stamvruchte, Chrysophyllum magalismon-

tanum, Sond., and this appears to agree with the testimony of a native who traces his descent

from the Bushmen in Natal, who stated that the paints of his forefathers were of vegetable

origin. These native theories, however, are wanting in confirmation. During a visit to the

Makabene I had the good fortune to unearth a store of Bushman paints in the course of

excavating one of the caves ... among the specimens ... there are several which bear

unmistakable evidence of having been carefully scraped, apparently for the purpose of

obtaining a fine powder. The material in most cases is of low specific gravity and is brick-like in

texture, as though the original ingredients had been finely compounded and then artificially

dried by heat. When paint was required, a quantity of this fine powder was mixed with (raw?)

fat or other medium, and stored in little pots ready for use.’ He refers to Stow (1905: 230). (See

also Willcox 1956.)

S. S. DorNAN (1917) (see also Dornan 1909, 1925)

‘The Masarwas of the Sansokwe River still continue to paint, according to their own

statements to me. There were at least quite lately three painters amongst this branch of the

tribe. .. . They use red, blue or brown paints, made of clay mixed with fat. Sometimes they

mix the clay with fat, and then allow it to dry like a stick of chalk. They first drew the outline

with a burnt stick, and then filled it in with the paints sometimes laid on dry, but more usually

moistened with water, or saliva, with a small brush made of ostrich feathers.... My

informant, who had seen some of them at work, said it took about six hours to complete a set

of pictures.’ On enquiring he was told that some of the paintings he saw were ‘not so very old’,

‘but I afterwards discovered this was rather an elastic way of indicating their age on the part of

my informants’.

G. M. THEAL (1919)

Bushmen were the painters; ‘the tints were made with different kinds of ochres having

considerable capability of withstanding the decay of time, and they were mixed with grease’

(p. 64).

S. S. DorNAN (1925) (see also Dornan 1909, 1917)

There were Bushmen of the Sansokwe River (Botswana?) who still painted (p. 182). “The

colours used by the Bushman artists are brown, red, yellow, blue and sometimes white.

Haematite was used to produce the brown or reddish brown colour, and blue and white clay for

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 5i/

the yellow and white. These were ground up fine with stones and mixed with boiling fat. They

were allowed to cool. This produced a crayon, as it is called, but liquid paint applied warm to

the surface was also employed. One method of painting witnessed by the writer was as follows:

the artist, a half-bred Bushman, first took a pebble and rubbed the surface of a granite boulder

on which he was going to paint as smooth as he could, and wiped away all the dust carefully.

Then he took a burnt stick and drew the outline of the figure, in this case a zebra. Next he took

his lump of dry paint, his crayon in fact, and rubbed it over the figure, roughly filling in the

outline. Then he brushed away all the dust and then he took a small feather brush, some liquid

paint which he had heated in a small, hollow pebble, and laid this carefully on the figure, and

the painting was complete. He painted a zebra, a tortoise, a porcupine and some guinea-fowl,

and it took him the best part of three hours to complete the set of pictures... the figures. . .

were only about three inches high . . . and he stopped to smoke more than once’ (pp. 188-189).

B. Huss & Br. Orro (1925)

(This paper is an early attempt to analyse periods in the rock art, motivation, etc.)

Some paintings at the Kei River (designs, according to the illustration) were done in

charcoal which came off easily, ‘so we conclude that no medium for fixation was used’. Other

designs, with charcoal as pigment, were proof against rubbing but soluble on the application of

a drop of water. ‘We were able to discover in this way that, instead of pure water, a solution of

some gum substance in water had been applied with the charcoal. In some cases the

down-flowing water used in the experiment was of a greenish colour, indicating that the sap of

the aloe tree had been used. . . .’ Also suggested was the gum of the ‘mimosa tree’. But then

they say that ‘the technique was always that of rubbing with a hard piece of charcoal; it was

drawing, not painting’. White designs were drawn with ‘a hard piece of kaolin’. They suggest

that crayons were rolled from a mixture of gum and water and soot or kaolin. They conclude

that yellow and red ochre were mixed with water to form paints, that feathers were used to

apply the paints and, later, brushes of animal hair.

I. SCHAPERA (1925) (see also Schapera 1930)

(This paper has been quoted by others, but as is shown here by the references inserted by

the present author, the information is not original; the original author did not include

references.)

Bushmen were the painters. The colours ‘included red, white, brown, yellow, black, blue,

violet and grey; green is seen occasionally, but seems to be due to the chemical alteration of

other colours on the rock surface’ (see Moszeik 1910). ‘The sources ... have been much

disputed. Some say they were purely vegetable in origin, and several plants have been indicated

as providing specific colours—red, for example, is said to have been derived from the bulbs and

roots of Rubia tinctoria’ (see Moszeik 1910). According to others, red came from ‘the small

round stones containing a nucleus of ochre’ (see e.g. Roberts 1916). Schapera refers to

experiments by Moszeik (the name is mentioned but not the year, i.e. 1910) who subjected

samples from paintings to a chemical analysis, which showed that all the colours (except black

from charcoal) were derived from mineral ores, e.g. red and brown from haematite, yellow

from iron pyrites, white from zinc oxide. The powdered materials were ‘artificially dried by

heat, leaving a sort of brick of finely compounded powder (see Roberts 1916), which was

carried about in a small tube of antelope horn attached to the girdle (see Stow 1905). When

paint was required, a quantity of this fine powder was presumably scraped from one of the

“bricks” (see Roberts 1916) and mixed with bone marrow or the fat of certain animals. The

outline of the design was first drawn with a burned stick (see Dornan 1925) . . . and the paint

was then laid on, sometimes dry, like a sort of crayon (see Dornan 1925), but generally

moistened with water or saliva (see Dornan 1917) and smeared on with a brush made of

feathers (various authors) or of specially prepared tendons’ (see Balfour in Tongue 1909).

M. Burkitt (1928)

(Burkitt did not give references for the information below—he used information from

others, notably from A. J. H. Goodwin (pers. comm.).)

The colours were mostly derived from naturally occurring mineral oxides and iron

carbonates which give, when powdered, various shades of red and yellow. Charcoal seems to

have been employed but is more fugitive; white might have been kaolin ‘which occurs in such

58 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

regions as the weathered product of felspar’, elsewhere it might have been wood ash or

Euphorbia latex; the blue for ‘one or two’ blue paintings might have been from powdered

phosphatic nodules found in shales. The media, which seem to have been waterproof, might

have been gum, a vegetable product, or animal fat. Brother Otto of Marionhill suggested

Euphorbia latex which ‘forms a sort of waterproof skin’ (p. 113).

H. B. Maure (1929)

He found pieces of iron oxide in a cave on Domboshawa Hill (in then Rhodesia); the

colours were red, brown and yellow. Red was haematite, anhydrous ferric oxide; ‘yellowish

brown rust red or orange’ came from hydrated iron oxide commonly known as limonite; dark

claret was probably martite; black might have been magnetite. Pieces of haematite and limonite

were found in a painted granite cave in Ruchera Hill.

J. STEVENSON-HAMILTON (1929)

Rock paintings in caves between the Sabi and Crocodile rivers were executed in a durable

red pigment ‘which was possibly, either wholly or in part, obtained from the root of the

elandsboontjie (Elephantorrhiza burchelli), a small plant which is found growing in the vicinity

of caves. A solution of this plant, tested upon fragments of rock, leaves a dark stain difficult of

removal, and similar in shade to the Bushman paintings.’ (Compare Péringuey-De Laporte

1914 correspondence herein. )

D. F. BLeek (in Bleek & Stow 1930)

‘The materials seem to have been ochres and clays found locally. The red and brown

pigments were haematite, yellow is an ochre, white is zinc oxide, black is charcoal. Blue is

probably procured from phosphatic nodules which occur in the shales in some places. The

pigments, after being ground, must have been mixed with some medium’ (p. xii). Weathering

of rock and deterioration of paintings are discussed (p. xiv).

V. LEBZELTER (1930)

There were various stages in painting, from the use of ‘crayons’ of charcoal to mixing

pigments with aloe and acacia gum, using feathers and brushes of animal hair. Between 1912

and 1926 weathering was apparent in some pictures that were not weatherproof. In the vicinity

of ‘Umzinkulw’ a 75-year-old Scottish farmer, who had known Bushmen as a boy, told that the

Bushmen had mixed the juice of a bulb with pigments for a durable paint.

I. SCHAPERA (1930) (see also Schapera 1925)

The colours for rock paintings ‘were derived chiefly from mineral ores—red and brown

from haematite, yellow from iron pyrites, white from zinc oxide, while black was obtained from

burned wood’. The powdered mineral ores were mixed with bone-marrow or animal fat. “The

outline of the design was first drawn with a burned stick and the paint, after being moistened

with water or saliva, was then smeared on by means of a feather brush or specially prepared

tendons’ (p. 210). (As in Schapera 1925 references not given; see Balfour in Tongue 1909;

Dornan 1917, 1925.)

E. J. Dunn (1931)

Bushmen made the rock paintings. ‘As to the pigments used, examples in my collection

show that red haematite, yellow from oxide of iron, grey from shaly rocks, white from clays and

black from charcoal and lamp black obtained by burning certain plants were used. Those

obtained from minerals were all fast colours and not liable to fade with time’ (pp. 43-44,

pl. 25).

The legend for his plate 10 mentions two pestles for grinding pigments (p. 67).

‘The only pigments used by the Bushmen were haematite, ochres, natural earths, charcoal

and lamp black. It is quite possible that some of the minerals were burnt before use, for tints

are used that are not commonly found in the natural state. The chief colours used were

haematite for red, charcoal and lamp black for black, white clay for white, yellow shales for

yellow, and various other shales for grey and other tints. Red ... was the colour most

commonly used. The principal source of haematite in Bushmanland was the extensively

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 59

excavated quarry at Nauta, between Prieska and Steerman’s Pits. It was from here that the

Bushmen and other natives for hundreds of miles around obtained their supplies of specular

iron ore, which becomes red when burnt. In the Stormberg red haematite occurred in a bed of

conglomerate just above the chief coal seam. Although many of the colours used are known,

the medium with which they were mixed to make them adhere to the rock surfaces and resist

the weather is not known. Formerly blood was thought to be the medium, but as many plants in

South Africa yield latex and resin, the probability is that the sap of some such plant was used

for the purpose. . . . Pestles of hard stone were used for grinding the harder of the pigments to

powder, and in some cases the flat surface of an outcrop of rock was used for the purpose. I

came across such rocks stained by the process. The colours were mixed on small palettes of

stone (pl. 25) which the artist carried with him’ (p. 110). (See also Dunn 1881 for similar

information not repeated herein.)

A. Y. Mason (1933)

‘Most of the paintings at Cathkin Peak were executed by means of a brush of some kind. No

examples of crayon work were found. In the earlier stages we see evidence that the brush was a

thick, coarse one; the pigment is thickly smeared and the beads decorating the figures of Stage

III in the Inkosizana Valley are represented by thick blobs of paint. Later a very fine, soft brush

was used.... Some of the most recent degenerate daubs indicate that the pigment was

smeared on with anything that happened to be at hand, the twig of a tree, a strip of raw hide

and even with the fingers.’ ‘Local tradition’ claims that eland fat was used for mixing the

pigment. Pigments found were white, yellowish white (which might have been coloured by a

‘diluent such as animal fat’), red, dark red, yellow, yellow-brown, brown, and orange. In Buy’s

Cave were ‘quite soft’ red ochre, ochreous yellow, and burnt bone which could have been used

for white. On a farm near Arthur’s Seat was a so-called ‘Bushman paint pot’, a pecked-out

cavity in a slab of sandstone that contained traces of dark red and purplish black pigment.

L. H. WELLs (1933)

Two informants, a middle-aged black man and an elderly black headman, commented on

paintings in the Cathkin Park area: ‘Neither . . . entertained any doubt that the Bushmen were

the cave artists. The former stated that the pigments used were coloured minerals ground up

and mixed with animal fats.’

B. SEGAL (1935)

He reported on ‘samples of rock and extracted powder from pockets therein . . . from the

vicinity of paintings in caves on the farm Glenelg in Steynsburg district’.

‘The material could be considered as an earthy form of limonite.... When heated

carefully to varying temperatures and with controlled amounts of air, the combined water was

driven off and products of different colours were obtained, varying from the original yellow to

yellowish reds, brownish reds, dark reds and finally black.’ Owing to the low percentage of

hydrated iron oxide in the original, the red pigments produced were dull and their range was

limited. He found that by calcining moist siderite (carbonate of iron), the colours obtained

varied from yellowish red, deep red, dark purple, to dull brown. The calcined original material

was ground and mixed with tallow and with water. After 10 months’ exposure to ‘the ordinary

prevailing atmospheric conditions the colours remained unaffected’.

A note by E. Mendelssohn, geologist, states that the rock was ‘fine-grained argillaceous

sandstone consisting of about equal amounts of clay and grains of quartz. The clay is lightly

stained with iron oxides. ... The concretions ... mainly of soft, powdery clay (probably

kaolin) which is stained by hydrated iron oxides.’ There were some quartz grains in it. ‘The

constituents of the rock and the concretions are essentially the same’, it was merely a question

of proportions. The origin of the concretions was due to alteration of the original rock by

surface weathering.

C. VAN Rtet Lowe (1945)

(This paper is a discussion on colours in the rock paintings, with a chart by H. Breuil, but

is of little value in determining the pigments that were used.) He mentions shades of red,

orange, and yellow, black, white and a greyish-blue. (He ignores factors such as weathering and

types of rock surfaces.)

60 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

A. J. H. Goopwin (1946)

He suggested bird droppings for white pigment.

W. Bartrtiss (1948)

‘In the ancient eland paintings the white paint has gone a dirty grey, often the dark red

bodies have gone brown ... the curiosity is that these old paintings stand out in shallow

bas-relief! In other words, the paint has preserved the rock throughout the ages while the

surrounding rock has worn away.’ The white paint is in thick lines possessing tactile qualities.

This ancient white is a wonderfully permanent colour. . . . The red is surely a haematite... .

The early painters surely knew of heating, roasting or calcining pigments to make them darker

and the medium most commonly added was most probably a very pure animal fat’ (pp. 71-72).

He suggested that charcoal black was used to paint the horns and hoofs and that very fine

brushes were used.

‘This Middle Period maroon is tenacious and cannot be removed even by washing or

scrubbing, while its accompanying white is nearly as permanent’ but the white disappears first.

He found seven shades of ‘yellow ochre’ (p. 79).

‘The Bushman colour is put on so thickly that it can be seen in relief and sometimes felt in

relief. Probably the medium used with the pigment was purified animal fat. The colours are

earth colours; kaolin, umber, yellow ochre, red ochre and their varieties’ (p. 82). He lists and

discusses the pigments: yellow and red ochres, red haematite, raw sienna, raw umber, vermilion

(‘cinnabar’, ‘a sulphide of mercury’ that may turn brown), grey, black (carbon black and fat),

white, of which there are a number, may be natrolite, bird-droppings, kaolin and fat and a ‘thin

white resinous juice’ (pp. 83, 85).

“We know for certain that the earth pigments of the Bushmen are absolutely permanent,

but every one of them can be removed if washed with a hard brush. Indeed . . . it is possible to

remove most of the pigment by attempting to clean the paintings with a dry handkerchief!’

(p. 85).

‘Of the mediums we know next to nothing. My own experience with the Bushmen has

shown that they use animal fats . . . they may have used eggs as a medium. Everyone has been

free to suggest mediums, so we hear that the Bushmen used both blood and urine as mediums!’

(p. 86). ‘I make a shrewd guess that they discovered that both ordinary salt and milk are each

excellent mediums for holding pigments onto surfaces.’ A remarkable property about the

mediums is that they never caused the paint to crack; Battiss suggests that oil was not used as a

medium, as all cracking is due to the shrinking of the oil surface as it dries (pp. 86-87).

L. Apam (1949)

This reference is included here only because he has been quoted by others. His chapter on

‘Bushman’ art contains an assortment of information taken from others as well as inaccuracies

and is not of any value.

G. R. Strey, after 1950

‘Hahn had observed fat, honey, and ostrich marrow being used as base for ochre colours’.

(Publication date not given.)

C. VAN Rtet Lowe (1951)

‘In mid-August Professor Van Riet Lowe kindly lectured to the centre on ‘‘Prehistoric

painting materials”. Approaching the problem from an objective point of view, Professor Van

Riet Lowe showed that rock-painters used inorganic colouring materials as a base, and possibly

urine as a vehicle. Organic or vegetable bases were not known. Hence, greens and blues are

entirely absent from rock art, the predominant colours being reds, yellows, black and white, in

varying shades and intermixtures . . . referred to the need for a universal colour scale. .

V. ELLENBERGER (1953)

‘An old Basuto woman’ told Ellenberger that she had seen three Bushman painters at work

when she was young: to paint they took a small container with red paint; they dipped their

brushes in it; those brushes were made with the hair taken from the tail of a wildebeest; later

they used horse hair; the hairs were stiff and hard; they were tied to a stick with sinews. They

dipped the brush into the paint in the pot and painted it on to the rock. There were as many

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 61

pots as there were different colours. The paint was mixed with melted fat. To paint they first

took a flat stone—a small, thin stone disc—and traced a small image of what they wanted to

depict; then with the paint pot in the hand as well as the small disc, the artist reproduced on a

large scale on the rock wall that which he had represented on the flat rock (p. 148).

The old woman was certain that they had not used ‘ochre’ for their paintings, but she did

not say what they had used.

For painting the fine lines the artist needed small, thin sticks, or better, pointed fragments

of bone or dried and hardened sinews. Ellenberger’s footnote reads: an old colonial Boer who

said that he had seen Bushmen painting, saw them using for brushes fine splinters which they

detached from larger, hollow bones; they thinned down the points of these with a sharp-edged

stone; in this way the point became very fine and supple, looking almost like a brush, or,

rather, a spatula. [This information was taken unacknowledged from Moszeik (1910).] These,

judging from those we found in the north of Basutoland, could be 10 to 15 cm long (p. 160).

The artist, even if he had discovered the colouring properties of certain vegetables, seldom

employed them for decorating his caves, even if the Basuto assure us that the Bushmen

employed the juice of certain plants such as the Lotononia (khonathi) or the Mosala-souping

(Lithospermum dreneum). However, the vegetable ingredients were generally mixed with other

colouring matters, probably more adhesive on the rock, for example the juice of a bulb called

L’ekhoukhou or the latex of the Euphorbia candelabra. In reality it was mainly from minerals

that the Bushmen extracted their colours, although we have heard the Basuto insist that the

little yellow men also used animal blood for paint. The most common colours are red, yellow,

white, and brown. The red and brown are extracted from haematite, the yellow from iron

pyrites or limonite, the white from zinc oxide; with antimony we recognized manganese

bioxide. As for the black, it was provided by burnt wood or soot. The mineral, once collected,

was ground on a hollow stone with a smaller stone pestle almost 15 cm long. The pigment, once

ground, was prepared in the mortar by mixing it with animal fat; in that way a paint similar to

oil paint was obtained (pp. 164-165). Marrow was also used. (Freely translated from the

French. )

A. W. Hey (1954) (see also South African Museum correspondence 1913-19)

In the years between 1900 and 1913, in the vicinity of the Zwart Kei and White Kei, Great

Kei, and Stormberg, there were thousands of rock paintings; a finger drawn across the figures

collected some of the pigment. ‘In the caves I got all the colours employed and, after they were

classified, mostly by the Government Geologist, they went to Dr Péringuey, then at the

museum in Cape Town.’ Yellow was rotten dolerite (several shades), red was ferruginous shale,

black was charcoal, white was volcanic rock. The paintings were white and yellow, and white

and red. The medium: ‘It was accepted that it was either wild honey or the milk of the

Euphorbia. My interrogations of very old Bantu living in or adjacent to the Stormberge

convinced me that honey was mostly used.’ The Bushmen did not paint but ‘plastered’.

A. R. WiLicox (1956) (see also Willcox 1959, 1971, 1973)

The pigments are mostly known. Oxides of iron provided red, brown and yellow; white

came from zinc oxide and perhaps bird droppings, as suggested by Goodwin; one white is

fugitive; black was from manganese or charcoal; pigments for blue-grey and grey-green are not

known. Other possible pigments may be from concretions in the cave sandstone in the form of

powder, known as ‘Bushman paint’. Analysis (he refers to Segal 1935) showed them to consist

of silica, alumina, iron and combined water—an earthy form of limonite or yellow ochre;

heating produced colours from yellow to yellowish reds, brownish reds, dark reds and black;

mixing these with tallow and water gave paints of which the colour remained unaffected after 10

months’ exposure to the weather. Others are quoted on possible binding media: fat, plant sap,

milk, blood, honey, and urine, ‘and an analysis done at the University of the Witwatersrand

shows a high nitrogen content, consistent with urine having been the medium in the sample’.

Some paints may have had a purely vegetable origin (p. 46) (he refers to Roberts 1916,

Stevenson-Hamilton 1929, see herein). Regarding the suggestion by Roberts (1916) of the use

of sap from the ‘stamvruchte’, Willcox remarked: ‘The stamvrugte does not occur in the Berg,

but a small Euphorbia that does grow there yields a sticky white latex which may well have

been used as a white or as the medium for other colours.’ A painting in the Giant’s Castle area,

which was copied 60 years before, seemed to have deteriorated very slightly.

62 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

T. JOHNSON (1957) (see also Johnson 1975)

Brushes might have been bones, quills, bird feathers or bristles. The main pigments in the

region under study, Clanwilliam, were red, white, yellow, brown and black. These and possible

sources are discussed. The white, which might have been kaolin or bird droppings, were ‘not

sustaining colours’. Black could have been various carbons such as charcoal, lampblack, etc.

Other pigments were probably hydrated and anhydrous oxides of iron. He examined various

media that were suggested by others: the use of hyrax urine is questioned—‘obtaining fresh

hyrax urine was an insurmountable problem’ and he asks why hyrax urine? Other possible

media were wax resin which could be obtained from certain plants in the area; Euphorbia juice

was also available; fats; the ‘orange or green bile in gall-bladder’ was ‘readily obtainable by a

hunting people’. Tempera of the fourteenth and sixteenth century painters consisted of egg

albumen with water, a non-drying oil and lecithin (present in ‘gall-bladder’). ‘In thin layers at

ordinary temperatures albumen becomes insoluble in water’.

In experiments ‘earth ochre’ from the area was heated to 100 °C, ground and mixed with

various media, then applied to stones with a quill and a brush of bristle. Wax resin had to be

kept heated, had to be applied as a paste or plaster, and fine lines were impossible to apply.

Marrow fat (not said whether raw or cooked) was more successful with ochre and a black

pigment, fine lines were difficult, and it was best applied with a finger. Hyrax ‘droppings’ were

‘melted’ (dissolved?) and mixed with ochre but this ‘paint’ was unsuitable. Mutton fat made a

thick paint and fine lines were most difficult to make. Juices had to be used in great quantities

for even small figures, and the results were a ‘feeble, light image’ or a ‘tacky’ effect, and fine

lines were impossible to make. ‘Gall-bladder’ was mildly successful but ‘a large quantity would

have to be laborously procured and mixed’. Honey was sticky and non-adhesive and washed off

completely, ants and all. Tempera produced the best results, with fine lines possible (but

Johnson does not give the exact ingredients, for instance, what was the oil?). (This information

is also given in Johnson et al. 1959.)

T. P. KENNAN (1959)

(Contributed by T. B. Kennan.) In 1888 a large cave in Basutoland was covered with

‘Bushman’ paintings. The materials used were different coloured stone, mainly red, ground and

mixed with fat and then rubbed on the rocks; the paint appeared to withstand the rain and

weather for a great number of years, but many pictures were destroyed by the weathering of

the rock.

A. R. WiLtcox (1959) (see also Willcox 1956, 1971, 1973)

Willcox notes that the rock paintings at Ezeljacht, between George and Oudtshoorn, are

still well preserved. They had been copied by Michell and published by Alexander in 1838, and

again copied by Wilman in 1907. (See Péringuey 1910 herein.)

M. SCHOONRAAD (1960)

A few green paintings were recorded in the Limpopo Valley close to copper mines where

there were surface outcrops of malachite, possibly the source of the pigment.

M. W. How (1962)

Mapote, an old Basuto man, who had painted with the Bushmen in their caves when a

young man (p. 26)—he had Bushman half-brothers—made some paintings on pieces of rock for

How. He identified a red pigment as ghang ghang which ‘glistened and sparkled, whereas ochre

is dull’. The Basuto heated the qghang qhang until red hot and ground it for powerful medicine

(p. 34). The Bushmen subjected it to great heat before grinding and using it (p. 8). The Council

for Scientific and Industrial Research reported that it appeared to consist of ‘haematite Fe,O,

(red), mixed hydrated iron oxides, e.g. limonite and goethite (yellow)’. ‘Ochre’ was bought in

shops; Mapote sent for some and mixed it with fresh ox blood—he had asked for fresh eland

blood—and a little water. ‘The blood must be fresh otherwise it will coagulate and will not mix

with the pigment or soak into the rock.’ He painted an eland, using a new brush for each colour

(pp. 35, 36, 38). The brushes were made of bird feathers stuck into the ends of tiny reeds

(p. 33). Mapote thought that the white pigment might have been phepha, a clay used in

initiation on the bodies of the Basuto (the C.S.I.R. identified it as largely silica, a fine sand with

some clay material; it had ‘limited covering power’). He mixed this with the thick white juice

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 63

from the stem of a plant called motsoko oa Baroa, the motsoko of the Bushmen, ‘Asclepia

gibba’ (pp. 35-36). For black, Mapote used charcoal or burnt sticks (p. 37). He said the colours

were sun-proof but not rain-proof, that was why the Bushmen preferred caves. His paintings

that were kept indoors were unaltered after 30 years, those that were outdoors had almost

completely weathered away (p. 39).

An artist, Masitise, painted a battle scene on the wall of a house under the verandah in

1932. (The paints are not mentioned, nor is evidence given that he had seen Bushmen

painting. )

How speculated on other possible pigments and media: the sticky white juice of rete la

*ntja, possibly Eulophia hians, ‘whilst sehloko and sehamela poli, Parapodium costatum also

contain milky fluids which may have been used as fixatives for the white pigment’. “The brown

was probably moking (mokilung or shalaoane), motlako or pharohloana. This is a black earth

used for adorning earthenware pots. Possibly mixing it with blood or other substance it might

become brown. Keketse provided the yellow. Other earthy pigments which may have been used

are moloetla, white, lekoetjie, bluish-white, ekama and ebilo, black’ (pp. 35-36).

Qhang qhang was the only pigment mixed with blood, ‘which probably accounts for the

greater permanence of the reddish-brown paintings as compared with other colours’ (p. 38).

How quotes T. B. Kennan’s visit to the painted cave that had been occupied by Bushmen

15 years previous to 1888 (see Kennan 1959 herein), and added that J. M. Orpen had copied

some of these paintings at Melikane in 1873 (pp. 20, 24).

W. & S. STEYN (1962)

The authors state that a variety of painting materials seem to have been used in the rock

paintings, egg tempera having been one of the most popular according to Johnson et al. (1959).

In many cases ‘ochre’ of some kind served as a pigment; when heated, ochre can be made to

render quite a range of tints. The ochre might have been mixed with animal fats in some cases,

or with thorn tree resin. Sometimes material such as ‘coal’ was used as a black pigment.

E. DENNINGER (1963, c. 1966a, c. 1966b, 1969)

South Africa was visited on a few occasions to collect minute samples of paints from rock

paintings for analysis to determine both media and ages (see also Willcox 1971). The method

consists of chromatographical analysis of albuminous binding media, which could be white of egg,

milk casein (as calcium casein or calcium distemper), blood and blood serum, animal glue (as

calcium glue compounds) or vegetable albumin (such as the sap of Euphorbiacea). Denninger

maintains that fresh albumin contains ten amino acids, which decay at a predetermined rate up to

1 800 years when the last amino acid has decayed, and that the decomposition of the albumins by

an inframolecular disintegration is apparently ‘only determined by the lapse of time’, but

‘continuous humidity causing the growth of bacteria and fungi may dissolve the albuminous

substances prematurely and destroy the painting’ (Denninger c. 1966); ‘it may be affected by

conditions of extreme pressure or by the exclusion of light and air, if these follow different

time-sequences’ (Denninger 1969). ‘The assumption that the general conditions of temperature

and humidity in South Africa may influence the decomposition of amino acids could be disproved

by the decomposition curve when applied to rock paintings in the Cape Province, the age of

which could be determined within certain limits by depictions’, e.g. ships, Europeans, etc.

Sintered layers on paintings acted as protection for the paintings (Denninger 1969).

The absence of lime in paint samples from South West Africa eliminated protein fixatives

such as calcium casein or calcium glues as fixing agents; ‘egg whites cannot be considered (their

binding action is not resistant to solution by water to the degree required for the preservation of

paintings on outdoor sites), the only protein-containing fixative remaining is blood or blood

serum’ (Denninger 1963).

In another laboratory report Denninger (c. 1966b) notes that all rock paintings examined

in South Africa and South West Africa had ‘been painted almost without exception with animal

blood or blood serum as media’. Some showing no amino acids, ‘have either been painted with

non-albuminous media or they are older than about 2 000 years’. Elsewhere (Denninger 1969)

he says that smaller amounts of amino acids ‘may be due to other factors’; a missing amino acid

could be due to the ‘disintegration process of the macromolecule protein’; ‘this disintegration is

generally independent of temperature and the effect of light and air under normal conditions’;

the method has been applied to wall whitewashes from German cathedrals.

64 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

In the Khomas Hochland and elsewhere in South West Africa (Denninger 1963) the

pigments were reddish-brown to light-brown ochres with a strong silica content in the form of

quartz. The paints contained up to six amino acids and with a dark-brown one ‘it is fairly

certain that it is a painting of ochre fixed with blood and executed approximately within the last

50 years’. The iron in the blood first darkens in colour and ‘after a few centuries’ starts to

become lighter brown. ‘Since such iron-brown paintings, which have shown themselves to be

very old by the absence of amino acids (over 2 000 years) have been found at other sites . . . it

can be concluded that blood was used as a fixative... .’ At another site, fixatives contained

three, two, and no amino acids. ‘In all samples containing amino acids protein-containing fixing

agents were used, therefore those without amino acids must have had similar fixatives and were

therefore over 2 000 years.’

At Erongo, Gross and Klein Spitzkoppe, South West Africa, charcoal for black, and the

‘brown iron pigments’ previously mentioned were used. Very fine quartz particles were used to

lighten the ‘burnt ochre’. In most cases white was pure calcium sulphate (gypsum), also at other

sites (Denninger 1963).

‘Blue contours’ on paintings in Klein Ameib were analysed: copper was absent, so it could

not be azurite, but may be ‘dumortierite’. According to analysis by Dr H. Leverkusen, it may

be ‘artvendsonite’. Black, on top of the encrustation on paintings, was graphite—he suggested

pencil marks of copyists.

Fixatives showed the same, or nearly the same, amino acids as in Khomas Hochland. A

smooth surface on some samples was assumed to be ‘rock rabbit’ excrement.

In the Brandberg’s White Lady cave (Denninger 1963) the pigments were iron oxides in

the form of burnt and light ochre, at times with strong silica content; white calcium sulphate in

the form of gypsum was determined exclusively; black was charcoal. Fixatives contained three,

two, one or no amino acids. In all Brandberg samples containing amino acids, protein-

containing fixing agents were detected, therefore those without amino acids must have had

similar fixatives and were, therefore, over 2 000 years old.

In the paintings of the south-western Cape (Denninger c. 1966a) the following pigments

were identified at various sites: reddish-brown quartziferous haematite, quartziferous burnt

ochre; quartziferous natural burnt ochre; natural burnt ochre with a large amount of silicic acid;

reddish-brown natural burnt ochre and charcoal black; red iron oxide (probably haematite);

quartziferous red iron oxide (haematite); brown unburnt ochres with a considerable amount of

clay applied in a comparatively thin layer; yellow, highly siliceous raw ochre; yellow ochre; dull

yellow highly quartziferous raw ochre; white coarse-grained gypsum mixed with fine particles of

quartz; black charcoal.

‘Basing on the chromatographic analysis of the binding media, by which amino acids were

obtained always in the same forms, it may be concluded that animal blood was the medium of

the rock paintings examined.’ In some cases a binder was not found. In one case only in Natal

was blood not used (Denninger c. 1966a).

In paintings in the northern Transvaal. (Denninger c. 1966b), red pigments were ‘ferric

oxides, as haematite and blood stone haematite’ with a considerable amount of quartz; burnt

ochres, quartziferous or clayey. Yellow was from yellow ochres (ferric oxides), and the violet

pigments were mixed ferric oxides; white was quartziferous gypsum.

In the Natal Drakensberg (Denninger c. 1966b) some white paintings (gypsum) did not

contain amino acids: they were either older than 2 000 years, or the binder had not contained

amino acids, or a binder had not been used. Brown and reddish-brown pigments were

quartziferous ferric oxide (‘blood stone haematite’) or burnt ochre; white was china clay. (The

pigment for yellow was not given.)

In experiments Denninger (c. 1966a) used yellow ochre and red haematite mixed with fresh

sheep blood (and a little water, according to Willcox (1971)); these paints could be applied

easily and fine lines were drawn with a bird’s feather. ‘In the course of six months the layer of

paint was set to be water-proof’, undamaged by water and brushes. After a year, analysis

indicated ten amino acids.

A. FRIENDLY (1963)

(References were not given with the following information. )

Brushes were tail or mane hairs of wildebeest, pointed bones for fine details; paint-pots

were horns of small antelope. Pigments were iron and other metallic oxides. He suggests animal

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 65

fat, milk, blood, honey, or urine for media and mentions the Bushman, killed in 1866, who had

ten horn paint-pots on him (see Stow 1905).

P. Buys (pers. comm. to J. Rudner 1969)

An old farmer who grew up with Bushmen in the northern Kalahari, said that they made a

paste of boiled brains of antelope and ‘rooiklip’ (red ochre) which was reheated for painting on

rocks.

J. & I. RUDNER (1970) (see also Rudner & Rudner 1978)

Various earth pigments and charcoal, etc., and media are discussed. According to others,

blood was used and has apparently been chemically detected. Reference is made to discoveries

of powdered iron oxides in archaeological deposits, ‘red burials’, etc. Some white and also some

black pigments or paints were fugitive. A painting that seemed to have been made with

light-green paint was actually yellow over black. Sometimes the pigments, e.g. red ochre, was

used as a crayon, as indicated by some paintings. Animal fat or marrow was used for body

paints but the fine lines in some paintings would have required melted fat that had to be kept

fluid; ostrich fat remains oily. Plant latex and resin have been suggested. Denninger’s findings

are discussed. Grinders for powdering the pigments were found at sites.

Various methods of applying the paints have been suggested, e.g. brushes of hair, feathers,

bone spatulae, and sticks with chewed ends. Finely detailed paintings could only have been

executed with fine brushes of hair or pointed feathers. Some, such as the late, crude paintings

of the Karoo and elsewhere, were simply executed with a finger dipped in paint. The varying

lasting qualities of the paints are discussed (pp. 163 ff.).

H. Pacer (1971)

‘The presence of an albuminoid substance in the paint medium . . . as Dr Denninger’s

laboratory tests have shown, occurs almost without exception in South African rock paintings;

the medium used being animal blood or blood serum’ (p. 356). Denninger took paint samples

from Ndedema Gorge in Natal: ‘The examinations have shown that the following pigments had

been used in the rock paintings of the Drakensberg’: black—charcoal; brown and reddish

brown—burnt ochre mixed with clay or quartz; red and brownish red—iron oxide, sometimes

with quartz; natural burnt ochre, sometimes with quartz; pink—burnt ochre mixed with quartz;

yellow and brownish yellow—natural unburnt ochre, sometimes with quartz; white—gypsum

(calcium sulphate) sometimes with quartz, kaolin.

Amino acids were found in three of the five samples tested by Denninger—the samples of

the other two paints were too small to give results (pp. 357-358).

Some later paintings indicated that the use of a medium for the preparation of paint was

unknown (p. 360).

A. R. WILLcox (1971) (see also Willcox 1956, 1959, 1973)

He summarizes Denninger’s laboratory reports (see above). ‘In almost every case the

medium was blood or blood serum. . . . Whole blood could not have been used to make white

paint as the haemoglobin would tint the white, so serum must have been the medium in that

case. Blood, however, was apparently used with red and other dark pigments, but this would

start to clot within about ten minutes. The artists, therefore, either worked very quickly or they

had a method of quick drying the blood and re-constituting it with water as needed.’

K. HuwiLer (1972)

He questioned the validity of some of the published statements about pigments and media,

and decided to conduct experiments. Oral tradition proved unreliable. Media should be

available; ‘mix with the powder easily but not duly discolour it; permit the paint to adhere to

the rock but remain liquid long enough to complete the painting; harden up in a reasonable

time and be permanent; and the consistency should enable the artist to work vertically and

overhead’.

The following pigments met all his requirements: charcoal or graphite—black; limestone

(calcite)—grey; talce—dark grey; quartzite—white; quartzite with mica and calcite—green;

shale—grey/black; ferruginous shale—dark yellow; phyllite (haematite, sericite, mica quartz) —

aa - phyllite (with haematite bands)—dark red; sulphur—light yellow; and bird droppings

and ash.

66 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Various potential media were mixed with these pigments, applied to slabs of granite, and

subjected to artificial ‘weathering’ (washing, heating in the sun, refrigeration, rubbing, scratch-

ing) as well as to the test of time.

Negative results were obtained from water, honey, hyrax urine, animal fat, beeswax, and

bone marrow.

Animal fat had to be heated, exposure to sun made the painting run, after weeks of drying

the paint could be rubbed off. Beeswax had to be heated but application was very difficult.

Bone marrow, heated or unheated, would not mix to a paste.

‘Acceptable’ results were obtained from blood; used alone it become blackish and could be

removed only with hard rubbing or washing; blood with pigment was thicker and could be

washed off; blood plasma gave approximately the same results; white of egg applied well but it

came off with hard rubbing or washing; tree latex, e.g. from Ficus rhodesiaca, did not mix well

but could not be washed off.

‘Good’ results were obtained from vegetable albumin, which was difficult to extract (the

kinds were not stated), and gelatine, which was boiled animal bones and tissue that became

semi-solid when cooled and had to be reheated.

‘Candelabra sap (Euphorbaceae)’ gave the best results. With the exception of charcoal, the

colours mixed easily, the paint applied well, dried in 3-4 hours, could not be scratched, or

washed or rubbed off, was impervious to heat and cold, withstood the test of time (time not

stated), and remained liquid for weeks in a stoppered animal horn.

A. R. WiLLcox (1973) (see also Willcox 1956, 1959, 1971)

The pigments were mostly mineral oxides, the various oxides of iron for red, yellow, brown;

manganese gave black; and possibly zinc oxide was used for white. He mentions experiments at

Witwatersrand University with powders in concretions which were subjected to various degrees

of heat to give most of the rock art colours (see Segal 1935 above; Willcox 1956 above). Burnt

bone or charcoal gave black, bird droppings and plant latex were probably used for white. He

says brushes of hair were used; in later times in Lesotho horse-tail hair was used. He suggests

feathers, and ‘according to one eye-witness, paint was applied by pointed pieces of bone’.

Several unfinished paintings show that where white was used, the white was applied as a

‘primer’ and left exposed where required.

R. T. JOHNSON (1975) (see also Johnson 1957)

‘Amongst the numerous recordings of hand-impressions, mention must be made of a total

in excess of 750 near “Extension Two’’, Clanwilliam. One might well exclaim ‘‘What a waste of

pigment!” ... Such examples raise further thoughts on some of the theories previously

advocated regarding medium ... one is tempted to doubt “‘‘prescriptions” suggested by the

critics regarding media such as marrow fat, plant juice such as vingerpol, botterboom and

harpuisbos and gall. The physical effort involved in procuring sufficient liquid was .. .

EXCESSIVE sere

P. VINNICOMBE (1976)

The author remarks on the faintness of relatively recent paintings of wagons, ‘which

suggests that the later paintings lacked adequate binding properties’. Some paints, such as

white, are fugitive (p. 139 et seq.). There is evidence that some paintings were outlined and

filled in with white and that other colours were placed on top of it (p. 139). ‘Silayi’ is quoted

(p. 66) (see Stanford 1910 herein). Fat was widely reported by the early colonists to have been

a component of Bushman paint; eland fat was traditionally a component of Bushman paint (her

note 46 erroneously quotes Wells 1933, see herein); ‘mortar stones containing pulverized ochre

mixed with animal fat were found in painted shelters at the beginning of this century’ (quotes a

letter in correspondence files of Natal Museum, Whyte to Bousefield 3.11.1910; Moszeik 1910

(in error); Adam 1940 (1949 edition herein) who misquoted Moszeik). ‘My own practical

experiments with pigments and media have shown that the addition of blood makes the paint

appreciably more durable than a mixture without blood, which possibly explains why the red

portions of eland paintings have outlasted the colours in so many instances (pp. 180, 182) (the

nature of the experiments for durability and the ingredients for the mixture without blood were

not given). A simple analysis of the colours (not pigments) is given (p. 362).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 67

J. & I. RUDNER (1978) (see also Rudner & Rudner 1970)

Fat for a medium will have had to be fluid or be kept warm to have been able to make the

fine lines in the paintings. Ostrich and seal fat remain fluid after rendering. Weathering of the

paintings is discussed (p. 71).

K. W. Burzer et al. (1979)

Their footnote 15 reads: ‘Prehistoric paint pigments, mixed with albuminous binders,

resins, or animal fat or marrow, consist of (i) charcoal, soot, or ground manganiferous

concretions for black colors; (ii) pulverized ferric (limonitic or hematitic) concretions (ochre,

specularite) or ferruginized shales and sandstones, sesquioxide-rich clayey to sandy soils, or

animal blood for yellow, orange, brown or red shades; and marl, gypsum, kaolin, or bird guano

for whites.’ (References or evidence for these statements were not given.)

68 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

PIGMENTS AND PAINTS OF THE HISTORICAL HOTTENTOTS

INTRODUCTION

The yellow-skinned people whom the sixteenth and early seventeenth

century voyagers encountered along the South African Cape coast were, for the

most part at least, those later called ‘Hottentots’, in fact, the term was first

applied to these people at the coast (see various travellers in Raven-Hart 1971).

Much has been written about the origin of this name (e.g. Vedder 1928, 1938:

25; Maingard 1935; Nienaber 1963b) and an alternative collective name for these

people (e.g. Wilson 1969; Boeseken 1972, 1974, 1975; Elphick 1974, 1975).

Vedder (1928: 112) maintained that the Hottentots did not have a distinctive

name to include all their tribes; Nama is a collective term that originally

included some tribes only. The details are not relevant here.

The historical general term “‘Hottentot’ is used here in accordance with the

original references and identifications, and as outlined in the introductory

section to this study.

THE TRIBES AND THEIR ECONOMIES

Accounts of the Hottentots before the settlement of the Cape, and early

accounts in the years following the white settlement, frequently referred to the

impoverished Hottentot Strandlopers or beachcombers living along the coast,

and almost invariably remarked that they ate half-raw, uncleaned offal, stranded

whales and seals, fish, shell-fish, and wild food plants. They wore undressed

skins, and wrapped the ‘guts’ of animals round their legs and left them to dry—if

the accounts are to be believed, they ate them in times of need (see Raven-Hart

1971). These Strandlopers, or historical beachcombers, were a Hottentot sub-

group by virtue of their economy, and they associated themselves with the other

Hottentots, as a study of the literature so amply shows. (See also Nienaber

1963a.)

Commander Jan van Riebeeck (1651-62) was the first to list the Cape

Hottentot tribes, mainly from information received from Herry, himself a

Strandloper, who had acquired some English while on a voyage to Bantam on an

English ship. The information in Van Riebeeck’s Journal is confusing: he used

different terms for the same groups and, not unnaturally, contradicted earlier

reports as he found new information. Three main groups of Hottentots were

recognized:

(1) the Strandlopers (also called Watermen, Fishermen, Vismans, Goerin-

gaina or Goringhaikona—there were also other references to ‘Fishermen’ that

might have meant Bushmen); they did not possess livestock except that which

they obtained by theft;

(ii) the Saldanhamen or Saldanhars included four groups; ‘all are known

under the name of Kaapmans, and live on this side of the Great Berg River and

together make war on those on the other side who are the real Saldanhars’ (Van

Riebeeck 1657 2: 184); the Strandlopers also counted as ‘Kaapmans’, and,

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 69

except for them, these people had livestock, their herds diminishing or increas-

ing in size depending on how many animals they had stolen or had been stolen

from them by other Hottentot groups;

(iii) the ‘real’ Saldanhars (Van Riebeeck 1657 2: 184), the nomadic main-

land Hottentot tribes, owned large herds of cattle and sheep, which they brought

to the Cape from time to time to graze; the ‘Namaqua’, first encountered by the

Dutch in 1661, were ‘very rich in cattle, and very tall in stature, almost half

giants, dressed in fine prepared skins’ (Van Riebeeck 1662 in Moodie 1838:

248), ‘a different race from these greasy Hottentoos’ (Wagenaar 1662 in Moodie

1838: 256).

Maingard (1931) discussed the early Cape tribes in detail and compiled a

distribution map (see also his references and Dapper (1668), Wikar (1779),

Schapera (1930)). The Cape Hottentots formed two main groups, the tribes in

and near the Cape Peninsula, and those along the eastern part of the south

coast; other tribes were beyond Saldanha Bay and further beyond the Olifants

River. Two other groups were the Griqua, originally from the Olifants River

Valley, who had an admixture of European and slave blood, and the Kora,

along the middle Orange River. Various other tribes lived along the Orange

River (see Wikar 1779; Engelbrecht 1936: 11). Some of the tribes to the east

were mixed with Bantu-speaking peoples (Bruwer 1972); among them were the

Gona, described by Le Vaillant (1790) and others.

The Nama people consisted of two groups: the Little Nama (‘Namaqua’) in

the north-western Cape south of the Orange River, and the eight great Nama

tribes in South West Africa, of which six formed an alliance under the leadership

of the Ghei-//khaun or Rooi Nasie—the allied tribes called themselves the

/awakhoin (Red People)—and the remaining two tribes were the Topnaars,

around Walvis Bay, and the Bondelswarts (Vedder 19285).

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a number of the Cape groups,

later known as Orlams (or Oorlams), of which there were five groups, and the

Basters, were roving and plundering south of the Orange River. Some settled in

Namaqualand south of the river, others crossed into South West Africa, the

Orlams early in the nineteenth century, the Basters towards the middle of that

century (Vedder 19285, 1938; Triimpelman 1948; Bruwer (1972) (see also

Schapera 1930, 1933).

Apparently the inland people were not as obnoxious in their ways as those at

the Cape coast, although reports vary, but customs were often much the same.

Burchell (1822 1: 249), for instance, remarked on their ‘greasy bodies’ but that the

‘fresh necklace of twisted entrails’ was well washed and cleaned, in contrast to

reports on Hottentots living at the coast. There were great differences in the

environments and fortunes of these tribes: at one end of the scale were the

Hottentot Strandlopers, and on the other the ‘Namaquas’ who were far superior,

both economically and physically, to the others; they were pastoralists as well as

hunters and gatherers, but they seldom slaughtered their stock except for rituals or

ceremonies (see e.g. Dapper 1668; Ten Rhyne 1686; Mentzel 1787).

70 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Physical differences among the various Hottentot tribes or groups were

recorded by early travellers: the ‘Namaquas’ were said to have been taller than

those at the Cape (see Raven-Hart 1971 index), and Alexander (1838) thought

that the ‘Great Namaquas are taller than the Little Namaquas, but they have the

same general resemblances, their colour being yellowish-brown’. Many travellers

remarked on their light skins (in the seventeenth century Bolling, Cowley, De

Loubére, Tachard (in Raven-Hart 1971); Valentyn (1726 2: 61), Mentzel (1787:

277-278), Barrow (1806: 106), Ridsdale (1883: 74)).

Changes in their economies through contacts with seafarers were already

taking place by the time the white settlement was established in the mid-

seventeenth century, and from then onwards the process accelerated—many lost

their livestock through barter and raids, and tribes disintegrated. The Hottentots

who had lost their livestock worked for the colonists or lived as hunters and

gatherers and, because of their way of subsistence, were frequently confused

with the culturally different Bushmen (see e.g. Moodie 1838) who spoke

different languages (although some might have spoken a Hottentot language as

is the case today), and who had different social structures, customs, traditions

and beliefs (see Bushman section); but without knowledge of these often elusive

aspects of culture, identification would have been, and is, impossible. Large

numbers of Hottentots died in the three smallpox epidemics in the eighteenth

century. In South West Africa the nineteenth century was marked by Hottentot

wars, between the Nama and the invading Orlams from the Colony on the one

hand, and the Herero on the other, and Hottentot bands plundered livestock

from other indigenous people and from white settlers as far north as southern

Angola (Moller 1899). They were finally subjugated by the Germans at the

beginning of the twentieth century.

In spite of their different economies and their wide distribution, the

Hottentot people had various cultural characteristics in common: they spoke

related languages (Westphal 1962, 1963); they had distinctive customs and

traditions (see inter alios Kolb 1731; Wikar 1779; Hahn 1867, 1881; Stow 1905;

Hoernlé 1918, 1923; Vedder 19285, 1938; Schapera 1930; Engelbrecht 1936),

some of which varied among tribes or groups but others were basically the same;

and folklore and beliefs (Hahn 1881).

Most of the descendants of these people are of mixed descent who have lost

virtually all aspects of the old culture, though here and there the past is apparent

in a few customs and beliefs. However, this is not so in the case of the Nama

people of South West Africa, who number some 40 000 (C. G. Coetzee,

State Museum, Windhoek, 1980 pers. comm.), and who have retained their

identity and language to a large extent (see following section on the present-day

Nama).

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

These, then, were the historical people whose pigments and paints are dealt

with in this section. As mentioned in the introductory chapter, the literature has

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 71

been studied for all substances that have been suggested in the past as possible

ingredients for paints, and the pigments and paints themselves have been noted.

Some travellers and writers copied and even distorted the writings of their

predecessors, so that too much reliance should not be placed on repeated

information that might have had only one original source. For instance, Schreyer

(1681) relied almost entirely on his own observations, but his information was

used by others such as Hesse, Meister, Bogaert, Kolb, and Valentyn (Raven-

Hart 1971; 113); Dapper (1668), who did not visit the Cape, copied Hondius

(1652) and others; Bogaert and De Grevenbroek copied Dapper; Langhansz

took information from Meister (both in Raven-Hart 1971); Mentzel (1787: 262,

276) wrote of a ‘Kolbian myth’ and of Kolb’s ‘lies’ and ‘nonsense’ but made

liberal use of his writings anyway; Le Vaillant (1790: 300) had ‘never read any

voyage to Africa in which the absurd reveries of Kolben have not been adopted’,

and he also attacked Sparrman (1785) for his remarks on the Hottentots; but Le

Vaillant himself was open to criticism (Vedder 1938: 31; Forbes 1965), and his

experience of Hottentots seems to have been limited mainly to the Gona; later

writers, such as Theal, Stow (1905), and Schapera (1930) did not always clearly

give their sources of information.

The data part for this section has been placed after the discussion and

summary and serves as a detailed source of reference. Inevitably much of the

information will be repetitive, but the numerous references may indicate how,

when, and where certain practices varied or were, perhaps, discontinued. For

convenience the information is given in chronological order, which may also

serve to locate an original source of information and subsequent plagiarisms.

Various spellings of proper names (including those of regions) and identifica-

tions of groups or tribes have been retained according to the original sources.

Dates without parentheses next to names in the subheadings indicate the time

when the information was gathered, or they indicate a sequence of visits to the

Cape; dates in parentheses in the subheadings indicate references to publica-

tions; and other references are given in the text in the usual manner.

DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY

As references and detailed information are in the data at the end of this

section, references other than new ones are given in this discussion only when of

special significance or to indicate a particular time.

The relevant information regarding most of the substances mentioned in the

data has been set out in tables. Source and time of information appear in the

first columns but the years are not necessarily dates of publication. In the tables

distinction is drawn between ‘mixed with’, e.g. a pigment mixed with fat, and

‘used with’, e.g. a pigment applied to the skin after fat had been applied (see

main introduction for key to tables). Names of tribes or groups in the second

columns follow the spellings of the original authors; when the tribe had not been

named but identification is possible, the name appears in parentheses. Much of

the information is vague and incomplete and, therefore, the original names have

V2. ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

also sometimes been retained in the discussion, rather than tamper with the

evidence.

The author uses tribal names in the singular, in accordance with modern

practice. ‘Nama’ is used as a general term for the tribes or groups in South West

Africa, the term by which they are still known today.

FAT

There was scarcely an early traveller and writer who did not mention fat in

connection with the Hottentots, and then only by omission. In studying the

information (Table 5), it is clear that fat was of paramount importance to the

Hottentot people, not only for use by itself in various ways, but also with

additives or in conjunction with other substances.

In the majority of the approximately 230 references to fat in this study—

some 67%—the kinds of fat that were used were not specified. Some would

have been fat from domestic animals, although a number of early travellers

remarked that the pastoral Hottentots seldom slaughtered their stock, particu-

larly cattle, and then mainly for ritual purposes; normally they ate only those

animals that were old, infirm, or had died of natural causes; they also hunted for

meat. The stockless coastal Hottentot Strandlopers also fished and were scaven-

gers who made use of stranded whales, particularly for their blubber (see

Raven-Hart 1971, index). Few specific references to marrow were found, but it

must have been widely used.

The kinds of fat and their uses are discussed separately.

Sheep fat

Thirty-four (14%) of the references to fat in this study specified sheep fat.

Several of these indicated that the soft tail fat was specially liked. These

references covered all the Hottentot areas over the last three centuries, but

tapered off in the nineteenth century when fewer of the Hottentots owned sheep.

The major use for this fat was as a general skin salve or lubricant and,

especially when mixed with pigments or used with pigments, as a cosmetic.

Women at the Cape, and Gona and Kora women used this fat to adorn their

faces in this way, and so did Gona men to a limited extent. None of these

references specifically mentioned that the Nama used sheep fat with pigments,

but they used it in other ways and there is little doubt that sheep fat is included

among the many unspecified fats.

There were six references to sheep fat used as an external medicine, 1.e. by

the Hottentots in general, by those at the Cape coast and inland, and by the

‘Namaqua’ (it is not clear whether this included the people north of the Orange

River).

Sheep fat was used ritually at the Cape in the semi-castration ceremony and

in male initiation; there were two references to its use by the Nama, i.e. for a

healing process, and for a bride when fat was hung round her neck, according to

Schapera.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS WD

Other uses included the softening of animal skins and, in one instance,

chewed suet and dung were mixed to caulk a boat (Ridgill 1870), but this

mixture might not have been a Hottentot custom.

There is evidence, therefore, that sheep fat was used as an ingredient of

body paint—this will be further discussed with the information on pigments

below.

Goat fat

The only two references (less than 1%) to the use of goat fat were in this

century, when it was used as a ritual cleanser with dung at Walvis Bay (Hoernlé

1918) (by the Topnaars?), and as an external medicine by the ‘Hottentots’

(Laidler 1928) (Nama?). At this time these people had been reduced to keeping

mainly goats. Hoernlé (1918) pointed out that the historical Hottentots did not

own goats, but Coetsé (1760) remarked that the ‘Enoquas’ (Wikar’s Eynikkoa

along the Orange River) possessed much stock, including ‘a sort of goat the size

of an indigenous hartebeest’. The goats were apparently obtained from the

Bantu-speaking Tlhaping.

Cattle fat

There were nine references only (4%) to the fat of cattle. It was used as a

skin salve and cosmetic and on clothing at the Cape, and as an internal medicine

in the interior (Ten Rhyne 1686).

The majority of references in this category were to the use of cattle fat in

rituals: at the Cape in a marriage ceremony, in about 1858 in the Orange Free

State at Kora male and female initiation, and by the Nama in female initiation

and at a wedding.

Cattle fat must have been included in the numerous unspecified fats

mentioned in the references, but from the available evidence it would seem that

it was used less often than the fat of sheep.

A reference to the use of this fat with pigments was not found, but this does

not preclude the possibility that it was used in this way.

Game fat

The use of fat of game animals was mentioned only five times (less than

2%), which is probably not a true reflection of its use. The Hottentots hunted

various animals—elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus were trapped in pit-

falls, various antelope, smaller mammals, and birds were among the game

trapped and hunted (see Raven-Hart 1971, index). An elephant has a lot of fat

that is good for eating (Andersson 1873); Thunberg (1793) found that the Cape

Hottentots drank the fat of the hippopotamus, and the Nama regarded its fat as

a luxury food (Ridsdale 1883). Sparrman’s (1785) servants smeared themselves

with the fat of game that had been shot. The Kora used lion fat as an external

medicine (Engelbrecht 1936).

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

—————

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80 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Ostrich fat remains an oil when rendered and would have been available,

but a reference to its use was not found.

References to game fat having been used for paints were not found, but it

might have been utilized in this way.

Whale/fish oil

Ten references (4%) to the use of whale oil or ‘fish oil’ were found. The

latter probably meant blubber from whales or seals.

This fat was used mainly as a general skin salve, apparently by herders as

well as Hottentot Strandlopers at the Cape, although Kolb (1731) maintained

that the Hottentots did not use whale and ‘fish oil’. It was also used as a food at

the Cape (three references). The latest reference that was found to its use (as a

salve) was by Paterson, in 1790, at the Orange River mouth.

Vegetable fat

This kind of fat was found mentioned four times only (1,6%): of these

references, two (Tavernier in 1649, and Nieuhof in 1654) are doubtful and

suspiciously identical, both mentioning a grease prepared from ‘herbs’ and

applied to prevent ‘dropsy’: it might have been grease mixed with buchu seen on

the skins of the Hottentots. Along the Orange River the ‘Einikkoas’ (Kora or

‘Namaqua’, see Engelbrecht 1935: 225-228) used chiefly sweetly scented oil

instead of fat for rubbing on themselves; it was obtained from roasted, crushed

seeds. The attraction was possibly its pleasant scent when compared with the

rancid smell of old animal fats. This was possibly Pappea capensis mentioned by

Palmer & Pitman (1972: 283). The fat coating on Myrica cordifolia berries

(‘wasbessie’, ‘waschboom’) was melted off in boiling water and eaten. The

colonists used the fat for making candles, according to Allamand & Klockner

(1778). According to Palmer & Pitman (1972: 417), the fruit coat yields a large

amount of fat used for candles, soap, and food in the Colony.

It is not surprising that little mention is made of vegetable fats, as the

historical Hottentots—herders as well as those employed by the colonists—

usually had easy access to animal fats. References to the use of vegetable fats for

paints were not found.

Butter

There were seventeen references (about 7%) to butter; five of these

mentioned only that the Hottentots made it (the ‘Namaqua’ and Cape people in

the seventeenth century, and the Nama (Schultze 1907)), usually in a skin bag.

Six writers mentioned butter used as a general skin salve; of these, two

wrote that a new-born baby was smeared with it (Kolb 1731, copied by Mentzel

1787); all these references were to the Cape in the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries, and to the Nama (Hahn 1881; Schapera 1930). There was one

reference to its use, with soot, on skin garments at the Cape, and one to its use

in the interior as a cosmetic on hair.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 81

Butter was used as a food by the Cape herders, the Nama, and the Kora

who drank it. De Grevenbroek, Kolb, and Thunberg maintained that the

Hottentots did not eat butter but used it only for smearing.

Butter was used in rituals (Hahn 1881) (Nama?); the Kora used it in rituals

(Engelbrecht 1936); it was not to be used for smearing for the rest of the year

after the death of a chief, according to De Grevenbroek (1695).

The only reference found to the use of butter as an ingredient of paint was

that of Kolb regarding its use with soot on skin garments.

Cream

The only references to the use of cream that were found were those of

Engelbrecht (1936) regarding the Kora, who used it as a family and also a ritual

cleanser with dung; it was also used with pigments as a ritual cleanser, therefore

forming an ingredient of paint.

Unspecified fats

As with most of the specified fats, the majority of references here were to

the use of fat as a general skin salve on bodies, faces, and heads. Fat was

particularly liberally used at the Cape (as Van Riebeeck found to his cost in a

goodwill embrace) to protect the skin against the elements, to keep out the cold,

for health and to ward off ills, for ‘agility’ and ‘suppleness’, and to indicate

wealth, according to early reports. More practically, Sparrman (1785) pointed

out that the use of fat was a necessity in a dry climate. The light skins of the

Hottentots, remarked on by Barrow (1806: 106) and others (see Raven-Hart

1971, index), would have made protection from the sun very necessary.

This smearing seems to have been universal among the Hottentots, regard-

less of their economies, and included even those who had become detribalized

and worked in the service of the colonists. The wealthier ones, i.e. the herders,

at the Cape were said by some to have used more fat than others, particularly on

skin garments. The Gona, too, seemed to have used fat very liberally. The

availability of fat would also have determined the extent of its use, although the

‘Namaqua’ herders further inland apparently made less liberal use of fat for

smearing themselves (Wagenaar in 1662); Meerhof (in 1661) did not mention fat

when he described them. Coetsé (1760) reported that the ‘Great Amaquas’

beyond the Orange River did not smear themselves with fat, but that they did

not use it on themselves at all is to be doubted—the Nama people certainly did

smear themselves but not to an excessive extent, and it was apparently mainly

for ritual purposes, as with the Kora, and for facial cosmetics for women.

In the late nineteenth century and in this century, when other groups had

lost their way of life and identity, the reports of fat used as a body salve were

confined almost exclusively to the Nama of South West Africa and the Kora

along the Orange River, and eventually these, too, tapered off.

The next most important use for these fats was as a cosmetic—its general

use aS a smearing agent must have included cosmetic purposes, particularly

82 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

when mixed with, or used with, various additives such as pigments or buchu.

There are many references to this specific use by the Cape Hottentots, both

herders and Strandlopers, also by those further inland, although there are few

direct references to such use by the Namaqua (south of the Orange River).

Later reports refer also to this practice by the Gona and especially the Kora and

Nama.

One reference only was found that specifically mentioned general fats as

cleansers for everyday use—the Kora used fat with cow-dung for this purpose

(Engelbrecht 1936).

According to De Grevenbroek (1695) it was taboo to use fat (or butter) for

a time after the death of a chief.

Few writers mentioned the ritual use of fats before the eighteenth century,

but it played an important role in the rituals of Hottentots generally, particularly

as cleansers and when used with pigments. Although Le Vaillant (1790)

did not mention the ritual use of fat among the Gona, it is unlikely that they

would have been the exception. At the Cape warm fat was sometimes used

ritually, and fat was sometimes used ritually in combination with urine. Later

reports regarding rituals refer particularly to the Kora and Nama who both,

on some occasions, combined the use of fat with pigments and dung for

cleansing purposes.

Records regarding the use of unspecified fats as external medicines (often

with additives such as powdered, roasted bone, ostrich egg-shell, or red ochre)

equalled those for ritual uses. Apparently fat as a medicine was in general use by

all groups, but here, too, a direct reference to medical use by the Gona was not

found. When observations had become more thorough and many groups had

broken up, the later references applied mainly to the medical use of fat by the

Kora and Nama. Various substances were also added to fat for ointments for

ailments, including wounds and snake-bites. Sometimes warm fat was used. On

occasion an element of magic was included as when both patient and blankets

were smeared.

One certain reference to the internal use of fat as a medicine was that of

Schultze (1907) in connection with the Nama. Engelbrecht (on the Kora) and

Schapera (on Hottentots in general) mentioned only that fat formed an ingre-

dient for ‘remedies’.

Hottentots at the Cape rubbed fat into wounds made for scarification. There

are various references to cicatration, but not all mention that substances were

rubbed into wounds.

Other ways of using fat included the smearing of leather and leather

garments by all groups, but it seemed to taper off in the nineteenth century when

European clothing replaced the traditional skin garments. Burchell (1822-4) and

Engelbrecht (1936) referred to the use of fat on wood from which utensils were

made by inland Hottentots and Kora respectively. The Kora used a mixture of

stomach or kidney fat and a wild bulb, or animal glands and charcoal for mastics

with which to close the apertures in tortoise-shell containers (Engelbrecht 1936).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 83

There were five references to unspecified fats having been used as food by

herders and others at the Cape and by the Nama, but fat was probably eaten to a

much greater extent than was recorded, particularly in a severe climate (see

Martin 1957: 171 ff.). Alexander (1838 1: 47) was led to remark on the

enormous amount of fat eaten by the colonists, and no doubt other inhabitants

felt the need for it too.

As mentioned above, these unspecified fats were frequently used by all

groups as an ingredient of cosmetic paints.

DUNG

The Hottentots had various uses for dung, both fresh and dry, and it was

often used together with fat (Table 6).

The earliest travellers frequently mentioned that the Hottentots at the Cape

rubbed dung and fat on their bodies, hands, faces, and even hair, or a mixture of

soot and dung, or dung only. Some seemed to imply that the Hottentot

Strandlopers left the mixture on their skins as a kind of protection—for this they

usually used the dung from intestines—but others wrote that among herders and

other Hottentots the men, women and children used dung as a cleanser. This

general use on bodies seems to have been confined to the vicinity of the Cape.

Much later Sparrman (1785) wrote that hands and arms were cleaned with dung;

Napier (1849) wrote that ‘200 years ago faces and hands were cleaned with dung

and men applied it to their bodies with fat and reddish clay’, but the use of red

ochre together with dung and fat does not seem to have been as common as he

implied (see Pigments below). The Nama used dung as an everyday cleanser for

their hands. Usually the Hottentots used cattle-dung for cleansing; there was

one early reference only to sheep-dung having been used in this way (Meister in

Raven-Hart 1971).

Cattle-dung was frequently used in rituals, mainly as a ritual cleanser: Kolb

(1731) recorded the ritual cleansing of a couple after childbirth, Mentzel (1787)

noted this of the woman only. The Nama used this dung (followed by ochre and

fat) for girl initiates, widows, and remarriage ceremonies (Hoernlé 1918), and

they used the stomach contents of a sheep when a taboo had been broken (Olpp

1888). At Walvis Bay, where the people (Topnaars?) had only goats, they used

goat-dung with fat and ground naras pips for the ritual cleansing of a widow

(Hoernlé 1918). A Kora male initiate was cleansed with a mixture of cattle-dung

and cream (Engelbrecht 1936).

Other ritual uses included, at the Cape, the sprinkling of mourners, their

cattle, and the hut of the deceased with the stomach and bowel contents of a

sacrificial animal (De Grevenbroek 1695); cattle-dung was rubbed on relatives at

a funeral (Kolb 1731).

Two instances were found where dung was used as an internal medicine: the

Nama used goat-dung in diluted milk for chicken-pox, and powdered hyena

dung for convulsions.

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 85

External medical uses at the Cape included warm cow-dung on the affected

part for snake-bite, and a mixture of warm water and cow-dung was splashed on

a sick woman. In Namaqualand (Biden & Kling 1912) dung (unspecified) was

used for medicines. The Nama smeared a sick man with (unspecified) dung and

fat; they used cattle and goat-dung for poultices, and dung was used for hot

poultices. The Rehoboth people used warm dung against rheumatism.

Other uses included a doubtful reference to dung applied to skin clothing at

the Cape (Bogaert in 1702)—it does not seem to have been customary and might

only have been dirt; cattle-dung was used for tanning shoe-leather (Sparrman

1785). The Nama used a mixture of blood, dung, and sand for covering a hut

floor (Von Francois 1896); Schapera (1930) mentioned the use of cattle dung

and blood for this purpose. Cattle-dung was used to close the opening of the

butter or fat bag (Schultze 1907) (Nama?). Ridgill’s mixture of masticated suet

and cattle-dung for caulking a boat might have been used traditionally for other

purposes, but this was not evident from the available information.

Although the Cape Hottentots applied soot with dung to their bodies, and,

according to Napier, in the seventeenth century some males used cow-dung and

animal fat smeared over themselves with ‘reddish clay’ (this is doubtful evi-

dence), there is no other evidence that dung was an ingredient for paint.

For hyrax dung see notes on urine below.

URINE

There are many instances in the literature regarding the ritual use of urine

by the Hottentots at the Cape, along the Orange River, and in South West

Africa, as well as some general references to such use (Table 7).

In 1695 De Grevenbroek recorded that certain of a dead man’s belongings

were ‘purged’ in men’s urine, and an old man urinated on the mourners.

According to Kolb (1731), men urinated on a boy initiate, and urine was

sprinkled on mourners, on relatives at a funeral, on a bridal couple, and on a

successful hunter; in the case of funerals it was used with ashes and dung.

Allamand & Klockner (1778) noted (from the writings of others) that the

urinating ritual was used in the semi-castration ceremony, on a male initiate, on

a bridal couple, and on mourners, all used in conjunction with fat, and, in the

case of a bridal couple, with buchu as well. Along the Orange River urine was

used on a male initiate, also with fat (Wikar 1779). Mentzel (1787) wrote that it

was used on a bridal couple, and in conjunction with buchu, soot, and fat on a

male initiate. According to Thunberg (1793), urine was sprinkled on a male

initiate and on a bridal couple.

Among the early travellers who remarked on these practices, and stated

that they had not seen them, were Wallenberg (in 1770) who doubted that guests

at marriages and mourners at funerals were sprinkled with urine, Gordon (in

1773 et seq.) who had heard of such practices at marriages and boys’ puberty

ceremonies, Sparrman (1785) who had been told that there was some truth in

the urinating on a bridal couple, and Vaillant (1790) who stated that the

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 87

urinating ceremony in marriages was falsely ascribed to the Hottentots—but his

knowledge seems to have been confined mainly to what he had observed among

the Gona. Others, such as Dapper (1668: 61) and Ten Rhyne (1686: 147) gave

quite detailed accounts of Hottentot marriage ceremonies without mentioning

the use of urine. Thompson (1827) saw no evidence of ‘Kolben’s disgusting

marriage ceremony’ among the Kora on the Orange River.

In spite of the unreliability of some of the information and the plagiarism,

particularly of the very early writers, and the doubts of some of them, later

information about these rites among the Nama substantiate the existence of

early rites where urine had been used among some groups at least: a prudish

transcriber deleted almost all Tindall’s (1839-55) information on Nama male

initiation where men urinated on the initiate—and then destroyed the original

journal; Hahn (in 1867 et seq.) recorded that urine was sprinkled on the male

initiate; Fritsch (1872) quoted Hahn on the use of urine in Nama ceremonies;

urine was sprinkled into a fire for rain-making (Hahn 1881).

Several writers noted the use of urine for medical purposes. At the Cape,

Schreyer (in 1668) saw men urinating on a sick man who was then well the

following day. De Grevenbroek (1695) also recorded this practice and several

other practices: an alternative cure was to drink a mixture of urine and herbs;

women’s urine was not used, but a man would urinate on the legs of a woman

who was ill; a man’s own boiled urine was used for his wounds. Along the

Orange River the urine of a poison-drinker was drunk against snake-bite and

arrow-poison (Wikar 1779); Thunberg (1793) also recorded this remedy against

snake-bite used by both Bushmen and Hottentots, while Thompson (1827) noted

that a urine-and-gunpowder remedy was used against snake-bite.

Hyraxeum, the mixed urine and faeces of dassies found in hardened,

blackish, shiny masses in rock shelters (‘dassiepis’, ‘klipsweet’, ‘Steinschweiss’)

(Fig. 4), was used as a remedy for ills at the Cape, but it was not noted whether the

use was internal or external (Allamand & Klockner 1778; Sparrman 1785). In

Namaqualand, ‘dassiepis’ was a kind of magical remedy ‘injected’ into incisions in

the skin of a patient (Biden & Kling 1912). It was an internal and external remedy

for ills, and plasters of it were applied to snake-bites (Laidler 1928); ‘dassiepis’

was rubbed into scarified snake-bites and scorpion stings, and, when boiled and

strained, it was a female remedy and abortifacient (Schapera 1930).

‘Dassiepis’ is still sold in little tins by some country chemists.

Nama women painted a mixture of water and ‘dassiepis’ on their faces that

had been smeared with fat (Schultze 1907) (see also Miscellaneous pigments

below).

There was no evidence of any other kind of urine having been used as an

ingredient of paint.

BLOOD

Several descriptions of the slaughtering of animals showed that the blood

was retained, but its use was not always specified.

88 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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Fig. 4. A hardened black mass of hyraxeum (dassie excrement, ‘dassiepis’, ‘klipsweet’) in a

rock shelter near Pakhuis Pass, Clanwilliam district.

The Hottentots used blood in several ways, chiefly for ritual purposes

(Table 8). Wikar (1779) recorded the cleansing of an ‘Eynikkoa’ male initiate

with animal blood; the ‘Namaqua’ (South West Africa?) smeared the blood of a

goat on a corpse (Fritsch 1872); drinking lion or ‘panther’ blood was believed to

influence the nature of a person or foetus (Hahn 1881) (Nama of South West

Africa?); a Nama man ‘drank’ the boiled blood of a lamb if a taboo had been

broken (Olpp 1888), and he drank animal blood (not said whether raw or

cooked) to steel himself for war (Schultze 1907). Guests at a Nama wedding ate

intestines cooked with the blood of the animal slaughtered for the occasion;

blood of an animal specially slaughtered for a funeral was boiled with a herb and

relatives sitting round the pot were steamed by plunging a red-hot axe into

it—the mixture was later eaten by certain persons only; at Berseba (Orlams?) a

line of blood was made on the stomachs of mourners (elsewhere the Nama used

potblack) (Hoernlé 1918).

According to Vedder (19285), mourners at a funeral ate a little blood (not

said whether raw or cooked), and it was mixed with intestines and smeared on

mourners (Vedder 1938).

In the Nama remarriage ceremony, blood of the couple mixed with animal

blood and body dirt was rubbed into cuts in their skins (Hoernlé 1918); Hoernlé

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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reported a similar ceremony with blood and dirt for a sick person, according to

Schapera (1930).

The use of blood as a ritual food could be traced to the Nama only, but that

does not rule out its use by other groups.

Two early travellers recorded that the cooked blood of cattle was eaten by

the women, but Kolb maintained that women were ‘forbidden the pure blood of

beasts’. The Griqua ate cooked blood—one source specified sheep’s blood, the

other did not say from what animal the blood was taken.

Medical uses had a magical element such as when blood was rubbed into

cuts in the skin of a sick person (see above). Dry menstrual blood of a Nama

initiate was mixed with food to kill enemies, and the same kind of blood of a

‘harmless’ girl was used for male sexual diseases (Vedder 1928b).

Other uses for blood that were traced also concern the Nama: it was mixed

with sand and dung (Von Francois 1896), or with dung only (Schapera 1930) to

smear on a hut floor.

There was no evidence that blood was used for making paints, although it

was smeared on persons in a few rites.

STOMACH LIQUID

It is known that the Bushmen used the stomach liquid of a slaughtered

animal as a substitute for water when the latter was scarce—Chapman (1849-63)

saw Hottentots using the stomach liquid in this way. Previously in this study it

was mentioned that the contents of the stomach were sometimes used as a

cleanser (see discussion on dung).

No other use for this liquid was found in the literature.

WATER

There were relatively few references to water being used in unusual ways,

and most of these were in rituals, particularly those of the Nama in South West

Africa (Table 9).

It seems that washing with water was not a routine habit among the early

Hottentots—usually other cleansers such as fat or dung were used, but on speical

occasions water was used. At the Cape, mourners washed themselves after a

funeral, and a woman washed herself just after childbirth (Langhansz in 1694) or

some days later (De Grevenbroek 1695). Along the Orange River a male initiate

was washed with water (and smeared with other substances) (Wikar 1779);

Barrow (1806) recorded that a girl was washed in puberty rites.

Inland a boy initiate was given a mixture of dried, powdered entrails and

water to drink (Campbell 1822).

Among the Nama, a girl initiate ran naked in the rain; a lion hunter washed

himself before the hunt and drank water in a special way that became customary

among the Nama; in his absence his wife poured water on the ground; water was

poured on a grave (Hahn 1881). Olpp (1888) noted that in male puberty rites

water was touched and it was splashed on the initiate. Hoernlé (1918) described

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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92 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Nama rites where a person in a state of transition had to be introduced or

reintroduced to water, e.g. mourners after a funeral (as at the Cape), a widower

and his livestock, babies, sick people, etc., and water was sprinkled on the hut

of the deceased. These practices recall the ritual wetting or ‘purging’ with urine

of the possessions of the deceased, and other ritual wettings with urine at the

Cape. It may be that among other groups, or in later times, urine was replaced

by water, but Tindall had still in the last century witnessed a Nama initiation

where urine was used.

In ritual-medical practices at the Cape, a sick woman was splashed with a

mixture of dung and warm water, and a convalescent was washed in warm, then

cold, water before being smeared with fat (De Grevenbroek 1695).

There were several references to the drink that the Hottentots brewed from

water and honey; Le Vaillant (1790) recorded that the Gona included a root in

the mixture.

Nama women painted a mixture of hyraxeum (‘dassiepis’) and water on

their faces. This is the only reference that was found where water formed an

ingredient of paint.

MILK

Milk was a source of food for Hottentot herders, who also used it for

making butter (Table 10). The Kora sometimes used cream for ritual cleansing

(see under Fat above). Other uses for milk that were found were that the Nama

threw fat and milk on a fire for rain-making (Bruwer 1972), and fat, buchu and

mother’s milk were mixed as a medicine for earache (Laidler 1928).

There was no evidence that milk formed an ingredient of paint.

TABLE 10

Milk used by the Hottentots.

Van Riebeeck 1651-62 Cape Kept in skin bags

Dapper 1668 Cape Kept in wooden vessels

De Chaumont 1685 Cape herders Drank milk; kept in skin bags

Ten Rhyne 1686 Cape Drank milk of cows, sheep

Bogaert 1702 Cape Drank milk

Mentzel 1787 General Drank sour milk; kept in skin bags

Theal 1919 General Kept in skin bags

Laidler 1928 General Mother’s milk, fat and buchu, for earache

Bruwer 1972 Nama With fat on fire for rain

EGGS

Eggs were seldom mentioned in the literature (Table 11). Cape Hottentots

brought ostrich eggs to the settlers for barter; De Grevenbroek (1695) main-

tained that they did not eat eggs themselves, but, much later, Burchell (1822-4)

saw inland Hottentots eating ostrich eggs, and so did Ridsdale (1883) in South

West Africa. Powdered, burnt ostrich egg-shell was used with fat as a salve for

various purposes by the Nama, Basters, and Kora, and the Basters mixed it with

water for a poultice.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 93

TABLE 11

Eggs used by the Hottentots.

Van Riebeeck 1651-62 Cape Ostrich eggs for barter

Van der Stel 1684 Cape Ostrich eggs for barter

De Grevenbroek 1695 Cape Eggs not eaten

Burchell 1822-4 Inland Ostrich eggs cooked and eaten

Ridsdale 1883 SiW.A. Ostrich eggs eaten

Olpp 1888 Nama, S.W.A. Burnt, powdered ostrich egg-shell with fat

for baby salve

Schultze 1907 Coast, S.W.A. Washed hair with raw penguin egg

Fischer 1913 Basters, S.W.A. — Powdered ostrich egg-shell with fat for

ointment

Fischer 1913 As above Powdered ostrich egg-shell with water

for poultice

Laidler 1928 General Burnt, powdered ostrich egg-shell and

fat for ‘snuffles’

Schapera 1930 Nama Burnt, powdered ostrich egg-shell and

fat on face and head of new-born

Engelbrecht 1936 Kora Burnt, powdered ostrich egg-shell

(and fat?) for ointment

The coastal Hottentots in South West Africa (Topnaars?) used raw penguin

egg when washing their hair.

The Hottentots also used ostrich egg-shells for making beads.

There was no evidence that egg was used for making paints.

PLANT SAP

This survey is not concerned with the vast variety of plant substances used

medically, but only with those that were applied in liquid form in unusual ways,

or used with fat (a substance used with pigments to make paint), or those that

had been suggested in the past as possible ingredients of paints (Table 12).

(Plants used for buchu are discussed separately below.)

Downton’s (in 1610) ‘juice of hearbes’ used on hair and bodies by the

herders at Saldanha Bay might have been dung. Kolb noted that a new-born

baby was cleaned with cow-dung and the juice of the Hottentot fig (‘suurvy’,

TABLE 12

Plant sap used by the Hottentots.

Downton 1610 et seq. Saldanha, ‘Juice of hearbes’ on bodies and hair

herders

Kolb 1731 Cape Sap of Hottentot fig with cow-dung to clean

new-born

Mentzel 1787 General Sap of Hottentot fig after use of cow-dung to

clean new-born

Hoernlé 1918 Orange R. Brew of euphorbia sap to cleanse widow (ritual)

Hoernlé 1918 Walvis Bay Ground naras pips, goat dung and fat mixture

to cleanse widow (ritual)

Laidler 1928 General Dagga leaves and fat for pain in eyes

Laidler 1928 General Euphorbia milk for warts

94 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Carprobotus sp.), then smeared with fat or butter and buchu; Mentzel, his

copyist, stated that the dung was used first, the juice, etc. afterwards.

Along the Orange River a brew of Euphorbia sap (and possibly water) was

used to cleanse a widow, and at Walvis Bay she was cleansed with ground nara

(Acanthosicyos horrida) pips, goat-dung and fat (Hoernlé 1918). Euphorbia milk

was used for warts, and dagga leaves and fat were used for pains in the

eyes—Laidler (1928) did not name the tribe or group, nor the exact way in which

the Hottentots (Nama?) used this remedy.

There was no evidence that plant juices were used for paints.

GUM

The ‘Namaqua’ obtained gum from trees (Van der Stel in 1685). Gum was

used by the Nama, also with charcoal, for making beads and closing the apertures

in tortoise-shell containers (Schultze 1907); it was boiled as a food; fat and

boiled gum formed a salve, and boiled Euryops resin was used for fevers

(Laidler 1928) (Table 13).

There was no evidence that gum was used for paints.

TABLE 13

Gum used by the Hottentots.

Van der Stel 1685 |= Amaquas Gum was obtained from trees

Schultze 1907 Nama ‘Gum of some plant’ with or without charcoal for

making beads

Schultze 1907 Nama ‘Gum of some plant’ for closing apertures in

tortoise-shell container

Laidler 1928 General Food; fat and boiled gum for salve

Laidler 1928 General __ Boiled Euryops resin for fevers

HONEY

Although there were not many references to honey (Table 14), it was

probably eaten by all the Hottentots. It was eaten at the Cape and used to make

TABLE 14

Honey used by the Hottentots.

Dapper 1668 Cape Eaten wax and all

Bogaert 1702 Cape Eaten wax and all

Brink 1778 Hottentots, Collected for barter

‘Honigbergen’

Mentzel 1787 General Drink brewed, with water and root

Le Vaillant 1790 Hottentots Drink brewed, with a root

Thunberg 1793 Hottentots Drink brewed, with water and root

Smith c. 1833 General Drink brewed, with water and root

Chapman 1849-63 —_Hottentots Honey beer a favourite brew

Dunn 1872-3 Orange R. 200-300 persons for honey-beer drinking

Hahn 1881 Nama -Honey or honey-beer as offering at Heitsi-Eibib’s

graves

Ridsdale 1883 S.W.A. Honey eaten

Schultze 1907 Nama Honey-beer made; honey kept in skin bag

Theal 1919 General Used to make an intoxicating drink

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 95

an intoxicating drink; Le Vaillant was possibly referring to the Gona when he

wrote of a drink brewed of honey and a root; along the Orange River, Dunn saw

200 to 300 Hottentots gathered for a honey-beer drinking in 1872; Schultze

(1907) recorded the use of honey as a food among the Nama, who also used

honey or honey-beer as a ritual offering (Hahn 1881).

There was no evidence that honey was used as an ingredient of paint.

PIGMENTS

In the previous pages the various substances that the historical Hottentots

used or might have used as media for paints were discussed.

The pigments and their uses, as well as the substances mixed with them to

form paints, are examined below, but the paucity of detailed information,

particularly regarding the sex of the users, frequently allows only limited

deductions. .

For the sake of convenience, where possible the data are discussed under

the various pigments according to the main groups or areas.

Terms for the various mineral pigments have often been haphazardly and

incorrectly used in the literature—for this reason they have been retained here

unless correct identification is obvious.

Ferric oxides

At the Cape. Davys (in 1598) noted already before the time of the Dutch

settlement that ‘divers colours’ were used on their faces by the indigenous

people—iron oxides (Table 15) must have been among the pigments. The

Hottentot Strandlopers, and others not identified, at the Cape made marks or

patterns with ‘a red stone’ on their faces, according to several travellers, some of

them plagiarists, no doubt—the stone might have been used as a crayon on the

greasy faces. Cortemtinde (1672) mentioned that the men smeared their faces

with red ochre and fat in which they scratched patterns. Kolb (1731) stated that

the women used this paint in the same way. According to Witsen (in 1691 in

Hahn 1881), women at the Cape used ‘red earth’ and buchu as a ritual offering.

They also used ‘various decorative pigments’ as cosmetics—haematite must have

been included. Pots were smeared with a red colouring matter while the clay was

wet (De Grevenbroek 1695) (see also section on archaeological evidence).

Valentyn (1726) wrote of ‘workings of red and white chalk, mixed earths’,

and referred to the ‘smearings and paintings of the young girls—ferric oxides

would have been among the pigments.

Even the women servants painted their cheeks with a red salve (Paravicini

di Capelli 1803). The statement by Collins (1809) that a Black man in the

eastern Cape looked more like a Hottentot because of being smeared with red

ochre, indicates its extensive use among the Hottentots even at that time.

‘Namaqua.’ The ‘glittering sand’ of the ‘Namaqua’ (Van der Stel 1685), and

the hard, dark mineral used for women and female animals in difficult births—a

kind of magic medicine—and esteemed by the ‘Namaqua’ (Tachard in 1685)

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must have been a torm of haematite, perhaps specularite, as it seems to have

been different from the ‘certain stone, powdered’, possibly red ochre, that both

men and women smeared on their bodies with grease (Tachard in 1685). Ten

Rhyne’s (1686) ‘diverse coloured earths’ used in the interior on faces and hair

must have included haematite. ‘Namaqua’ women smeared ‘dry redlead’

(haematite?) round their eyes (Chapman 1849-63).

Gona. The women smeared red ochre and fat on their bodies and faces,

sometimes with patterns on the faces, but the men smeared red ochre and soot

on their upper lips only, according to Le Vaillant (1790).

Kora. The Kora, in the vicinity of the Orange River, got ‘ochre’ from the

Griqua for painting their bodies (Campbell 1822); they smeared themselves with

grease and used ‘powdered ochres’ (Borcherds 1861); the women mixed red

ochre and fat for smearing on their bodies (Arbousset & Daumas 1846); the

Kora used fat, ochre and buchu on their bodies (Fritsch 1872); the women used

‘red oxide of iron’ mixed with fat to make patterns on their blackened faces

(Dunn 1872-3); red ochre was used on faces (Westphal (1906) did not say

whether by men or women). The conical pots of the Kora were red (Dunn

1872-3). Burchell (1822-4) remarked on a Kora man’s ochre-covered blanket—

this was the only reference of its kind regarding garments, etc.

Engelbrecht’s studies also showed that Kora women mixed fat and red

ochre for a facial cosmetic; among some Kora groups fat and specularite were

rubbed in the hair of male and female initiates; the body of a female initiate was

smeared with red ochre and cream; the pelvic bones of a sheep or goat were

smeared with ‘red clay’ in the female initiation ceremony. Engelbrecht remarked

that some Kora customs were said to be Nama.

Orange River. The ‘Namnykoa’ along the Orange River smeared a ‘kind of

ore’ mixed with fat in their hair—Wikar (1779) did not give the sex of the users.

This ore, obtained from the ‘Blicquoas’ (Tlhaping), was possibly specularite:

Queen Mahoota, a Hottentot living among the ‘Bechuana’, used specularite and

fat in her hair (Thompson 1827)—although this was a Tlhaping custom, it was

also adopted by some of the Hottentots in contact with them. Walton (1956)

noted that the ‘Nama’ along the Orange River obtained ‘a certain black ore’

from the Tlhaping, which they mixed with fat and applied to their hair—it is

more likely that these people were Kora, not Nama.

Along the very lower reaches of the Gariep (Orange) River, on the South

West African side, Hottentot women decorated themselves with ‘streaks of red

and yellow ochre’—the streaks were apparently on their faces; Ridgill (1870) did

not mention fat, but it was probably used as well. Judging by the locality, these

people could have been Bondelswarts or perhaps Orlams who had trekked from

the Colony.

Nama. Hahn (1881), whose work was connected mainly with the Nama

people, wrote of women who ‘anoint themselves with red ochre’ on certain

occasions; he stated that ‘Redmen’ was the name the ‘Khoikhor used to

distinguish themselves from the black people; but this was the name adopted by

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 99

only a group of Nama tribes that came under the leadership of the Red People

(see Vedder 1928, 1929, and below). Hahn suggested that red was associated

with blood, that the word for red, i.e. /ava or aua, blood-like, took its origin

from /au, ‘to bleed’, and that red ochre and other red paint replaced blood in

ritual sacrifice and the worship of the Khoikhoi.

Hahn’s (1881) reference to the women anointing themselves with red ochre

and making marks with red ochre on certain sacred stones and cairns is of

significance, for this is the only direct evidence so far found that Hottentots—

and women at that—had painted on rocks.

Fritsch (1872) might have been referring to Nama women when he noted

that Hottentot women painted red ochre and red ‘earth’ on their greasy faces,

sometimes in patterns.

Ridsdale (1883) saw a Nama woman (‘Veldschoen Draager’) thickly be-

smeared from head to foot with fat and ‘red dust’; women in South West Africa

(Nama) painted their faces red during menstruation (Schinz 1891); the women

made paint from red ochre and fat, perfumed with buchu, with which they

regularly painted their faces, apparently in patterns, and black paint was also

used, but the custom was not in use among the men (Von Francois 1896). ‘Iron

oxide or iron rust’ was mixed with raw, chewed fat for a facial paint for the

women (Schultze 1907).

Vedder (1928) wrote of a reddish ointment and blackish red salve used on

faces during menstruation, early pregnancy and also on cold days to protect the

skin; the ‘Rooi Nasie’ got its name from the custom of the people of smearing

their bodies with a mixture of fat and ochre (Vedder 1929)—Vedder did not

make it clear in this instance whether both sexes used the salve. Elsewhere

Vedder (1938) generalized about the Nama smearing their bodies with an

ointment of ‘red ironstone and fat’.

Hoernlé (1918) recorded several Nama ritual uses for paints: during initia-

tion the girl’s face was painted in patterns with the salve of red ochre and fat;

she was cleansed with moist cow-dung and the salve; afterwards her face was

painted in patterns with the same salve and ‘ground white stone’ (possibly

quartz—the Kora also used fine quartz, see under Miscellaneous pigments

below); in a remarriage ceremony the couple were similarly cleansed and

smeared with the red salve; and a widow, after cleansing with substances that

varied according to the area and availability, was also rubbed with this red salve.

According to Olpp (1888), red ochre was used on a boy’s body in puberty rites.

Laidler (1928) noted that ‘red paints were used for remedies as blood is

red’: he was probably referring to the Nama in South West Africa.

Basters. The Basters mixed red ochre, fat, and powdered, burnt bone for an

ointment.

The use of specularite

Fritsch (1872) remarked that the Hottentots (Nama?) did not like ‘blinkklip’

and that ‘nowhere is ‘“‘blinkklip’”’ mentioned by early authors’; but the ‘glittering

100 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

sand’ (Van der Stel 1685) and the hard, dark mineral (Tachard in 1685) of the

‘Namaqua’, and, perhaps, the ‘kind of ore’ used along the Orange River (Wikar

1779) might have been specularite. Some tribes or groups did not prefer

specularite, and it might not have been available in some areas. Although

Fritsch questioned information that the Kora used specularite, Somerville (1799-

1802) had noted before him that they used it, and Engelbrecht (1936) found that

some Kora groups did use it, at least for ritual purposes, while other Kora

groups did not and maintained that it was a custom of Bantu-speaking people

who burnt their red ochre, unlike the Kora; but this, too, was contradicted by

other Kora people (Engelbrecht 1936). It does not seem that the Hottentots in

general heated haematite as did Bushmen in Lesotho (see How 1962).

In this study not sufficient evidence was found to support the statement that

‘jt was a recorded habit of the Nama Hottentots to rub specularite into their

hair’ (Woodhouse 1975)—perhaps this meant the people south of the Orange

River, not the people in South West Africa, but there is insufficient evidence to

believe that all the ‘Namaqua’ tribes habitually rubbed specularite into their

hair, in fact, it seems to have been used only by some groups, mainly some Kora

groups (see also archaeological evidence).

Soot and charcoal, ash

Soot, or potblack, and charcoal were used for a black pigment by many, if

not all, Hottentot groups (Table 16). The pigment was generally mixed or used

with some kind of fat for a cosmetic or salve on bodies and faces, sometimes

painted in patterns.

At the Cape. Although the sex of the users was frequently not mentioned, it

seems that among the Cape Hottentots this black pigment was used more by

men, on both bodies and faces, than by women. Both men and women made

patterns with it on their faces. Early records tell of patterns being ‘indented’

with fingers after the salve had been applied (Herbert in 1627), or scratched with

finger-nails into the salve on women’s faces or on bodies (Schreyer in 1668). At

Flesh Bay, near Mossel Bay, the Hottentots blackened their faces (Hondius

1652). Faces were painted with ‘figures’ of red and black when strangers came to

visit (Thunberg 1793). The mixture of dung and soot on bodies mentioned by

Meister can hardly be regarded as paint.

There were a few references to soot in the hair, and Kolb and Sparrman

noted that it was also rubbed on skin garments.

The only reference to ritual or magical use at the Cape was Schreyer’s (in

1668) mentioning of faces being blackened with a charcoal stick against danger.

Gona. Men mixed soot and ochre for painting their upper lips which had

apparently also been smeared with fat.

On the Orange River. A new hunter had his face ritually smeared with

potblack and wiped clean in places to leave criss-cross designs.

Kora. The Kora women on the Orange River painted haematite salve on

charcoal-blackened faces; for festivals both men and women made patterns with

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 101

charcoal salve (and other salves) on their faces (Dunn 1872-3). An unusual Kora

use for charcoal was to pound it up with animal glands for a mastic with which to

close the apertures in tortoise-shell containers (Engelbrecht 1936).

Nama. The women made odd-looking streaks with soot, used with fat, on

their faces (Alexander 1838), or they mixed soot with fat to paint on cheeks and

over eyebrows (Chapman 1849-63). According to Von Frangois (1896), the

women made a cosmetic of soot or charcoal, fat, and buchu with which they

made patterns on their faces. Beads were made from a mixture of charcoal and

gum (Schultze 1907). Hoernlé recorded the Nama ritual use of potblack for

making marks under the eyes of a widow, or for making a line on the stomach of

mourners (other Nama used blood for the latter rite, as mentioned previously).

Ash

References to ash were kept separate as they did not specifically imply a

pigment, but have been included to complete the record.

At the Cape, ash was sprinkled on mourners, after urine. Ash and fat were

mixed and applied to bodies—here Percival (1804) could have meant charcoal.

Ash with fat, sometimes with buchu, protected the skin against cold and ‘other

things’ (Fitsch 1872). The Nama rubbed ash into cicatrization cuts. The Kora

made an ointment from lion fat and ash (Engelbrecht 1936).

Plant pigments

The Hottentots made use of plant pigments (Table 17), some of which

would have served a dual purpose as they were also aromatic (see also Buchu

below). Some materials that were chosen for tanning skins and hides also

coloured the leather and were perhaps preferred to others that did not impart

the desired colours to the leather.

The plant pigments that were used are mentioned here according to regions

or tribes.

At the Cape. References regarding the use of plant pigments at the Cape

were not found, although some of the buchu that was used might have had a

desirable colour. It is not unlikely that De Flacourt’s (in 1648) pleasant-smelling

yellow or tan powder ‘or earth’ was some plant material.

At the Orange River. The red scented buchu that the Bushwoman sprinkled

on the ‘Namaqua’ man might have been used by both groups, but Wikar (1779)

did not make this clear. Its colour and scent would have made it a desirable

cosmetic pigment and perfume; it could have been acacia wood (see below).

Gona. Women used a powdered, scented red root on their greased bodies,

which would have served as a cosmetic pigment and perfume.

Kora. A salve of fat and the pulverized bark of ‘a certain tree’ was applied

to the faces of male initiates (Wuras in 1858); the colour was not mentioned and

it might have been acacia wood (see below). Men and women used a purplish

brown pigment from a fungus mixed with fat for a facial cosmetic with which

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 105

patterns were made on their faces (Dunn 1872-3). Yellow and brown fungi

(possibly the spores) were mixed with fat for a facial and body paint (Westphal

1906); the brown (edible) mushroom growing on antheaps was probably the

gasteromycete Podaxis pistillaris (J. P. Rourke 1970 pers. comm.) commonly

found on antheaps in the summer rainfall areas of South Africa. Pisolithus

tinctorius might also have been used (O. Leistner, Botanical Research Institute,

Pretoria, 1970 pers. comm.).

Animal skins tanned with ‘wag-’n-bietjie’ (Acacia mellifera detinens) bark

became tan coloured (Engelbrecht 1936). The root of the elandsboontjie

(Elephantorrhiza elephantina), widespread over southern Africa, was also used

for tanning skins, which became red. This is the same plant that Péringuey called

by a previous name, E. burchelli. The tannin content is low, about 21 per cent in

air-dried material; there are nine species which occur only in Africa south of the

Equator, some of which are poorly known; all may have tanning properties (see

Burtt Davy 1932; Ross 1975). Palmer & Pitman (1972: 270) noted that the bark

and pods of E. burkei are rich in tannin.

Nama. The women made aromatic paints and powders from lichens and

used a ‘kind of saffron—Chapman (1849-63) did not say whether the latter was

a pigment or perfume or both. Coetsé (1760) mentioned a wood in South West

Africa with a beautiful bright red colour, which Mossop (1935) identified as

Acacia haematoxylon. The heart-wood of A. giraffe (now A. erioloba) is also

red, while the outer wood is yellowish brown (J. P. Rourke 1979 pers. comm.).

According to some reports, red wood was used as buchu (Wikar 1779). The ‘red

tannic juice’ of ‘Acacia giraffe’ was sometimes substituted for red ochre, accord-

ing to Hahn (1881), while Schultze (1907) wrote that a red powder from this

wood (‘camel-thorn’) was used to make masks and patterns on fat-besmeared

faces, and a black powder, similarly used, was made from ‘roasted pelargonium

stems’. The yellow spores of a fungus were used as a pigment and as buchu

(perfume) on the body (Schultze 1907) (see also Kora above). The soaked red

bark of Acacia horrida (now A. karroo) was used for tanning and colouring skins

(Schultze 1907; Schapera 1930).

Miscellaneous pigments

In various references to pigments used on the body, neither colours nor

origins of the pigments were given (Table 18). Considering their widespread use,

haematite and other earth pigments were probably included among these, e.g.

the ‘diverse colours’ used on faces (Davys in 1595); the ‘heart of certain rocks’

(Tachard in 1685); the ‘divers coloured earths’ (Ten Rhyne 1686) used in the

interior on hair and, with fat, on faces; the ‘various pigments’ that women at the

Cape used (De Grevenbroek 1695); and the ‘workings of red and white chalk’

(Valentyn 1726). Theal (1919) wrote that the Hottentot men and women

covered themselves with fat and ‘clay’ against the cold and vermin—the clay

might have been red ochre, but this sounds like vague plagiarism. Dornan (1925)

also remarked that fat and ‘clay’ were used against the cold.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 107

Tappen (in 1682) saw red paint on women’s faces—it might have been

haematite. The various red paints that were used as remedies mentioned by

Laidler (1928) possibly included haematite as well as plant substances.

Leguat (in 1698) gave no more information than that the greasy hair was

‘powdered with dust’—it must have been an earth pigment. Smith (c. 1833)

noted that paints and powders were kept in tortoise-shells.

Thunberg (1793) saw ‘various figures of brown and black paint’ on faces

the black paint was possibly soot or charcoal, but the brown cannot be identified

from the information, nor is there any way of knowing what Saartjie Baardman

(c. 1816), or the women in Baines’s (Fig. 5) or Steeb’s (Fig. 6) pictures smeared

on their faces. So, too, will the ‘blue clay’ on the faces of ‘Namaqua’ women

remain a mystery (Borcherds 1861). Wikar (1779) gave no further information

about the paints that were used, perhaps ritually, on the heads of dead animals.

The yellow or tan powder with a pleasant smell, used at the Cape (De

Flacourt in 1648), was probably vegetable matter.

In Bethany, Orange Free State, fine quartz was used on a Kora male initiate

(Wuras c. 1858), and the ‘ground white stone’ that the Nama used for a female

initiate (Hoernlé 1918) might have been quartz, but there was no indication that

it had been mixed with fat. These, and Valentyn’s reference to workings of ‘red

and white chalk’ were the only references to white pigments that were found.

wee

their faces (from Chapman 1849-63).

108 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

} “g ie ) rs a (Ge ‘*

f wt Aol whtlire wil fear hind ky Cher pe Sy oe feral a

, ‘

ST aobirg lav 1 ep lite dee F Ltt

Fig. 6. A water-colour picture by Steeb (1812) of a Hottentot

woman who has two broad, painted red lines across her cheeks

(Fehr Collection, Rust en Vreugd, Cape Town).

At the end of the last century some Nama women used commercial paints

and washing blue to make patterns on their faces (Von Francois 1896).

Perhaps the most unusual among the miscellaneous pigments was the

hyraxeum that the Nama women mixed with water for a dark-brown paint that

was applied to a face smeared with fat (Schultze 1907).

BUCHU

Buchu was the general term for all aromatic powders that the Hottentots

used on their bodies. Schultze (1907) recorded some of the ingredients that were

used, mainly plant materials. These powders were usually kept in a tortoise-

shell. Because some served as pigments as well as perfumes (see above), and

because buchu was used with other substances that were sometimes ingredients

of paints, as many references as possible were investigated.

Buchu (Table 19) was used by all the Hottentot groups or tribes. It served

mainly as an everyday cosmetic or deodorant, usually applied to the body or

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 109

armpits, but also to the hair at times. Apparently the women used buchu more

than did the men, but the men also made considerable use of it. Some travellers

noted that it was a form of protection for the skin when used with fat.

Sometimes it was mixed with fat. One reference was found where buchu was

used on the face (Mentzel 1787), but this seems to have been unusual.

Schapera (1933: 115) maintained that buchu was always ground to a powder

and never burnt, but according to Schultze (1907), the dried plants were lightly

roasted over a fire before being powdered; Ten Rhyne (1686) wrote that the ‘ash

of burnt herbs’ was sprinkled on the head; among the Nama, clothing was

perfumed by heating powdered quartz (Schultze 1907).

Buchu was in general use in rituals and medicinally, and was sometimes

endowed with magical properties. There were various exceptional uses and

ingredients—they are summarized below area by area.

At the Cape. Women used buchu and ochre in a ritual offering; a bridal

couple had it sprinkled on their fat-besmeared bodies and clothing, and it was

used by all those present; after childbirth the parents were sprinkled with buchu,

here, too, used with fat; a male initiate was similarly treated; at a funeral the

heir wore the buchu-strewn intestines of a sheep round his neck; a tortoise-shell

containing buchu was placed on graves. Buchu could be used as a scent, charm,

and disinfectant; a convalescent who had been treated with leaves, water, and

fat was sprinkled with buchu and so was his ‘blanket’; a new-born baby was

smeared with fat and sprinkled with buchu; and buchu was thought to cure

disorders.

‘Namaqua.’ Among the ‘Little Namaqua’, the fat of a cow or sheep was

sprinkled with buchu and hung round the neck of a bride (Schapera 1930

quoting Wikar). The red buchu (see also plant pigments) that Wikar saw a

Bushwoman sprinkling on a ‘Namaqua’ man might have been used by both

groups. The ‘Namaqua’ had aromatic paints and powders made from lichens (it

is not clear whether Chapman (1849-63) meant the people north or south of the

Orange River); in Namaqualand buchu was strewn on corpses and graves; at the

Orange River mouth buchu was mixed with fat to make a perfumed ointment

(Paterson 1790).

Gona. The Gona used a powdered, scented red plant root (see also plant

pigments) with fat, preferably sheep’s tail-fat (Le Vaillant 1790).

Along the Orange River. The ‘Namnykoa’ sprinkled buchu on the painted

heads of dead animals; Wikar (1779) did not give a reason for this practice,

which was the only one of its kind found in the literature. Buchu was sprinkled

on the armpits of a suitor, possibly as a deodorant as well as a perfume. The

‘Eynikkoas’, also on the Orange River, wore a scented fungus on the chest and

its spores were dispersed over the body (see also plant pigments).

Kora. In the Orange Free State, buchu was sprinkled on the greasy face of a

Kora male initiate (Mentzel recorded such use at the Cape but for everyday

purposes). The Kora used fat and ochre with buchu on their bodies, and herbs

(buchu?) and fat were mixed to use for magical purposes and as a medicine.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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112 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Nama. There are many references to buchu having been used by the Nama

of South West Africa as a cosmetic and deodorant. In addition, it was used by

men on their faces with ‘red’, and on their clothing; buchu was heated on hot

stones for the scent to penetrate clothing, and it was rubbed on babies’ blankets

and on garments of the dead. When mixed with fine powdered quartz, women

used it all over their bodies, men on their armpits and necks; this powdered

quartz was heated to perfume clothing. The head of a mushroom was hung on a

thread round the neck and the yellow spores were allowed to disperse over the

body; the rest of the mushroom was dried and powdered. Buchu was rubbed on

a girl initiate, and she rubbed it on the testicles of young boys as a ritual

medicine, and threw it over men and boys. Buchu was sprinkled on a grave.

Coloured buchu

Some kinds had a definite colour, such as the red wood mentioned by Wikar

and Coetsé (although the latter did not state its use), the red root of the Gona,

the spores of a white, scented fungus of the ‘Eynikkoas’, and the yellow fungus

about which Schultze wrote. Westphal also noted a yellow and a brown fungus

that were mixed with fat for body and facial paint. These must have been

selected for their colour as well as their scent and can also be regarded as

pigments (see plant pigments above).

PATTERNS MADE WITH COSMETIC PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

In Table 20 the information on the painting of facial and body patterns is set

out. Instances where a nose or upper lip only, etc., was decorated are not

included here, but cases where colour was applied in patches or spots are

included, as well as masks.

The practice of painting patterns on faces was common among all Hottentot

groups (Figs. 5-8). It was done mainly by the women for everyday cosmetic

purposes, red ochre having been the most widely used pigment. Among the

men, who used soot, such use was rare and apparently confined to the Cape;

according to Cortemtinde, men used red ochre and fat on their faces and

scratched patterns in the paint with their finger-nails. Von Frangois noted in

1896 that the Nama men did not use facial paint.

References to facial patterns for ritual purposes were few, but early

travellers were seldom likely to have been present at ceremonies: Hottentots at

the Cape made patterns for rituals, using red ochre (sex unspecified); Nama

women used red ochre and powdered white stone; Kora men used potblack.

In the last century Kora men and women still decorated their faces with

various paints for festivals.

Body patterns were rarely mentioned in the literature: it is not clear whether

Le Vaillant included the Gona in the Hottentot ‘practice of painting their bodies

in a thousand different ways’; there was one reference to Hottentots at the Cape

painting their greasy bodies as well as faces with soot in which patterns were

then made with finger-nails (Schreyer 1668).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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114 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 7. Detail from a ‘Nimiquas’ dance, showing women with painted faces (from Paterson

1777-9).

The Nama women also painted facial masks with plant pigments; in other

instances where paint was applied round eyes, nose and mouth, this could have

been meant for masks.

The methods that were used for making patterns varied: there were two

references (Schouten 1665; Vogel 1679—apparently a plagiarism) to a red stone

that seemed to have been used as a crayon; usually the pigment (on a greasy

face) or paint was applied with the fingers in spots, stripes, etc.; the entire face

could be smeared and wiped clean in places (Orange River—Wikar 1779;

Nama—Schultze 1907); or patterns were scratched in the paint with the finger-

nails (Cape—Schreyer 1668) or fingers (Cape—Herbert in 1627).

No reasons were given for this painting of patterns other than for cosmetic

purposes.

CONCLUSIONS

In historical times all the Hottentot groups made use of pigments and

paints, almost exclusively for personal adornment, often in rituals.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 115

Fig. 8. ‘Dansende inboorlingen’; detail from Gordon Collection No. 89 showing Hottentot

women with painted faces (from Forbes 1965).

Haematite was the chief pigment, mainly the clayey form, red ochre.

Specularite, the metallic form, was used by some, but not all, Kora groups also

in their hair, and similarly, perhaps by some Cape ‘Namaqua’, but apparently

not by other groups. Haematite was occasionally used as a crayon, often as a

powder on greased bodies and faces. A paint for cosmetic use was made with

powdered haematite and the binder or medium was always animal fat, usually

rendered but sometimes raw. Other earth pigments were also used. There was

no evidence that fat for paints was heated. Women were the main users of

cosmetic paints, both for everyday life and rituals; men used paints to a much

lesser extent, mainly ritually.

Pots, and sometimes clothing, were coloured with red ochre.

Powdered white quartz or stone was used in some Kora and Nama rituals.

There were similarities in Kora and Nama practices.

Charcoal and soot or potblack were used by all Hottentot groups, generally

mixed with or used with fat, as a facial or body paint, occasionally for ritual

116 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

purposes too. The custom in early historical times of smearing the entire body,

and sometimes garments, black did not appear to have existed beyond the Cape,

where it seems to have been mainly a male custom.

Plant pigments were obtained from wood, roots, lichens, and fungi, and

were mainly red or yellow, but also purple; they were used as coloured, scented

powders (buchu) on greased bodies and occasionally on faces, or were mixed

with fat for a scented cosmetic paint. The only other medium, if one could call it

that, used with plant pigments was the water in which coloured woods were

soaked for tanning and colouring skins.

Hyraxeum (‘dassiepis’) and water was a facial paint used by Nama women in

South West Africa—this was the only instance found where water was a medium

for paint.

Untraditional cosmetics such as ‘blue clay’ ((Namaqua’ women), commercial

oil paints, and washing blue (Nama women) for faces were exceptional.

Patterns and masks were painted on faces by all groups, mainly by women

for cosmetic purposes, occasionally by men, or were sometimes made for ritual

purposes by both sexes. Body patterns were rarely recorded, and such refer-

ences were to the Cape Hottentots and the Gona.

The reasons for body paints were mainly cosmetic, for protecting the skin,

for ritual purposes (the actual reasons for which are largely unknown), and for

magic or magic medicines, particularly with red paints that were said to

symbolize blood.

Sacred stones were painted with red paint, including ochre, thought to

represent blood; the painters were said to be Nama women.

There was no evidence that suggested media such as urine (excluding

hyraxeum), blood, stomach liquid, milk, eggs, plant sap, gum, or honey were

used as media with pigments for making paints.

The media for paints that the historical Hottentots used were fat and, with

hyraxeum, water.

THE DATA

W. LopEewickz in 1595

In his account of the expedition in command of Cornelis de Houtman, is mentioned that

near Agulhas the natives ‘always stank greatly since they besmeared themselves with fat and

grease’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 16).

J. Davys in 1598

His narrative of the De Houtman expedition mentioned that the ‘natives’ at Saldanha, who

had cattle and sheep with ‘exceeding great tails only of fat’, ‘paint their face with divers colours’

(Raven-Hart 1967: 20).

J. PIETERSZOON VAN ENKHUIZEN in 1604

At Mossel Bay the people, who had sheep with very fat tails and also many oxen, ‘smeared

their bodies so that they stank disgustingly’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 29).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 117

C. MATELIEF in 1608

He wrote of the native people at Table Bay: ‘Because of their greasing they can be smelt

fully a rood down-wind’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 39).

C. C. VAN PURMERENDT in 1609

The inhabitants at the Cape of Good Hope, who had oxen and fat-tailed sheep, ‘smeared

themselves with grease and had greasy, black hair’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 45).

N. Downton in 1610, 1613, 1614, 1615, 1616

On his first two visits to the Cape he sailed with Sir Henry Middleton. He wrote that the

people at Saldanha, who had sheep and cattle, anointed ‘their bodyes with a filthy substance

which I suppose to be the Juice of Hearbes which on the bodyes sheweth like Cowe dung and

the wooll of there heades is so baked like a scurfe of greene herbes’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 48). His

own fleet visited the Cape in 1614 (and again in the following two years), when the anonymous

log recorded: ‘They do besmere themselues with grease and dirte and other ilfauered things, so

that they are very noysome to come neere vnto’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 64).

Sir THOMAS Roe in 1615

He sailed with the fleet commanded by Walter Peyton. The people at Saldanha, he wrote,

rubbed ‘their heads (curled like Negroos) with the dung of beasts and durte’ (Raven-Hart

1967: 77).

E. Terry in 1616

At Saldanha were people with sheep and cattle: ‘Both sexes make coverings to their heads

like to skull-caps, with cow-dung ... mingled with a little stinking grease, with which they

likewise besmear their faces, which makes their company insufferable, if they get the wind of

you’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 83).

T. HERBERT in 1627

Of the natives at the Cape he wrote: “They delight to dawbe and make their skin glister

with grease and char-cole beat together, which when half dried, they then indent it with their

fingers’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 121-122).

A. P. DE SAMPAIO in 1630

His ship was wrecked near the mouth of the Pisang River where natives, obviously

Hottentots, were encountered; ‘on the necks are hung some sinews [guts] of oxen; and with the

dung of these they bathe all their bodies, and make themselves stink’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 133).

P. Munpy in 1634

Hottentots boarded the ship in Table Bay: ‘They went to the Cooke roome and there they

fell fowle of the Tallowe Table, wherewith having first filled their bellies, they rubb their bodies

and Skin Coveringe and some they carried away in Trombes’ (sea bamboo) (Raven-Hart

1967: 141).

J. A. VON MANDELSLO in 1639

The people at Table Bay ‘gave off a nasty smell because they smear all their bodies with

fish-oil, so that they shine from it’; and of the ‘Sothanimen’ he wrote: ‘When the sea-farers buy

any of their cattle, and kill them on the shore, they ask only for the entrails, which they eat

there and then raw and warm, and uncleaned: it suffices for them to shake out only the largest

of the dung, with which some of them smear their faces’ (Raven-Hart 1967: 152).

E. DE FLAcourt in 1648

At Saldanha ‘they grease their skin and powder their hair with a yellow powder or others

with a tan-coloured powder or earth which smells rather pleasantly, or others again with the

sweet-smelling herbs of the country somewhat roughly powdered. Both women and men daub

their faces with charcoal, making patches on the nose, forehead, and cheeks’ (Raven-Hart

1967: 174).

118 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

J. -B. TAVERNIER in 1649

At the Cape the herders smeared themselves ‘with a grease which they prepare from

various herbs known to them and’, he was told, ‘that if they are not smeared with it as soon as

they are born, they would become dropsical like the other blacks of Africa’ (Raven-Hart

1967: 180).

J. Honpius (1652)

At Flesh Bay the natives were shorter and reddish-brown in contrast to those at the Cape,

who were yellow. They blackened their faces with paint. Some cut or burnt themselves before

rubbing fat or tallow into the skin. The natives at Table Bay also covered their persons with fat.

(Note: the people at Flesh Bay could have been either Bushmen or Hottentots, but other

voyagers had encountered Hottentots with cattle and sheep there, e.g. Paulus van Caerden in

1601 (see De Kock 1953: 84)).

J. VAN RIEBEECK in 1651-62

In his Journal (Moodie 1838) Van Riebeeck frequently referred to the use of grease by the

Hottentots: on 1 and 2 March 1654 ‘a dead whale washed up on the sand’ and on 3 March 1654

the settlers ‘would have made some oil from the whale but for want of casks ... but the

Hottentoos were eager for the blubber, burying several pieces of it in the sand’. On 6 March

‘these Hottentoos were busy melting oil from the blubber of the dead whale (which they

preserved in the dried trombas (alga marina?) which is driven up on the beach about the Cape)

with which they explained that they grease themselves and if they get bread from us, dip it in

and thus eat’. On 7 April 1654, near the Fort was a ‘whole encampment of inhabitants . . . and

we embraced each other ... so that we again had a suit of clothes destroyed, from the

greasiness of the oil and filth with which they, and in particular the greatest among them, had

so besmeared themselves, that they shone like looking glasses in the sun, the fat trickling down

from their heads and along their whole bodies, which appeared to be their greatest mark of

distinction’. Other references to the use of grease by the Hottentots appeared on 31 October

1658, 27 September 1660, 2 November 1660, 14 December 1660, and in his memorandum of

1662 to Wagenaar.

The Black Captain mentioned in the Journal was Gonnema, chief of the Cochoquas, so

called because he smeared his body with soot (Thom ed. in Van Riebeeck 1651-62 1: 371).

An entry for 20 May 1654 reads: ‘Yesterday a Hottentoo’s wife was delivered of a child

. . . without help of a woman or man. . . instantly smearing the child over with cow-dung, and

thus making it black’ (Moodie 1838).

A cure for snake-bite was to place the affected foot in warm cow-dung (Moodie 1838: 93).

On 10 September 1655, the inland expedition led by Corporal Willem Muller saw

Hottentots slaughtering an animal and scooping out the blood with pots, apparently for later

use.

The Hottentots brought ostrich eggs to the Fort (Journal entries 2 October, 7 December,

17 December 1653, and Proclamation of 12 October 1654 (Moodie 1838)) but their use by the

Hottentots was not mentioned.

The Hottentots kept milk in large hide bags—according to Goodwin (1952) this was

mentioned in the Journal but the reference could not be traced.

J. J. MERKLEIN in 1653

He wrote of the herders at the Cape: ‘The fat of the guts they smear on their naked bodies,

and hold it for ornament. . .” (Raven-Hart 1971: 8).

J. NeEuHoF in 1654

At the Cape ‘both men and women who own much cattle smear very thickly, not only their

bodies and faces but also their cloaks, making them heavy with grease; but those who have little

cattle or none do not wear such cloaks. Thus these smearings are considered by them as a sign

of richness in cattle, and as an adornment.’ Their yellow-brown colour was from smearing

themselves ‘with a certain fat or grease, which they make from certain herbs known to them

. until they are black. . . . It is said that if they did not smear themselves . . . they would

become dropsical. . . . When the Dutch ships arrive these Hottentots or Strandlopers make for

the galley and the cooke’s kettle, and smear the soot and black from this into their hair, mixed

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 119

with fat, and around their head and face . . . which they think a great adornment. . . . Further

they make grooves and cuts in their skin into which they rub fat or tallow as an adornment.’

They drank the fat of stranded whales. (Raven-Hart 1971: 16-19).

G. HEECcK in 1655

The herders at the Cape smeared their hair ‘as also their whole body, with every sort of fat

that they can get’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 35).

A. Herport in 1659

At the Cape ‘they smeared their hair with a certain cut up herb, mixed together with lard

and the fat of sheep and cows’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 56).

J. J. SAAR in 1660

At Table Bay ‘their adornment is to smear their naked body with all sorts of fat, so that

they stink very foully’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 63).

P. MEERHOFF in 1661

In his diary of the expedition during which the Namaquas were located, he gave a fine

description of their kraals and dress, without mentioning that they used fat on themselves. He

mentioned ‘a large wooden vessel filled with milk . . . they also have calabashes . . . in these, as

well as in the wooden vessels, they collect their milk, and churn their butter’ (in Moodie

1838: 232, 233).

Z. WAGENAAR in 1662

On 1 June 1662, in a despatch, he referred to ‘the Namaquas, a different race from these

greasy Hottentoos’. Elsewhere he referred to ‘these greasy Africans, commonly called Hotten-

toos’ (in Moodie 1838: 256, 291).

W. SCHOUTEN in 1665

Hottentot Strandlopers at the Cape ‘were accustomed to smear their dirty hides with the

fat of slaughtered beasts, or the oil from dead whales which had been washed ashore’. “These

wild people make many strange antics, with singing, leaping and dancing, as also with continual

hand-clapping. Meanwhile they sometimes turn their eyes to heaven, and then with a red stone

write stripes and crosses on each other’s foreheads’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 84).

V. IVERSEN in 1667, 1668

The Hottentots at the Cape ‘smear all their bodies with oil and the fat from the guts of

slaughtered beasts in which the dung still remains, from which they give off a revolting smell’.

Their skin cloaks ‘they also smear with oil so that they stink nastily. They take the blubber of

the dead whales which are washed ashore, and from this make the oil’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 103).

O. Dapper (1668)

The Cape Hottentot men ‘pluck out all the hair from the chin and paint or smear the face

to make themselves black, which is held to be a great decoration amongst them. So too, they

smear their bodies and faces with grease and fat.’ ‘‘‘Strantlopers’”’ or Hottentots living along the

shore of the Cape, are accustomed to come to the ships of the Dutch . . . to smear and streak

themselves with grease and soot upon the cook’s kettle . . . some have for decoration chipped

their own skins with notches and cuts into which they put some fat or grease.’ The Hottentot

men and women smeared the outer sides of cloaks and caps soft with fat, a sign of wealth

(p. 51). They ate the blubber of whales, sometimes sun-dried, and other ‘sea monsters’ washed

up on the shore. ‘They remove whole handfuls of the fat floating on top of the [ship’s] meat

kettle, and toss it into their mouths’ (p. 57). They ate honey, wax and all. They drank water or

the milk of their cattle (p. 57).

J. SCHREYER in 1668

‘Their plasters and salves are nothing but the fat of the beasts, wherewith they over-

diligently smear the wound and all the body... . For internal sickness they use no remedy

other than the surgeon smears the sick person with fat. . . .. Fat was also a remedy in case of

120 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

snake-bite. An amulet consisting of the burnt end of a piece of wood from a certain bush was

used ‘to help the sick regain their health and to turn away the weapons of the enemies . . . if

they fear danger they blacken their face with the burned end’.

He was referring to the men (see Schreyer 1681: 33) when he wrote: ‘After they have well

smeared with fat their naturally short and curly hair, they strew it with the bark of a tree...

also with a dried plant . . . ground small on a stone.’

‘They smear all their body with the fat from the sheep and over this the soot from kettles

and pots; and with their finger-nails . . . they draw over the whole body strips like braiding

which . . . ornament the body.’

The women’s faces were ‘coloured red or black and smeared with sheeps-fat, and covered

with many stripes made with their finger-nails, so that thus the skin shows through the fat and

the colour’.

They slaughter an ox, ‘then when all the blood has run together in the cavity of the belly,

they scoop it out into pots, and this is for the women . . . when it has been warmed a little on

the fire, and curdles, it is eaten without salt’.

‘The more greasily the mantle is smeared, the finer it is in their eyes.’ ‘Instead of

table-napkins the men use their so-called mantles which they so greatly thus saturate with the

fatiomoxent cs

Dirty butter was made in a skin sack.

Schreyer observed first one, the ‘surgeon’, then seven or eight males urinating on a male

patient, from head to foot: ‘The sick man went to sleep in his cloak, and the next day was fit to

continue the journey with us.’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 124-130.)

A. VAN OVERBEKE in 1668

At the Cape ‘both men and women smear and anoint themselves with a certain kind of fat

. . . to close the sweat-pores against the cold’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 109).

G. VERMEULEN in 1668

The inhabitants were Hottentots who had cattle and sheep: “They are very dirty and

grubby in all ways, and give off a nasty stink because they smear their bodies with some smelly

fat, and then blacken themselves with soot’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 113).

F. A. BoLLinG in 1670

‘Their skin is brownish, but they take the fat and the dung of animals and smear

themselves with it, which makes them foul-looking and foul-stinking’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 146).

(When writing of hippos he says: “Their blood is used by painters in the East Indies as

colouring’ (‘farve’) (Raven-Hart 1971: 149).)

GRUNDEL in 1670

In 1670 the people on board the Grundel found cattle-owning natives, evidently Hotten-

tots, at Sandwich Harbour on the west coast; their hair was smeared with fat (Vedder 1938: 8).

J. P. CorTEMUNDE (1672)

‘In leather bags . . . they make butter and cheese [sour milk?] of the milk, which they are

fond of eating with their friends. . . . The richer a Hottentot is in cattle, the more of a man he

is, and the more he besmears his body with grease and ointments. . .. He paints his face

thickly with an ointment of grease and red stone, and with his nails he draws all kinds of

patterns so that the skin shows through and makes him look far more like a devil than a human

being.’

‘The womenfolk . . . powder their curly hair . . . with herbs and manure from a cow so

that it looks as if they wore a skullcap of dirt. They . . . put grease on their bodies.’

J. C. HOFFMANN in 1672

The Hottentots at the Cape were ‘by the daily smearing with grease made so repulsive . . .

the hair inextricably matted by their horrible greasing’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 161).

C. SCHWEITZER in 1676

‘They wear . . . a sheeps-skin or calf-skin on their shoulders (and that’s besmeared with

grease to make it soft and pliant)’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 183).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 121

G. MEISTER in 1677, 1688

(Much of Meister’s information about the Hottentots was taken from Schreyer.)

A cosmetic of the Strandlopers ‘consists of sheep’s dung mixed with soot, and with it they

smear themselves and their children thoroughly’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 202).

After his visit in 1688 he remarked that ‘the richest among them . . . has the greasiest,

foulest skin on his body’, and commented on the dung of the guts ‘wherewith some are

accustomed to smear or paint their face and body’.

An ox was cut open while still alive, ‘and when the blood has run together in the body they

take mussels or pieces of broken pots and scoop it out into skins and pots, this being the best

part of the women’s share . . . they set it on the fire, and let it thus get warm and coagulate,

and eat it without salt or lard’.

‘When the full moon appears they smear their black-baked skin with soot and fish-oil

thinking themselves the better as they are the greasier.’ On the ship ‘a marvel was to be seen

how they painted themselves and smeared themselves with soot and fat from the pots in the

alley’.

3 They dance by the full moon, and for a marriage ‘they have painted their faces with red

earth and fat that it is disgusting to see’.

Butter was made in a skin bag. (Raven-Hart 1971: 346-350.)

J. W. VocEL in 1679

‘They have been found in dark and gloomy caves, where with hand-clapping they murmer

something ... turning their eyes to heaven, and with a red stone making crosses on one

another’s brows. . . . They smear themselves with nasty, stinking fat over the whole body from

head to foot, not omitting their skin cloaks.’ ‘They go to the cook in the galley, and ask him for

grease’ which is smeared over the body as well as soot from the kettle (Raven-Hart 1971: 218-

219).

(Vogel’s remarks have a familiar ring to them, especially the first sentence, which seems to

have been taken from Schouten.)

C. FrykE in 1681, 1685

The Hottentots ‘used to besmear their bodies with all manner of dirt and nastiness which

makes them stink worse than a Goat’. After his visit in 1685, he observed that the Hottentots

living on Lion’s Head ‘had squeezed the dung out of the guts and smeared it with their hands

over one another’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 234, 259).

D. TApPEN in 1682

‘Their hair is quite curly, but all matted because they smear much fat and soot on it... .

They can more easily be smelt than seen, since they wear all sorts of clean and unclean fats in

their hair and soot with it.’ He remarked specifically on the men’s hair ‘matted with grease and

fat’.

Many of the women ‘smear the upper part of the nose with red colour’.

Milk was shaken in a skin bag to make butter. (Raven-Hart 1971: 237-241.)

S. VAN DER STEL in 1684, 1685-6

In a Proclamation (22 September 1684) he wrote with displeasure about the illegal

bartering with Hottentots, including bartering with ostrich eggs (but he did not refer to their

use by the Hottentots). In the diary of the journey to the ‘Amaquas Land’ of 1685, the

‘Grigriqua’ method of slaughtering was described: ‘A man cut open the belly, and putting in his

hand drew out the bowels while the sheep was still alive. . . . The reason why they do not cut

the throats of the cattle they slaughter is to preserve the blood, which they collect, boil, and

then eat . . .; nothing is thrown away, except the contents of the bowels’ (in Moodie 1838: 393,

403).

‘These Amaquas had a certain gum, obtained from trees, also some glittering sand which

was judged to be of a mineral character’ (Van der Stel 1685-6, Waterhouse ed.: 133).

C. DE CHAUMONT in 1685

At the Cape ‘the natives . . . possess cattle in large numbers, and sheep and pigs. They

scarcely ever eat these animals, for they nourish themselves almost entirely on milk and butter

which they make and preserve in the skins of sheep’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 297).

122 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

F. -T. pe Cuoisy in 1685

The Hottentots at the Cape, some thirty families, put grease in their hair (Raven-Hart

1971: 269).

C. DE ForBIN in 1685

At the Cape ‘they rub their bodies with fat, which makes them disgusting but very supple

and good in all sorts of leaping’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 264).

G. TACHARD in 1685

He wrote of the Hottentots at the Cape: ‘Their clothing is only plain sheepskins with the

wool, dressed with cow-dung and a certain grease which makes them insufferable to sight and

smell.’ ‘When they wish to adorn themselves they rub their heads, faces and hands with the soot

from the cooking-pots, and when they have none of this, they have recourse to a certain black

grease .. . and from this it results that their hair is reduced to little tufts.’

He said of the Namaqua found on Van der Stel’s inland journey: ‘Among them some are

found as white as Europeans, but they blacken themselves with grease and a certain stone

powdered, with which they rub their face and all their bodies.’ ‘The women are by nature very

white, but in order to please their husbands they blacken themselves as do these.’ ‘This tribe

greatly esteem a certain substance found only in the heart of certain rocks, pretty hard and very

dark in colour: experience has taught them that this mineral has a miraculous effect in

delivering women in difficult childbirth, and in similarly aiding their cows, ewes and goats. .

When the Dutch blew up a large rock in which there was much of this, and took it away, they

showed as much regret and complaining as if a great treasure had been taken from them.’

(Raven-Hart 1971: 286-287, 291-292.)

A. CowLey in 1686

Some Hottentots lived in huts near (Cape) Town: ‘Their apparel is a Sheep’s Skin. . . over

their Shoulders, with a Leathern Cap upon their Heads, as full of Grease as it can hold; their

Legs are wound about with the Guts of Beasts (from the Ankle to the Knees) well greased.’

They ‘are born White but make themselves Black with Sut, and besmear their Bodies all over’

(Raven-Hart 1971: 309).

W. TEN RHYNE (1686)

The Hottentots of the interior ‘think themselves never so finely adorned as when they

sprinkle divers coloured earths upon their hair, or rub them, mixed with fat, upon their faces.

For in this region there is a mountain that produces colours.’ They smeared their bodies with

animal fat, especially their heads, ‘sprinkling also on their heads the ash of burnt herbs, which

they call in the vernacular ‘‘bouchou’’’. The Hottentots smeared their heads with butter.

Anointing with fat was one of the only remedies. Sheep or cow fat was used for bruises or

rheumatism. They drank the milk of cows or sheep. Their pots were smeared all over with a red

colouring matter (pp. 113, 115, 129, 149, 151, 153).

S. DE LA LOUBERE in 1687

Hottentots ‘are born white as Spaniards’ but ‘are very black only because they grease their

body and face. They also grease their hair, and can be smelt at twenty paces if they are

up-wind.’ ‘They take off the fat (from pots and kettles) by handfulls and anoint themselves

from head to foot. The grease protects them from the air and sun and makes them healthy and

fit.’ ‘Their women grease themselves as they do’ and have ‘greasy hair’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 319).

Dr ‘BROWNE’ in 1691

‘To them that are verrie ill they give sometimes a draught of fat of sheep melted.

Externalie they make great use of the same fat, and sometimes make it with green herbs.’ He

saw a woman ‘annointing a man’s bellie who appeared by his countenance to bee sick, with a

green oyntment warmed in a shell . . . their woolie pait they dab with a past made of sheeps fat

and some black stuf...’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 388).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 123

W. Dampier in 1691

The Hottentots ‘besmear themselves all over with Grease, as well to keep their Joints

supple as to fence their half naked Bodies from the Air by stopping up their Pores. To do this

the more effectually they rub Soot over the greased parts, especially their Faces, which adds to

their natural Beauty, as Painting does in Europe’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 383)

N. WitsEN in 1691 (see Hahn 1881)

J. OvVINGTON in 1693

‘The Hair of their Heads, and of all their Bodies are besmeared with Kitchin-Grease. . . .

They anoint their Bodies to render their Nerves supple and active and to fortifie the Pores

against the violence of the ambient Air’ (Raven-Hart 1971: 395).

C. LANGHANSZ in 1694

(Langhansz copied Meister who copied Schreyer.)

‘By frequent and excessive smearing they make themselves black and stinking.’ ‘By the

so-much smearing they become ... agile.’ On ships they ‘beg the cook for grease or fat,

however black and stinking it may be, and smear and anoint themselves . . . with this from top

to toe’.

‘When a woman has given birth to a child she goes at once to the water . . . and washes

herself.’ Babies are smeared from birth. (Raven-Hart 1971: 404-406.)

J. D. DE GREVENBROEK (1695)

(De Grevenbroek stayed at the Cape from 1684 for about 40 years. It is likely that Kolb

made use of his manuscript or notes (Schapera ed. 1933).)

At a Hottentot wedding ‘a priest, diviner, or flamen assumes the office of anointer and

smeart the newly-wedded pair . . . with animal fat warmed and melted in the heart of the fire.

Their garments are smeared in the same way.’ He then sprinkled powdered ‘bochw’ over them

(p. 201).

When a Hottentot man was ill, one of the remedies was the sacrifice of a cow; the blood

of the cow, caught in ‘a pot, or dish, or tortoise-shell’, was used to wash the patient’s face

(p. 241). He was also anointed with fat or marrow ‘extracted ... by the heat of the fire’

(p. 243).

‘They rub their limbs with any sort of fat ... anointing themselves copiously as a

protection against the danger of sun, cold or disease. The noisome stench . . . is to be ascribed

... to a plant called Bochu.’ It is powdered and they ‘sprinkle or rub it on their heads as a

sweet fumigatory, potent charm, or disinfectant scent’ (p. 263).

He described the Hottentot way of milking. Butter was made in a skin bag (p. 247) and

‘when a chief dies . . . no one among them throughout that circling year will anoint himself with

the smallest piece of butter or fat’ (p. 259). Schapera (1930: 240) quoted Grevenbroek as saying

it was ‘unlawful’ for Hottentots to taste butter and eggs.

Men would urinate on a male patient, or he would drink a mixture of urine and herbs.

Women’s urine was not used; sometimes a man would urinate on the legs of a woman who was

ill. She would also be splashed with a mixture of warm water and cow-dung. A convalescent

was rubbed all over by the ‘priest’ with ‘green leaves like our willows, and with a smell like

apple skin’. Afterwards he was washed in warm, then cold, water, smeared with the fat of a

sacrificial animal, and then with buchu. His blanket was rubbed with fat and sprinkled with

buchu (p. 243). A man’s wounds were washed with his own boiled urine (p. 247). The hut and

belongings of a dead man were burnt but arms and incombustible utensils were ‘purged in

men’s urine’ (p. 259). ‘Immediately on their return from a funeral they wash themselves in a

neighbouring stream or pool. Then they all sit in a circle on the floor of a hut and the eldest

among them makes water on them as a lustral bath. Then, as a special sacrifice, a sheep or ox is

slain, and, removing whatever they find in its stomach or bowels, the superstitious creatures

sprinkle themselves, their cattle, and the hut with it’ (p. 261).

According to Schapera (1930: 265) Grevenbroek noted that after a period of seclusion of

about 8 days, a new mother was ceremonially washed all over with warm water in winter, cold

in summer.

The women smeared themselves with ‘various decorative pigments’ (p. 255). When making

pottery the wet pot was ‘smeared all over with a red colouring matter rather like minium’ [red

lead, vermilion] (p. 253).

124 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

F. Lecuat in 1698

‘They are born very Tawny, but they quickly besmear themselves with Soot and Grease, or

some sort of Oil, that they become Black as Jet. ... Their hair is all frizled, greasie and

powdered with Dust...” (Raven-Hart 1971: 433).

M. WINTERGERST in 1699

Hottentots are black-skinned and have the custom of smearing themselves with everything

fat (Raven-Hart 1971: 463).

A. BoGaert in 1702

The men ‘all wear a sheepskin dressed with cow-dung and a certain black fat of an

unbearable stink. . . . For adornment both men and women grease their heads, faces and hands

with the soot from the cooking-pots’ or ‘with a stinking, black fat by which smearing the hair of

their heads is matted into little balls. . . . If they are rich in cattle, both men and women smear

the outsides of their cloaks to make them greasy and soft.’ ‘They gulp down much oil’; ‘they

gulp down honey with the wax and all’; they drink milk (Raven-Hart 1971: 484-486).

ComMISSIONARY CNOLL in 1710

He recorded that at Houw Hoek they smeared their patients with warm, raw fat torn out of

a living sheep (Schapera ed. 1933: 144).

F. VALENTYN (1726)

He wrote about the ‘Gregriqua’ near present-day Vredendal: ‘The reason why they do not

cut the throats of the beasts which they slaughter, is to save the blood, which they carefully

collect together, and boil up and eat’ (1: 265).

He remarked on their colour: ‘They are not naturally thus, but alter themselves by making

their children black from their youth up . . . by smearing them with dirt that they change their

looks. This they do only to protect their health and protect their bodies from all infirmities

coming from without’ (2: 61).

The young girls ‘disfigure themselves with smearings and paintings’. ‘When they are asked,

why they smear their bodies with such stinking grease, they reply: for the same reasons why the

Dutch women deck themselves out ... in order to please ... men... and because the

manners and customs of our land entail and demand it.’ ‘How disgustingly they are smeared

. . aboard the ships where they can thoroughly clean the cook’s kettle by taking from it all the

grease, soot and dirt’ (2: 63).

They have beads and ornaments ‘hanging in their hair, or indeed plastered into the hair of

their heads with grease or fat’ (2: 65).

‘The richer they are in cattle, the more they smear their karosses or sheep-fleeces and

head-coverings’ (2: 67).

‘The workings here are of red and white chalk, various sorts of mixed earths’ (2: 109).

P. Kors (1731)

The Hottentot women at the Cape ‘colour their foreheads, cheeks and chins with a red

chalk-stone, easily found in the fields. This stone, among the Hottentot women, has the place

of paints and washes among the multitudes of our own; and is judged to be the greatest

heightener of beauty’ (p. 151). The women painted their faces with ‘a red stone . . . which is

moistened by the grease which is upon them, they make spots, one over each eye, one upon the

nose, one upon each cheek, and one upon the chin. . .’ (p. 199).

The Hottentots had the custom of ‘besmearing their bodies and apparel with butter or

sheep’s fat, mixed with soot that gathers about their boiling pots’; it was a sign of wealth, the

greater their wealth, the more of it they used (p. 49).

Butter, made in a skin sack tossed between two people, was used ‘either for anointing their

bodies and krosses or for sale to the Europeans, for the Hottentots, unless in the service of

Europeans, eat no butter’ (p. 174).

They did not use the fat of fish or whale ‘which they abhor’ (p. 50), although they ate fish

(p. 51).

Kolb mentioned Merklein, Vogel and Tachart who also mentioned fat but by way of

adornment. “Boving says they anoint themselves thus to make ’em agile and nimble of foot’

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 125

(p. 51). Kolb suggested that fat was used also as a protection for the skin (p. 52). He wrote of

the men’s hair: ‘But they load it from day to day with such a quantity of soot and fat, and it

gathers so much dust and other filth, which they leave to clot and harden in it . . . that it looks

like a crust or cap of black mortar’ (p. 185).

In male initiation he told of ‘the youths beforehand being roundly bedaubed with fat and

soot’ (p. 121).

After having been ‘washed’ with cow-dung and the juice of the Hottentot fig, the new-born

child was smeared with fat or butter and powdered with buchu (p. 141); fat and buchu were

used on their bodies by all for marriage and other ceremonies (p. 151); men and women

powdered their bodies with buchu (p. 193); before meeting again after the birth of their child,

the couple had to rub their bodies down with cow-dung, smear themselves with fat, and powder

themselves with buchu (Kolb quoted in Schapera 1930: 262).

According to Schapera (1930: 240) Kolb said that ‘women were forbidden the pure blood

of beasts’, but Kolb (1705-1713) also wrote about Hottentots eating blood cooked with

chopped, cleaned intestines—he did not state whether men or women.

Kolb mentioned various occasions when urine was used in rites: old men urinated on a boy

initiate, during funeral rites mourners were sprinkled with urine, strewn with ashes, and some

near relatives smeared cow-dung on themselves (p. 315); urine was sprinkled on the bride and

groom at a wedding, and on a successful hunter who had killed big game (Kolb quoted in

Schapera 1930: 308).

J. Coetsé JAnsz (1760)

Coetsé visited the ‘Great Amacquas’ north of the Orange River (in South West Africa).

He found that they ‘differ very little from other Hottentots except that in place of sheepskins

they clothe themselves with the hides of jackals and do not smear themselves with fat (p. 285).

(He wrote of large trees, ‘the heart or innermost wood of which was of an unusually beautiful

bright red colour (p. 289) (Acacia haematoxylon, or vaal kameeldoring according to Mossop ed.

(1935)), but did not say whether this was used by the Hottentots who used plant materials for

colouring matter (see e.g. Wikar 1779: 27).)

J. WALLENBERG in 1770

‘Some German travellers mention that at weddings and funerals their popes or high priests

sprinkle those present with their own water, by way of unction; but this, I am told, is a fable’

(quoted by Roberts 1947).

R. J. Gorpon in 1773-4, 1777-95

A picture in the Gordon Collection (No. 89), ‘Dansende inboorlingen’ of a lively Hottentot

dance shows three of the women with faces painted heavily round the eyes and on the cheeks,

giving them the appearance of wearing masks (Forbes 1965, fig. 43) (see Fig. 8 herein).

Gordon recorded the wetting with urine during the marriage rites, which he himself had

not seen, and stated that the rite was also said to be performed at boys’ puberty ceremonies

(Forbes ed. 1975 1: 322).

W. PaTERSON (1777-9) (see also Paterson 1790)

In this publication a drawing (plate 33) of a ‘Nimiquas’ dance, in which the dancers hold

brush-like objects (possibly jackal-tail switches such as those known to have been used by

Hottentots), shows women with painted faces (Fig. 7 herein), but a very similar drawing

(apparently by the same artist (plate 5)) of ‘the Boschmens dance’ with identical objects held

aloft shows some of the women with similarly painted faces.

R. S. ALLAMAND & J. C. KLOCKNER (1778)

(These two authors relied heavily on the information of others.)

A detailed description of the semi-castration ceremony of an 18-year-old Hottentot is

given: the subject is first liberally smeared with fat, tied and held down while the ‘priest’

removes the left testicle and fills the cavity with fat mixed with medicinal herbs before closing

the wound. The young man is untied, smeared thickly with heated fat of a slaughtered sheep

which forms a layer on the skin as it cools. In this the ‘operateur’ makes furrows with his nails

along the entire body and urinates thoroughly over it all. The young man is eventually left in a

126 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

hut without other nourishment than the fat on his body—‘het vet, daar zyn geheele lichaam

mede dedekt is, en dat hy kan aflikken, zoo hy lust heeft’ (pp. 93-94).

Kolb is quoted in describing another ceremony, the ‘anders maaken’ of a young man when

he is initiated into the ranks of the men: the initiate is again smeared liberally with sheep fat, he

is lectured by an elder who then urinates all over him, the initiate rubs it in, makes furrows in

the layer of fat so that the urine can penetrate, and again closes the furrows by smearing

(p. 108).

In the marriage rites an ox is slaughtered, the men and women smear their bodies with fat

and then sprinkle buchu over themselves. The ‘priest’ comes into the circle of men and urinates

on the groom, who rubs it into the buchu and fat on his body. The same is done to the bride in

the circle of women. He goes back and forth between them three times in this way (p. 113).

After a funeral two old men go round a cirle of men and another of women to urinate on

all; it is received willingly and respectfully. Ash from the hearth in the hut where the corpse lies

is then sprinkled over the mourners who rub it in; some then rub their arms and legs with

cow-dung (p. 119). The heir and closest relatives each slaughter a sheep. The intestines

(‘darmvleis’) of the sheep slaughtered by the heir are well powdered with buchu and hung

round his neck to serve as mourning-dress. Close relatives also do this (p. 120).

A Hottentot woman makes her face, breast and all exposed parts of her body shiny by

rubbing with the tail of a sheep (pp. 101-102).

In a separate section in the same publication (pp. 96-108), mention is made of the

discovery of the ‘waschboon’: when boiled in water the berries gave off wax that could be used

for making candles (apparently by the colonists—its use by the Hottentots is not mentioned).

‘Dassenpis’ (hyraxeum) was used as a medicine by the Hottentots against all internal ills.

C. F. Brink (1778)

Brink accompanied Hop on his inland journey in 1762. A footnote in this edition (p. 6)

mentions the ‘Honigbergen’ where the Hottentots collected honey for barter at the Cape.

T. Roos & P. Marais (1778)

They recorded on their journey of 1762 that the ‘Namacquas’ were accustomed to smearing

their bodies with fat (p. 88).

J. WIKAR (1779)

Wikar travelled along the Orange River in today’s north-western Cape. He wrote of a

Bushman woman who sprinkled powdered camel-thorn wood—red buchu—over a Namaqua

man to get tobacco and dagga (p. 63). A Nama suitor was given scented buchu with which to

powder himself and rub under his arms (p. 85). The women rubbed scented buchu under their

arms (p. 89).

During initiation a young ‘Eynikkoa’ man was cleaned with fat; an old man urinated on

him from time to time during the course of three days; he was cleansed with the blood of an

animal, then washed with water and rubbed with fat, and all his cattle were besprinkled with fat

(Gm; 23).

Schapera (1930: 306) quoted Wikar as writing that in the reception of a man into the ranks

of the hunters, his face was smeared with potblack and wiped clean in a few places, leaving

criss-cross designs. But Wikar actually wrote that the ‘chief killer’ of the beast in a hunt had his

face ‘blackened with soot from the pot and then cleaned in streaks like crosses, so it has a

mottled appearance’ (p. 111).

The urine of a poison-drinker was used as an antidote for snake-bite (p. 135). The

Hottentots used a worm, dried and powdered, with which to poison their arrow-heads; recovery

from such a wound was only possible if the person was ‘immediately given the urine of a

poison-drinker’ (p. 181).

Among the ‘Namnykoa’ on Paarden Island, east of Aughrabies Falls on the Orange River,

Wikar saw ‘rhino, hippo and buffalo heads rubbed over with buchu and painted; they were

lying under a tree in the middle of the open space of the kraal for show’ (p. 123). Of this kraal

he also wrote: ‘At this kraal I acquired a stone which the Blicquoas bring there, and which the

Namnykoa crush and rub with fat on their heads to make them shine. This stone resembles

closely a kind of ore’ (p. 125).

‘When there is anything wrong with a Hottentot . . . the stomach is rubbed with as much

force as if they meant to rub the fat right into it’ (p. 185).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 127

The ‘Eynikkoas’ ‘use chiefly the oil from seeds of the Koouw-tree instead of fat for rubbing

themselves’ ((Kauwboom, Papea schumanniana; P. capensis is known in the Eastern Province

as “oliepitte’ or “bergpruim”’ (Mossop ed. 1935)). The berries are edible. The oil was

extracted by roasting the seeds, crushing them, removing the pieces of outer shell and grinding

the rest for ‘a sweetly scented oil’ (p. 189).

The Namaquas drank the fat of sheep (p. 43).

Some of the ‘Eynikkoas’ ‘wear a fungus (growing at the bottom of the trunk of the

hook-thorn tree, very sweet scented and regarded by them as a medicine for stimulating the

heart) on their chests. It is white and covered with little knobs’ (p. 189).

A. SPARRMAN (1785)

The Hottentots ‘besmear their bodies most copiously with fat, in which there is mixed a

little soot. This is never wiped off.’ When ‘their hands were besmeared with tar and pitch, they

used to get it off very easily with cow-dung, at the same time rubbing their arms into the

bargain up to the shoulders with this cosmetic’. The colonists ‘seem to think ... that a

besmeared Hottentot looks less naked . . . and that the skin of a Hottentot ungreased seems to

exhibit some defect in dress’ (1: 183). :

‘They likewise perfume them with a powder of herbs, with which they powder both their

heads and bodies.’ This consisted of ‘various species of diosma, called by the Hottentots bucku

and considered by them as possessing great virtues in curing disorders’. ‘One particular sort,

which I am told grows about Goud’s-Rivier, is said to be so valuable, that no more than a

thimble full of it is given in exchange for a lamb’ (1: 184).

Regarding the smearing of fat, etc., on their skins, Sparrman said that the Hottentots ‘are

by this means in a great measure defended from the influence of the air’ (1: 184).

Skin garments as well as caps were also well greased (1: 186). Women’s cone-shaped caps

were as ‘black as soot mixed up with fat can make it’ (1: 188). Leather for shoes was ‘kept some

hours in cow-dung, by which means it is rendered very soft and pliable. Afterwards some kind

of grease is made use of for the same purpose’ (1: 192). They sometimes greased their shoes a

little (1: 193).

The Hottentots never adorned their ears ‘any more than the nose . . . this latter . . . is

sometimes by way of greater state marked with a black streak of soot, or, more rarely indeed,

with a large spot of red-lead, of which on high days and holidays, they likewise put a little on

their cheeks’ (1: 189). (Red-lead is an incorrect translation, it is chalk in the original Swedish

edition, see Sparrman 1785, Forbes ed.)

‘Dassen-piss . . . is used by some people for medical purposes’ (1: 309).

“My host and hostess, who twenty years before had lived nearer to the Cape, viz. at Groot

Vaders Bosch, told me they believed the report, that a master of ceremonies performed the

matrimonial rites, by the immediate conspersion of the bride and bridegroom with his own

water, was not without foundation.’ Sparrman’s own Hottentot servants would neither confirm

nor deny this (1: 357).

Gonaqua Hottentots rubbed their skin cloaks with ‘a great quantity of grease . . . mixed up

with bucku-powder’ (2: 7).

‘The two or three first days after we had shot any game, several of them were particularly

careful and diligent in skimming off the fat from the pot. Yet, however assiduous they were in

besmearing their bodies with it, I was always obliged to exert my authority as their master, in

order to make them put a little of it on my shoes and bridles which would otherwise have been

cracked in pieces, or parched up by the draught of the weather’ (2: 72).

Sparrman wrote of some Hottentot men: ‘On the same day on which they arrived at

Bruntjes Hoogte where they expected to meet with a number of smart girls of their own nation,

they painted their noses, their cheeks, and the middle of their foreheads, with soot’ (2: 80).

O. F. MENTZEL (1787)

‘Their charms are not captivating . . . even if the women ornament and paint themselves in

their way’ (p. 264). The Hottentots ‘try to produce the greatest beauty by besmearing

themselves, first with cow-dung and afterwards with fat, soot and red earth’ (p. 270). They

‘smear their whole body with cow-dung, let it dry in the sun, rub it off again, and then smear

their body with fat, which sometimes smells still worse than dung’. ‘Besides their body, they

smear so much fat on their short woolly hair that it sticks together as if tarred’ (p. 272). The

128 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

woolly hair was ‘thickly smeared and rubbed with fat and powdered with buchu’ (p. 284). ‘The

Hottentots, and especially their womenfolk . . . adorn themselves with black soot from pots

which they rub into their face with their hands . . . to furbish and decorate themselves and be

admired and praised by the others’ (p. 273).

Mentzel was told that besmearing ‘is done for no other reason than to make their body and

limbs supple and slim and keep them so’ (p. 282).

‘They slaughter cattle to cure a patient with the fresh fat’ (p. 267).

Butter was made in a skin bag, not for eating but for greasing themselves (p. 292).

The new-born child ‘is smeared all over with fresh cow-dung’ which generally drops off

when it dries, ‘the infant then being dry and entirely cleansed of impurities’. The child is then

‘thoroughly rubbed or rather washed with the juice squeezed from the Hottentot fig’. When dry

‘it is immediately and repeatedly rubbed with sheep’s fat or with fat and butter, and bestrewn

with buchu; this clings to the body like a bark and in their opinion is very beneficial to the

child’s health’; it ‘protects the child against any external attacks of the air’ (pp. 277-278).

Leatherware was rubbed with fat (p. 284).

“When a member of their family falls ill, they generally cut off a sheep’s tail, melt out the

fat, anoint themselves or the sick person with it... .” (p. 292).

‘Buchu is a herb, which the botanists call Spiroea africana odorato, foliis pilosis [sic] and

has a not unpleasant smell. The Hottentots gather it in summer . . . then they dry it completely

and rub it to a fine powder in their hands’ (p. 278).

After the birth and the period of isolation the woman ‘rubs her whole body with fresh

cow-dung and cleans herself with it for cow-dung is the only means by which she can rid her

body of all impurities. It removes entirely the fat from the old smearing, the itch of dust, buchu

and soot so that a perfectly clean body results. They repeat the treatment with this remedy as

often as they want to smear themselves again. When the cow-dung has dried and been rubbed

off, she smears herself from head to heels with sheep-fat and strews buchu generously over it.

She then usually adorns her face with so-called beauty spots . . . simply some soot, taken with

the fingers from a black cooking-pot and rubbed especially round the nose, the buchu being the

more generously strewn on the forehead’ (pp. 279-280).

At about 18 years the youths are initiated into manhood. ‘This is accompanied by some

ceremonies and a feast, the youth being well rubbed in with fat and soot, and sprinkled with

buchu by the oldest inhabitant of the kraal.’ ‘The youth . . . is not slow to scratch deep ruts in

the ointment with his hands and nails across the length and breadth of his body . . . the old man

then. . . urinates all over him. . . and the youth busily rubs this costly balsam in. . .’ (p. 281).

‘They use the same ceremony, called the ‘‘pisplechtigheid” by the Hollanders, when two

persons wish to cohabit or get married’ (p. 281).

‘When they slaughter an ox or a sheep’ they ‘cut open the living animal’s stomach, take out

one part of the intestines after the other and scoop out the blood with their hands. . .’ (p. 273).

The Hottentots drank sour milk or water or a mixture of the two (p. 291); they brewed a

strong drink of honey, water and a root (p. 322).

F. LE VAILLANT (1790)

The ‘Gonaqua Hottentot’ women ‘all shave very much and had been newly boughoued;

that is to say, after rubbing their bodies with grease, they had besprinkled themselves with a

kind of red powder, made of a root named in the country boughou, and which has a very

agreeable odour. Their faces were all painted in a different manner’ (p. 249). Le Vaillant called

a 16-year-old girl ‘Nerina’; ‘when she had dressed in the morning . . . she had rubbed grease

and tallow over her cheeks . . . she was always attached to her villainous black grease’ (p. 253).

On another visit to their kraal, he found the women ‘dressed in their richest attire, fresh

greased and boughoued, and . . . their faces painted a hundred different ways’ (p. 278).

Elsewhere Le Vaillant remarked on the Hottentot ‘practice of painting their bodies in a

thousand different ways’. ‘The two colours for which they shew the greatest fondness are red

and black. The first is composed of a kind of ochry earth, which is found in several places in the

country, and which they mix and dilute with grease. . . . Their black is nothing else than soot,

or the charcoal of tender wood.’ Some women painted not only ‘the cheeks, but in general they

daub over their whole body. These two colours . . . are always perfumed with the powder of

the bouchou ... and the female Hottentot .. . never knows what it is to be oppressed by

vapours, spasms, and the headache’ (pp. 292-293).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 129

‘The men never paint their faces, but I have often seen them use a preparation made of

both colours mixed, to paint the upper lip as far as the nostrils.’ Young girls sometimes applied

the paint for their men (p. 293).

The children had their bodies rubbed with ‘mutton grease’ and the men also used it to

protect the skin against wind and sun (p. 295).

When a skin was tanned, it was rubbed with ‘mutton grease’ (p. 305).

The Gonaqua used pots for melting grease which was preserved in ‘calibashes, bags made

of sheep’s skins or in bladders’ (p. 311).

The rendered tail fat of the Hottentot sheep ‘is a kind of congealed oil which the

Hottentots prefer to any other of their unctions, and for applying that powder which they call

bouchow’ (p. 317).

The urinating ceremony is ‘falsely ascribed to the Hottentots in the celebration of their

marriages’ (p. 299).

The Hottentots made an intoxicating liquor from honey and ‘a certain root’ (p. 310).

W. PATERSON (1790) (see also Paterson 1777-9)

(Paterson and Gordon encountered Hottentots at the Great River, renamed the Orange

River by Gordon, and at its mouth (p. 112); although there may be some doubt as to the

identity of the coastal people, their descriptions and the illustrations fit those of ‘poor’

beachcombing Hottentots rather than Bushmen.)

The Hottentots mixed dried aromatic plants with grease for an ointment ‘which they use as

we do perfume; this ointment they call Buchu’ (p. 115). The coastal people live from fish, seals

and jackals, and stranded whales (‘grampus’); ‘they smear their skins with the oil or train’

(pp. 115, 116).

C. P. THUNBERG (1793)

Thunberg referred to women Hottentot servants at Paarl and ‘the great quantity of stinking

grease with which they besmeared themselves’ (1: 131, see also 2: 309); beyond Swellendam the

Hottentots were ‘besmeared all over with grease, and powdered with the powder of bucku

(Diosma); and to show us respect as strangers, they had painted themselves besides with red

and black streaks’ (1: 170). Elsewhere he again referred to the use of grease and ‘bucku’

(1: 309; 2: 186, 187). Some inland Hottentots used the grease left in his pot to besmear

themselves and then smeared soot from the pot over themselves too (2: 161). The fat ‘defends

them in summer against the scorching heat of the sun, and from the cold in winter’ (2: 187).

‘Amongst their ointments, they mix the powder of a strong smelling herb, which they call

Bucku (a species of Diosma frequently the Pulchella)’ (2: 187). ‘The dead are interred in

graves, over which are set a tortoise-shell, filled with some odoriferous powder’ (2: 42). Buchu

was kept in tortoise-shells (1: 193, 2: 82) or ‘turtle-shells’ (2: 188).

“When they are visited by strangers’ the Hottentots ‘paint their faces with various figures of

brown and black paint’ (2: 197).

They ate or drank grease (1: 192); ‘they drink the blubber of sea-cows like water, and the

tail of a sheep, which consists entirely of fat, they prefer to any other part’ (2: 196, see also

2: 300). They ate marrow cooked in the bones (2: 82).

Butter was seldom churned and was used only for smearing; it was made by shaking the

milk in a skin bag (1: 198). Milk was kept in baskets or antelope skins (2: 310) (the English

translation erroneously says ‘goat skins’, the original Swedish clearly states ‘buck’ or antelope

skins).

The fat on the berries of the ‘wax-shrub’ was melted off in boiling water; ‘the farmers use it

for candles, but the Hottentots eat it like a piece of bread, either with or without meat’

(2: 166-167). Sheepskins were prepared with a little fat (this was omitted from the English

translation at 2: 188).

A root, gli, was pulverized and added to honey water to make mead overnight (2: 30); it

was also called ‘moor-wortel’ (2: 150) and was usually dug up in November to December

(2: 167, see 2: 191).

Beads were made from ostrich egg-shells (2: 176).

In the male initiation ceremony, ‘after a youth has been besprinkled, according to custom,

with urine, some animal is killed, and its omentum, or cawl, is tied about its neck (2: 42); he

was sprinkled with the urine of the ‘Master of Ceremonies’ (2: 192).

130 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Hottentots and Bushmen immunized themselves against poisonous bites ‘by suffering

themselves to the gradually bitten by serpents, scorpions and other venomous creatures . . . the

urine of a Hottentot thus prepared is esteemed an excellent antidote or counterpoison, and is

therefore drunk by such as have been bitten by serpents’ (2: 163).

In the marriage ceremony, the bridal couple were sprinkled with urine by the ‘priest’

(2: 192).

J. J. KicHERER in 1799

Kicherer, one of the first missionaries to work among the Hottentots, remarked that ‘they

smear their bodies with fat and lie in the sun’ (Van Onselen 1961: 107).

W. SOMERVILLE (1799-1802)

The Kora ‘ornament their face, hair, and sometimes the whole body with the brilliant

powder which they produce by pounding a brilliant ochry stone, of metallic lustre and weight

... found near the country of the Briquas. On the tawny ground of their hair and skin the

sparkling of the powder has a very good effect’ (p. 94). He described the ‘cavern’ where the ore

was procured (pp. 104-105).

W. B. E. PARAVICINI DI CAPELLI (1803)

The Hottentot women in the service of the colonists smeared their cheeks with red clay and

rubbed themselves with fat (p. 23).

R. PERcIVAL (1804)

‘From their infancy . . . anoint their bodies with sheep’s fat and grease mixed with soot,

ashes, bucku powder or such materials’ (p. 86).

J. Barrow (1806)

The Hottentots smeared their greasy hands over their bodies; ‘face and hands . . . they

kept somewhat cleaner than the other parts of the body by rubbing them occasionally with the

dung of cattle, which takes up the grease, when pure water would have no effect’ (1: 103).

Greasing of the body protected it against the elements (1: 106). During a girl’s puberty rites all

her ornaments were removed and her body was washed clean, a rare occurrence (Barrow

quoted by Schapera 1930). Wounds caused by Bushman arrows were washed with urine and

gunpowder (1: 292).

E. F. Srees in 1812, 1822

A water-colour picture by Steeb shows a Hottentot woman with a child—two broad,

painted red lines run from her nose, one on either side, across the cheeks to the temples; the

face of the child is painted white (Fig. 6). In another picture by the same artist, a Hottentot

woman has her face similarly painted. (A picture by an unknown artist in the same (Fehr)

collection shows a Hottentot girl with a painted face and chest.) (Fehr Collection, Rust en

Vreugd, Cape Town.)

R. Coins (1809)

On his journey to the north-eastern boundary of the Colony and the Orange River, Col.

Collins noted that dung was used for fuel where there was a shortage of wood (he did not say

by which population group) (p. 12). In the eastern Cape, on his journey to Kaffraria, Collins

encountered a black man whose ‘figure was tall and elegant, but as well as his face, was

rendered more like that of a Hottentot than of a Kaffir, by being all over smeared with ochre’

(p. 40) (in Moodie 1838).

SAARTJIE BAARDMAN, died 1816

This Hottentot woman of strange proportions was taken to England in 1810 and was

exhibited in London and Paris, where she died in 1816. A picture of her in the Africana

Museum, Johannesburg, shows her face painted along the nose and cheeks.

C. I. Latrose (1818)

At Genadendal, in the south-western Cape, the Hottentots tanned skins by ‘covering them

with sheep’s fat, strewing a species of chalk over them and with a sand-stone . . . rubbing them’

(p. 272).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 13]

W. BurcHELL (1822-4)

In telling of his travels inland, particularly north of the Orange River, Burchell wrote

rather vaguely of the use by ‘Bushmen and other tribes of the Hottentot race . . . and Bichuana

nations’ of red ochre and grease (2: 149). A Kora man at Klaarwater wore a kaross ‘which

together with his whole body, were so covered with red ochre and grease that the part of my

waggon against which he leaned was painted or rather soiled, with a red stain which was found

not easy to be extracted’ (1: 490).

He referred to the ‘greasy bodies’ of the inland Hottentots and the use of ‘Buku and other

scents’ (1: 249). Hottentot women anointed their bodies with animal fat as protection against

sun and weather, and ‘Buku, made of the leaves of various aromatic or scented plants, dried

and reduced to a powder by pounding them on a stone . . . chiefly Diosma’ but elsewhere

‘Croton’ (1: 395).

During meals the Hottentots in his party wiped their hands on arms, legs and feet; ‘to

anoint or grease their bodies is the most easy and effectual mode of preserving their skin from

the ./.. sun’ (1: 156).

Fat was smeared on wood before bowls were made from the wood (1: 407).

Burchell described how he saw Hottentots cooking and eating ostrich eggs by mixing the

contents with a twirled stick in the shell, then cooking the egg on the fire (2: 17). Beads were

made from the shells (1: 275; 2: 399).

J. CAMPBELL (1822)

‘The Corannas’ were so lazy that ‘they will not even travel up the country for ochre to

paint their bodies but procure it from the Griquas in exchange for their sheep and oxen’

(2: 194).

During the initiation of a Hottentot boy, the fat of the animal that had been slaughtered to

eat was tied to the head and round the neck of the boy where it had to be worn until it rotted

away. At the end of the ceremony, the entrails of the animal were dried, pounded to powder,

mixed with water and rubbed over the boy—he was then a man (Campbell quoted in Schapera

1930: 281-282).

G. THOMPSON (1827)

Queen Mahoota ‘is not of Bechuana but of Hottentot lineage . . . her hair is shaved in the

Bechuana fashion, leaving a bunch on the crown of the head, which is anointed with grease and

powdered well with sibillo, a shining mineral powder much in request at the court of the

Matclhapees’. The latter had ‘red paint stone’ as well as ‘powder of blink-klip’ (1: 165-166).

‘Boors’ and Hottentots used urine, mixed with gunpowder, for snake-bite (1: 400).

Thompson did not see any evidence of ‘Kolben’s disgusting marriage ceremony’ (urinating on

people) among the Koranna on the Gariep River (2: 33).

A mixture of gall and fat was used as a remedy for boils of ‘bloodfever’ which occurred in

February to March along the Gariep (2: 33).

M. D. TEENSTRA (1830)

Hottentots at the Cape smeared a certain mixture of fat, oil, etc. in their hair—

‘Hottentotten, die in hun hoofdhaar een zeker mengsel van vet, olie, enz. smeren’ (p. 194).

A. SMITH (c. 1833)

Among the Hottentots ‘friction with oily matters or fat is common for soreness or pains’.

The women wear, on a string round the neck, a small tortoise-shell in which are ‘paints, Buchu

powder or such articles’.

When slaughtering an animal the blood is scooped into a pot.

Honey and water are mixed and fermented with the aid of a root called ‘Mor’—this was

drunk by men and women. (It is not clear whether he was writing here of Bushmen or

Hottentots or both.)

A. SmiTH (1834-6)

In his Diary Smith mentions that among the Hoymans who extended in old times as far as

the Olifants and Gamtoos rivers, barren women were rubbed over with fat by a ‘doctor’. In

some cases of death, all the men and women in a kraal were smeared with fat (pp. 288, 291).

132 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

J. E. ALEXANDER (1838)

Alexander wrote of the ‘Namaqua’ in South West Africa: ‘The sun, by some of the people

of this benighted land, is considered to be a mass of fat’ (p. 168). ‘When a person is sick, the

doctor comes and orders a good sheep to be killed, as he can do nothing without first eating

plenty of fat; he reserves a little of the fat to smear the patient with’ (pp. 169-170). ‘Both sexes

are fond of greasing the skin and the women also bookoo themselves . . . and sometimes draw

odd looking streaks of soot and grease on their faces’ (pp. 192-193).

J. TINDALL (1839-55)

(Unfortunately Mrs Tindall, the transcriber of his Journal, heavily edited it and later

destroyed the original. A portion only of the Nama initiation ceremony, described by Tindall,

was retained.) ‘The youth is seized early in the morning . . . stripped of his skin kaross and his

loin girdle. By this time the males of the village are assembled. They spout plentifully an

unmentionable kind of water all over his body’ (p. 28).

When a rhino had been slaughtered, ‘the water was taken out of the stomach and nearly

the whole company allayed their thirst’ (p. 38).

T. BaINEs (1842-53)

The Cape Hottentot women accompanying the expedition improved their ‘tawny visages by

spreading over them a strong tint of red ochre . . . afterwards modified by an admixture of

grease and charcoal, producing an infinite variety of harmoniously blended tints’ (p. 37).

T. ArBousset & F. DAuMas (1846)

Koranna women along the Gariep River ‘anoint their bodies with sheep-tail fat, mixed with

a reddish-coloured ochre’ (p. 27).

E. E. Napier (1849)

Male Hottentots of ‘200 years’ ago, used a ‘liberal unction of cow-dung and animal fat. . .

smeared over with a sort of reddish clay’ (1: 66). Grease was applied to bodies from time to

time and remained on. Hands and faces were cleaned with the dung of cattle (1: 64).

J. CHAPMAN (1849-63, 1868)

In Bechuanaland, on the way to the Botlele River, he saw Damara (Herero) women

collecting a small bulb called ondamboro, to sell to the Hottentots who used it to ‘powder

themselves under the arms. . . to destroy the odour’ (Chapman 1849-63 2: 152). ‘Our Damaras

here collected an odiferous herb very like the shamrock trefoil, but possessing a powderful

aroma, with which they perfume themselves. . .. The Namaqua and Bush women use these

perfumes chiefly to destroy or neutralize . . . the odours. . . . These herbs, of which there were

a great variety, they call bucho. They carry them, reduced to a powder, in tortoise-shells, and

use them when required. Some of the paints and powders used by the Namaqua women are

derived from certain lichens growing on stones and emitting a strong aromatic odour. They also

use a kind of saffron, of which there are two or three varieties found in the country; also a small

bulb, and other aromatic plants. They paint their faces with a paste composed of charcoal and

fat, on the cheeks and over the eyebrows, and with dry redlead round the eyes . . . which they

defend on the ground of its being an antidote for opthalmia’ (Chapman 1868 1: 399).

(In Chapman 1849-63 is one of Baines’s pictures of ‘“Namaqua’ women with painted faces)

(Fig. 5 herein).

‘Another [herb] is a trefoil with pea-flower, which grows near the vleys, and has a stronger

odour. This the Hottentot women esteem very much as a scent, and with them goes by the

name of buchu, the smell of which it somewhat resembles’ (Chapman 1868 2: 28).

‘The Bushmen and other natives press an oil from the seeds of the fruit of the morofono-

goé (plum)’ around Lake Ngami (Chapman 1868 2: 323).

Honey beer was a favourite brew of the Hottentots (Chapman 1868 2: 323).

W. C. Harris (1852)

Near Campbells-dorp, across the Orange River, ‘we observed a large party of Corannas

engaged in an attempt to run down an ostrich on foot . . . their prevailing dress is a cloak and

cap of leather, bedaubed in common with their own skins, with an unguent of grease and red

ochre’ (p. 34).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 133

D. LivincsTone (1857)

The Griqua and Bechuanas smeared themselves with fat and ochre and put pounded blue

mica schist and grease on their hair (p. 84).

C. F. Wuras in c. 1858

(Wuras (1929), a missionary at Bethany in the Orange Free State, made these notes about

the Kora in about 1858.)

When a youth is initiated into manhood his body is smeared with animal (in this case an

ox) fat. Then the mother of the youth smears his face with ‘a salve, consisting of fat and the

pulverized bark of a certain tree’ and ‘strews pulverized quartz on his head’.

‘The woman of the house takes a horn filled with oil, and pours it over the heads of

visitors.’

In female initiation at the onset of menstruation, the girl is rubbed with the fat of the

animal slaughtered for the occasion (in this case a cow).

The people practised cicatrization.

P. B. Borcuerps (1861)

The Hottentots smeared themselves with fat and also drank fat (p. 113). The ‘Korannahs

. . . besmear themselves with grease and adorn themselves with powdered ochres’ (p. 119).

THOMAS Baines (1864)

He mentioned a ‘Namaqua’ girl with ‘eyebrows, nose and cheeks . . . outlined with blue

clay’ (p. 76). One of his pictures shows ‘Namaqua’ women with painted faces (see Chapman

1849-63) (Fig. 5 herein).

C. J. ANDERSSON, before 1867

(This information was recorded before 1867, the year of Andersson’s death. )

Andersson (1873: 25) quoted Thunberg’s information that a lion ‘had much rather eat a

Hottentot than a Christian’ because the former is ‘besmeared with fat. . .’.

T. HAHN (1867 et seq.) (see also Hahn 1881)

The Nama used fresh dung with which to clean their hands. Sometimes water was used

afterwards (Hahn 1867: 306). The Nama smeared a dead man’s body with the blood of a goat

(Hahn 1867: 333). Hoernlé (1918) quoted Hahn as saying that at the end of the period of

seclusion, the fat of the heifer that had been killed was hung over the girl’s head for fertility;

the girls who had come of age ran naked in the first rain so that it washed their bodies; it was

said to bring fertility. Hahn was told in the 1870s that sprinkling a grave with cold water cooled

the soul of the deceased (Hoernlé 1923). In 1869 Hahn observed that Nama youths were

sprinkled with urine by the ‘magician’ during puberty rites (Schapera 1930: 279).

J. CHAPMAN (1868) (see Chapman 1849-63, 1868)

R. RipGILt (1870)

To caulk a boat at the Orange River, the men from the Bath (Hottentot men from

Warmbad, South West Africa) were handed ‘all the suet of the sheep we had killed for weeks

past . . . saved for the purpose’. ‘After proper mastication, it was mixed with cow-dung to the

consistence of putty. . . . The natives enjoy it.’

At the very lower Gariep River, on the South West African side, were Hottentot women

with ‘streaks of red and yellow ochre’.

G. Fritscu (1872)

The skins worn by the Hottentots were smeared with a mixture of rancid fat and buchu

(‘Diasma spp.’) leaves (p. 273).

Cheeks were reddened. Fritsch referred to Daniell’s sketch of a Hottentot with reddened

cheeks and lips (p. 273). Faces were painted in patterns with red earth—he referred to Baines’s

sketch (p. 274). The black ‘crust’ on a face consisted of ash from certain plants mixed with fat

and used as a protection against cold (p. 275). The skins of Hottentots were covered with a

layer of fat, dirt, and buchu powder. It was a sign of wealth, protected against cold, and, when

134 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

mixed with different kinds of ash, ‘protects against other things’ (p. 309). The men smeared

their faces with fat, buchu powder and ‘red’. The women painted bizarre patterns with red

ochre on their faces, including six bold stripes, rings round the eyes, paint across the bridge of

the nose, on the cheeks, etc. Fritsch noted that nowhere is ‘Blinkklip’ (specularite) mentioned

by early authors, and the Hottentots did not like it (p. 313). The Korana used fat, ochre and

buchu with which to smear their bodies; Fritsch questioned Wood’s information that the

Korana also used ‘Sibilo’ or ‘Blinkklip’ (p. 373).

Fritsch quoted Hahn (‘Beitrage zur Kunde d. Hottent. Z.d. Verein f. Erdkunde. Dresden

VI’) as stating that the ‘Namaqua’ still used the wetting with urine in certain ceremonies

(p. 330).

The Namaqua smeared goat’s blood on a dead person (p. 365).

E. J. DUNN (1872-3, 1931)

Near ‘Naugat’ (Nauga), on the road to ‘Steermans Pits’ in the Prieska district, is the

‘famous locality at which that indispensable toilet requisite to all good Kaffirs, red paint, is

obtained. With this they smear not only their persons, but their clothes and utensils.’ They

‘daub this unctuous red hematite over everything’ (Dunn 1872-3 pt 1). (Dunn might have

included the Khoisan peoples in this area in his statement.)

At Kakamas (on the Orange River) ‘painting is very fashionable, not only with the women,

but some of the men also. There stands a young Koranna lady whose toilet is just

completed. . . . Her face is painted jet black while round each eye and the nostrils a narrow

strip is painted of a livid red colour... . The paint is generally carried in a small, prettily-

marked tortoise-shell. The black is obtained by burning a small bush and saving the lamp-black,

a purplish brown from a description of fungus, while oxide of iron furnishes red. For use these

are ground up with a little fat’ (Dunn 1872-3 pt 2).

‘In 1872 there were great numbers of Hottentots living along the course of the Orange

River. At one place I saw two or three hundred assembled at a honey-beer drinking... .

Before such a festival, or for dances, both men and women painted their faces. For this purpose

they used red (haematite), black (charcoal), and purple (which was made from a fungus or puff

ball). These colours were mixed with fat and were placed in the shells of small land tortoises

which were suspended from the women’s necks. The purple was much used by the women, who

smeared it over their faces in spots. This gave them a livid appearance as though they were

bruised’ (Dunn 1931: 12-13).

The conical cooking-pots were red in colour until blackened by use (Dunn 1931: 87).

T. Haun (1881) (see also Hahn 1867)

Hahn quoted a letter from Nicolas Witsen, written in 1691: the Hottentots had informed

him ‘that they worshipped a certain god . . . who was possessed of gigantic proportions. . . . It

was a custom that their wives spread on the head of this deity a red kind of earth, buchu, or

other sweet-smelling herbs, this being not one of their offerings, but one of many’ (p. 37).

‘The colour red, /ava, also takes its origin from /au, to bleed, hence /ava or /aua,

blood-like, blood-coloured—i.e. red’ (p. 79). ‘Redmen or /Ava-khoin is a name the Khoikhoi

used to distinguish themselves from the hated black people’ (pp. 112, 152).

Hahn referred to a name which meant ‘the man whose body has a brass-coloured

backbone’. ‘This is the lightning. ... Here we have, perhaps, the explanation why the

Khoikhoi women on occasions anoint themselves with red ochre, and also for the purposes of

worship make marks with red ochre (torob) on certain sacred stones and cairns’. He suggested

that ‘the painting of the sacred stones with red ochre was merely an act to replace the cruel

offering of human blood by a simple, symbolical ceremony’. ‘In place of this terra rubra (red

ochre, torob) they also used frequently the red tannic juice of the Acacia giraffe’ (p. 140). At

p. 104 Hahn gives + gorab for ochre, red clay.

The Hottentots ‘also consider the drinking of lion or panther blood as having influence on

the nature of a person or on the child in the mother’s womb’ (p. 88).

According to a legend, before hunting a lion a man’s mother ‘anointed him with butter

which had been melted over the fire; and she took it from the sacred tub, and she sprinkled

sweet-smelling Buchu on her son’. Before killing the lion, ‘he washed . . . and then drank of

the water, throwing it with two fingers into the mouth. . . . Since that day all Namaquas when

in the veldt drink the waters of the ponds and fountains in this manner.’ On his return from the

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 135

hunt, his mother smeared him again with ‘fresh-roasted butter’ and sprinkled him with buchu

(pp. 71-72).

Hahn mentioned other instances of the ritual use of water: the wife of a hunter must pour

water on the ground while he is away to ensure success in the hunt (p. 77). ‘The girl or girls

who have become of age must, after the festival, run about in the first thunder-storm . . . quite

naked, so that the rain which pours down washes the whole body’ (p. 87). ‘Another custom,

which also proves that the Khoikhoi believe that the person in the grave is not quite dead, is

that of throwing water on the grave shortly after burial .. . in order to cool the soul of the

deceased’ (p. 113).

Sometimes honey and honey-beer is left as an offering at ‘Heitsi-eibib’s graves’ (p. 69).

Some ‘sorcerers . . . having a great practical knowledge of the meteorology of this country

. . sprinkle their urine into a burning fire being convinced that it will soon rain’ (p. 83).

B. RipsDALe (1883)

Hottentots collected honey for eating (p. 79).

Ostrich eggs were eaten (p. 80).

The mother of Hendrik Hendriks, chief of the “Veldschoen Draagers’ was ‘from head to

foot . . . so thickly besmeared with grease and red dust as entirely to conceal the real colour of

the skin. This unguent was to serve as a protection against the sun’ (pp. 165-166).

The Koranna ‘occasionally shoot the enormous hippopotami, the flesh of which, especially

the fat about the ribs, they esteem a most luscious article of food’ (p. 183).

J. OLpp (1888)

(Schapera extracted the information given below from Olpp’s 1888 paper, ‘Aus dem

Sagenschatz der Nama Khoi-Khoin, Mitt. Geogr. Ges. 6: 1-47’, which the present writer has

not seen.)

During male puberty rites the boy, in the care of an old man, cleaned off all the ochre with

which he had been smeared; in this time horizontal cuts were made on the boy’s chest and

rubbed with ash. He was then taken to lean over water, to touch it with his mouth—the old

man hit the water with a stick so that it splashed into the boy’s face ‘to frighten and splash away

the evil heart of the boy’. Schapera (1930: 283) added that it was also a reintroduction to water.

According to Olpp, if a taboo was broken, a man was purified by ‘drinking’ the boiled

blood of a lamb; he then washed with the contents of the stomach before eating the flesh

(Schapera 1930: 283).

H. Scuinz (1891)

Hottentot women painted their faces red at the time of their menstruation (p. 85).

H. vAN FRANCOIS (1896)

The Hottentot woman in South West Africa tries to increase her looks by garish painting.

Black and red paints are made from soot, ground wood charcoal, and red earth ochre. Both

colours are stirred with fat and perfumed with buchu powder. With this mixture they paint the

prominent parts of their cheeks and draw circles round the eyes as far as the forehead,

sometimes across the nose right down to the upper lip. They explain this as necessary against

the rays of the sun and as protection against the biting wind, but pure vanity is probably the

main reason, because, firstly this custom is not in use among the men, and, secondly, they use

the paints wherever they happen to find them. They also use oil paints and washing blue if they

can get hold of these. A tortoise-shell with the beloved buchu is often carried by women

(p. 205).

A girl initiate was rubbed with buchu (p. 213).

As an aid during the birth, the woman was massaged with fat (p. 214).

G. W. Stow (1905)

(Stow’s information was gathered before 1882, the year of his death.)

The Griqua put a shining powder in their hair (p. 317); the Griqua women put powdered

blue mica in their hair (p. 318); their bodies were daubed with red paint, their heads were

‘loaded with grease and shining powder’ (p. 317).

The Hottentots smeared their greasy hands over their bodies and cleaned their faces and

hands with the dung of cattle (p. 240).

136 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

G. E. WESTPHAL in 1906

On 18 October 1906 the missionary at Pniel, G. E. Westphal, sent Dr L. Péringuey of the

South African Museum ‘two mushrooms used by the natives and in earlier times by Bushmen.

The one, like a bulb, is the yellow, like ocker, the other brown like umber. The yellow was

used with fat to have a coat of paint all over the body to protect it against cold and heat; the

second is a mushroom growing on antheaps and was used as food when in fresh state . . . the

Koranna still use both colours to paint their faces, especially the yellow, however they prefer

the rooiklip (ocker) if they can get it’ (South African Museum files).

L. SCHULTZE (1907)

(Schultze wrote mainly about the Nama of South West Africa but it was not always clear

when he meant them or other groups.)

Fat was a great delicacy. It was also drunk warm. Butter or fat was kept in a special skin

bag, the opening of which was closed with cow-dung (p. 186).

Fat, rubbed over the body, was in general use among the women for cosmetic purposes

(p. 179), for massaging the body in sickness and pregnancy, and for general well-being. It was

smeared all over the body (p. 207). The fat container was an ox-horn with a lid of skin (p. 207).

The women and girls painted themselves. There were various paints. Red (/aba) was from

‘Eisenoxyd rot gefarbten Tonschiefers’ (iron oxide red-coloured slate or clay) called !naub,

mixed with raw, chewed fat; the paint was smeared on the face with the fingers. ‘Eisenrost’

(iron-rust), a red-brown colour, was used as a substitute. A dark-brown paint came from

‘Steinschweiss’ (*klipsweet’ or hyraxeum which is dassie urine with dung); the black, shiny stuff

was mixed with water and then applied to the fat-besmeared face. The effect, to Schultze, was

ugly (p. 210). He included an analysis of the secretion which was aromatic and sweet to the

taste (p. 690).

The women painted dark masks on their faces: the face was smeared with fat and, with a

bit of animal skin, black or red powder was applied. Black came from the roasted, tuberous

lower stem of a pelargonium, red from the dried, inner wood of the camel-thorn tree. Parts of

the face were sharply outlined with a wet finger-tip to make blank spaces in the paint according

to individual taste (p. 210).

For new-born babies a salve was made of fat and powdered, burnt ostrich egg-shell, or fat

and the burnt underground part of Oxalis caledonica. Sand was applied to the navel (p. 221).

Ingredients for medicines were mixed with raw, chewed fat (p. 226).

Buchu was obtained from various sources, including a kind of mesembrianthemum, a kind

of Cyperus root, lichens, and the spores of a mushroom, the head of which was hung on a

thread round the neck and the yellow spores were allowed to disperse over the body. The rest

of it was dried and powdered (p. 208). Buchu was collected in the whole skin of a new-born

lamb, or foetus of a lamb. The dried plants were lightly roasted over a fire, pulverized with fine

quartz, put in a shallow wooden dish and freed of large pieces by winnowing. It was kept in a

tortoise-shell container hung on a band. The opening of the tortoise-shell was closed with the

blackened gum of some plant (from which beads were also made) or the hardened mixture

made by stamping the salivary glands of cattle (p. 208). (Elsewhere Schultze remarked that the

Masarwa sealed their carapaces with beeswax (p. 676).) A piece of jackal-skin served as a

powder-puff and to close the top (p. 208). The women used buchu all over the body, the men

on the armpits and neck (p. 210). The women heated buchu on hot stones and allowed the

fumes to penetrate the clothing. Babies’ blankets and the garments of the dead were strewn

with buchu (p. 210).

When skins were tanned with the dried, soaked red bark of Acacia horrida, they became

red (pp. 233-234).

To steel himself for war, a young man who had not yet killed an enemy had to drink the

blood of an animal (p. 339).

Honey beer was made (p. 204); honey was kept in a sack (p. 205).

The coastal Hottentots washed their hair with raw penguin egg.

Beads were made of gum (p. 208, see above) or charcoal and gum (p. 251).

C. L. Bipen & H. Kuinc (1912)

Their studies were mainly concerned with the Hottentot people in Namaqualand. “The

medicine-man prepares medicine . . . even out of the dung of certain animals and the urine of

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 137

rock-rabbits. An incision is made in the skin of the affected person by means of a calf’s horn,

and the medicine is injected in the scarified part, the patient being told to believe in various

omens.’

Buchu leaves, ‘Barosma crenulata’, were sprinkled on corpses and graves.

E. FiscHer (1913)

The Hottentots (in South West Africa) have tortoise-shell containers with buchu in them.

They use a dark-red soft sandstone containing iron oxide and feldspar for a cosmetic.

The Rehoboth Basters make soap out of butter-fat when there is a surplus of milk and

butter (p. 260). Their children crush animal bones with a round stone on a lower grindstone for

the fat and blood which they lick from the stone. They love fat. They drink fresh or sour milk

(p. 261). Warm cow-dung is used against rheumatism. Roasted ostrich egg-shell is ground and

mixed with water to a porridge which is placed on the head of a person with fever, or it is mixed

with fat for an ointment against eye trouble, etc. Roasted bones are ground and mixed with fat

and red ochre for an ointment for burns (p. 281). A corpse is washed with water, a custom

peculiar to the Nama (p. 282).

A. W. Hoern e£ (1918, 1923)

(In her study of the state of !mau (‘andersmaak’, transition, e.g. sickness, widowhood,

adolescence and puberty rites) among the Nama in South West Africa, especially in Berseba,

Hoernlé (1918) mentioned the role of various substances under examination here.)

In a girl’s puberty ceremony, buchu made of sweet-smelling bark, roots, or leaves, ground

to powder, was sprinkled over the girl and her clothes; !naop, a face paint made by grinding

soft red stone to powder and mixing it with fat, was used to paint patterns on the girl’s face. At

the end of the time of seclusion, the girl was cleansed with moist cow-dung and !naop. Her skin

was well greased, and after the initiation period her face was painted in various patterns with

!naop and !quasab (‘ground white stone’). The young boys came into her hut and she rubbed

their testicles with a powder-puff full of buchu to ensure their fertility and protection against

sexual diseases. Later, at the dancing, she threw buchu over the men and boys for good luck.

In the remarriage ceremony, blood from the man and woman was mixed with animal blood

and dirt from the skin of the officiating old woman, and the mixture was rubbed into cuts in the

skins of the couple. (According to Schapera (1930: 407), Hoernlé reported a similar ceremony

with blood and dirt regarding a sick person, but this has not been traced.) When the cuts had

healed, the couple were cleansed in the same way as were the young girls, with cow-dung and

!naop. Guests and the couple ate the cooked meat of the slaughtered animal, only guests ate

the intestines and blood cooked together, and the old woman ate the meat on the pelvis (of the

sheep or goat), which was kept intact. The bones were then tied together and hung from the

rafters. Hoernlé knew of no record of this remarriage ceremony south of the Orange River and

said that the goat was not used in ceremonial meals if it could be avoided, probably because the

Hottentots had not originally owned goats.

The funeral ceremony included the following rites: after returning from the grave all the

people washed their hands in cold water. Blood from a slaughtered animal was collected in a

pot, a herb was added, it was heated to boiling point and a red-hot chopper was stirred round in

it to make the steam rise while the immediate relatives sitting round the pot perspired. An old

man made a line with potblack on the stomach of each person ‘to prevent their getting pains

from eating the food’. In Berseba the line was made with blood. The relatives ate the flesh of

the animal, but only the officiating person and others of like age might use the blood.

A widow was cleansed with moist cow-dung or, on the Orange River, with a brew made

from a species of Euphorbia, or in Walvis Bay where there were no cattle, with ground naras

(Acanthosicyos horrida) pips, goat-dung, and fat. Her body was rubbed with !naop. A mark

was made under each eye with potblack ‘so that everything a widow meets may be nice to her’,

and on her chest ‘so that her food may go down nicely’.

A sick man was cleansed with dung and fat.

There were various taboos in connection with water in the state of !nau: cold water was a

danger to the person involved, and after the state of !mau the person had to be reintroduced to

it, and was usually sprinkled or splashed with water. The witch-doctor never touched water lest

his powers were diminished, and an evil witch-doctor lost his power when he was ducked by the

chief’s orders.

138 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Water was of special significance in the lives of the Nama (Hoernlé 1923). When it was

taboo, it could cause death. During puberty ceremonies a girl was not to touch water from a

few days to a month. A grave was strewn with buchu and sprinkled with water, which was said

to harden the grave so that animals could not dig there, but Hoernlé noted that Theophilus

Hahn had been told in the 1870s that it cooled the soul of the deceased. Close relatives of a

person who had died might not touch water, but all the other people of the kraal washed their

hands in cold water after the burial to avoid getting sick. Cold water was sprinkled in the hut

where the body had been.

G. McC. THEAL (1919)

The Hottentots relished the tail fat of a sheep and used it to rub on their bodies and to

make their skin karosses flexible (p. 97). From earliest infancy their bodies were smeared with

grease and rubbed over with clay, soot, or powdered buchu. The coat of grease and clay was

not intended for ornament alone, but also protected against weather and vermin (p. 100). Theal

(p. 117) quoted Alexander that among the Namaqua north of the Orange River, the ‘doctor’

could do nothing without first eating plenty of fat; he reserved a little of the fat to smear on the

patient.

Milk was kept in skin bags (p. 97). Honey was converted into an intoxicating drink (p. 98).

S. S. DorNAN (1925)

The Hottentots, ‘like the Bushmen ... were fond of anointing themselves with fat,

generally rancid, mixed with clay. They said it kept out the cold. They were fond of aromatic

plants, such as buchw’ (p. 213).

P. W. LAIDLER (1928)

Among the Hottentots umbilical hernias were ‘due to the use of fat on the new-born baby’s

umbilical cord which retarded the drying’. ‘When pain was felt, fat was rubbed in. . . . Plasters

of fat were applied from a freshly killed animal.’ Hot fat was also rubbed in.

An ointment made from raw fat and pulverized dagga leaves is used for pains in the eyes.’

Burnt and powdered ostrich egg-shell mixed with tail fat of a sheep or goat was used to rub on

the chest or whole body for ‘snuffles or coryza’.

Cow-dung, goat-dung, or certain leaves smeared with fat were used as poultices.

‘Gums and resins are used to only a small extent. Heyra, the exudation of the acacia tree,

is used as a food, and, when boiled, with fat as a salve... .’ The resin of several species of

Euryops ‘is boiled and the bitter decoction used in fevers’.

Fat was mixed with other medicinal substances, e.g. a kind of buchu was ‘roasted with oil

and fat, mixed with mother’s milk and dropped into the ear for earache’.

‘Dassiepis . . . the inspissated urine and faeces of the rock rabbit’ was used, internally and

externally, as a medicine for various ailments. Plaster of ‘dassiepis’ (also called ‘klipsweet’)

were applied to snake bites.

Euphorbia milk was used to do away with warts.

The Hottentots used various red paints as remedies ‘because they are red and blood is red’.

H. VEDDER (19286, 1929, 1938)

The ‘fat box’ of the Nama was a piece of horn closed at both ends with ox-hide. ‘In this box

they had the reddish ointment which was applied to those parts of the face that got chapped

during cold weather. The women and girls also applied this ointment to their faces on other

occasions’ (1928b: 126). ‘There are still women who hideously paint their faces with a blackish

red salve during the period of menstruation, or early pregnancy and on cold winter days’

(1928b: 137).

The Nama smeared their bodies with ‘an ointment from red iron-stone and fat’ (1938: 51).

The ‘rouge-pots’ were made from pieces of ox-horn (1938: 53).

The Rooi Nasie, a Nama tribe, got its name because of the custom of its people to rub

their bodies with a mixture of fat and red earth (ochre) (1929).

Buchu was made ‘from a great variety of shrubs and roots’ (19285: 137).

The dry menstrual blood of an initiate who was thought to have special powers was mixed

with food to kill enemies; that of a harmless girl was used as a medicine for male sexual diseases

(1928b: 136).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 139

‘Upon their return from the funeral, the relatives formed themselves into successive groups

and all partook of a small quantity of the blood of the animals which had been killed for the

funeral feast. With the rest, mixed with the intestines, an old woman besmeared those present

in the region of the heart and the small of the back in order to counteract the harmful effect of

the mourning and the strain of the lament for the dead’ (1938: 55).

I. ScHAPERA (1930, 1933)

(Much of Schapera’s (1930) information is not first-hand, but it is not always possible to be

sure when he is quoting others, or whom he is quoting, so that unnecessary repetition of

information cannot always be avoided.)

The use of grease, buchu, and red powder was reported by early writers ‘and even today

among the Nama the girls on such [festive] occasions still paint various patterns on their faces

with a mixture of fat and the powder ground from a soft red stone such as haematite’ (p. 69).

Scarification was still practised among the Nama in connection with ceremonies; the small

cuts were rubbed with ash (p. 72).

The Nama made butter from cow’s milk in a calabash. It was eaten and used for greasing

the skin. Animal fat was sometimes drunk warm (p. 237).

Women used buchu, especially under the arms (p. 245).

The fat of a cow or sheep, slaughtered for the marriage feast, was strewn with buchu and

hung round the neck of the bride (p. 247) (according to Schapera this is what Wikar wrote of

the ‘Little Namaqua’, but Wikar wrote here of ‘Hottentots’, and of ‘omentum’, not ‘fat’).

Skins were softened by rubbing with fat. The Nama steeped them in red lye made from

acacia bark which coloured them red inside (p. 311).

Massage was a widely used remedy (p. 408) and fat was used with remedies or as a remedy

(p. 409).

? A new-born Nama baby was rubbed with fat and was not to be washed in water. With a

salve of fat and powdered, burnt ostrich egg-shell, the baby was streaked on forehead, temples

and nose, and the fontanelles were thickly smeared with it. For the first days after the birth, the

mother was not to touch cold water. At Walvis Bay and Fransfontein (areas of the Topnaars),

the baby’s umbilical cord that had fallen off was introduced to rain by being held out in the

rain. The mother was also ceremonially reintroduced to water (p. 262).

A Nama widower was reintroduced to water and had to sprinkle his livestock with water in

which tamarisk and acacia branches had soaked (p. 366).

White potassium chlorate, in the form of inspissated urine and faeces of the dassie, purified

by the action of the atmosphere, was rubbed into scarified snake-bites and scorpion stings (this

was only one of the remedies) (p. 410). This ‘dassiepis’, boiled and strained, was a female

remedy; large doses served as the principal abortifacient (p. 411). If necessary, it was taken for

several days (p. 260).

Hot applications in the form of hut dung were used. Goat-dung was used as a poultice, and

Schultze noted (Schapera does not give the publication) that a Nama patient with chicken-pox

drank goat-dung cooked in diluted milk; powdered hyena dung was given to children with

convulsions (pp. 412-413).

The floor of the interior of the hut was smeared with a mixture of cow-dung and blood

(p. 230).

In his introduction to The early Cape Hottentots, Schapera (1933) summarized the

significance of water in the life of the Hottentots as follows: ‘It is worth noting at this stage the

part which water, because of its outstanding importance to the well-being of the Hottentots,

came to play in their ceremonial life as well. Among the Naman there was a great annual

rain-making ceremony, when pregnant sheep and cows were sacrificed to promote the fruitful-

ness of nature; while in many of the ceremonies connected with the life history of the

individual, water played an essential part, being endowed in some instances with a special

protective power, while in others it was considered extremely dangerous and therefore to be

avoided at all costs. Thus objects or persons which might harm members of the society were

rendered innocuous by immersion in cold water or by sprinkling with cold water; while on the

other hand sick people, mothers with new-born babies, menstruating women, bereaved people

and many others were in a precarious condition and must on no account touch water lest they

die. When, after many ceremonies of purification, these people were once more introduced to

the daily life of the tribe, they were specially reintroduced to water, being splashed all over with

it before they could resume their normal occupations.’ (See also Schapera 1926.)

140 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

E. J. DuNN (1931) (see Dunn 1872-3, 1931)

J. A. ENGELBRECHT (1936)

Specularite—blinkklip, /haib’—was dug up near Clocolan by the Kora women. In pow-

dered form it was mixed with fat and rubbed into the hair. The Bloemhof people knew about it

but stated that they never used it themselves and that the custom of using it was Bantu (p. 106).

The women had a ‘rooiklip’ horn, a sort of vanity box (p. 101). When visiting, it was taken

along. It contained the indispensable mixture of red ochre and fat with which the face was made

up. ‘Klaas’s wife stated that the difference between the red ochre used by the Bantu and by the

Korana was that the former burned or roasted it, while the latter did not; Bloemhof people,

however, contradict this statement’ (p. 109).

In male initiation, some Kora tribes ‘anointed the candidate’s hair with a mixture of fat and

blinkklip so that he would have long hair’. He was rubbed clean with a mixture of cattle-dung

and fresh cream (pp. 160-161).

Part of the Kora ritual of female initiation was to rub the whole body with red ochre and

cream (p. 163). Another informant said that the girl was rubbed and cleansed with melted

butter. They loathed body odours. Some of their customs were said to be Nama (p. 166).

Another version of female initiation was that the head was finally rubbed with a mixture of

‘blinkklip’ and fat (p. 167).

Engelbrecht mentioned two versions regarding the role of the sheep (or goat) pelvic bones

in female initiation (pp. 163, 167). In the second version, the pelvic bones of the animal were

smeared with ‘red clay’.

Apart from the above-mentioned uses, the Kora used fat in other ways: it was rubbed into

a log of wood from which utensils were to be made (p. 97); fat and herbs or roots, etc., were

mixed to use for magical purposes and as a medicine (p. 184); a plaster was made of lion’s fat

and pounded ‘wag-’n-bietjie’ leaves, or an ointment was made of this fat and ash. Some used

ostrich egg-shell, burnt and pounded, as an ointment, not for ornamentation (p. 186). After a

death, the family cleansed themselves with cow-dung and cream, and at night with cow-dung

and fat (p. 189). The Kora ate or drank melted butter (pp. 98, 113).

Fat, used for massaging, was kept in a horn container (p. 101) or in small skin pouches or

calabashes (pp. 101-102).

Various kinds of buchu were used (pp. 106 ff.). The tortoise-shell powder box was closed

with a kind of glue obtained from the inner resinous portion of the ‘gifbol’, a wild bulb looking

much like an onion. The dry, inner part was mixed with animal stomach fat or kidney fat;

alternatively ‘certain animal glands’ were pounded and mixed with charcoal and fat (p. 106).

Engelbrecht did not mention any deliberate colouring of leather; the skin was rubbed with

fat before tanning with the pounded roots of the elandsboontjie. Prior to this the Kora used the

bark of the ‘wag-’n-bietjie’, which gave the skins a tan colour (p. 110).

H. VEDDER (1938) (see Vedder 1928, 1929, 1938)

J. WALTON (1956)

Along the Orange River . . . ‘from the Bantu the Nama obtained copper beads and glass

beads resembling copper, whilst from the Tlapin they obtained a certain black ore which they

mixed with fat and applied to their hair. Graves from this area have yielded fragments of hair

coated with fat mixed with powdered black haematite, copper coloured glass beads and copper

beads.’

J. P. BRUWER (1972)

During a Nama rain ceremony, ‘after slaughtering a cow due to calve, they built a great fire

and threw large quantities of milk, fat and parts of the cow on it. . . and danced and prayed to

Tsui-Goab to send rain’.

E. PALMER & N. PITMAN (1972)

Hottentots used the sweet-scented oil from the small fruits of the wild plum, Pappea

capensis, for anointing their skins (p. 283); they used the dried leaves of plants (buchu) of the

family Rutaceae, mixed with fat, to anoint their bodies (p. 284); Barosma, Agathosma, and

Diosma spp. were used medicinally and as perfume—there are eight genera in the family in

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 14]

South and South West Africa (p. 975); the thick, dark bark of Acacia karroo was used

extensively for tanning leather to which it gave a reddish colour; the Hottentots used bark for

making cords and mats (p. 270); the bark is a brick-red colour (p. 270); the bark of several

species of Rhus was once used for tanning.

SoutH AFRICAN Museum, ETHNOLOGY COLLECTION

SAM-AE 1333: ‘Bushwoman? Griqua? Langberg, Cape. Under-kaross, skirt of skin, presented

by R. C. Camp 1911.’ (Believed to be Griqua.) This was made of what seems like goatskin and

was tanned to a darkish yellow colour on either side. Eight circles of red (ochre?), three of

them encircling patches, were made on it. Hair was left on at two ends and it was decorated

with small, coloured glass beads along part of the sides (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9. Skirt of leather tanned to a darkish yellow colour, with red circles of ochre (?); said to

be Griqua (SAM-AE1333) (photo J. Hosford).

SAM-AE1676: ‘Girl’s dress (back apron), Hottentot, Lilyfontein, presented by Rev. W. M.

Crampton 1913.’ The skin was dyed brownish orange with a pattern of hair left round the edges

(Fig. 10).

UCT 23/132: ‘Skin bag tanned with ikus (?ihus) bark, Nama Hottentot, Fransfontein, South

West Africa, presented by Mrs Hoernlé, 1923.’ It is coloured yellow-brown outside; attached to

the bag is a tortoise-shell (UCT 23/133) closed at the lower end with a black substance.

UCT 23/143: ‘Root used for tanning, #nunip.”

UCT 23/144: ‘Bark used for tanning, ikus (?ihus).’

UCT 23/146: ‘Rotted bark, #+gaep, of a tree crushed for buchu.’

UCT 23/154: ‘Toadstool used as face powder, !o0a sab.’ This is a dark yellow-ochre coloured

powder in a small tin.

The latter four items were all Nama from Fransfontein, South West Africa, presented by

Mrs Hoernlé, 1923.

The above articles have been mentioned here merely by way of example; there are other

such objects in other museums.

142 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 10 Hottentot girl’s apron from Lilyfontein, Namaqualand; the colour is brownish orange

(SAM-AE1676) (photo J. Hosford).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 143

PIGMENTS AND PAINTS OF THE PRESENT-DAY NAMA

INTRODUCTION

The Nama people of South West Africa number some 40 000 (C. G.

Coetzee 1980 pers. comm.) and are at present concentrated in four main areas in

the southern half of the territory, Namaland. Some, particularly the young and

middle-aged adults, go to work on farms and in towns, while in the settlements

and areas that they occupy there are large numbers of children and old people.

Many of these people still retain some, or many, of the very characteristic

physical features of their forebears, and also the light skins, often sun-tanned,

remarked on by early travellers.

The Nama (the singular form is used throughout here) have retained their

identity and language. The Nama language is taught in schools, a newspaper is

printed in Nama, and many of the customs and traditions have been retained, at

least in part, although they are disappearing among the young people. Perhaps

the concentration in greater communities of people who had lived scattered

about for so many decades, and the presence and influence of large numbers of

old people, may lead to the retention of more aspects of their culture than just

the language.

In the last century, Hahn (1881) was notable among those who recorded the

beliefs and customs of the Nama; in the first few decades of the twentieth

century, some researchers recorded some of their customs, especially Hoernlé

(1918, 1923), Vedder (1928, 1938), and Schapera (1930). In more recent times

misconceptions sometimes prevail such as, ‘today they [the Hottentots] have

almost disappeared as a separate entity and our knowledge of their original

culture is based largely on the records of early travellers and to a less extent on

archaeological discoveries’ (Walton 1956: 19); and ‘today all the Hottentots may

be said to have been assimilated as part of the Coloured community of South

and South West Africa’ and ‘except in a few isolated places . . .’ had ‘abandoned

their language’ (Shaw 1972).

Through the ready co-operation of the then Department of Coloured,

Rehoboth and Nama Relations, the writer, accompanied by Jalmar Rudner,

visited the four main Nama areas in 1972, with a further short visit again to one

area (Soromas) in 1974, to ascertain whether any traditional uses regarding

pigments and paints had survived or had been remembered. A surprising

amount of information came to light in the short time available, including

customs and traditions outside the scope of this project.

The early travellers and writers did not always give the reasons for cosmetic

and other practices, and hardly made any attempt to find out. It is only by

gathering together all the small, scattered items of information that any real

evidence emerges. From the last century onwards, when more detailed studies

were undertaken, many of the old customs had already been adapted or lost. In

the investigation regarding the present-day Nama, it was found that the people

could not, or perhaps would not, always give explanations for particular uses of

144 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

paints and salves, etc. According to the late missionary A. Albat of Berseba

(1972 pers. comm.), who worked among the Nama for several decades, particu-

larly at Bethanien where he established the Schmelen-huis museum, many old

rituals or remnants of rituals are still being observed today, but the people do

not reveal them all, especially not to missionaries, nor do they say or know why

they are still practised. He believed that fear and superstition are the real

reasons, that Christianity had not yet freed all from this fear and the old

customs. He referred to a church wedding to take place that day, and added that

for some time already it would have been preceded by typical old Nama rites,

which had been modified by time; it was a pity, he said, that there was nothing

left that was wholly original, but neither had everything become new: ‘Jammer is

dat daar niks meer is wat regtig oorspronklik is nie, maar ook nie dat alles nuut

geword het nie.’

Some of the Nama people who were interviewed belonged to the ancestral

groups collectively known as Orlams, remnants of various Cape tribes who had

migrated from south of the Orange River in the early nineteenth century; they

had a considerable amount of white blood, and already at that time many spoke

Dutch and much of their original culture had become modified (see Schapera

1930: 224 ff.; Vedder 1938: 171 ff., 196 ff.). It is remarkable, therefore, that the

language and so many customs do still exist amoung the Nama people.

The people in the reserves usually choose to live under a certain headman,

not necessarily that of their own ancestral tribe. Where possible, the tribal group

of an interviewee was established. There are also some Bergdama (officially now

Damara) people living among them who chose to remain with the Nama instead

of living in their own territory in the north-west. In early times the Bergdama

were the serfs or slaves of the Nama and the Herero, and adopted the language

and some of the customs of the Nama (Vedder 1938: 35 et seq.). Although poor,

the people in the reserves were found to be incredibly neat and tidy, polite and

willing to be interviewed. The tape-recorded interviews were mainly with

pensioners who found group interviews less tiring than when they were inter-

viewed singly. Leading questions were avoided except very occasionally when

really necessary—the risk of the question influencing the informant had to be

weighed against possible loss of information. It was almost always necessary to

have the help of an interpreter as many of the old people seemed to know little,

if any, Afrikaans, and preferred to speak in Nama, but some of the old men

replied in Afrikaans or, sometimes, in German.

Information gathered for the writer by officials of the relevant government

department prior to the visits to the Nama is also included here.

In this section the data are given before the discussion and summary.

THE DATA

GIBEON

This reserve lies south of Mariental. The Fish River runs through the territory near to the

main village of Gibeon. Thanks to Mr Beukes, a coloured man employed by the administration

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 145

at Gibeon who assisted with the interviews and interpreted in fluent Nama, a great deal of

information was gained at the village itself and at the small settlement near by, Kranzplatz. The

headman was ‘Captain’ (‘Kaptein’ as he called himself) Witbooi, of Orlam descent.

1. Informant: young son-in-law of ‘Captain’ Witbooi, who spoke Afrikaans.

Ground red ochre, ‘rooiklip’, is used by the women to paint their faces and legs. Patterns

are made on the legs by scratching through the paint with the finger-nails.

When shoes are made for the women by the men, ground ‘rooiklip’ mixed with water is

used to colour the shoes.

A beautifully made triangular ‘abbakaros’ (carry-kaross) of soft goatskin, coloured with

red ochre, was shown; it was edged with colourful cotton cloth.

A woman had a piece of red ochre to show. This she used occasionally for facial paint, she

said.

2. Informant: Magrieta Beukes (née De Boom), midwife and coloured wife of Mr Beukes, who

spoke Afrikaans as well as Nama and knew some of the customs.

‘Rooiklip’ mixed with raw, chewed goat fat, is still used as a facial paint—the informant

also sometimes uses it. It is called boro. In early times boro was used as a cleanser too—it was

rubbed on the legs and then washed off. Paint is washed off before going to bed. It is not used

by a woman who is ill. A woman wearing boro will not look at a corpse for fear that the paint

cannot be washed off again.

When a woman has had a child and is not ill afterwards, she is rubbed all over with the red

ochre paint; when she goes out she makes herself up with the paint. If she were to die with the

paint on her, they believe that it will not be possible to get it off, that is why it is not applied

when she is ill.

The brown, ground bark of the camel-thorn tree is rubbed on when a woman has infection

of the sexual organs; it draws the inflamation ( ‘fire’ )—‘hy trek die vuur’. (Sometimes the word

‘bark’ was used, sometimes ‘wood’ by the interviewees and it was not always clear what they

meant exactly.)

Black pigment is not used; the dark-brown ‘gemsbok’ face (see below) is painted with the

dry, powdered root of the camel-thorn tree mixed with chewed, hard fat, water, or sometimes

Vaseline. She showed a piece of the wood that someone had fetched from a house.

The informant knew of berry juice being used to paint the face by women in the south of

South West Africa, but it was not available at Gibeon; the berry is yellow, edible and grows on

a bush, ‘sambiesiebos’.

In the process of tanning leather with the elandsboontjie root (basi), the leather becomes

red. The informant had a large sack of the dried root. She demonstrated how it was pounded

up with a stone pestle on a large, flat grinding-stone kept outside the house. The root is soaked

in water, not too long, otherwise it becomes too dark, the skin is rubbed with it, and the red

colour remains as long as the skin lasts. The brown bark of a tree (unspecified but probably an

acacia) is also used for tanning and also colours the leather red. The bark of the camel-thorn

tree makes skins brown.

3. Informant: a Bergdama woman, middle-aged, dressed in traditional nineteenth century

‘missionary’ dress consisting of long skirt with several underskirts, and tight bodice.

She used ‘rooiklip’ she said, and had a piece, but she was not wearing any at the time.

4. Informants: a group of women of various ages, mainly Bondelswarts (‘Bondels’) from the

south. The older women were in traditional long dresses. Some spoke only Nama.

A Bondelswart woman said that the ‘rooiklip’ is unobtainable at Gibeon. Those who do

not have any use the camel-thorn root and chewed, hard fat, such as kidney fat, and smear the

whole face with the salve as protection against the sun. . The face is first washed with water

before the paint is applied.

One woman had her face painted brown with the above-mentioned paint (Fig. 1A,

frontispiece). She had a sample of the wood: it has to be dry and rotten, almost powdery. This

is also used as a sweet-smelling powder or buchu.

A few of the women had precious pieces of ‘rooiklip’. Some younger ones had painted

their faces (unprompted) with the red ochre salve. Mr Beukes drew wavy lines with a small

stick on one painted face to show how it was done.

Red ochre paint is also used on the legs. Only red, brown, and yellow paints are used.

146 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

By the time the interviews were over there was a flush of ochre-painted faces waiting to be

photographed. The woman with the brown paint on her face had by then also painted her legs.

One woman had a tortoise-shell container with the aromatic camel-thorn powder (buchu)

and a piece of cat-skin for a powder-puff in it. The aperture of the shell had been closed, she

said, with a mixture made of the salivary glands of a sheep pounded with charcoal.

5. Informants: a group of people at Kranzplatz, a small settlement some distance from the main

village. Among the people were a few Bergdama (one man had been born there). There was

some intermarriage here between Nama and Bergdama. The interviews were conducted in

Afrikaans, German, and Nama.

On our arrival, Mr Beukes went to a house and asked a Nama woman, Elizabeth Araés, a

‘Bersebaner’, to paint a ‘gemsbok face’. She later joined the group being interviewed, with her

face painted with the dark paint of brown camel-thorn wood and fat, which she had had ready

prepared. The paint covered her face except round the eyes and mouth and it looked most

striking and attractive with the dark mask standing out sharply on her light yellow-brown skin

(Fig. 1B).

Before the woman appeared, one of the Bergdama men mentioned the ‘gemsbok face’. He

said that the Bergdama women among the Nama use facial paint, but they do not use it in the

north, where they use only fat or Vaseline. The Nama, he said, used red ochre and also painted

their legs: ‘Bei die Naman farben sie die Gesichte, nicht dartiben. Die Klipkaffern haben keine

Farben gebraucht, Vaseline, Fett und so, aber die Hottentotten haben die Roteklip, und sie

haben auch die Beinen gemacht.’

Several of the other women present, young and old, had red ochre paint (unpatterned) on

their faces without having known of our coming. One older woman’s face was painted with a

mask-like effect (Fig. 1C). Raw, chewed intestinal fat, specially kidney fat, was used, they said.

They were also originally ‘Bersebaners’.

This group also gave the following information—the Nama words were written down by a

young schoolgirl: red ochre or ‘rooiklip’ is !naui; a fungus used for yellow facial paint is !héa

sai; a tortoise-shell (!wros) containing buchu made from dried, powdered annuals (‘opslag’,

/ontsib or /ontaii) from the river was shown. The bottom aperture in the shell had been closed

with a mixture of fat and pounded charcoal. There was another tortoise-shell containing buchu

that had been closed with gum (heira). They also used pounded glands (/6antsi om) and

charcoal to close the shells. Other buchu is called +gaii. The yellow buchu made from

powdered bark is #nunu. Elandsboontjie is basi.

6. Informant: C. J. Mostert, Superintendent, Gibeon.

Facial paints are still regularly used by the women at Gibeon. Colours are red, light-red,

brown and yellowish, and are obtained from red ochre (!naup), brown powdered wood (!gaob)

(his spellings) and the bark of the camel-thorn tree. All are mixed with fat and the paints are

applied with the fingers. The red paint (boro) is used to make the skin soft and shiny, and also

lighter. Mr Mostert supplied samples of the ingredients for paints.

Other samples were collected at Gibeon from several of the informants.

TSES

The reserve is just north of Keetmanshoop. The original Catholic mission and settlement

was established at a spring. Sergeant Bam, of Tses, a Bergdama of mixed descent living among

the Nama, interpreted during a visit with the Superintendent, J. D. Meyer, to a tiny settlement

in the northern corner of Berseba, another reserve, only a few kilometres from Tses (see

below). There was little luck the following day at Tses itself, mainly due to lack of an

interpreter:

1. Informant: Tjougoed Dousap (author’s spelling) of the Rooinasie, an old man of 83, born at

Hoachanas.

He remembered the use of facial paint but said it was seldom used now. The pigment came

from pounded wood, ‘die kleur van die houte’, and ‘rooisteen’. It was mixed with any kind of

finely ground fat and rubbed over the whole face, parts of which were then wiped clean with a

cloth to form patterns or, sometimes, to make the face of a gemsbok: ‘Dan vat hulle daarso ’n

lappetjie en dan maak hulle daarso kolletjies met die lap . . . die gensbokke die gesig, party.’

In the absence of fat, the pigment was mixed with water. They also used charcoal, again making

patterns with a rag: ‘Dan vat hulle daarso die kooletjies, dan maak hulle dit saf en smeer hulle

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 147

daarmee . . . vat hulle daar ’n lap en dan maak hulle daarso skeiding, hierso.’ This information

about black is suspect, however, as it followed an inadvertent leading question.

2. Informant: J. D. Meyer, Superintendent, Tses.

‘Rooisteen’ (naub—his spelling), mixed with fat or water, is applied to the face with the

fingers, and sometimes to arms and legs. Red ochre is also used to colour shoes and the

‘abbakaros’. The cosmetic paint is used now by the old women only.

BERSEBA

The Fish River flows along the northern boundary of the reserve, a few kilometres from

Tses, and then through the reserve. Orlams from the Cape obtained settlement rights from

‘King’ Oasib of the Rooinasie. The main settlement and mission, situated at a fountain, was

established in 1850. The extinct volcano, Brukkaros, is in this reserve. The Headman, Pastor

Goliath, was the interpreter and much additional information was obtained from Pastor A.

Albat, the German Rhenish missionary. (His sermons in Afrikaans were translated into Nama

at the request of the old people.) An old man, Simon Vleermuis, was interviewed on the eighth

day following his 100th birthday—he added to information given by the interpreter, Pastor

Goliath, but none of it was related to this particular survey.

As noted above, Sergeant Bam of Tses interpreted at a small settlement in the northern

corner of the Berseba reserve. He also wrote down the Nama words (see informants 1 and 2

below).

Additional information about this area was supplied by W. Smith, formerly Superintendent

at Berseba, later Chief Superintendent stationed at Keetmanshoop.

1. Informant: Christina Derkse, 70 years old, born at Koés, a Veldskoendraer. She spoke only

Nama and was wearing red ochre paint on her face: she showed that the pigment came from a

very large block of haematite (/awa !ati) from which she chopped a piece with an axe (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11. Nama woman (Veldskoendraer) outside her hut, northern Berseba, using an axe to

chop off a piece of red ochre; she is wearing the salve of red ochre and chewed raw fat.

148 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

She ground the piece on a large, slightly hollow stone mortar, using a round river pebble as a

pestle (Fig. 12) with a rocking movement until the ochre was broken up and fairly fine, then

ground it to a fine powder with a circular movement. She said that this is mixed with the

internal, hard goat’s fat (harde binnevet’), which is chewed fine and then spat on to the

powdered ochre. These days they also use Vaseline. The paint is rubbed all over the face, also

on hands and arms, and is used on any occasion as a facial cosmetic or salve and to improve a

bad skin: ‘Sommer net vir die gesig, as jy slegte gesig het’, said the interpreter.

Fig. 12. Red ochre and grinding-stones used by the woman in northern

Berseba (Fig. 11). Note the dung floor that extends round the outside of the

huts.

Yellow pigment is obtained from a fungus, which emerges after rain, called ‘hasiepoeier’

(rabbit powder) (ta sa).

The hand-made shoes (‘velskoene’) used to be coloured with the red ochre, but it is not

often done these days. She did not know of any part of the hut being coloured with ochre (see

elsewhere below).

The hut floors and the surrounding area were smoothly plastered with dung (Fig. 12). On

one side, in the dung floor, was a basin-shaped hollow in which the dung and water had been

mixed.

2 Informants: a middle-aged woman in long traditional dress, who spoke only Nama, and an

elderly man who could reply in Afrikaans; both were ‘Bersebaners’ (Orlam, Toua).

The woman had a small tin containing the red paint of ground red ochre and fat. She also

had a yellow paint in a tin made from the spores of the fungus mentioned above, also mixed

with fat (they specified sheep fat). She was wearing patches of the red paint on her face. Only

these two colours are used, they said. The fungus can be brown, too. The paint can be applied

at any time, perhaps for a week and then not again for a week: ‘Miskien ’n week maak hy dit

elke dag en een week maak hy dit nie.’

The man said that when a young woman has had a baby, she applies the red or yellow

paint (it does not matter which) to her legs so that they can be clean: ‘Sodat hulle altyd kan

skoon bly.’ The paint is rubbed on and later washed off, leaving the skin specially smooth and

clean: ‘Maak dit die vel mooi glad en gee hy die spesiale skoonheid.’

Before going visiting, even young female children have the paint applied to their faces a

few days before the time. When it is washed off it leaves the skin smooth and specially clean. If

the entire body is to be cleaned, the ochre is mixed with water. If the paint, boro, is on the face

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 149

the wearer will not look at a corpse for fear that she will not be able to wash off the boro. They

did not know why, but it is ‘a very old story’.

The red ochre is ground on a grinding-stone—there was one that was used for the purpose

lying near the hut.

The red ochre (spelt naui by Sergeant Bam) is also used for colouring the ‘abbakaros’.

A red cosmetic powder is obtained from the wood of an acacia (not camel-thorn) tree.

The man described the making of a clay pot, which he remembered—before firing it was

rubbed with fat, plastered with dung, and then placed in the fire.

3. Informant: Pastor Goliath, Orlam, at least 70 years old, at the main village, Berseba.

He remembered seeing women with red patterns on their faces. “‘Velskoene’ and ‘abbakar-

osse’ were also coloured with red ochre and fat (he did not say whether as a mixture or used

separately). The ‘rooiklip’ was scarce in the area.

Wood (bark?) of an acacia (not camel-thorn) tree is pounded with a round stone on a flat

grinding-stone, ‘met die ronde klip op die platte klip’, soaked in water and smeared on to hides

to tan them, thereby giving them a red colour. Hides are smeared with tail fat to soften them.

4. Informant: Elisabeth Isak, an old woman in long traditional dress, who replied in Nama.

She had a piece of red ochre that she had fetched previously from the hills in the veld.

When mixed with fat it is smeared all over her face; sometimes she uses only fat. She also uses

Vaseline with which to mix the ochre paint.

5. Informant: Pastor A. Albat, Rhenish missionary.

Yellow-brown pigment for facial paint (sai) is obtained from a fungus. Red or red-brown

comes from red ochre (!naup). The pigments are mixed with fat and kept in horn containers.

The salves protect the skin against the sun. He did not know of any instance where specularite

was used.

The gemsbok face (see Gibeon informants) was originally painted when a journey had to

be undertaken, in order to deceive the spirits so that they would not know that a person had

left the house; they returned with another face: *. . . om die geeste te mislei, dat hulle nie sien

dat dit ’n regte persoon is wat daar weggaan . . . hulle kom met ’n ander gesig terug.’ This paint

is made from the dark-brown powder made from the camel-thorn wood (root?) and fat.

He said that everywhere in old Hottentot heathen graves there are signs that the corpses

had been rubbed over, or sprinkled, with red ochre powder.

Herbal plants, one of which grew in the mission garden, are dried and crushed for buchu

for use on the body to give a pleasant smell. A certain grass is also used. The black, inner wood

of a certain acacia, not camel-thorn, is also used as a pigment.

A piece of quartz is heated in the fire and placed under the skirts of a woman who has to

sit on it as on an egg. When it is cold, it is ground on a stone and used as a sweet-smelling

powder; when mixed with the fat of an ox or a goat it becomes a facial paint. The woman who

has to sit on the quartz must not be pregnant or have her periods, otherwise the powder will be

unlucky.

The missionary had the pelvic bones of a goat (//hau-/kob or /nami-/kob), coloured with

red ochre. It came from a goat eaten at the end of the initiation ceremony for girls and serves as

a protective measure (‘Schutzmittel’) for the woman—it hangs either over her sleeping-place or

in a tree near the house. It is supposed to prevent the disarticulation of the pelvis during

childbirth.

He had found old pots that had been coloured with red ochre. He said that the painting of

objects was associated with their beliefs.

6. Informant: W. Smith, Chief Superintendent, Keetmanshoop, previously at Berseba.

Facial paints are still used. The paint is called !naui or boro-ani. Ground red ochre, mixed

with fat, is applied to the face with the fingers in the form of lines and dots, i.e. in patterns.

Colours range from pale red to dark brown. The various tribes make different patterns, e.g. the

Rooinasie apply the paint to the entire face and then wipe away some of it with a cloth to form

the face of a gemsbok.

A Nama woman will not look at a corpse when wearing boro as she believes that she will

not be able to remove the paint again.

Shoes, ‘abbakarosse’ and animal skins, as well as the internal wooden frame of the

traditional Nama hut are also coloured with red ochre.

150 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

When skins are tanned with the bark of thorn trees (‘doringbome’, //kKhiis) (acacia?), they

become red or brown. To obtain a light-yellow colour the skins are tanned with the bark of the

‘melkhout’ tree (//uis).

SOROMAS

The original mission was established in 1814 by Schmelen at Bethanien, some 25 km away,

now a white town. The Bethanien people had been mainly Orlams from the Cape. In 1972 the

small population in the Isaksbrunn settlement, which we visited, consisted almost entirely of old

people from various tribal groups, which was one of the reasons why the survey had so much

success there. In 1974, with the second brief visit, there were many more young people,

especially children. On the second occasion a very large group of about 30 women, many

elderly, were interviewed together, deliberately without the presence of men or children, so

that information withheld during the previous group interviews came to light. A younger

woman had to interpret as nearly all the replies were in Nama, whether from young or old.

Almost all the women were dressed in traditional long skirts with tight bodices. Ouderling

(Elder) Swartbooi (his mother was a Swartbooi) arranged the group discussions and interviews

on both occasions and interpreted on the first visit.

As the tape-recorded information from so many interviewees was in no order at all, it is

here arranged under various headings.

Cosmetic paints

Powdered red ochre, ground between stones, is mixed with fat for facial paints. During an

interview, a woman ground a piece from her small skin pouch with a stone pestle on a flat

grinding-stone fetched from a near-by hut, then she and another mixed it with water (they said

they should have used animal fat) and applied it to their faces with the fingers, using a pocket

mirror. They left their mouths and large circles round the eyes unpainted, giving the appear-

ance of masks (Fig. 1D).

A woman would use the red paint on her face especially after illness or after childbirth, to

make her feel better and to be different: ‘Dan is sy bietjie verander.’

In early years the women also painted their legs, but they no longer did so in these parts.

However, when we later in the day called at the house of the headman, Simon Boois, several

kilometres away, his adult daughter, knowing of our coming but unprompted, had painted her

face as well as her legs with red ochre. The paint was dotted over her face and wavy lines had

been scratched in the paint on her legs.

A brown cosmetic paint for the face is made from ground camel-thorn wood mixed with

raw, chewed intestinal fat (‘binnevet’). Butter is sometimes mixed with the ochre.

Ouderling Swartbooi said that bat droppings, mixed with water (not fat) were also used for

a dark-brown facial paint. This was confirmed by a woman. When asked whether ‘dassiepis’

(hyraxeum) was meant, she denied this and said that there are various kinds of things that are

always smeared on the faces; there are also the things that have ‘fallen under the stone’, the

droppings of bats, which they take: ‘Daar is verskillende soorte goete wat hulle altyd aan die

gesigte smeer. Daar is ook dinge wat onder die klip geval het, die vlermuis se mis, vat hulle

ook.’ When again questioned on this in 1974, a woman confirmed that bat droppings were

sometimes used. They distinguished between ‘dassiemis’, the dry dassie manure which is used

as a medicine with water, and ‘klipsweet’ or ‘dassiepis’ which is used with fat on the face. They

said that dassie manure is drunk (i.e. used medicinally), while hyraxeum is smeared on the face,

that they are two things: ‘Dassiemis word gedrink, klipsweet word aan die gesig gesmeer;

klipsweet en dassiemis is twee dinge.’

The gemsbok face was unknown here.

Specularite was unknown.

Fat

Apart from being a medium for cosmetic paints, fat has other uses. It is used alone as a

cosmetic and as a cleanser; ‘smeervet’ (smearing-fat) is used to massage someone who is ill or

to massage a woman in labour; in the old days a new-born mother and her baby were cleaned

with fat. Butter is made in a calabash and used for eating or smearing in illness; sometimes it is

mixed with red ochre. Marrow and cream are used for smearing, if available. A barren woman

is smeared with fat at frequent intervals.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 15]

Rituals

During initiation, at her first menstrual period, the young girl is smeared with the paint

made of red ochre and fat. She may not use water. Then a paint of certain berries (also used

when tanning skins) and fat is applied and wiped off, leaving her skin clean. This had been the

practice among the Nama at Bethanien but it was not clear whether or not it had been

discontinued. A widow was also cleansed with the berries and fat.

The intact pelvic bones of a goat, coloured with red ochre, were hung in the young

initiate’s hut to facilitate the birth of future children.

They knew of no initiation ceremony at all for boys. Circumcision, they said, was practised

‘by the Xhosa and Herero’, not by the Nama.

For her marriage, a woman applies plain fat to her face—it is not customary to use the red

paint on that occasion.

Corpses are washed with soap and water—they did not know of red ochre ever being used.

There was no memory of urine being used in ceremonies. When the women were later told

of the old initiation ceremonies for boys, etc., they expressed disgust.

Colouring and fat on skin objects

An old man showed a beautifully made, small pair of ‘velskoene’ that he had made for his

old wife; she had then coloured them on the outside with ground red ochre mixed with water:

‘Sy sit die rooi aan, ek maak net die skoene.’

A neatly made apron of soft, tanned sheepskin (without the hair) and trimmed with

colourful bits of cloth, had also been coloured with red ochre—‘met die klip’—mixed with

water.

There were several small bags made from the entire skin of a kid, with the hairy side

inwards. Most of them had been coloured with red ochre. They were used for holding a variety

of things, including tea, tobacco, or buchu.

A tiny tobacco pouch made from the tanned reticulum (‘kleinpens’, ‘blaarpens’) of a goat,

and showing the distinctive ‘tripe’ pattern, was trimmed along the sides and opening with pieces

of colourful cotton cloth. It had been coloured bright yellow with the flowers of a small bush,

sampree. The flowers are used fresh or dried and dampened with spit or water, then rubbed

over the pouch to give it colour. (After 9 years the yellow on the side exposed to indirect

sunlight where it hangs on a wall has faded.) A small bag of goatskin had been similarly

coloured after first having been softened with fat.

Buchu and powders

The dark-brown powder made from camel-thorn wood was used not only for cosmetic

paint but also against infection in females, such as infection after childbirth. It is seldom used

today, said the women, when Dettol or a modern medicinal powder is used.

A yellow aromatic powder for sprinkling over the body is obtained from the inner stem of

the camel-thorn tree. This is not used in this area as a paint, where only red paint is used: “Die

geel is van die kameelboom maar hierdie land se mense gebruik net die rooi verf.’

Another aromatic powder is obtained mainly from the rotted (dry) root of a thorn tree.

There are few trees that can be used, they said. Aromatic plants for buchu are also very difficult

to obtain, no doubt because of the arid, over-grazed nature of the veld.

Buchu is also made from a bush, /noei.

A yellow powder made from a fungus is used as a medicine on the body when the skin

appears jaundiced.

Containers for fat, buchu, etc.

There were a small calabash, a container of ox-horn, and several tortoise-shell containers

(Fig 13) with buchu in them and a piece of ‘cat-skin’ (‘katvel’) for a powder-puff. The red ochre

paint is also kept in horn and calabash containers, they said, but there did not appear to be any

of it prepared. The lower apertures of the tortoise-shells are closed with the salivary glands of a

goat or sheep pounded into a paste with charcoal.

Fat for rubbing over the body for massage (‘smeervet’) is kept in a cylindrical container of

ox-horn (Fig. 14): the lower end is covered by stretching a piece of wet, untanned skin (‘rou

vel’) over it, while a lid is similarly made. The fat is smeared on with a bit of sheepskin

impregnated with the fat and kept in the container: ‘As daar vet op is, dan het daardie vel altyd

nog vet daaraan.’

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 13. Tortoise-shell container filled with buchu. The lower apertures had

been closed with a paste made of the salivary glands of a goat or sheep and

charcoal (Nama, Soromas).

Fig. 14. Container of ox-horn for fat that is used for smearing (Nama,

Soromas).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 153

Blood

In early years a line of blood was drawn on the stomachs of mourners, the women said,

because mourners naturally looked bad and lacked appetite; it helped them: ‘Dan is jy nie baie

mooi die dag nie, dan het jy nie lus vir die kos nie, en as jy so gemaak het, dan help dit.’ The

line could be made with black too.

Blood is eaten by the relatives after a funeral. It is first stirred with a three-pronged stick or

a bunch of twigs to remove the fibrin and to prevent it from congealing. Then it is boiled with

pluck and eaten. In early times an axe was heated in the fire and also placed in the pot, but this

is no longer done. The reason for this practice was not given.

This information about blood, as with other information, was given without prompting.

Water

Where fat was used as a cleanser in early days and is still sometimes used today, it has been

largely replaced by water in many instances. So, after childbirth, a woman is washed with

water. A corpse is cleansed with soap and water. In old days, they said, when water was scarce,

liquid was squeezed from the stomach contents of an animal for use.

KLEIN KARAS

In 1956 at Klein Karas, in the south of South West Africa, there was a young, light-skinned

Bondelswart girl who had painted large red dots on her face (Fig. 15). It had not been done for

any particular occasion. She said the red could come from ochre or, in this case, the berries of a

small plant. Black pigment was obtained from the inner root of the camel-thorn tree.

An old Nama man from the same farm said the red pigment came from berries or from red

ochre. Black was from pots or charcoal ground with fat.

Fig. 15. Bondelswart girl, Klein Karas 1956,

with large red dots on her face. The pigment

was the juice of berries.

154 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY

The relevant information in the data section above is set out in tables here;

it was found not necessary to draw a distinction between ‘mixed with’ (e.g. fat)

and ‘used with’ as with the data on the historical Hottentots.

A considerable number of traditional practices associated with pigments and

paints were found to exist among the Nama of today. Leading questions may

have elicited more information but of a doubtful nature, and more data on

surviving customs could possibly be obtained by someone in close and lengthy

contact with the older people. However, a detailed ethnological study is not

within the scope of this project.

The various substances are discussed under headings as in the section on

historical Hottentots.

FAT

Fat is an important item of food for the Nama, and is equally important as a

smearing agent or remedy and a cosmetic, although it is now used to a lesser

extent than in earlier times (Table 21).

These days animal fats are less readily available than in historical times.

Hunting is no longer possible and relatively few of the Nama possess stock;

grazing in their areas is poor and limited. However, where animal fat was

identified in the interviews, that of sheep or goats was mentioned, and some-

times cattle. Goat fat, although not traditional, is possibly used the most as goats

constitute the main stock of the Nama today.

Fat is used mainly by the women, especially as a cosmetic and for making

facial paints (see pigments below). Raw, chewed intestinal fat, such as kidney

fat, is almost always used for mixing with the pigments; the masticated fat is spat

into a container and the presence of saliva forms a kind of emulsion—emulsions

are the basis of modern cosmetic salves. Schultze (1907) noted this practice

among the Nama, but other records regarding it have not been traced.

Vaseline may be used instead of animal fat, and at Soromas (Isaksbrunn

village) the women mentioned that butter is sometimes mixed with red ochre for

a cosmetic paint. These women, mainly Bethanien people, remembered butter

being churned in a calabash.

The paints are used on faces, not only for their appearance, but for

protection against sun and weather, to soften and lighten the skin, and to

cleanse the skin. They may be used on hands, legs and arms too. Even very

young girl children have their faces cleansed in this way before going visiting.

Fat, mixed with pigments, is still used on the body in female initiation and

to cleanse a widow. Fat only is used as a cosmetic in the marriage ceremony,

according to the women at Soromas. According to a midwife at Gibeon, after

childbirth a woman’s body is still smeared with fat in the traditional way

(possibly as a cleanser), but at Soromas some of the old women said that the

smearing of the mother (and baby) was now past practice. At Gibeon, the

midwife remembered that cosmetic paints of fat and pigments had been smeared

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 155

on a woman’s legs for cleansing, especially after childbirth. One informant

(J. D. Meyer) believed that only old women now use the red ochre paint, but

information obtained elsewhere during the survey proved otherwise.

According to a Bergdama informant, the Bergdama women living among

the Nama have adopted their custom of using facial paints made of fat and

pigments, but traditionally the Bergdama living in their territory in the north use

only fat or Vaseline. However, according to Lebzelter (1934: 117-139) they also

used red ochre—it is not clear of which Bergdama he was writing.

People who are ill are massaged with fat, and so are barren women and

women in labour.

The Soromas women said that butter, cream, or marrow could also be used

for smearing, but this followed a leading question and evidence that cream and

marrow were used in this way in the past has not come to light: as noted in the

previous section, the Kora used cream for smearing.

Fat is used extensively for softening animal skins and hides. An old Orlam

man remembered that clay pots were smeared with fat (and dung) before firing.

The traditional containers of ox-horn for fat are still sometimes used (Fig.

14), and the paints of fat and pigments are kept in small horn containers, small

calabashes, and small tins, etc.

At Berseba a tortoise-shell container for buchu was seen that had the lower

aperture closed with a mixture of fat and charcoal, but elsewhere the mixture

was of pounded salivary glands and charcoal. Schultze (1907) recorded such use

of cattle glands by the Nama. The Kora also made use of these mixtures in the

same way (Engelbrecht 1936), but other such references were not found.

DUNG

Little information was given about the use of dung (Table 22). It is used

mainly with water to smear the hut floors and also, as was seen at Berseba, the

entire area surrounding the huts (Fig. 12).

According to information obtained in Soromas, dry dassie dung is mixed

with water for medicine. ‘Klipsweet’ (dassie urine with some dung) (Fig. 4) is

mixed with fat for a facial paint—Schultze recorded in 1907 that the Nama

mixed this with water for a paint. Bat droppings are mixed with water, not fat,

for a facial paint—other records of its use have not been found.

An Orlam man at Berseba remembered that clay pots were smeared with

fat and then plastered with dung before firing.

The people who were interviewed could not remember other uses for dung,

but there may still be some memory of old rites and practices. Among some of

the coloured people in South Africa, dung still serves as a poultice for various

ills, and one old Boer remedy is still to place a child who has whooping-cough in

a pile of manure to clear his chest (P. Pretorius, South African Museum, 1977

pers. comm.); ‘klipsweet’ is still occasionally sold by chemists for concocting

home remedies.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

156

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157

ENTS AND PAINTS

KHOISAN PIG

eee LL TC

sepry Surusyos 105

So} Bee JOJ ATUO je

MOPIA ISUBZID O} 'SOLLIOG YITAA

usTueyieg 3e o}eI}TUT ‘Ayes

IYO Pel J9ze PesN ‘saii9q YIAA

SPITUT “VIYOO Pt YIAA

Suliesuls 105

SuLie3swis

pue Sunes Joy ‘yseqe(eo ul spe]

uwJOY-xoO ul }day fIMogey] UI UsUIOM

‘U2WOM UoslIeq SBuIsesseul 104

suosiad [I 3uessew 104

uwi0g-Mou

pue joyiou Joy sresh Aiea uy

JasuRsId [RIDUIH

wIMexeIAY YUM Pox]

S39] 104

uo juled ul poydieios soul, AABM

‘20e} Joy uo sIOp ‘fs1y90 poy

sjuowsid

WJM PeXxIW souTOWIOS 191]Ng

poom uloyi

-J2wWed UMOIG ‘Jey PaMoyo ‘Mey

sown} Ajieo Uy

YUIQGpyTyo Jo ssou

-]]! 401ye Ajpetseds ‘arys0 pol yA

nyonq se suoje pesn

osje ‘zuenb peysnio poyesy YA

syuids 9A1sd9p 0} 29RJ YOQsued

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SPEUIOIOS ‘USWIOAA

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SPUIOIOS ‘USLIOM

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—— “PUSSIGG UCU WSs

158 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

TABLE 22

Dung used by the present-day Nama.

C. Derkse, Veldskoendraer, Floors of huts and surroundings smeared with dung and

Berseba water

Orlam man, Berseba Remembered clay pots smeared with fat and dung before

firing

Women, Soromas Dry dassie dung (not hyraxeum) mixed with water for

medicine

Women, Soromas Hyraxeum mixed with fat for paint

Women, Soromas;

Ouderling Swartbooi, Soromas Bat droppings and water for cosmetic paint

URINE

The only information obtained from the Nama about the use of urine was

that from Soromas regarding the mixture of ‘klipsweet’ and fat for a facial paint.

Hyraxeum is probably still used as a remedy, although they mentioned only that

the dry dung of dassies was used medicinally. As shown in the previous section

and Table 7, various authors recorded the use of hyraxeum for medicinal

purposes, specially among the Nama in this century.

The aversion expressed by the women in Soromas when told of the use of

urine in old rituals, particularly in male initiation, does not necessarily mean that

all memory of such ritual use has been lost, for as late as the middle of the last

century it was recorded by Tindall (1839-55). According to these women, there

is no longer an initiation ceremony for boys.

BLOOD

Several early travellers described the butchering procedure of the historical

Hottentots in which the blood was retained, as well as various ritual uses (Table

8). The Nama still make use of blood for food and for ritual purposes (Table

23):

TABLE 23

Blood used by the present-day Nama.

Women, Soromas In early years line of blood made on stomachs of mourners; helped

against bad appetite

Women, Soromas Cooked blood is eaten after a funeral; in early years a heated axe was

placed in the pot

From Soromas came the information that in early times a line of blood was

made on the stomachs of mourners; it helped them to feel better and gave them

an appetite; a black line could be made instead of the line of blood. In 1918

Hoernlé recorded the identical information from the Nama, with the reason

given that it prevented the mourners from getting pains when eating the food.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 159

Boiled blood is still eaten after a funeral; to prevent it from congealing, it is

whisked with a special three-pronged stick or with a bunch of twigs to remove

the fibrin. (On another occasion when the author was testing this with fresh

blood on a farm near Carnarvon, the coloured laborours said they knew of

it—see section on theories and experiments.) The blood is cooked with pluck

(see Kolb 1704-13 and p. 125 herein), and in previous years a heated axe was

placed in the pot, but the women at Soromas said the axe was no longer used

and could not give any reason for its use. The mixture is eaten by the relatives.

Hoernlé (1918) noted the heating of blood and herbs for a funeral and that the

relatives were steamed by stirring a red-hot chopper in the blood, while only

certain persons ate the blood.

According to Pastor Albat, certain rituals connected with blood are still

practised in secret when animals are slaughtered for ceremonies; he remarked

that some missionaries had tried unsuccessfully to prevent this by encouraging

the making of blood sausage.

STOMACH LIQUID

Some of the Nama remarked that in previous years the stomach contents of

a slaughtered animal were squeezed for the liquid that was drunk when water

was scarce, but it was no longer used for any purpose. The only use for this

liquid that was found in historical records about the Hottentots was that of

Chapman (1849-63) for the same purpose.

WATER

Few special uses of water (Table 24) were mentioned in the interviews and

nothing was said about the ritual significance of water recorded by Hoernlé

(1923), but a girl initiate had to avoid water and was cleansed with fat and ochre

and afterwards with fat and berries, according to women at Soromas. A taboo

regarding the excessive use of water for cleansing during menstruation exists

among some coloured and white people in South Africa, e.g. it is believed to be

unhealthy to be fully immersed in a bath or to wash the hair, but the origin of

this belief is unknown.

Water has largely replaced fat as a cleanser, both for everyday use and on

occasions such as after childbirth. A corpse is cleansed with soap and water.

Water, instead of fat, is occasionally used with red ochre as a special, usually

semi-ritual cleanser, and water is used for mixing the cosmetic paints when fat is

not available, e.g. with red ochre or brown powdered camel-thorn root; but

when making paint with bat dung water is used. Red ochre is sometimes mixed

with water before being applied to leather garments. (See Pigments below.)

Various coloured woods or roots are soaked in water for tanning and

colouring skins and hides. Hut floors are plastered with a mixture of water and

dung.

Ingredients such as dry dassie dung, and no doubt various medicinal plants,

are mixed with water for medicines.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

160

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 16]

GUM

At Gibeon there was a tortoise-shell container filled with buchu, the

aperture of which had been closed with gum from a tree. No doubt there are

other uses for gum, besides as a food enjoyed especially by children—as a child

the writer and Nama companions frequently collected acacia tree gum for

eating.

OTHER SUBSTANCES

No unusual uses for milk, eggs, honey, and plant sap (other than the berries

used for paints, see plant pigments below) were recorded.

PIGMENTS

The Nama who were interviewed said that they use red, yellow, and brown

pigments only, not black, although black is sometimes used in a funeral rite (see

soot and charcoal below).

Ferric oxides

Red ochre (!naui or !naup) is used extensively by the Nama (Table 25). The

people who were interviewed did not know specularite, nor did Pastor Albat

know of their having used it. However, caches of powdered specularite stored in

typical Hottentot pots have been found in South West Africa (see section on

archaeological evidence below).

The Bergdama who live among the Nama have adopted the use of red

ochre, but it is apparently not traditional among them. The Topnaars, who live

isolated mainly around Walvis Bay and the Kuiseb Canyon areas, also still use

red ochre as a cosmetic (Sandelowsky 1974).

Cosmetic paints

The main users of red ochre are women who mix it with fat for a cosmetic

paint (boro); water is used as a binder only when fat is not available or when the

entire body is to be cleansed (for which boro is also used), but this is a custom

now seldom practised.

The cosmetic paint is generally made with raw, intestinal fat, such as kidney

fat, which is chewed and spat into a receptacle, the fat and saliva forming an

emulsion; red ochre or some other pigment is mixed into this. Butter or Vaseline

are sometimes used instead of fat. Schultze (1907) recorded the use of raw

chewed fat with red ochre by the Nama, but that was the only such reference

found in the literature.

The red ochre is ground on a grinding-stone with a stone pestle—several of

these were in use (Figs 1D, 12). Although red ochre was scarce, as at Gibeon

and Berseba, many of the women in all the areas had pieces of it for their use

(Figs 11-12), including Bergdama women, and young as well as old.

The boro is kept in small, traditional horn or calabash containers, or in little

tins.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

162

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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164 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Several of the women, young and old, were wearing the boro on their faces

at the time of the interviews, particularly at Gibeon, but it was not seen in use at

Tses.

Boro is used to protect the skin, especially against the sun and cold, to

soften, to lighten, and to cleanse the skin, especially before going to visit;

‘spesiale skoonheid’ (special cleanliness) mentioned by an old man at Berseba is

reminiscent of the modern so-called ‘deep-cleansing’. Even the faces of young

female children are cleansed with boro for special occasions.

The boro may be used on arms and legs, too, but this is usually for cleansing

only, and is washed off again. However, its cosmetic use on legs is remembered,

particularly with patterns scratched in the paint, and it may still be practised to a

limited extent.

The paint is applied with the fingers. Faces are painted in dots, lines or

patches, or the entire face may be smeared, or it may be only partially smeared

to create a mask-like effect (Fig. 1C-D). Sometimes wavy lines are scratched in

the paint with the finger-nails or a small stick, but this is now rare. Different

tribes have different patterns (W. Smith 1972 pers. comm.). The only other

references found regarding patterns scratched with finger-nails on painted faces

and bodies are those of Schreyer (1668) and Cortemtinde (1672) in connection

with the people at the Cape, and perhaps that of Herbert (in 1627) who noted

that the layer of soot and fat on faces was ‘indented’ with fingers. It is

remarkable that this custom has survived to the present day.

The Rooinasie, who obtained their name from their use of red ochre, make

a gemsbok face with the red paint by wiping away excess paint with a cloth, but

among other groups the gemsbok mask is usually made with a paint of fat and

powdered brown camel-thorn wood (see plant pigments below). Wikar (1779)

mentioned that the desired effect on a hunter’s blackened face was obtained by

wiping away some of the paint to leave criss-cross designs, and Schultze (1907)

noted that the Nama women made blank spaces in the paint with a wet

finger-tip. He mentioned masks, but a reference to the gemsbok face was not

found in the literature.

General uses

Red ochre, usually mixed with water, is used to colour veld shoes, carry-

karosses (‘abbakarosse’), leather aprons, small leather bags, and tanned animal

skins. The hut framework is sometimes coloured with red ochre inside, but the

huts examined during the survey had not been coloured. At Leliefontein, in

Namaqualand, the hut poles are still smeared with ‘red clay’ (SABC-TV

programme on mat huts (‘matjieshuise’) 15 August 1978).

In the past clay pots were coloured with red ochre.

Ritual uses

A ritual use for boro is its application to the entire body of the woman after

childbirth, apparently for cleansing, but at Soromas the women said that the

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 165

woman is washed with water—it may be that this is done beforehand, and that

the boro is applied afterwards in areas where such use is still made of it. When

going out afterwards, the woman makes herself up with boro ‘to look differ-

ent’—‘dan is sy bietjie anders’—this is part of the rites of transition or ‘anders

maak’ (!nau) described by Hoernlé (1918) and dating back at least to historical

times. According to an Orlam woman, a female initiate was smeared all over

with boro, then cleansed with a mixture or paint of berry juice and fat; among

the Kora the paint for this cleansing was made of red ochre and cream (and

specularite was applied to the hair of both male and female initiates) (Engel-

brecht 1936).

Another ritual use for red ochre, apparently on its own, that was noted

during the survey was the colouring of the intact pelvic bones of a goat (or

sheep) slaughtered for the female initiation ceremony; this custom was also in

use among the Kora (Engelbrecht 1936), who used the bones of sheep or

goats—the Nama would also use the bones of sheep when available. Hoernlé

(1918) noted that these bones were used in the Nama remarriage rites.

Although the remains in old Nama graves show that corpses had been

strewn or smeared with red ochre, there was no memory of this among the

Nama who were interviewed. According to Pastor Albat, the use of red ochre is

related to ancient beliefs; possibly it is a substitute or symbol for blood. Hahn

(1881) noted that red ochre symbolized blood among the Nama; according to

Laidler (1928), the Nama used red ochre medicinally because ‘blood is red’.

Sometimes the Nama interviewees gave a practical reason for the use of red

ochre, but they have forgotten most of the old beliefs, although Pastor Albat

maintained that some rites were still practised in secret, including blood rituals.

During the survey some superstitions connected with the boro came to light:

the wearer does not go to sleep at night without washing it off (although the

women with‘streaks of red and yellow ochre on their faces, seen by Ridgill

(1870) along the Orange River had apparently slept with the paint on, but

Ridgill may have phrased his sentence badly); a woman who is ill does not use

boro, for if she were to die while wearing the paint, it is believed that it will not

be possible to remove it; for the same reason a woman wearing boro will not

look at a corpse.

The red ochre gemsbok face of the Rooinasie, mentioned above, could be

included here as a ritual practice.

Soot and charcoal

Apart from the one instance in which women at Soromas said that, instead

of making a line with blood on the stomachs of mourners, a black line could be

made, there was no other instance where black pigment was used (Table 26).

The people said that black was not used, only red, yellow and brown. The use of

more than one colour at a time was not found in the survey.

The information from Tses that charcoal had been used for a cosmetic

pigment is suspect as it followed an inadvertent leading question.

166 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

TABLE 26

Soot, charcoal used by the present-day Nama.

Women, Gibeon Black pigment not used for cosmetics

Women, Gibeon Apertures of tortoise-shell filled with buchu had been closed with

paste of charcoal and salivary glands of sheep

Women, Kranzplatz Apertures of tortoise-shell filled with buchu had been closed with

paste of fat and charcoal; the glands are also used

Women, Soromas Apertures of tortoise-shell filled with buchu had been closed with

paste of charcoal and salivary glands of sheep or goat

Women, Soromas A black line is made on stomachs of mourners; blood used in early

times

Nama man, Soot, charcoal and fat used for cosmetic pigment

Klein Karas, 1956

Charcoal is pounded with the salivary glands of sheep, goats, or cattle to

make a paste with which the apertures of tortoise-shell containers are closed—

these are used mainly for buchu powders. Fat is also used with the charcoal for

such a paste; an alternative substance is gum, without additives. The first two

mixtures were also used by the Kora (Engelbrecht 1936).

Plant pigments

The Nama use various plant pigments for paints (Table 27). The medium is

usually fat, but sometimes water is used, particularly for dyes where animal skins

are tanned and coloured simultaneously. Some of these plant pigments have

additional uses when applied on their own. The various uses are discussed

below.

Cosmetic uses

The main use is for cosmetic paints for women, and the main pigment is the

brown wood or root of the camel-thorn tree, powdered and mixed with raw,

chewed intestinal fat, but also occasionally with Vaseline or water. It is applied

to the face as protection against the sun and to soften and lighten the skin; the

paint is applied in patches (as worn by a woman at Gibeon, Fig. 1A), or in

patterns, or the gemsbok face is painted with it. This mask, made with this

paint, is known at Gibeon, and at Kranzplatz near by a woman painted her face

in that way (Fig. 1B) with paint that she had ready mixed; an old man at Tses

knew of it but said that the Rooinasie made this mask with red ochre paint—this

was verified by W. Smith (1972 pers. comm.). But the Gemsbok face was

apparently no longer known at Soromas, where mainly Bethanien (originally

Cape Orlam) people settled. This mask was a kind of disguise to deceive the

spirits about the true identity of a traveller (A. Albat 1972 pers. comm.).

Schultze (1907) noted dark masks painted with plant pigments and fat, but did

not mention the gemsbok face.

Other paints are made from fat and the brown, inner wood of an acacia (not

camel-thorn) tree, other unidentified brown wood, and the yellow wood of the

‘melkhout’ tree (possibly Ficus cordata).

167

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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168 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

The powdered yellow wood of the camel-thorn tree is used on its own for

buchu, while the brown camel-thorn powder (of ‘bark’ in Gibeon, of ‘wood’ in

Soromas) is used by women against infection. (See discussion of these woods in

Plant pigments of the section on historical Hottentots. )

A yellow, sometimes brown, paint is made with fat and a fungus (possibly

Podaris pistillaris, J. P. Rourke 1970 pers. comm.). It was noted at Gibeon and

at Berseba, where an Orlam woman had some prepared in a little tin (as well as

red ochre paint), and it is used, as are other paints, as protection against the sun.

At Soromas the people said that this yellow powder is used on its own when the

skin appears jaundiced. According to Schultze (1907), the Nama (sex unspe-

cified) hung a fungus on a string round the neck so that the yellow spores

dispersed over the body; the rest of the fungus was dried and powdered.

Westphal noted in 1906 that the Kora made use of a brown or yellow fungus and

fat for a paint—this fungus was also used by Bushmen.

At Gibeon it was known that a yellow berry was used in the south of the

territory for painting the face, and at Bethanien (according to the women at

Soromas) a girl initiate was smeared and cleansed with a paint of berries and fat

after she had been smeared with boro; a widow was also cleansed with the

berries and fat. These berries were also used when tanning skins. Hoernlé (1918)

noted the Nama use of red ochre and fat for cleansing a female initiate, and also

a widow, when cow-dung was used as well, but found that at Walvis Bay a

Topnaar widow was cleansed with goat-dung and a mixture of fat and ground

naras pips.

Although the people at Soromas knew of other paints and had used them at

Bethanien in the past, some said that they now used only the red ochre paint,

while coloured plant powders were used on their own for buchu.

General uses

An unusual pigment is obtained from the yellow petals of a small plant—at

Soromas were seen a small pouch made from the reticulum of a goat with cotton

cloth sewn round the opening, and a small bag of goatskin; both had been

coloured yellow by rubbing them with these petals and spit—water could be

used instead of spit. After 9 years the colour on the pouch has faded. This little

pouch was made to use as a container for things such as buchu, but in previous

years pouches made from the reticula of sheep and goats were worn over the

sexual parts of young Nama boys (J. J. Oberholtser, National Monuments

Council, 1979, pers. comm.). Chapman (1849-63) mentioned ‘a kind of saffron’

used by the Nama, but did not give further details.

Various plant materials for tanning skins are selected for the colours they

give the skins. The pounded elandsboontjie (Elephantorrhiza elephantina) root,

soaked in water, gives a strong red colour, but if left too long in the water the

colour becomes too dark. Engelbrecht (1936) noted that the Kora used this root

for tanning.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 169

The brown bark of an unidentified tree also colours the skins red. Pounded

acacia ‘wood’ (Berseba informant) tans and colours skins red, acacia bark

(W. Smith 1972 pers. comm.) tans and colours skins red or brown—the Berseba

informant might have meant bark. Schultze (1907) recorded that the bark of

Acacia horrida (A. Karroo), used by the Nama, made skins red.

The bark of the camel-thorn tree gives the skins a brown colour. Just under

the bark the wood is yellow and this could be used to give skins a yellower

colour (J. P. Rourke 1979 pers. comm.).

Skins meant for articles such as ‘abbakarosse’ that are usually coloured with

red ochre, will possibly preferably be tanned with materials that redden them.

Miscellaneous pigments

Several other pigments were noted among the Nama (Table 28). According

to the people at Soromas, bat droppings mixed with water, and ‘klipsweet’

(hyraxeum) mixed with fat are used for dark-brown facial paints (see also Dung

above). According to Schultze (1907), the hyraxeum was mixed with water for

facial paint.

TABLE 28

Miscellaneous pigments used by the present-day Nama.

Pastor A Albat, Berseba Heated, crushed quartz, with fat, for women’s cosmetic

paint

Ouderling Swartbooi, Soromas Dark-brown bat droppings with water, for women’s

cosmetic paint

Women, Soromas Dark-brown hyraxeum (‘klipsweet’) with fat for women’s

cosmetic paint

A piece of quartz is heated, cooled down under the skirts of a woman, and

then pounded fine; when mixed with fat it is a facial paint, and when used on its

own it is a kind of buchu or aromatic powder. There is more superstition

attached to this quartz: the woman who ‘sits’ on it must not be pregnant or have

her periods, otherwise the quartz will be unlucky. Reference to this has not been

traced in the literature.

Schultze (1907) noted that dried, lightly roasted aromatic plants were

pulverized with fine quartz for buchu.

Hoernlé (1918) recorded that a Nama female initiate had her greased face

painted with ‘ground white stone’ as well as with red ochre; Wuras (1929)

recorded in c. 1858 that in Bethany, Orange Free State, the hair of a Kora male

initiate was sprinkled with powdered quartz. Here, again, is a Nama and Kora

connection.

BUCHU

Aromatic powders or buchu are still in use among the Nama women as a

scent and deodorant (Table 29). Buchu is made from a variety of substances

such as the powdered root (brown) or inner wood (yellow) of the camel-thorn

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 171

tree, a powdered bark (yellow), the rotted root of a thorn tree or thorn bush,

annuals and other herbal plants, certain grasses, and heated quartz cooled down

in a special way (see above), denoting some ritual significance. The quartz is also

mixed with fat for a facial paint—it may be that this is also used ritually, but

Pastor Albat did not say anything further about it. Schultze noted in 1907 that

Nama women heated powdered quartz for perfuming clothing, and Hoernlé

(1918) noted the use of ground white stone in female initiation; the Kora also

used powdered quartz in male initiation, as noted above.

The traditional containers for buchu are still used, i.e. horn containers,

small calabashes, and, mainly, tortoise-shells (Fig. 13), the lower apertures of

which are closed with traditional substances such as gum, and pastes of pounded

charcoal and fat, or pounded charcoal and glands. Engelbrecht (1936) noted this

use of charcoal and animal glands among the Kora.

PATTERNS MADE WITH COSMETIC PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

Nama women still sometimes make traditional patterns and masks on their

faces with cosmetic paints (Table 30). Patterns were also made on legs in the

recent past, but this practice seems to be most uncommon now, although it was

mentioned and demonstrated in interviews.

Patterns may vary among the tribes or groups (W. Smith 1972 pers.

comm.), and consist of lines or dots made mainly with paint of red ochre and fat;

patterns may be made by scratching them on a painted face or on painted legs

with the finger-nails or a small stick—wavy lines were made with a small stick on

a face in an interview. Red ochre paint applied in patches to faces was seen

during interviews (as well as paint applied all over the face).

Masks are painted—this was demonstrated at Kranzplatz where large un-

painted circles were left round the eyes and mouth and the rest of the face was

painted with red ochre (Fig. 1C), and at Soromas where a red ochre mask was

painted round the eyes (Fig. 1D).

The special ‘gemsbok face’ or mask, demonstrated at Kranzplatz (Fig. 1B)

is generally made with a paint of brown camel-thorn wood or root; the

Rooinasie use red ochre paint for this. The paint is applied with the fingers to

make the mask, or the mask may be made by wiping away areas of paint from

the face with a cloth.

Schultze (1907) recorded that a wet finger-tip could be used to create the

desired pattern, and there is Wikar’s reference to patterns made on a man’s face

(Kora?) by wiping away some of the paint.

A comparison with the practices of the historical Hottentots (Table 20)

shows that facial patterns were made throughout historical times to the present

day. In historical times men also painted patterns on their faces, particularly for

rituals and festivals. In the past, black soot and charcoal were among the

pigments used for patterned body decoration, also by the Nama, according to

Von Francois (1896), but today black is no longer used.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 173

Schreyer (1668) and Cortemtinde (1672) referred to patterns being scratch-

ed with finger-nails in the body paint; references by later writers to this practice

were not found, but the study has revealed that the Nama still use this method to

decorate their faces, a practice that has survived for over 300 years, at least.

The motivation for painting themselves is no longer clear to the Nama.

Even if ritual practices have lost their meaning, they did not even give rituals

as reasons: they said that the practices are traditional, and that the use of

cosmetic paints is for the sake of appearance, for protecting the skin, cleansing,

or to ‘look different’ after a particular event or phase in a person’s life. The

latter reason indicates that there is still some ritual significance, i.e. the state of

transition described by Hoernlé (1918), and the ritual ‘andersmaken’ of their

forebears is still practised to a certain extent. The Nama-still know the ‘gems-

bok face’ but did not seem to know its significance or meaning when inter-

viewed.

Cicatrization, another form of body decoration in which pigments may be

used, does not seem to be practised among the Nama of today.

CONCLUSIONS

The Nama still make traditional use of traditional pigments and paints; the

ingredients and the paints are often kept in traditional containers such as horns,

calabashes and tortoise-shells.

Red ochre is the most widely used and important pigment; it is used mainly

by the women for cosmetic purposes and also for ritual purposes; the medium

for making the cosmetic paint is almost always animal fat, frequently the

traditional raw, chewed, intestinal fat (mixed with saliva to form an emulsion),

but butter and Vaseline may also be used; water is rarely a medium for this

cosmetic paint. Red ochre paint for colouring skin objects is rarely made with

fat, usually with water.

Specularite is apparently unknown. Black pigments are no longer used,

except in one rare, ritual occasion.

Plant pigments are used extensively. They are browns and yellows and are

made from traditional materials such as wood, roots, and fungi, and are mixed

with fat for women’s cosmetic paints, or are used on their own as buchu or

medicine. Coloured wood or bark soaked in water tans and colours animal skins

red, brown, or yellow. A yellow flower is moistened with saliva or water to

colour skin objects.

White quartz, heated, ritually cooled, powdered and mixed with fat is a

cosmetic paint for women, or it may be used on its own for buchu.

Hyraxeum mixed with fat, and bat droppings mixed with water are used as

facial paints for women.

Traditional patterns are still made on women’s faces with paints, and,

rarely, on legs. The tradition of scratching patterns in the paints recorded over

300 years ago, is still practised.

174 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

The women still make masks on their faces, including the traditional

gemsbok face made with red ochre paint by the Rooinasie and with brown

camel-thorn paint by others.

The medium for paints used by the Nama is almost always fat; occasionally

water is used. There is no evidence for the use of any other substances as a

medium for paints, apart from a little saliva with chewed fat.

The reasons for the use of pigments and paints are largely cosmetic and out

of habit, although some traditional ritual uses still exist, particularly in connec-

tion with the various states of transition in a person’s life.

While all the historical Hottentot groups had some traditions in common,

this study has revealed that certain substances were used for pigments and paints

apparently by the Nama and Kora only, and it has confirmed that some

traditions are common to these two groups.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS WS

PIGMENTS AND PAINTS OF THE BUSHMEN

INTRODUCTION

Long before the Dutch founded a victualling station at the Cape of Good

Hope in 1652, Portuguese and other voyagers had recorded encountering

indigenous people along the shores of South Africa (see Raven-Hart 1967), but

it was not until the settlement had been established that the hunter-gatherer

Bushmen, as they eventually became known, were identified as one of the

indigenous peoples.

On 3 January 1654, Jan van Riebeeck (1651-62) noted in his Journal that

‘Hottentots without cattle’ came to steal at the white settlement—they might

have been Bushmen or the stockless Hottentots (Strandlopers) who lived

around the Cape. Bushmen were mentioned in the Journal for the first time

when on 9 January 1654 an entry referred to ‘Sonqua’, the Hottentot name for

them.

In 1655 Jan Wintervogel and his party, on the first inland journey, encoun-

tered Bushmen some 80 km inland, near present-day Malmesbury or Darling,

who, after an initial threatening attitude, accepted gifts of tobacco (Mossop

1927). In 1660 some members of Van Meerhof’s expedition encountered Bush-

men who gave them dried fish and honey and helped them over the mountains;

and on another expedition Van Meerhof’s men made several contacts with the

‘Sonquas’, according to the Journal.

Olof Bergh (1682-3) noted that at the Berg River ‘we came to some

Hottentots, they being Somquaas, alias Bushmen’—the encounter was peaceful.

‘Hottentot’ seems to have been used often in the early years of the colony as a

general term for both Hottentots and Bushmen.

Most of the early writers recorded that their encounters with Bushmen were

peaceful, but the official records make sorry reading (see e.g. Moodie 1838).

Particularly the eighteenth century, when the boundaries of the colony were

extended ‘legally’ and illegally into the hunting-grounds of the Bushmen, was

marked by numerous Bushman raids and retaliatory commandos. Early in the

nineteenth century some Bushman groups in the Griqualand East areas were

acquiring livestock, but they were harassed and raided by blacks (Campbell 1822

2: 287). Bushmen stole the stock of the Hottentots and were in turn raided and

killed (Campbell 1822 2: 293). Their children were kidnapped by black and

white to serve as servants (Arbousset & Daumas 1846: 228; Stow 1905: 48, 163,

192, 205, 217). Attempts were made to establish missions for the Bushmen

(Stow 1905: 175-176); the missionary Moffat (1845: 47) was moved to write,

‘Poor Bushman! Thy hand has been against every one and every one’s hand

against thee. . .’.

The surviving Cape Bushmen became farm laborours and finally became

absorbed into other population groups. Small bands of Bushmen lived on in the

Drakensberg in Natal until the 1870s (Wright 1971) and later in Lesotho (How

1962).

Today there are estimated to be between 50 000 and 60 000 Bushmen

176 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

(Tobias 1975, 1978: 10 ff.). Most of them live in Botswana, and there are about

26 000 in South West Africa (C. G. Coetzee 1980 pers. comm.)—settlement

schemes have been implemented for some in both these territories; others live,

or lived, in southern Angola, a small group is in south-western Zambia, and a

very few are still on farms in the Lake Chrissie area (eastern Transvaal) and the

north-western Cape. (See Tobias (1978: 19) for distribution past and present;

Duggan-Cronin (1942), Silberbauer (1965), and others for ‘tribal’ or group

distribution. )

Environmental differences, settlement programmes, the expansion of farm-

ing areas, contacts with other people, and intermarriage have influenced their

traditional culture or cultures and account for many differences among the

groups. Bushmen are still serfs in various areas (in Ovamboland, pers. obs.

1974; in Okavango areas, pers. obs. 1963; in Botswana, Heinz 1966). In South

West Africa the Bushmen have been registered as voters (Argus 1978) and their

name in the political body for their own delegation is ‘Bushman’—1t is as well to

take note of this in the matter of terminology. (However, this is not implying a

homogeneous ethnic unit.)

The complicated question of identification has been mentioned in the main

introduction. Not only were some historical Bushmen also herders to a greater

or lesser extent (Wikar 1779: 29, 31, 205; Campbell 1822 2: 287), but some of

the historical Hottentots (who were herders as well as hunter—gatherers) who

had lost their stock became hunter-gatherers only. The various ‘Bush language

types’ are diverse (see W. H. I. Bleek 1873; Westphal 1962, 1963; Traill 1978);

however, as Westphal (1963) has noted, several ‘Bushman’ groups speak a

‘Hottentot language’ (his general term); he called a ‘very strongly divergent

group of Hottentot dialects’ the “Tshu-Khwe Hottentot group’, and noted that

the kinship terminology and kinship system of the Tshu-Khwe (including the

G/wi and Nharo, but not the Hai//?0m who speak a ‘fragmented Nama’) and

‘other Hottentots’ studied have no resemblance to the kinship terminology and,

in some cases, system, of three Bushman groups studied; ‘even though racial and

cultural criteria cannot be satisfactorily applied, the linguistic and socio-linguistic

evidence for a differentiation of Tshu-Khwe Hottentots and Bush peoples is

ample’. That is but one view. There are anthropologists who have noted marked

socio-cultural differences between the Hottentots and Hottentot-speaking Bush-

men, while others, such as Hoernlé (1918) have pointed out that some Bushmen

have rites and customs similar to those of the Hottentots (see p. 188 herein).

The reasons for these differences and similarities—whether due to coincidence,

cultural contacts, or other factors—are not relevant here.

Other indigenous peoples in southern Africa have known the Bushmen by a

variety of names (Theal 1882: 158, 256, 262; Marshall 1976b: 11, 15), but the

Bushmen did not have a general name for themselves (e.g. Lichtenstein 1811

2: 82), which is hardly surprising considering their wide distribution and ‘unre-

lated’ languages. The name ‘Bosjesmans’ first appeared in a manuscript in 1685

(Theal 1882: 262).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS Wa

The historical term ‘Bushmen’ is preferred here when referring to these

diverse groups (see pp. 8-9), and it and others are used according to the original

references.

GROUP NAMES

The term ‘group’ is preferred to ‘tribe’. Bushman groups have been known

by various names with various spellings, some of them patently incorrect, and

standardization is long overdue. In the tables and in the data at the end of this

section, the names are given as spelt in the original references, but in the

discussion below the names and spellings presently used or approved by

A. Traill (1981 pers. comm.) have been used where applicable. However, all are

not necessarily suggested as standard usage for the future, largely because of the

cumbersome diacritical marks. Lower case letters follow click sounds at the

beginning of names.

# kx?au//?éi—the so-called Auen, Auin, Kau, or Kau-Kau Bushmen

/Pauni

/?auni-# khomani

G//ana and G/wi—‘# Kade San’ of Tanaka (1976); the latter is a place name

and refers to the people around the #kade pan who include both G/wi and

G//ana (H. P. Steyn 1979 pers. comm.) (or #xade, A. Traill 1981 pers.

comm.)

G/wi—the voicing, marked by G, precedes and is conterminous with the

click, so that /gwi is also correct (A. Traill 1981 pers. comm.); instead of

/Gwi,G/we, Gikwe

Hai//?0m—instead of Heikom, Heikum, Hei-//om, also spelt Hai//?um,

Hain//?um

'kung—the correct name is !xu, but the former name has become so

entrenched in the literature that it is retained here in this study (with the

correct spelling) to avoid confusion.

lly

Nharo—Naron of Bleek (19285) and others

/xam

Xatia—of Wilman (1933) from the lower Nossop River, Kalahari Game

Reserve area

!x66—instead of !K6 of Heinz (1966)

Masarwa, Basarwa, or Sarwa are general terms used in Botswana for

Bushmen

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

It was really only in the latter half of the last century that scholars began to

study the Bushmen, and the little that is known of the Cape Bushmen is due

mainly to the researches of W. H. I. Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, and later, Dorothea

178 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Bleek who continued their work and extended it to other Bushman groups. In

the past few decades there has been a great deal of research among the

Bushmen, mainly among a few groups. Little attention has ever been paid to

their pigments and paints—the information is scattered and poorly recorded,

and most of the early writers, including Stow (1905) and Schapera (1930), dealt

with the Bushmen in general terms, often with little regard for group or

linguistic affinities or even for locality.

As in the section on the historical Hottentots, the data at the end of this

section are given in chronological order. Dates without parentheses next to the

names in the subheadings indicate the time when the information was noted;

dates in parentheses in the subheadings indicate references to publications.

Other references to published and unpublished information are given in the text

in the usual way.

Other data relating to paints associated with the Bushmen and rock paint-

ings have already been listed and discussed in the section on theories and

experiments regarding southern African rock paintings.

DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY

The relevant information regarding most of the substances used for pig-

ments and paints has been set out in chronological order in tables, in which all

dates are not necessarily dates of publication (these may be obtained from the

data below); in this discussion references other than new ones are repeated only

when of particular significance or to indicate a particular time—full details are in

the data. Mainly the past tense is used, although many of the practices still occur

today.

FAT

The Bushmen seldom had enough fat for their needs, and early records

often referred to their lack of, or desire for, it. Fat features in stories, a gift of

fat ensured future favours from the recipient, and it was important in many

ways.

About 50 per cent of the 120 or so references to fat that was used by the

Bushmen did not specify the kind of fat (Table 31). There was an equal number

of references to various animal fats and vegetable oils or fat (25 % in each case),

and all but a few were from this century. Game animals carry far less fat than

domestic animals, but it may be that those of the historical Bushmen who lived

in areas where grazing and water were plentiful, would have had access to more

animal fat than those in desert areas where the animals usually carry less fat.

Included in the animal fats are marrow, brains, fat from termites or ant

larvae, and fat from bull-frogs. There was only one contemporary reference to

butter.

The various kinds of fat and their uses are discussed separately here below.

The records are inadequate and the lack of information regarding the use of

certain fats among some groups does not rule out their use.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 179

Animal fat

Animal fat is relatively scarce in the Bushman diet and this kind of fat is

relished, particularly that of eland, which was said to be softer than, for

instance, gnu fat (Chapman 1849-63). When hippo fat was available, it was

drunk and smeared on people’s bodies (Burchell 1822-4). Termite fat and the fat

of bull-frogs augmented the diet of the Nharo and !kung respectively, and

among the Nharo—and possibly among others—ostrich fat was sought after.

According to Le Vaillant (1790), both men and women used buchu and

animal fat or the fat of ‘fried ant larvae’ on their bodies.

There were very few references to animal fat for use as an everyday salve or

cosmetic. Among the !kung, men and women use eland fat as a salve, it is

smeared on implements, and it is preferred for bridal and female puberty rites

when it is also mixed with ‘red stone’ for a ritual cosmetic; the South West

African !kung (and perhaps those in Botswana, but no record was found) mix

animal fat with powdered red wood for cosmetic purposes.

Various Bushman groups sometimes mixed different substances with animal

fat to rub into cuts for cicatrization (see below).

There were very few references to marrow, although it is relished as a food.

'kung babies were smeared with raw marrow, and !kung medicine-men kept

marrow and medicinal plants in tortoise-shells. This soft fat might have been an

ingredient for body paint, but was not specifically mentioned for this purpose in

the literature studied.

The !kung of South West Africa—and doubtless other groups—give the

brains to old people to eat. The G/wi use rotted brains and other moist

substances when curing hides and skins. In north-western Botswana, a paste of

boiled brains and red ochre was said to have been reheated for painting rock

paintings.

Butter

Apparently some Ovambo Bushmen exchange their mixture of butter

(obtained from the Kwanyama) and red wood, and other items, for butter and

other items of the Kwanyama (Guerreiro quoted in Heitze 1972). The use of

butter is certainly not traditional to the Bushmen, but those with access to it

would use it as others do who mix the red wood with other fat (see also plant

pigments below).

Vegetable fat

Barrow (1806) remarked on oil from the black, burnt kernel of a nut that

was used on faces and against ‘stiffness in the joints’; the colonists used this oil

against rheumatism. Chapman (1868) found ‘Bushmen and other natives’ (in

present-day northern Botswana?) using oil from seeds. In this century, scholars

recorded the use by various Bushman groups of vegetable oils for the following

purposes: as an everyday salve or cosmetic in the areas round Lake Ngami, in

south-western Botswana, and in central Angola—the main users were women,

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

180

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 183

although the sex was not always specified; as a cleanser and in male initiation by

‘Bushmen’ in South West Africa (Vedder 1938); among the Nharo by both men

and women as a cleanser and salve, sometimes with spit; also by !x60 women

with spit for cleansing; the !x66 also use it in the renaming ceremony of a baby

and in male initiation; by the G/wi against sunburn and for massaging in

pregnancy and childbirth; as ritual cleansers by !kung women who make a paste

with oils and roots to use against harm from certain foods; and in female

initiation among the !kung (who use it mixed with a ‘red stone’ in these rites),

and the Hai//?0m (who use it mixed with red bark).

Nuts and seeds containing oils are used as food by the G/wi, the !kung, the

Nharo, and other unspecified Bushman groups—possibly all groups make use of

available fatty nuts and seeds for food and other purposes.

It seems that these vegetable oils play a more important role as a cleanser

among the Bushman groups who have a scarcity of water, and as a food among

those who have a scarcity of animal fat, i.e. from big game. There is some

evidence that vegetable oils were used for mixing with pigments for body paints.

Unspecified fats

These fats could include all those mentioned above.

An unusual use for fat was when damp clay pots were rubbed with it before

firing (Bleek & Lloyd 1911). This was also a Nama custom (see present-day

Nama herein p. 149).

Apart from being eaten, the other uses for fats were: for salves or cosmetics,

mainly by the women of various, possibly all, groups; as medicine in poisoned-

arrow wounds (Livingstone 1857); for aches; for mixing with medicinal herbs by

the Hai//?0m and !kung (and possibly others); with red ochre as a cosmetic by

Hai//?0m women; for rubbing on a /xam sorcerer; by the Nharo for rubbing with

roots into cicatrization cuts, for rubbing with ‘red clay’ into skin clothing, or

plastering the mixture round the edge of a child’s hair to stop the growth, for

rubbing on women’s faces with ochre, or with charcoal on their eyebrows; by

southern Angolan Bushmen for rubbing into the hair against vermin—they also

used lime for this purpose. The !kung medicine-men mix fat and charred plants

and burn the mixture in a tortoise-shell for the smoke it makes; !kung men in

Botswana use a fatty black paste on their faces, and fat and herbs are rubbed

into medical scars (Fig. 16).

Thunberg (1793) noted that ‘red chalk’ was applied to greased bodies and

Lichtenstein (1811) remarked on the bodies of (Roggeveld?) Bushmen being

covered with fat and ash, and those along the Orange River being covered with

‘black grease’. At Zak River, fat and ochre were used on bodies; Arbousset &

Daumas (1846) mentioned the use of ochre and buchu by women in their

greased hair; Harris (1852) recorded the use in Griqualand West of ‘red clay’ on

women’s greasy bodies and (elsewhere inland?) a cosmetic paint of ochre on

women’s faces; Fritsch (1872) recorded the use of fat and ochre inland (South

West Africa?) and noted that fat was seldom available. At Pniel a mixture of fat

184 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 16. !kung man undergoing medicinal scarification. The scars are

rubbed with fat and herbs (from colour slides by Anthony Bannister).

and yellow fungus powder was smeared on the body against cold and heat;

‘Masarwa’ women smeared fat and charcoal on themselves ‘to become fat again’;

in the northern Cape a mixture of fat and specularite was rubbed into the hair

(Bleek & Lloyd (1911) did not specify the sex); Theal (1916, 1919) wrote

vaguely of the use of fat with soot and ‘coloured clay’; according to Dornan

(1925), the Kalahari (Botswana) Bushmen used fat and soot or red and white

‘clay’ to protect the skin.

There is thus further evidence that among various Bushman groups fat was

used as a medium for body paints.

According to Ellenberger (1953), the Bushmen were said to have used

melted fat with pigments (but not ‘ochre’) for rock paintings.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 185

DUNG

Two references only to the use of dung relevant to this study were found: in

Botswana Bushmen had covered the floor of a rock shelter with dung and mud

(Sandelowsky 1974)—this is hardly traditional and must have been learnt from

the Bantu-speaking people; the pomade of mud and dung for their hair,

sometimes with reddish clay or ochre, recorded in Botswana was not recorded

elsewhere and this, too, might have been an influence through contact with

other people.

URINE

Human urine was, and still is, used among various Bushman groups (Table

32). Thunberg (1793) recorded that the urine of a Bushman or Hottentot, who

had immunized himself against snakes and ‘other venomous creatures’, was

drunk as an antidote against snake-bite. According to Thompson (1927), Bush-

man ‘slang-meesters’ ate the poison and applied (their?) urine to snake-bites.

Schinz’s (1891) version was that in South West Africa a mixture of water and

snake or scorpion poison was applied to cuts in the skin for immunity against

bites—according to his experiments it proved to be effective. Urine was said to

neutralize arrow poison in a wound (Fritsch 1872); among the Hai//?0m, a

woman’s urine was used for such wounds (Schoeman 1951). If not diseased,

urine is an effective antiseptic for wounds and no doubt the Bushmen discovered

that.

Few ritual uses for urine were found: #kx?au//?éi initiates in South West

Africa ‘partake of the “‘devil’s urine”’, whatever that may mean; !kung medi-

cine-men ‘use’ the supernatural urine of a lesser god or a supernatural giraffe;

and a ‘Bushman’ urinates in the fire to change the weather (Thomas 1959).

Urine has practical uses in the absence of water; it has been recorded that

the !kung and G/wi urinate on sand and lie in it to cool down in the heat of the

day; it is used to soften hides and skins in the tanning process; and the G/wi

wash their hand with urine if water is unavailable.

There is no evidence of urine having formed an ingredient of any kind of

paint.

BLOOD

Various Bushman groups make use of blood (Table 33) as a food: Fourie

(1928) recorded that in South West Africa it was cooked and mixed with

marrow, meat or pounded plant food; the !kung give it raw (and cooked?) to old

people; the so-called #kade people (G//ana or G/wi) and the G/wi drink blood

and the latter also eat it cooked. Other groups possibly also use blood as a food.

Dart (1937) recorded that /?auni-# khomani women rubbed goat blood and

ash on their faces and made patterns in the blood on their arms and legs;

Maingard (1937) saw children in the southern Kalahari smearing goat blood on

their faces and legs—no reasons were given for these uses.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

186

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NTS AND PAINTS

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188 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Bleek & Lloyd (1911) recorded that blood was boiled in a new pot before

the pot was used; in central Angola it was used for smearing on fetish sticks;

Sotho people told Ellenberger (1953) that the Bushmen had used animal blood

for rock paintings.

/xam sorcerers smeared the blood from their noses on patients. In Hai//?0m

marriage rites the mixed blood of the couple was rubbed into their cicatrization

cuts, and similarly among the G/wi with the addition of ash and pounded roots.

Hoernlé (1918) recorded that in the Nama remarriage ceremony blood of the

couple mixed with animal blood and body dirt was rubbed into cuts in their

skins. The similarity of these rites could perhaps be due to cultural contacts

among these different groups: the Hai//?0m and G/wi both speak a Hottentot

language.

Apart from the information—not obtained from Bushmen—noted in the

section on theories and experiments regarding the South African rock paintings,

there is little ethnographical evidence that Bushmen used blood as a ‘paint’.

STOMACH LIQUID

References to the use of stomach liquid (the liquid squeezed from the

contents of the rumen of larger game) (Table 34) are in connection with those

Bushmen who have a scarcity of water. The liquid is strained through grass and

drunk, and used in other ways as a substitute for water, e.g. it is used to moisten

hides for tanning. Among the Nharo (some of whom keep goats), some illnesses

may be washed away with the contents of a goat’s stomach rubbed over the

patient. Heinz (1966) recorded that the rumen liquid is drunk only when the

people are very thirsty; ‘the water gives you awful diarrhoea’.

TABLE 34

Stomach liquid used by the Bushmen.

Schoeman 1951 Heikum, S.W.A. Strained and drunk

Bjerre 1960 NW S.W.A. Drunk

Thomas 1959 Gikwe, Bechuanal. Saved

Silberbauer 1965 G/wi, Bechuanal. Drunk

Silberbauer 1972 G/wi, Botswana For moistening hides in tanning

Tanaka 1976 *#Kade (pan), Botswana Source of water

Barnard 1979 Nharo, Botswana Contents of goat’s stomach on body of

patient to wash away some illnesses

WATER

For many of the Bushmen living in the Kalahari, water (Table 35) is a

scarce commodity; for some, such as the G/wi and !x66, it is unavailable for

most of the year when plant juices and other substances must be used instead for

drinking, cooking, and other purposes (e.g. Silberbauer 1965; Heinz 1966);

water is not usually available for washing (Steyn 1971). Without, perhaps,

considering the circumstances, Dunn (1931) wrote that Bushmen did not ‘in-

dulge’ in hand-washing; Vedder (1938) noted that, besides never washing, they

believed water would bring bad luck to a hunter, but he did not name the group

189

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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in question—taboos about water among the Nama have been mentioned in a

previous section; and Bleek (19285) found that among the Nharo washing with

water was done only by those who had ‘been much with Europeans’.

If abundant water is available, it is certainly used for washing. The group of

Bushmen who were in Cape Town for the Van Riebeeck Festival in 1952 spent a

great deal of time under the showers installed in their quarters. In 1963, on an

expedition along the Okavango River, the author observed a large band of

Bushmen living among the Kuangari near Rundu—their skins were clean and

surprisingly light yellow from regular washing and protection from excessive

sunlight through living among trees.

Others, too, have reported washing with water when it is available, e.g. by

the !kung in South West Africa who live near pans (Thomas 1959), while the

G/wi habitually wash hands before eating if water is available (Silberbauer

1965); if not, they use urine, as noted above.

A mixture of water and poison was rubbed into cuts in the skin for

immunity against poisonous bites and stings. The Hai//?om drank large quanti-

ties of warm water against arrow poison.

Various ritual uses for water were recorded: among Namib Desert Bush-

men, water and vegetable medicine were sprinkled on a grave against predators,

and elsewhere in South West Africa water only was used on a grave so that the

spirit did not interfere with the rain; water was used to cool a !kung medicine-

man during certain rites; among the #kx°au//ei and the !x60, a male initiate

washed his hands in water; a !kung widow was cleaned by symbolical rain and

washed before remarriage; a !x660 widow could remarry when rain had removed

the spoors of her dead husband; and in the puberty rites the young !kung wife

runs in symbolical rain.

It was shown in a previous section that water was important in some Nama

rites but it does not seem that anyone has investigated whether there is a

connection between these rites and those of some of the Bushmen.

Information regarding the use of water as an ingredient of paint was not

found.

MILK

There were a few references to the milk or amniotic fluid of slaughtered

game having been drunk. Those groups who have goats, e.g. the Nharo, no

doubt use the milk for drinking, but normally the Bushmen do not keep

livestock. No other uses for milk were found.

EGGS

The eggs of birds (Table 36), particularly those of ostriches, are eaten. The

shells of the latter are used for water containers or for making beads and other

ornaments. Among the Nharo, a medicine-man washes his body with eggs that

have been ground and cooked in water to make it rain; he throws the same

mixture, with salt, into a fire to stop the rain.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 191

TABLE 36

Eggs used by the Bushmen.

Burchell 1822-4 N Cape Eat ostrich eggs

Alexander 1838 Inland, S.W.A.? Eat ostrich eggs

Dunn 1873 Zak River Eat ostrich eggs

Moller 1899 N S.W.A. Ostrich egg-shells for containers

(Hai//om ?)

Bleek 19285 Naron Eat ostrich eggs; shells for beads

Dunn 1931 N Cape? Eat eggs, specially ostrich eggs

Bleek 1935 /Xam, Cape Eat ostrich eggs

Marshall 1961 'Kung, S.W.A. Eat ostrich eggs; shells for beads, ornaments,

containers

Thomas 1963 'Kung, S.W.A. Eat ostrich eggs ’

Silberbauer 1972 G/wi, Botswana Eat eggs, also ostrich eggs; shells for beads,

containers

Lee 1967, 1972 ‘Kung, Botswana As above

Medicine man washes his body with ground,

cooked eggs to make rain, throws mixture with

salt in fire to stop rain

Barnard 1979 Nharo, Botswana

Johnson et al. 1979 Bushmen (!kung) Eaten

General General Ostrich egg-shells for beads, ornaments, water

containers

There is no indication that eggs formed a part of paints.

PLANT SAP

Bushmen use plant juices (Table 37) in various ways, particularly when

water is scarce or unavailable. Many of the uses are not relevant to this study,

e.g. some medicinal uses, and have not been included, others are mentioned

only to indicate how varied are the uses.

Some plant substances serve as poison, e.g. Euphorbia spp., others are

mixed with poisons; plant juices provide moisture for consumption or for

washing; broken pots were repaired with amaryllis juice; the G/wi use a pulp of

pounded roots to seal tortoise-shell containers; plant sap and acacia bark are used

for tanning skins.

In the Namib Desert, vegetable medicine mixed with water was sprinkled

on a grave to deter predators; in the G/wi female puberty rites the girl-wife and

her husband are washed with moist root shavings, and a new-born G/wi baby is

washed with the same kind of shavings.

There was no information to indicate that plant sap was used for making

paint.

GUM

Various kinds of gum are used (Table 38). New pots were sealed with a

mixture of gum and water. Gum is used to seal tortoise-shell containers; it is

mixed with arrow poison; it serves as bird-lime; and it is used to glue arrow

shafts. Gum is eaten, although among the !x606 it was found to be taboo for

children from 12 to 14 years old.

192

Alexander 1838

Baines 1864

Firtsch 1872

Stanford 1908-10

Seydel 1910

Bleek 1928b

Schapera 1930

Lebzelter 1930

Dunn 1931

Bjerre 1960

Thomas 1959

Thomas 1963

Silberbauer 1965

Silberbauer 1972

Steyn 1971

Heinz & Maguire

1976

Heinz & Maguire

1976

Tanaka 1976

Barnard 1979

Alexander 1838

Bleek & Lloyd

1911

Fischer 1913

Lebzelter 1934

Story 1958

Heinz 1966

Marshall 1969

Lee 1972

Heinz & Maguire

1976

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

TABLE 37

Plant sap used by the Bushmen.

Inland

S.W.A.

Inland

Drakensberg

Namib Desert

Naron

Bushmen

‘Umzimkulw’

Inland

NW S.W.A.

'Kung, S.W.A.

Gikwe, Bechuanal.

'Kung, S.W.A.

G/wi, Bechuanal.

As above

Nharo, Botswana

SW Botswana

+~ Kade (pan)

Nharo, Botswana

Euphorbia milk boiled for poison

Chewed root, then grease in arrow poison wounds

Amaryllis juice to stick together broken pots

Bark and root boiled for poison

Plant medicine with water on grave to deter

predators

Plant sap for mixing with poison

Plant sap cooked with dry snake venom for

poison; poison from boiled wood, fresh euphorbia

juice

Sap of a bulb mixed with pigments

For tanning skins

Substitutes for water

Chewed bark and sansevieria juice as binding fluid

for poison on metal arrow points

Melons and other plants for moisture

As above

In female puberty rites, couple washed with moist

root shavings, chewed leaves spat on girl’s head

New baby washed with moist root shavings

Aloe juice for outer casing for arrow poison

Plant juice to wash poison from hands; for tanning

skins

Pulp of pounded roots to seal tortoise-shell

containers

Acacia bark for tanning skins

Various plants are substitutes for water

90% of water requirements from plants

Plant extracts for medicines

TABLE 38

Gum used by the Bushmen.

Inland

Bushmen

S.W.A.

Heikom, S.W.A.

Bushmen

'KO, Botswana

'Kung, S.W.A.

'Kung, Botswana

SW Botswana

Eat gum

Gum and water boiled in new pot, gum smeared

on outside of pot

To close tortoise-shell container

Eat gum

Eat gum, but taboo for children 12-14 years

Eat gum; to close tortoise-shell container

Eat gum; ten species in Dobe area

Various kinds; mixed with arrow poison; to glue

arrow shaft; for bird-lime

There was no reference to gum having been used for mixing paints. (It has

already been mentioned in the section on theories and experiments regarding

rock paintings that, according to Hahn (1879) gum was an ingredient of rock

paints used by ‘Bushmen’ in southern South West Africa.)

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 193

HONEY

Honey is eaten—the earliest references go back to the time of Van Riebeeck

(Table 39). A few references were found to the use of honey for making beer,

one in connection with the Nama-speaking Hai//?0m, another in connection with

the Namib Bushmen, and a general reference in Stow (1905). Among the

#kx°au//?éi it was eaten at male initiation rites, and among the !x6o it was taboo

for (male?) initiates for a time. The Nharo use honey medicinally. (Honey has

antiseptic properties. )

TABLE 39

Honey used by the Bushmen.

Van Riebeeck 1660 SW Cape interior Eat honey

Van der Stel 1685-6 Sonqua, SW Cape Eat honey

interior

Alexander 1838 Inland (S.W.A. ?) Eat honey

Moller 1899 N S.W.A. Eat honey

(Hai//om ?)

Stow 1905 Inland Eat honey; used with a root to brew drink

Schultze 1907 Masarwa To seal tortoise-shell containers

Trenk 1910 Namib Desert Honey beer at funeral feast

Dornan 1925 Kalahari Eat honey

Fourie 1928 + Ao-//éin, Kalahari Eat honey at male initiation

Bleek 1928a Cent. Angola Honey and wax exchanged for Bantu ware

Bleek 19285 Naron Eat honey

Dunn 1931 Inland (NW Cape?) Eat honey; kept in untanned skins softened with

fat

Schoeman 1951 Heikum, S.W.A. Drink honey beer

Thomas 1959 'Kung, S.W.A. Eat honey

Bjerre 1960 NW S.W.A. Eat honey, gathered by women

Marshall 1961, 'Kung, S.W.A. Eat honey

1962, 1969

Heinz 1966 'K6, Botswana Eat honey; but taboo for (male?) initiates for a

time

Steyn 1971 Nharo, Botswana Beeswax for closing tortoise-shell containers

Heintze 1972 'Kung, Ovambol. Wax for barter with Kwanyama

Silberbauer 1972 G/wi, Botswana Eat honey

Barnard 1979 Nharo, Botswana Used medicinally

Johnson et al. 1979 Bushmen (!kung) Eaten

The ‘Masarwa’ used beeswax to seal tortoise-shell containers, and the !kung

in Ovamboland used it for barter with the Kwanyama, while in central Angola

honey and beeswax were exchanged for the goods of black people.

Hahn’s (1879) reference to honey as an ingredient of rock paints in southern

South West Africa was mentioned in a previous section. There was no further

evidence found to indicate that honey had been an ingredient of paints, nor to

such use of beeswax.

PERSPIRATION

There were several references to bodies being rubbed with perspiration,

believed to have curative powers among the Cape /xam, the !kung in South West

Africa (and perhaps elsewhere?), and the G/wi in Botswana, but it was not used

in combination with pigments to form body paints.

194 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

PIGMENTS

Ferric oxides

By comparison with the Hottentots, fewer uses for iron oxides by the

Bushmen were recorded (Table 40). The earliest specific references found

regarding the use by Bushmen of red ochre were those of Thunberg (1793),

Somerville (1799-1802), and Barrow (1806). Other nineteenth century refer-

ences to the cosmetic use of various forms of iron oxide by inland Bushmen did

not identify the Bushman groups: at Prieska women and children used bright

yellow ochre powder on faces and hair; in Griqualand West a ‘red stone’ was

used; along the Orange River red ochre was used on greasy bodies and leather

clothing; ‘red clay’ was used along the Riet River; north of the Orange River

(Griqualand West) the kaross of a man was coloured with red ochre and the

women smeared fat, buchu, and red ochre or specularite in their hair (Burchell

1822-4); Arbousset & Daumas (1846) also wrote that women had fat, buchu and

red ochre in their hair—this might have been copied from Burchell—and that

women also ‘speckled the face with red and yellow paint and white clay, so as to

frighten strangers —one wonders if this was, indeed, the reason; red powder

mixed with melted fat was applied to the head of a corpse (Arbousset & Daumas

1846); in Griqualand West the women used ‘red clay’ with fat to paint patterns

on their chests and arms, and elsewhere Harris (1852) saw women with a

mixture of ochre and fat on their faces; Fritsch (1872) also recorded the use of

‘ochre’ with fat for cosmetic purposes (sex unspecified). Baines (1864), however,

noted that he had not seen Bushmen in South West Africa using ‘red clay’.

Bleek & Lloyd (1911) were told that northern Cape Bushmen used ‘black’

specularite (//hdra) mixed with fat in their hair; they pounded red ffo to rub on

their bodies, while pounded ‘red stones’, identified as haematite (//ka), were

used to paint the ‘feather brush sticks’. (This is reminiscent of the smearing of

blood on fetish sticks by central Angolan Bushmen mentioned above.) Here tto

is apparently different from //ka, perhaps another form of iron oxide, for in the

Bushmen dictionary (D. F. Bleek 1956) both these as well as //hdra are among

the terms for red haematite.

Paul, an old Bushman in Upington, told the author in 1960 that in the

north-western Cape the Bushmen had used red ochre and specularite. This

seems to have been the only region where Bushmen were known to have used

specularite in historical times. It might have been an influence from the Kora or

black people. (See also section on archaeological evidence. )

The references regarding pigments in this century were also mainly to the

cosmetic use of iron oxides. Theal generalized about the use of ‘coloured clay’

and fat on bodies; Dunn said that red ochre and fat were smeared on for

festivals; D. F. Bleek recorded that ‘all Bushmen’ used ‘red clay or haematite’ as

a cosmetic for dances; in South West Africa women used red ochre on them-

selves, especially when menstruating; in the Kalahari a salve of fat and ‘red and

white clay’ was used against heat and cold, and red, white and black stripes were

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 195

painted on the bodies of mourners (Dornan 1925); while in central Angola red

ochre was used on the body for a dance.

In relatively few instances were Bushman groups identified. Nharo men and

women painted ‘red clay’ on their faces for dancing, the men coloured skin

clothing with ‘red clay’ and fat, this mixture was plastered round the hairline of

children to stop the growth of hair, and marriageable girls smeared ‘red clay’

round their eyes (Bleek 19285). Steyn (1971) found that the Nharo women use a

red ochre-and-fat mixture on their faces, but that normally men do not use

cosmetics.

The !kung in Ovamboland smeared red ochre on a corpse, and !kung

witchdoctors used it as an external ritual medicine (Lebzelter 1929, 1934); !kung

women in South West Africa use fat and ‘red stone’ as a facial cosmetic in bridal

and puberty ceremonies (Marshall 1959) and for ‘ceremonial markings’ (Marshall

1961).

In G/wi female puberty rites, patterns are painted with fat and ‘ochre’ on the

bodies of the young married couple.

Hai//?0m women kept a cosmetic of red ochre and fat in bone tube

containers.

According to an old farmer in South West Africa, paint of red ochre and

boiled brains was kept in a tortoise-shell container and reheated for making rock

paintings in northern Botswana (P. Buys 1969 pers. comm.).

Red pigment had been taken off a dead Bushman in Lesotho ‘many years

before’ 1930, according to How (1962). Ellenberger’s Sotho informant said that

Bushmen used red paint that was kept in small containers—melted fat was the

medium—but that they did not use ‘ochre’ for their paintings. This is obviously

incorrect regarding the paintings in Lesotho and elsewhere, but some paintings

might have been made with plant pigments—it is doubtful if they would have

lasted. One is reminded of the experience of Heinz & Maguire (1975) who found

that their Bushman informants did not have one specific name for a colour and

that this led to misunderstandings.

Soot, charcoal, ash

The main use for soot, charcoal, and ash (Table 41) was cosmetic, frequent-

ly in connection with cicatrization; when rubbed into cuts the substances usually

gave the scars a blackish or bluish colour.

The earliest reference found regarding ash was that of Lichtenstein (1811)

who saw Roggeveld (?) Bushmen with grease and ‘ash’ on their bodies, but

present-day Bushmen have been seen covered with ash from sleeping close to

their fires.

Medicinal cuts made in the skin were rubbed with charcoal or ash: the /xam

used ‘plant charcoal’, the !kung used ‘charred plants’, the Nharo used ‘charred

leaves’ for medicinal cuts, including cuts for birth control and fertility.

Ritual scars were made; sometimes they were meant for semi-medical

purposes, e.g. ‘to give strength’. A hunter’s cuts were rubbed with pounded,

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 199

charred meat in central Angola and north-western South West Africa; with

pounded charred meat and wood mixed with fat, or charred meat and fat by the

'kung; and with charred leaves by the Nharo; in western Okavango-—eastern

Caprivi, cuts on arms were rubbed with charcoal for strength.

Cuts made during female initiation were rubbed with charcoal by Bushmen

in central Angola and by the !x60 in Botswana. The G/wi used ash and roots in

cuts made in the skins of a young couple during the female puberty rites (after

their mixed blood had been rubbed into these cuts).

In !kung male initiation, burnt meat was rubbed into the cuts; the G/wi used

burnt roots, and the !x66 used charcoal and eland fat for such cuts.

Cosmetic cuts for Nharo and G/wi women, and other unidentified women in

north-western South West Africa, were rubbed with ash or charcoal. Among the

Nharo studied by Steyn (1971), only the women, not the men, had cosmetic

cuts. Metzger (1950) mentioned !kung men with blue-black (charcoal?) scars on

faces, arms and bodies, but did not give the reasons for these. Passarge (1907)

saw scars on Bushmen in the Kalahari into which wood ash had been rubbed—

he did not specify the sex of the people.

Apart from the use in cicatrization, there were other ritual uses for these

three pigments: in the Kalahari, Dornan (1925) saw people painted with black

and white stripes to signify a death in the camp (the black was possibly

charcoal); the !kung (/ku of D. F. Bleek 1928a) of central Angola used white ash

for a pigment, and their medicine-women made spots on their breasts with white

ash; a pregnant !kung woman painted her face with soot from a pot before

placing the pot on a fire.

The !kung used a medicinal salve of burnt food for ‘strength’. Along the

western Okavango-eastern Caprivi a cough is treated by rubbing the chest with

carbon from plants mixed with fat.

Cosmetic uses included a mixture of charcoal and fat used by ‘Masarwa’

women ‘to become fat’, and by Nharo women on their eyebrows. Nharo men

and women used charcoal on their faces for a dance, and !x60 women blackened

their eyebrows with charcoal for puberty rites and daily use.

Theal (1916, 1919) referred to ‘Bushmen’ using soot on themselves; Dornan

(1925) wrote of Kalahari Bushmen using grease and soot on themselves; Laidler

(1928) said the ash of a ‘thorn tree sucker’ was rubbed on the Bushmen’s bodies;

Bleek (1942) noted that ‘all Bushmen’ used charcoal and red clay, especially for

dancing. In none of these instances was the group or sex of the users specified.

To sum up: charcoal and soot were used for black pigments, particulariy for

ritual or cosmetic cuts; occasionally the pigments were mixed with or used with

fat smeared on bodies; ash was also used and could be ‘white’ or black.

Plant pigments

Coloured plant substances were used mainly for women’s cosmetics (Table

42). Some were selected not only for the colour, but also for the aromatic scent

and served both as pigment and as buchu.

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 201

Westphal wrote in 1906 that a mixture of yellow fungus powder and fat was

used on bodies against heat and cold. In South West Africa, Bushwomen used a

yellow-brown aromatic powder (Fischer 1913) that might have been from a

fungus or wood.

In northern South West Africa, Bushmen used a red powdered wood for

trading, possibly the same wood powder that the Ovambo !kung mixed with

butter (obtained from the Kwanyama) and used for trading; other !kung groups

used powdered, sweet-smelling red wood on the clothing of a child-bride, on

their bodies, faces and hair, and to colour animal skins used for clothing.

Bushwomen in southern Angola used ground sweet-smelling wood (colour

not given) mixed with fat for a cosmetic paint.

Some of these powders must have been from the wood of Pterocarpus

angolensis (kiaat or bloodwood). According to Palmer & Pitman (1972: 270, 939),

it is used by Bushmen and the red, inner bark of the root is sold in bundles;

because of its colour, Africans believe it has magical powers to cure blood

disorders; the sap is said to leave a permanent red stain (but its ‘permanence’

should be tested); the wood is used as a cosmetic and to colour clothes. Bushmen

in the eastern Okavango and western Caprivi use this wood for ritual and

medicinal purposes and to colour ostrich egg-shell beads, for which blood could

also be used—the red is apparently symbolical for blood (Kohler 1979).

Thomas (1959) mentioned the use of red ‘tchambuti’ wood for buchu by the

'kung; Palmer & Pitman (1972) wrote that tamboti or Spirostachys africana

wood is dark brown and oily and that ‘in South West Africa’ the wood is

powdered, mixed with fat, and rubbed into the hair as a hair-dressing. Palmer &

Pitman (1972: 907) also noted that Baphia spp. growing in South West Africa

produce a brilliant red dye that is used as a cosmetic, but did not state by which

people.

It is possible that the extensive use of wood pigments, often aromatic, in the

northern sandveld areas of South West Africa and Botswana might have been

due to the lack of haematite, but wood pigments were also used elsewhere: in

1779, near the Orange River, Wikar saw a Bushwoman with red buchu made

from red camel-thorn wood. Burchell noted that this wood was reddish brown.

According to J. P. Rourke (1979 pers. comm.), the centre or inner core of the

camel-thorn tree, Acacia giraffe (now A. erioloba), is bright red, while the outer

wood is yellow-brown.

In 1806 Barrow recorded the use of the ‘black kernel of a nut’ on faces for

cosmetic and medicinal purposes. Vedder (1938) wrote of ‘Bushmen’ using the

black oil from kernels on the bodies of male initiates. !kung female initiates were

smeared with stamped, roasted kernels; #kx?au//?€i male initiates were smeared

with black, powdered and roasted vegetable matter, and it was chewed and then

used for cleaning themselves; a Hai//?0m boy hunter was smeared with a paste of

roots and wing bones. Some of the pigments discussed under Charcoal could

have been included here, such as special plants that were burnt black for

cosmetic and ritual use.

202 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

The elandsboontjie root (Elephantorrhiza spp.) was used for tanning by the

/?auni, Xatia, and !kung, and in south-western Botswana where another veg-

etable matter (unknown) was also used for this purpose; the skins became red or

reddish in the process.

These plant pigments were sometimes mixed with fat, as noted before;

there was no information about other media having been used.

Miscellaneous pigments

Here, as with other pigments, the use for miscellaneous pigments (Table 43)

was mainly cosmetic and the users were mainly women, although in many

instances the sex of the user was not given.

These cosmetic pigments included the unspecified ‘red and yellow paint’

used with white clay (Arbousset & Daumas 1846, mentioned under Ferric

oxides), and the ‘burnt copper ore’ and ‘powdered asbestos’ used in the hair, all

by women; the ‘white stripes’ (perhaps ritual) on a woman and ‘black stripes’

seen by Anderson (1888) in the Kalahari; Stow’s (1905) red, yellow, and white

spots for dancing and the ‘great hunts’, and bodies painted red, yellow, black or

white, or in a combination of any of these colours, sometimes in spots or lines.

This last information sounds rather fanciful and one does not know if the

information was original or taken from another source or even from studying the

rock paintings in which painted human figures appear. The statement that ‘these

were intended for their gala costumes and were only indulged in before their

enemies began to vent their remorseless rage upon them’ (Stow 1905: 113)

seems to refer to pre-European times; Stow mentioned that a Bushman had

identified a copy of a painting as representing Bushman hunters with painted

bodies. He also referred to Baines having seen ‘Damara’ (Herero) Bushmen

with hair ‘felted’ with grease and ‘white clay’.

Bleek & Lloyd (1911) mentioned tto which was probably an iron oxide.

Lebzelter (1934) identified the red with which the ‘Masarwa’ painted their

bodies as ochre, but did not identify the white pigment that he mentioned. Bleek

(1942) wrote of ‘all Bushmen’ using ‘black earth’ (or charcoal and ‘red clay’),

but did not identify the pigment further. !kung men smeared fat and black paste

(perhaps charcoal?) on their faces (Thomas 1963).

There were other vague references in the literature to Bushmen, including a

servant girl in 1860, painting themselves.

Among the other miscellaneous pigments were ‘burnt meat’ rubbed into

cicatrization cuts by #kx?au//?éi men of central Angola; !kung men and women

were Seen with ‘bluish’ tattoos, and a ‘black substance’ was rubbed on faces for

ailments.

Other unspecified pigments were used in other rituals: the red powder

mixed with fat and rubbed in the hair of a corpse (Arbousset & Daumas 1846)

might have been red ochre or another iron oxide; Dornan mentioned white and

black stripes on faces or red and white stripes on bodies as a sign of mourning;

the kaross of a !kung married girl was strewn with red powder which must have

203

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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204 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

been red ochre or red wood; a pattern resembling the ‘gemsbok brow shield’ was

painted on the faces of !x66 girl and boy initiates—the pigment was not

specified.

A brown ‘soft stone’, pounded and mixed with fat, was smeared on Nharo

skin bags—it might have been an iron oxide.

Stanford’s (1910) information about ‘material for painting their caves’

sounds like guess-work and not like first-hand information.

In only a few instances was a medium mentioned in connection with these

pigments, when it was a fat of some kind or another.

BUCHU

Some kinds of aromatic powders—buchu—of the Bushmen (Table 44) can

be regarded as pigments (see Plant pigments above). They were used mainly

cosmetically and were also important in some rituals.

Aromatic powders made of roots, leaves, grass seed, and wood were, and

are, used by all the Bushman women, and occasionally by men, as a cosmetic.

Included among the woods are the red camel-thorn wood (Acacia erioloba) and

the red wood used in northern South West Africa and north-western Botswana,

possibly Pterocarpus angolensis.

Buchu is usually kept in tortoise-shell containers.

Ritual uses were varied. Chapman noticed a Bushman girl in present-day

Botswana powdering a man with a red root powder against an evil spirit; in

central Angola herbs were rubbed into men’s cicatrization cuts, and acid roots

were rubbed into a male initiate’s cuts among the Nharo, !kung, and #kx?au

//?@i—these might have been a form of buchu. The #kx?au//?éi (!kat of Roos

1931) strewed buchu over the relatives of the deceased; the !kung rubbed a

corpse with ochre and buchu, they threw buchu into a fire to favour a birth, the

clothing of a child-bride was strewn with buchu, it was strewn on visitors, and

medicine-men used it. Hai//?0m female initiates had powdered red bark put in

their hair after it had been smeared with oil from seeds, and a preparation of

roots was rubbed on their bodies. The Hai//?0m and Nharo strewed buchu over

a grave, and the latter also burnt it on a grave; in South West Africa (group not

specified) it was strewn over a grave to placate a spirit. The G/wi put buchu in

the nostrils of a corpse and strewed it over the corpse and the grave. Among the

/xam, buchu was used by sorcerers.

There were a few references to buchu having been used on bodies smeared

with grease, particularly the red buchu, but, contrary to the generalizations

sometimes seen in the more popular literature, buchu was seldom mixed with

fat.

PATTERNS MADE WITH COSMETIC PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

Table 45 lists the information on painting facial and body patterns and

masks.

205

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

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KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 207

Here, too, there is less recorded information about cosmetic patterns made

by the Bushmen than by the historical Hottentots. The practice occurred among

various groups, but in half the references found the group was not identified.

The practice was, and is, mainly among women (Fig. 17). Among the

unidentified groups were women in Griqualand West who made patterns on

their fat-besmeared chests with ‘red clay’, and one report was of faces and

bodies painted with red ochre mixed with fat; white or black stripes on faces and

bodies were seen in the Kalahari, and the white was thought to have been a sign

of mourning. Dornan believed that red and white stripes painted on the bodies

of women were a sign of mourning, as well as white and black stripes on

faces—in the latter case the sex of the users was not given. Stow wrote of red,

yellow, black, and white used separately or together in a variety of patterns, but

did not identify the Bushman group or groups and may have come to his

conclusions through studying the rock paintings. He also referred to information

from others in this connection.

Fig. 17. !kung girl having her face painted (from colour slide by Anthony Bannister).

D. F. Bleek found that Nharo men and women smeared ‘red clay’ round

eyes, mouths, and on cheeks for a dance; ash and blood were smeared in a

pattern on an /?auni-#khomani girl’s face (Dart 1937) (Fig. 18 herein); and

children in the southern Kalahari smeared goat’s blood on their faces and legs,

then scratched patterns on their legs.

208 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 18. Pattern painted with ash and blood on the face of an

/?auni-+khomani girl (from Dart 1937).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 209

There were ritual uses: patterns were painted with a black salve on the

bodies of !kung female initiates; !kung in South West Africa used ‘red stone’

mixed with fat to decorate a girl’s face in bridal and puberty rites. The !x60

painted the ‘gemsbok brow shield’ on faces of male and female initiates (the

ingredients were not given), but this does not resemble the ‘gemsbok face’ of the

Nama recorded in a previous section herein. In G/wi female puberty rites the

girl and her husband were painted in matching patterns on faces and bodies with

red ochre mixed with fat.

Women of an unidentified group in the Kalahari painted patterns on their

faces—Mauduit (1954) did not give the reason for this (Fig. 19).

Fig. 19. Kalahari Bushman girls with patterns painted on their

faces (from Mauduit 1954).

Cuts made for tattooing for cosmetic, ritual and medicinal purposes were

rubbed with various substances to make scars and this usually left a permanent

colour under the skin; this could fade with time. These cuts often formed

patterns on bodies and faces. Charcoal and certain burnt substances such as

meat, other food, and herbs were used.

Bleek (1942) noted that tattooing was frequently found among northern and

central groups. Maingard (1937) refuted Schapera’s statement that scarification

was unknown south of the ‘Malopo’ River, but recorded that the old custom of

210 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

scarification was generally being abandoned. From this present study it appears

that scarification was widespread among the Bushmen and is still being practised

today, at least by those following the traditional way of life (Figs 16, 20). (See

also Tobias ed. 1978: 14, 170 (photographs). )

Fig. 20. !kung women with tattooed patterns on their faces (from colour slides by Anthony

Bannister).

CONCLUSIONS

All Bushman groups made use of paints and pigments, mainly for cosmetic

purposes, and many still use them today. Apparently the use was not as

extensive as among the Hottentots, but this may be due to lack of recorded

information. Conclusions must be limited to the available information.

Haematite was the pigment most often mentioned, but was not as widely

used as by the Hottentots. Red ochre was used mainly by the women for

cosmetic purposes, sometimes for rituals, and very rarely by the men for rituals

and dancing. Among a few groups clothing was sometimes coloured with red

ochre. Medicinal use was rarely recorded. Yellow ochre was seldom used.

Specularite seems to have been known only to the historical Bushmen of the

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 211

northern and north-western Cape, but the records may be incomplete. These

were the areas where it was also mainly used by the Hottentots and some

Tswana peoples. Fat was sometimes, but not often, used with or mixed with

ground haematite to make a paint. Rarely was fat heated. No other binders for

haematite were recorded.

Charcoal, soot, or ash were used mainly for rubbing into cicatrization scars

to leave a permanent colour. Sometimes the pigment consisted of special burnt

herbs or food. Charcoal or ash was sometimes smeared on bodies or faces for

cosmetic or ritual purposes. Medicinal use was mainly for rubbing into medicinal

cicatrization cuts. Fat was occasionally mixed with or used with charcoal to make

a cosmetic paint.

Plant pigments were, and still are, obtained mainly from woods, roots, and

bark (usually red), from roasted oily kernels and seeds (usually black, perhaps

from the roasting), and sometimes from a fungus (red, yellow, or yellow-

brown). The main uses were cosmetic and ritual; men generally used the black,

women the red pigments, and fat was occasionally a binder. The use of

powdered red wood might have been because of a scarcity of haematite in some

areas. These pigments sometimes served as buchu too. Skins for clothing were

coloured with the red plant pigments and with tanning agents such as wood or

bark, which gave red, yellow, or brown colours.

White clay and other unidentified white substances were used, usually for

making stripes on the body. The use of white ash was also recorded.

Patterns and, very occasionally, masks on faces were painted by various

groups, but fewer records exist than in the case of the Hottentots. Women were

the main users, both for cosmetic and ritual purposes. Bodies of men and

women were occasionally painted with patterns, apparently for ritual or festive

purposes.

The reasons for using body pigments and paints were for cosmetic purposes

and for protecting the skin by women, and for ritual purposes by men and

women. Men seldom used paints for festive occasions and it was not recorded

among all groups.

There is some evidence that some Bushmen used paints for making rock

paintings.

There was no evidence that urine, stomach liquid, milk, egg, or plant juices

were used as media with pigments for making these paints. There was no further

corroboration of Hahn’s (1879) claim that ‘Bushmen’ in southern South West

Africa had used gum and honey with their paints (as noted in a previous

section). Blood was used by one group for body decoration. The information

that blood had been used in Lesotho for rock paintings was hearsay, and no

further evidence for this was found.

The media for paints used by the Bushmen were various kinds of fat,

including vegetable fat, but the pigments were not always mixed with fat and

could be used on their own.

2D ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

THE DATA

J. VAN RIEBEECK in 1660

On 14 December 1660, an expedition into the interior encountered Bushmen, ‘a certain

small poor people . . . they know how to kill game for their food; they also subsist upon honey;

they are clothed with much worse skins (of wild animals) than the Hottentoos, and they are not

so greasy, for greasiness is a mark of opulence and condition. . .’ (in Moodie 1838: 223-224).

S. VAN DER STEL (1685-6)

West of present-day Porterville his expedition met ‘Sonquas’ or ‘Obiquas’: ‘They carried

arrows, bow and assegai. They have no cattle, living on honey and the wild animals they shoot.

Their skin was very rough and scurvy owing to the frequent hunger they endure and the lack of

fat with which to smear themselves’ (p. 117).

H. J. Wikar (1779)

Near the Orange River, a Bushman woman ‘came stealthily and sprinkled red buchu,

obtained by powdering camel-thorn wood (Kameeldoornhout) over a Namaqua Hottentot,

whereupon he gave her a fragment of tobacco and a handful of dagga. . . . Now for the rest of

their lives they call each other man and wife and may not refuse each other’s requests, if they

have the thing that is asked’ (pp. 63-64).

F. LE VAILLANT (1790)

Bushmen used powder-boxes of wood, ivory and tortoise-shell in which they kept the fat to

use with buchu. Both sexes rubbed themselves with buchu and fat. Animal fat was used. If

none was available, they fried out ant larvae and collected the oil.

C. P. THUNBERG (1793)

‘Boschiesmen ... besmear themselves with greasy substances, and over that with red

chalk’ (2: 175).

Bushmen and Hottentots immunized themselves against poisonous bites ‘by suffering

themselves to be gradually bitten by serpents, scorpions and other venomous creatures . . . the

urine of an Hottentot thus prepared is esteemed an excellent antidote or counterpoison, and is

therefore drunk by such as have been bitten by serpents’ (2: 163).

W. SOMERVILLE (1799-1802)

The Bushman’s hair was matted with fat. Thongs hanging down from the head were well

smeared with grease (p. 27). Their bodies were besmeared with grease (p. 81). At the Orange

River they besmeared themselves with grease and ‘pounded iron ore’; they ground fat ‘between

two stones with powdered red ochre to smear their bodies’. They drank melted fat (p. 82).

J. BARRow (1806)

‘It did not appear from those we saw that they were in the habit of applying unctuous

substances to the body any further than by wiping their greasy hands on the skin; but the hair

and faces of many of them had been rubbed with red ochre after the manner of the Kaffers, and

a few had the face painted black, as if they wore a mask: this they usually do with the kernel of

a small nut burnt in the fire. The oil expressed from this nut is considered by them as a

preventive against stiffness in the joints, and by the colonists as an excellent topical application

for rheumatic complaints. . . . The Hottentot name of the plant is kai, and the nut resembles

the seed of the tea-shrub’ (1: 245).

H. LICHTENSTEIN (1811)

In or near the Roggeveld two tiny Bushmen were encountered: a thick layer of ash and fat

covered their faces and thin limbs like a crust; only under the eyes, where tears from the fire

had cleaned the dirt, could one make out the yellow skin (1: 187). Their woolly hair, smeared

over with grease and dust and twisted into countless little knots, hung below their leather caps

(1: 189).

Near Prieska, at the Orange River, a band of Bushmen was seen: the girls and children had

a shaven ring round the head and the hair and faces were powdered thickly with bright yellow

ochre powder (‘Eisenocker’) (2: 387).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 213

Bushmen were seen on several occasions, specially along the Orange River, and they

frequently had grease on their faces; the face of one man was covered with black grease.

J. CAMPBELL (1822)

The Bushmen ‘did not paint their bodies and were all of diminutive size’ (2: 44); Campbell

journeyed in Griqualand West and saw painted ‘Bechuana’ and Hottentots; but at Ramah,

‘where a native Griqua teacher resided as a missionary to the wild Bushmen in that part of the

country’, Campbell visited Keewit, ‘the captain of the Bushmen in that part of the country. . . ;

the only person employed in the group was a young woman grinding a red stone into powder

for painting their bodies’ (2: 301-2).

W. J. BuRCHELL (1822-4)

He saw Bushmen in Bushmanland: ‘Their skin was of a sallow brown colour, darkened by

dirt and grease’ (1: 205). :

At the Gariep (Orange) River were a party of Bushmen: ‘Their clothing was greasy

leather, reddened with ochre, and the apparent colour of their skin was the same’ (1: 229).

North of the river he saw a pretty Bushman girl using an ‘immoderate quantity of grease, red

ochre, buchu and shining powder with which her hair was clotted. Herself and every part of her

dress were . . . well greased’ (1: 287). His footnote here referred to the shining powder ‘called

Blink-klip (shining rock) by the Klaarwater Hottentots and Sibilo by the Bichuanas’. Also north

of the river impoverished Bushmen complained to him about how long they had been without

grease or animal food. Ostrich egg was part of the Bushman diet (1: 316). The hair of a female

was ‘clotted together in large lumps with the accumulated grease and dust of years’. The

Bushmen drank a bowl of liquid hippo grease and smeared the remainder on their bodies

(1: 318).

His legend to plate 6 of a ‘portrait of a Bushman playing on the Gorah’ adds that his dress

‘reddened by an ochraceous earth, consists only of a leathern kaross’ (1: 318).

G. THOMPSON (1827)

Bushman ‘slang-meesters’ attained invulnerability to snake-bite by poison-eating; they

applied urine to a snakebite (1: 400).

J. Burrow (1834-6)

He was possibly referring to the Bushmen in Griqualand West when he wrote: ‘The women

daub themselves like the Bechuanas with the red stone, and grease, which they carry round

their necks in small tortoise-shells’ (p. 82).

A. SmiTH (1834-6)

Bushwomen along the Riet River ‘used red clay to adorn the face’. They were anxious to

have fat to grease their bodies (1: 196).

A. STEEDMAN (1835)

‘They were extraordinarily fond of fat, of which I was enabled to afford them a good

supply, having lately killed a sheep’ (1: 150).

J. E. ALEXANDER (1838)

The Bushmen ate honey, ostrich eggs (1: 52), and gum (1: 242). Euphorbia milk was

boiled till black for poison (1: 284).

R. Morrat (1845)

He quoted the missionary Kicherer at Zak Rivier: ‘Their manner of life is extremely

wretched and disgusting. They delight to besmear their bodies with the fat of animals, mingled

with ochre, and sometimes with grime’ (p. 49).

T. ArsBousset & F. DAuMAs (1846)

(In the following paragraph it is not clear whether Bushmen or Hottentots are being

referred to, probably Bushmen, but Theal noted that these authors confused Hottentots with

Bushmen.)

214 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

The heads of the women are always uncovered, their hair ‘is always plastered with ochre,

fat and the powder of an aromatic wood called bogo, a little bag full of which they carry

constantly with them for ordinary use. They speckle the face and breast with red and yellow

paint and white clay, so as to frighten strangers’ (p. 247).

‘The wives and daughters of the Bushmen in the neighbourhood of Bethulie extract, from

the bosjes-spruit, copper ore, which they burn in the fire, and then by bruising the ashes

between two stones, they obtain a hair powder which is very much sought after. They pound

also the copper, and turn it to the same use in some villages in the neighbourhood of Moriah.

They collect it in a ravine at Thaba Patsoa, a little below Jammersberg, on the Caledon, where

they find also asbestos, which the women among the Baroas [Bushmen] reduce in like manner

to powder, and put it in their hair’ (p. 248).

‘The dead have first the head anointed with red powder mixed with melted fat and then

they were coarsely embalmed’ (p. 254). (In the French edition this is ‘grossierement parfumée’;

Schapera (1930) translated this as ‘rudely perfumed’; in Stow (1905) this passage from the

English edition is also quoted as relating to Bushmen, but Solas (1915) said that Stow was

mistaken, that Arbousset meant that this was the custom of adjacent Negro tribes; Schapera

accepted this as Bushman. Arbousset clearly stated that this was a Bushman custom in those

parts.)

J. CHAPMAN (1849-63, 1868)

Some Bushmen among the Ngwato ‘would have liked to go with us as our servants for the

sake of eating plenty of fat’ (1849-63 1: 61).

Also among the “‘Bechuana’ a Bushman girl ‘came with a dish of red powder obtained from

roots and powdered our guide over head and face, muttering some words. This they call

doctoring against the evil spirit porrah, who would otherwise harm him for having brought such

a surprise to them’(1849-63 1: 66).

After eating ‘they rub the grease off their hands onto their bellies or heads’ (1849-

63 1: 68).

For candles ‘gnu fat is too hard, but mixed with eland fat it is good’ (1849-63 1: 71).

‘The Bushmen and other natives press an oil from the seeds of the fruit of the “morofono-

goe”’ (plum)’ round Lake Ngami (1868 2: 8).

W. C. Harris (1852)

His camp near the ‘Vet Rivers’ (Griqualand West) was visited by a group of Bushwomen:

one was ‘far more elaborately embellished with red clay and ornaments of fat’ than the others

(p. 262). His plate 26 shows her with a pattern of red lines on her chest and a red stripe on each

upper arm. Young Bushwomen bedaub their noses and cheekbones with a mixture of red ochre

and fat (p. 36).

D. LIVINGSTONE (1857)

Poison is obtained from a caterpillar called N’gwa. ‘As the Bushmen have the reputation of

curing the wounds of this poison, I asked how this was effected. They said that they administer

the caterpillar itself in combination with fat; they also rub fat into the wound, saying that “the

N’gwa wants fat, and when it does not find it in the body, kills the man’”’ (p. 149).

J. A. GRANT in 1860

Casada (1974) quoted from Grant’s Cape diary and sketches: ‘Mrs Bell sent for (a)

Bushman girl to show us. . . . (According to) Bell’s sketch (she had) drooping eyelids and (the)

painted skin of a Bushman.’

T. Baines (1864)

Baines recorded his travels in South West Africa. He described the plant that the Bushmen

used as an antidote for the arrow poison taken from a grub, ‘the root of which is chewed and

rubbed on the scarified wound, grease being applied afterwards’ (pp. 252, 255).

He said of Bushwomen: ‘I am not aware that I have yet seen any with red clay like the

Damaras’ (Herero) (p. 99).

J. LEYLAND (1866)

The ‘Bakalaharis’ and Bushmen ‘besmear themselves freely with fat and grease’ (p. 157).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 215

J. CHAPMAN (1868) (see Chapman 1849-63, 1868)

T. Haun (1870)

Leaves of Diosma spp. were pounded to a powder for a perfume (p. 82). Diosma salve was

kept in tortoise-shells (p. 104). The heads of the dead were rubbed with buchu (p. 141).

Bushmen painted themselves with greasy ochre colours (p. 103).

G. Fritscu (1872)

The Bushmen sometimes used ochre on their skins, and more seldom fat, if available

(p. 428).

The plant poison is sticky. Amaryllis juice was used for sticking together broken pots

(p. 431).

; Urine was used to neutralize poison when ‘people’ were shot with arrows. He quoted

Baines that fat was used with a plant ‘by natives’ in similar circumstances (p. 436).

E. J. DUNN (1873) (see also Dunn 1931)

He saw Bushmen at Zak Rivier: ‘A brush made from the long hairs of a hyena. . . is used

for “whipping” ostrich eggs in the shell.’ ‘These ladies are given to painting themselves’ (p. 35).

F. Ratzev (1885)

He quoted Lichtenstein’s remark on the skins of Bushmen being covered with ash and fat

(p. 59). Ratzel noted that all who wanted to study the colour of their skins complained about

the crust on their skins, partly there by negligence, partly on purpose, and that according to Th.

Hahn one of them said the encrustation kept them warm; however, it occurred in the Bushmen

who were somewhat influenced by the Hottentot culture only through smearing with the

much-loved buchu ointment; in the original Bushmen it was the result of their habits (p. 60).

A. A. ANDERSON (1888)

In the Kalahari at Hoab, ‘on the desert-track from the lake to Ovampoland’ he saw a ‘Bush

girl .. . marked over every part of her body—face, legs and arms—with white stripes, like the

stripes of a zebra, and had nothing else on . . . she was even strange to my Bushmen. It was a

strange visit, and a strange mode of decorating herself. The only other occasion on which I fell

in with Bushmen so marked was more to the east, nearly 300 miles, when nearly a dozen came

to my waggon to tell me I had that day ridden over a grave where a few days before they had

buried one of their people. The stripes may have something to do with death, but the Bushmen

I have spoken to know nothing of such custom’ (pp. 223-224). (See also Dornan 1925 herein.)

He encountered Bushmen in small kraals: ‘These women daub their faces and bodies with

black stripes, which they consider ornamental’ (p. 229).

H. Scuinz (1891)

He experimented to see whether Bushman ‘doctors’ did, indeed, obtain immunity against

poisonous bites by rubbing the poison from snakes or scorpions mixed with water and urine into

cuts in the skin: twelve scorpions were placed on different parts of a Bushman ‘doctor’s’ body;

he was stung by all and showed no adverse symptoms (p. 395). (See also Schapera 1930:

216-217.)

P. MOLLER (1899)

In northern South West Africa, below Ovamboland, he saw (Hai//?0m?) Bushmen who

used ostrich egg-shells for water containers: they ate wild honey (pp. 148-149).

G. W. Stow (1905)

(The published work suffers from lack of adequate referencing, additions made after

Stow’s death in 1882, and other editorial faults. )

The following information, taken from Arbousset & Daumas (1846: 254) was published in

Stow (1905: 126): ‘The dead were first anointed with red powder mixed with melted fat and

then they were coarsely embalmed.’ (In the original French version this was ‘grossi¢rement

parfumée’; Solas (1915) said Stow was mistaken here, that Arbousset meant this was the

custom of the adjacent Negro tribes, but Schapera (1930) also accepted this as Bushman.)

216 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

The next paragraph (Stow 1905: 45) was taken unacknowledged from Arbousset &

Daumas (1846: 247): ‘They speckled their faces and breasts with red and yellow paint and white

clay.’ The information that follows (Stow 1905: 45) sounds much like that of Anderson

(1888: 223-224) and might have been added by Stow’s editor: “The men indulged in this fashion

of painting their bodies, sometimes in zebra-like parallel lines, sometimes the lines were drawn

diagonally across their bodies, at others they covered themselves with a series similar to

chevronels, and again others employed a combination of these different modes of ornamenta-

tion.’

It may be that the above-mentioned information was influenced by his study of rock

paintings, as the following information (Stow 1905: 113) reminds strongly of painted human

figures in the rock art: for dancing and in the great hunts ‘they painted their bodies, some

covering them with red, white and yellow spots; some entirely with red, others in parti-

colours, as one portion of the body black, for instance the legs and arms and the lower part

to the waist, the remainder white; or the colours might be reversed, or red or yellow might be

substituted for either the black or white or both. Another fashion was to adorn one side of

the body with one colour, the other with another, by way of contrast; sometimes the whole

would be painted black, red or some other colour, and these again ornamented with spots, or

straight or zigzag lines, or a combination of all these devices. These were intended for their

gala costumes and were only indulged in before their enemies began to vent their remorseless

rage upon them.’

Stow (p. 49) mentioned that Campbell had encountered a family of Bushmen: ‘The mother

had a stroke of dark blue, like tattooing, from the upper part of her brow to her nose, about

half an inch broad, and two similar strokes on her temples. The man had several cuts on his

arms and smaller ones on his temples, and so had the children, which they said was done to

cure sickness. The dark colour of these cuts was produced by rubbing ground charcoal into the

wounds when they were green.’

‘Baines noticed that one of these Damara Bushmen had a tinge of red on his cheeks’

(p. 138). Baines was again quoted: ‘In some the hair was shaved round the temples, ears and

back of the head, what remained on the scalp being felted with red clay and grease into a thick

mat’ (p. 139).

The missionary Kicherer, who worked among the Bushmen at Zak Rivier settlement

(abandoned in 1806), was quoted as saying that ‘they delighted to besmear their bodies with the

fat of animals, mingled with ochre’ (Stow 1905: 160), to which Stow added ‘probably the black

sooty paint with which they frequently painted their bodies’. (This quotation was actually in

Moffat (1845: 49) (see herein) who quoted Kicherer.)

A copy of a painting was shown to an old Bushman; ‘he explained it as representing two

Bushman hunters who had painted their bodies, in their hunting disguises, chasing a jackal’, but

Stow added that the same painting shown by J. Orpen to another Bushman was described as

connected with myths (p. 123).

‘The great happiness of the Bushman was, however, in his honey harvest, when the combs

of the wild bees’ nests were dropping with honey. It was then that he brewed his primitive

mead, with which a certain root was mixed which rendered the beverage more intoxicating’

(p. 53).

G. E. WEsTPHAL in 1906

On 18 October 1906, this missionary at Pniel sent L. Péringuey (South African Museum)

‘two mushrooms used by the natives and in earlier times by Bushmen. The one, like a bulb, is

the yellow, like ocker, the other brown like umber. The yellow was used with fat to have a coat

of paint all over the body to protect it against cold and heat; the second is a mushroom growing

on antheaps and was used as a food when in a fresh state’ (South African Museum files). (See

also Westphal in the section on historical Hottentots.)

S. PASSARGE (1907)

The Bushmen of the Kalahari used fat in their hair with red ochre (‘Eisenoxyd’). In ‘the

south’ they used buchu salve as did the Hottentots. Among the ‘Naron’ buchu was burnt on the

grave the day after the funeral. Wood ash was rubbed into cicatrization cuts to make them

black.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 2AG/

L. Scuuttze (1907)

The ‘Masarwa’ sealed tortoise carapaces with beeswax instead of the gum used by

Hottentots. Inside were fat and charcoal with which the women besmeared themselves, to

become fat again after lean times. The upper aperture was closed with a small bird’s nest.

E. SEYDEL (1910)

The Namib Bushmen sprinkled the grave with water mixed with vegetable medicine to

keep away jackals and hyenas.

W. E. STANFORD (1910)

According to information obtained from Silyai, who lived among Bushmen in the

Drakensberg in about 1850, the Bushmen made poison from the root of a shrub and bark of a

tree, boiled in a clay pot to a black jelly. Material for painting their caves was ‘taken out of the

ground’; ‘some kinds were prepared at the fire. They could paint very well.’ The brushes were

‘hairs taken out of the tail or mane of a gnu’, tied together and fastened to a thin reed.

P. TRENK (1910)

The Namib Bushmen drank honey beer at a funeral feast.

W. H. I. BLEEk & L. C. Lioypb (1911)

‘They pound red stones, they paint the feather brush sticks’ made of ostrich feathers and

used as disguises in hunting. A footnote here reads: ‘The red stones here meant are //ka; not

tto. At the ‘Philadelphia Exhibition” in November, 1875, Dia!kwain recognized red haematite

as //ka’ (p. 359). (Dia!kwain was a Bushman informant and servant.)

Klein Jantjie, a Bushman from the northern Cape, told that ’//hdra is black; the people

(having mixed it with fat) anoint their heads with it; while fo is red, and the people rub their

bodies with it, when they have pounded it... . They pound //hdra, they anoint their heads

when they have first pounded the fto; they first rub their bodies with tto. And they pound

//hara, they anoint their heads . . . while they wish that their heads’ hair may descend (i.e. grow

long) and it becomes abundant on account of it ... //hdra sparkles; therefore our heads

shimmer on account of it. Therefore the Bushmen are wont to say, when the old women are

talking there: ““That man, he is a handsome man on account of his head, which is surpassingly

beautiful on account of the //hdra’s blackness””’ (pp. 375-377). A footnote here reads, ‘a certain

stone which is said to be both hard and soft’.

These Bushmen bartered or exchanged hdra and tto among themselves.

In a story a man rubbed a woman’s aching neck with fat.

‘They anoint the pot with fat, whilé they wish the pot not to split . . . while the pot is still

damp . . . because they wish the pot to dry when it has fat upon it (inside and out). When the

pot dries, they also prepare gum; they pound it . . . they put it into the pot; and they pour in

water. ..it.. . boils.’ A footnote here reads: ‘they smear the pot outside (with gum taken out

with the spoon . . .) while they wish this gum to adhere to the outside of the pot.’ Blood was

next boiled in the pot, then taken out with a horn spoon and the remaining blood was left to

dry on the pot. Then meat and water were boiled in the pot that was then ready (p. 345).

There are various references in the stories to buchu: a man and his sister were rubbed with

buchu (p. 117); a woman threw buchu on a man’s forehead (p. 195); a woman rubbed a man

with buchu (p. 197); and a woman burnt buchu and rubbed herself with buchu to take away

another smell (pp. 197-198).

L. Curr_e (1913)

Currlé obtained this information from a farmer: ‘The women are very fond of painting

their faces with a certain kind of stone . . . no doubt haematite; they powder this on a flat stone

by means of a round pounder or pestle about 3 inches in diameter. Another paint . . . is

derived from a species of mushroom which grows in the shade under trees and bushes in

Fraserburg and Calvinia districts and called by them ‘‘ajous”; it contains a fine red powder

which they mix with the fat of an animal. Preferably ostrich fat is used by them for painting on

rocks with this ajous powder, as this special fat is said to cause the paint to become lasting and

hard, imparting with age a dark brownish colour similar to enamel.’

218 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

E. FIiscHer (1913)

The poorer Bushmen in South West Africa have a tortoise-shell container filled with

buchu; the back opening is closed with resin and the front with a powder-puff of jackal tail,

quite the same as the Hottentots. The yellow-brown aromatic powder is especially used to

powder the breast and armpits when breast-feeding, otherwise the milk will not have a good

effect on the child. Only the poor ones still paint themselves and then rarely, especially at the

time of menstruation when they use the same red powder as that of the Hottentots, a dark-red,

soft sandstone containing iron oxide and feldspar.

G. M. THEAL (1916, 1919)

Bushmen anointed their bodies with grease and then painted themselves with soot or

coloured clay (1916: 2).

They ate honey and fermented it to make an intoxicating drink (1919: 51).

S. S. DoRNAN (1917)

The ‘Masarwas’ of the Sansokwe and Motloutsi Rivers smeared themselves with rancid fat.

S. S. DoRNAN (1925)

The Bushmen smeared their bodies with rancid grease, soot, and dust (p. 48); they

smeared themselves with fat to protect themselves against the elements (pp. 49, 89); ‘they mix

red and white clay with fat and put it on all over the front of the head, face and body’ (p. 89);

the footnote here reads: “The Bushmen of Lake Ngami use the oil extracted from the seeds of

Ochna schweinfurthiana to grease their bodies with.’ “They say that the fat and clay not only

keeps out the cold and heat, but prevents the skin from cracking, either from the sun or from

frost’ (p. 89).

‘Sometimes the bow is smeared with grease to prevent it from cracking or shrinking’

(pe95):

‘Sometimes they paint their faces with white and black stripes as a sign that they have had

a death in the encampment. I have heard of their painting the whole body with red and white

stripes but I must say I have never come across any thus decorated. Young women who have

been deeply attached to their husbands ... do this, and Anderson (Twenty-five years in a

waggon) mentions having seen a young woman thus decorated but could not say whether it was

really a sign of mourning or not. His own Bushmen knew nothing of such a custom; but little

reliance can be placed on their denials of anything connected with their own customs as they

are so unwilling to give information’ (p. 146). (See also Anderson 1888 herein.)

Dornan described a ‘half-bred Bushman’ painting on rocks (see section on theories and

experiments in connection with rock paintings).

The Bushmen are fond of honey (p. 180).

L. Fourte (1927, 1928)

In the ‘Hei-//om’ female initiation the girl was isolated in a small hut during the first

menstrual flow. ‘Daily applications of !gub, a red powder obtained by pulverising the bark of a

tree, and of the roasted and powdered fat-containing seed of the +erob tree, are made to her

hair by the attendant.’ Dancing followed for three or four days. On the last day the adolescent

boys passed her hut and each pressed his scrotum against her hand held through an opening in

the hut, to protect against swelling of the testicles. Her body was then rubbed down with a

preparation of roots (1928: 90-91). (See also Fourie 1927.)

Among the ‘+ Ao-//éin’, one of the rites during the period of isolation of male initiates (a

month or longer), is that ‘they are required to partake of the ‘‘devil’s urine”’ (Fourie did not

explain this). ‘Their bodies are blackened from head to foot with powdered, roasted //noun

(one of the staple vegetable foods of the Kalahari Bushmen).’ On one of the mornings their

hands were washed with water by the elders; they were taken to a pan to walk through the

water. They were introduced to the ‘devil’ and ate honey brought by him. On another day their

bodies were cleansed with chewed, roasted //noun. On having passed the test as a hunter, the

initiate was tattooed with the meat from the animals he had shot (1928: 91-92).

When an animal was slaughtered, ‘bags’ were made from the stomach and into these the

blood was collected. Blood and marrow were cooked in separate pots. Some cooked meat was

ritually tasted and pounded with a stone, added to the blood, and the melted marrow was also

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 219

added to form a special dish (1928: 100). Roasted plant food was also pounded and mixed with

boiled blood (1928: 104).

‘Among the most northerly groups . . . arrow poison and red ochre [sic], obtained from the

wood of the omuva tree, are the principal media of exchange’ (1928: 103).

‘Buchu (tsa) is . . . sprinkled over the grave to make the spirit of the departed happy so

that it may not return at night to molest the others; further, water is poured over or left at the

grave in order that the spirit may not interfere with the rain’ (1928: 104).

D. F. BLEEK (1928a)

The Bushmen of central Angola were very mixed racially.

They occasionally rubbed faces and limbs with fat or castor oil, the latter obtained from the

Bantu, and used aromatic herbs as powder. They did not wash. Sometimes the women

unwound their tight curls, mixed them with fat and drew them out into tassels approximately ‘5

inches’ long. :

For scarification the men rubbed herbs into the wounds, but the colour was the same as the

rest of the skin. Darkened scars were made by rubbing the cuts on the arms or chest of a hunter

with blackened meat. Some youths had very dark scars on their faces but no explanation was

received for these. Women had cuts darkened with charcoal on their faces, upper arms, or

thighs at the time of initiation. This was partly for ornament, but Bleek thought they were

partly of religious significance. Two women had been tattooed by their husbands at the time of

marriage—one had a black line from one cheekbone to the other across the forehead.

‘The /ki of these parts do not paint or smear themselves very much. I have seen a little

ochre rubbed on for a dance. White wood ash is dabbed on for ceremonies.” A woman who said

she was a medicine-woman showed how she and her co-workers spotted their breasts with ash.

(See also Bleek in Stow & Bleek 1930, pl. 29.)

Fetish sticks were forked sticks planted upright in the ground near huts or sleeping-places

and on which implements for the chase were hung or laid. The sticks were smeared with blood

from any animal killed ‘to bring luck’.

Beeswax and honey were exchanged for other things they needed, e.g. Bantu ware.

D. F. BLEEK (1928b) (see also Bleek 1935, 1936, 1942)

The Naron men made the clothes; they tanned the skins and rubbed in a mixture of fat and

‘red clay’ (p. 9).

‘The Naron adorn themselves with black and red paint. The black is charcoal, the red is

clay brought from afar. The mixture is rubbed on with a finger, chiefly over the eyes, on the

cheekbone and around the mouth. Young women and girls get themselves up thus for a dance

and occasionally the young men paint too. Girls going to be married or desirous of being

married smear red paint round the eyes’ (p. 10). ‘Some women uncurl the little clusters of hair

and roll them out with fat so that they hang down a couple of inches, making a fringe round the

head. .. . The little one’s hair has a tendency to grow far down on the forehead and into the

neck. To prevent this mothers smear a band of red clay and fat round the edge of the hair’

(p22):

“Both sexes are tattooed by making slight incisions about an inch long into the skin and

rubbing ash black into the wounds. Women are tattooed for ornament only on the face, thighs

and buttocks. ... Very frequently one sees women with a black stripe tattooed down the

centre of the forehead, one or two horizontal ones at the corners of the eyes and a whole forest

of slanting cuts on the buttocks and outside of the thighs.’ The reason was ‘that the men may

see us pretty (pp. 10-11).

The men had three kinds of cuts; the vertical ones between the eyebrows made at the time

of initiation had powdered acid roots, but no colouring matter, rubbed into the wounds. ‘All

Kung, Auen or Naron men and big lads that I have seen have these cuts. They are said to be

given to make the lads see well, i.e. give them good luck in shooting, but are evidently a tribal

mark connected with their religion. The Southern Bushmen do not have them.’ ‘These cuts are

often half covered by a real tattoo mark—a dark stripe down the middle of the forehead... .

Many men have it, also horizontal tattoo marks at the corners of the eyes. These, I believe, are

for the purposes of ornament.’ ‘Thirdly one finds on any part of a man’s body, especially on the

arms and chest ... cuts; in the older ones the colour has often faded. Old men tattoo a

successful hunter . . . in order to give him good luck in finding the next buck’; a tiny bit of the

220 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

biceps muscle of the foreleg is burnt to ashes and rubbed into the cut. “The Auen have all the

tattoo marks mentioned above. The Nusan make a few tattoo marks for ornament only,

generally at the corners of the eyes, women also on the legs’ (p. 11).

‘Rubbing the face and body with fat and powdering with buchu is done by old and young.

It is their method of washing. I have seen a woman pick up some tiny nutty berries, crack the

shell, crush the kernels in her palm, spit on them, and rub her face and neck with the greasy

mess.’ ‘Many women carry small tortoise-shells filled with powdered buchu with a bit of soft

bird’s nest, or else of jackal’s skin, stuck in the top as a puff, and powder their face and body.’

‘There are half a dozen aromatic herbs at Sandfontein all called by the Hottentot name of

“buchu”. Real washing with water is only done by those Bushmen who have been much with

Europeans’ (p. 12).

‘The women also wear various spicy roots suspended from the neck, partly as a charm,

partly to nibble from’ (p. 10).

‘Massage, perspiration and suggestion seem to be the means used’ by the medicine-men.

‘When a man isill. . . he takes a burning stick, plants it in the ground between his knees, burns

buchu and snuffs it and recovers.’ ‘For burns and sores, buchu and similar herbs are rubbed on’

(p. 29). Buchu is burnt on a grave the day after a burial (p. 35). Various herbs are used for

toilet and ceremonial purposes (p. 67).

Termites ‘are considered a great dainty on account of their fat, in which a Bushman menu

is often lacking, as only a few nuts of all the vegatable food contain fat, and most smaller bucks

have little. Hence there is a great rejoicing over a fat eland or a successful haul of termites’

(p. 17).

Various plant juices are used, also for mixing with the arrow poisons. The juice from the

chewed bark of ‘hakdoorn’ is clear, bitter and sticky and adheres to the arrow point (p. 14).

Honey and ostrich eggs are eaten, beads are made from the egg-shells (pp. 7, 9).

P. W. LaIpLer (1928)

‘The thorn tree sucker was put to many uses. The Bushman used its ashes to blacken his

face.’

V. LEBZELTER (1929, 1930) (see also Lebzelter 1934)

Among the !kung in Ovamboland and northern South West Africa, the body was smeared

with red ochre before burial.

When a !kung woman is pregnant, a pot may not be put on a fire before she has smeared

herself with the soot on it (Lebzelter 1929).

In the vicinity of ‘Umzinkulu’, a 75-year-old Scottish farmer who had known Bushmen as a

young boy, recounted that the Bushmen had mixed the juice of a bulb with pigments for a

durable paint (Lebzelter 1930) (for rock paintings?).

I. SCHAPERA (1930)

(Schapera tended to generalize and quoted from others, but the sources are not always

clear; where they are clear, the information which has already been given under the names of

the original authors is not repeated here, unless necessary.)

Before, during and immediately after the birth the mother was not to be washed with

water, nor the child, which was simply wiped off with soft grass (p. 114). (The reference is

probably Kaufman, H. 1910. Die Auin. Ein Beitrage zur Buschmannforschung. Mitt. deuts.

Schutzgeb. 23: 135-160—as given by Schapera.)

Schapera quoted Fourie (1927) regarding the ‘Heikum’ female puberty ceremony and drew

attention to the similar ceremony among the Nama (see Hoernlé 1918), but noted that it also

presented features noted in the corresponding ceremonies of other Bushman groups—but did

not say which (pp. 120-121).

Vegetable juice and powdered, dry snake poison were cooked together to form a thick

substance, usually like a jelly. A vegetable poison from the wood of a shrub, boiled down to a

thick substance, was mixed with fresh Euphorbia juice. When required, the lump was heated

and melted (p. 131).

Immunity to poisons was achieved by diluting the poison of a snake or scorpion with water

and urine and rubbing it into small cuts in the skin, or the poison sacks were pulped and boiled

and swallowed in small doses (various nineteenth century references were given) (p. 217).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 221

Cicatrization was discussed (e.g. pp. 70 ff.) and the reasons for it were given as

ornamental, puberty ceremonies, social, and hunting observances.

Ashes from burnt plant materials were rubbed into small cuts in a patient’s body (p. 215).

E. J. DuNN (1931) (see also Dunn 1873)

Sap from plants and roots were used in tanning skins. Skins for honey bags were not

tanned but were specially prepared by ‘braying’ and rubbing fat into them. Honey was a

frequent article of diet (pp. 24-25).

Birds’ eggs, especially ostrich eggs, were relished (p. 29).

‘Unlike most native races, the Bushman did not appear to protect himself from the weather

by greasing his skin and coating himself with red ochre. This may have been due to the fact that

fat was scarce. For festivals and dances, however, he used both grease and pigments, red ochre

being the chief colour employed’ (p. 36).

‘The Bushman did not indulge in hand washing. . .” (p. 37). |

T. Roos (1931)

The area where the burial of a !kat boy was seen is north of Grootfontein, near

Karakuwesa, in South West Africa. At the werf of six crude shelters, ‘the bereaved mother,

covered with ash, was sitting on the pile of ashes alongside the fire’. ‘A wild orange shell which

was filled with //na (powder) was broken and the contents strewn over the grave.’ ‘At death,

three incisions are cut between the eyes of the nearest relatives of the dead person. Into these

cuts //na is rubbed by a medicine-man or the oldest in a werf. This is a precautionary measure

taken to prevent the relatives contracting the disease of which a person dies.’

M. WILMAN (1933)

Wilman’s plate 2 shows examples of /?auni and Xatia Bushman art on skin bags, knapsacks

and a kaross. The legend reads: “The vanity bag holds, inter alia, tortoise-shell pots, each

containing ‘‘buchu powder” and puff. For tanning the skin the rootstock of the Elandsboontjie

(Elephantorrhiza burchellii (Benth.)) is used; this stains the fell a rich khaki colour. In

decorating it the hair is either partly removed, or it is all removed, and the pattern is obtained

by scraping the skin so as to reveal the undyed portion beneath.’

V. LEBZELTER (1934) (see also Lebzelter 1929, 1930)

‘Heikom’ women have fat and powder containers. Powder is kept in tortoise-shells closed

with resin. Buchu is called sawa. Fat, #nuii, is kept in a piece of hollow bone with a lid of

leather at each end. It is usually mixed with red ochre, !gorob. The ‘Heikom’ tattoo themselves.

They mix medicinal herbs with fat (pp. 84-85).

Among the !kung the body of a dead man is covered with green aromatic powder—herbs—

and ochre before being wrapped in his kaross (p. 31). The !kung witchdoctor or rainmaker uses

‘ochre with medicine’ in a ceremony (p. 53).

The ‘Masarwa’ paint their bodies red or white (p. 63). (Lebzelter did not say in which

circumstances. )

D. F. BLEEK (1935, 1936, 1942) (see also Bleek 1928a, 1928b)

(The 1935 and 1936 references deal with /xam Bushmen.)

The back of the sorcerer (or medicine-man) is rubbed with fat while he is curing a person,

according to a Bushman from the Strontbergen (near Vanwyksvlei), and another Bushman said

the people give the sorcerer buchu to smell, ‘and he sneezes the lion out’, or whatever is

bothering a patient. A Bushman from the Katkop Hills told how a woman sorcerer ‘took

something out of my liver . . . blood came from her nose. . . . She took the blood . . . and

rubbed me with it, for she wanted me to have that blood’s scent.’ The same man said: ‘When he

(the sorcerer) returns from the place to which he has gone on a magic expedition, he trembles.

Then people let him smell buchu, for they want his veins to lie down. . . .’ In another story this

man told how a sorcerer used blood from his nose to paint the body of a patient (Bleek 1935).

In a story an ostrich is shot and the eggs taken home for food (Bleek 1935).

A /xam Bushman told that a vegetable medicine or charm was made by burning some of

the particular plant and rubbing the charcoal into cuts in the skin to make them black. Similar

cuts were made for pain and for hunting. During a hunt a man ‘draws a line of burnt powdered

222) ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

wood with his finger down the centre of his forehead and nose, and before he reaches the nose

tip, turns aside over the middle of his right nostril to the middle of his right cheek’—this is

apparently for luck (Bleek 1936).

A patient is rubbed with perspiration and the scent of a plant. The plant is rubbed into cuts

in the patient’s chest; burnt powder is rubbed into cuts on the patient’s chest; the scent of this

plant is used by hunters on their bodies to fool the game (Bleek 1936).

‘All Bushmen paint themselves with red clay or haematite, and with black earth or

charcoal; this is specially done before dancing. All use fragrant herbs, which they call by the

same name as buchu for toilet or ceremonial purposes. A small, empty tortoise-shell is carried

by women as a powder-box, filled with powdered ‘‘buchu” and fat. Ornamental tattooing is

frequently found among the Northern and Central Tribes, a habit evidently borrowed from

Bantu neighbours’ (1942: 4).

‘Both the ceremonies for boys and the tattooing are signs of Bantu influence’ (1942: 9).

R. S. Dart (1937)

In this work Dart wrote about the /?auni-#khomani Bushmen. His plate 78 shows two

Bushwomen: “This picture was taken after the slaughtering of some goats as food. Note in the

daughter especially the smearing of the body with the fresh blood (especially the face and legs)

and the patterns drawn thereon with the fingers.’ His plate 86 (No. 6) shows the same daughter:

‘Her face is decorated with patterns in ash and blood of her own design.’ (See Fig. 18 herein.)

I. D. McCrone (1937)

Toasted ‘tsamma’ seeds are ground into meal. ‘In addition to serving as food, the tsamma

meal, which has an oleaginous quality, is also used as a cleansing agent, especially by the

women. ... A lump of the stuff is chewed and thoroughly moistened by saliva. The paste is

then smeared over the body and vigorously rubbed into the skin.... In the very dry

atmosphere of the Kalahari in the winter time, this treatment has about the same beneficial

effect as the application of cold cream to the exposed skin surfaces of the European.’ (See his

plates 100-101.)

J. F. MAINGARD (1937)

Instead of bathing, the Bushmen in the Gemsbok Game Reserve ‘are very fond of

smearing their bodies with fat or, when obtainable, Vaseline, which serves the double purpose

of cleansing . . . the skin and keeping it soft’.

‘They also have the curious custom . . . of decorating themselves with the blood of freshly

killed animals. Thus one day when a goat was slaughtered, I saw some of the children covering

their legs and faces with the blood of the victim, tracing with their fingers various patterns

according to their fancy. On enquiry I failed to elicit any special ritualistic significance attached

to this practice.’

Various plant medicines are discussed.

Maingard saw various scarification marks made for medicinal purposes. ‘From this we see

that Schapera’s statement that scarification is unknown south of the Molopo ts quite incorrect.’

Scarification is practised in connection with the boy’s initiation, called the ‘gemsbok play’, as

the gemsbok was formerly important in their social and communal life. “The old custom of

scarification is now generally abandoned, or, in some cases, replaced by tattooing in the

European fashion as seen in the case of one man who has copied from a discarded picture book

several coloured patterns on his arms and chest, and has added a novel form of decoration in

the shape of three blue dots on the forehead and on each cheek.’

H. VEDDER (1938)

A Bushman never dares to wash himself. He declares that his luck in hunting will desert

him directly he cleanses his skin with water. Encrusted dirt is removed with animal fat or

vegetable oil (p. 81). During a hunter’s initiation, his body is smeared with black oil from

kernels of a kind of wild plum, roasted until black (p. 84).

D. F. BLEEK (1942) (see Bleek 1935, 1936, 1942)

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 223

A. M. DUGGAN-CRONIN (1942)

The legend for his plate 7 tells that animal skins for /xam bags or garments are rubbed with

fat.

The legend for plate 12, showing a //) woman, reads: ‘Her coiffure is made by unrolling the

tight curls in which Bushman hair grows, pulling them out and rolling them with stiff fat.’

His plate 26 shows a ‘Naron’ man with vertical initiation cuts between his brows, and plate

7 shows a ‘Heikum’ man with similar initiation cuts.

W. Barttiss (1948)

He saw paint being made by a Kalahari Bushman woman who ground red haematite and

then mixed this with animal fat to make a red ‘crayon’.

F. Merzcer (1950)

In story form this farmer recorded his observations about some Kalahari !kung Bushmen.

A black ointment made of burnt foodstuffs is rubbed into the face of an old woman for

strength (p. 15).

Bits of meat and fat from various parts of an animal are roasted with the shavings of special

wood and ground into a powder, which is mixed with the fat of the heart; this ointment, that is

to give strength, is rubbed into cuts between the eyebrows of boy initiates (p. 70).

The mother cleanses a new-born baby with raw ‘bone-fat’ (p. 73).

The body of a young girl initiate is rubbed with a black, oily ointment made of stamped,

roasted kernels (p. 73).

A photograph shows an older woman smearing the ointment with the fingers on the face of

an initiate—there are short, horizontal lines along the cheekbones, with a long line running

from there along each side of the jaw-line to the chin.

‘He beautifies his exterior with fat, using it to rub away the dirt of many months, and this

causes the body to gleam in bronze colours, while the hair is shining black’ (p. 75).

The young girls carry a tortoise-shell beauty-box filled with a ‘cream’ of fat and the

secretion of the glands of a ‘stink-cat’ (p. 76).

For a dance, the young men smear their bodies with grease. They have blue-black tattoo

stripes on forehead, chest and arms (p. 76).

A suitor promises the girl’s mother that he will let her (the mother) ‘drink much fat’

(p. 52). After the rains, the women and children catch bull-frogs for eating—the fat is much

prized (p. 69). At a feast, when a very fat eland has been shot, ‘they will make merry, for the

use of raw and rendered fat lifts a Bushman to undreamed of heights of good humour’ (p. 74).

Marrow-bones are placed in the ashes ‘and the marrow is sucked out as soon as it is

half-melted. Each time the hands come into contact with the fat, they are wiped on a part of the

body’ (p. 75). Fat on game animals is much prized (pp. 74, 79). When an eland is shot, the

young man gives the breast and heart-fat to his prospective mother-in-law (pp. 58, 79, 80). ‘Fat

and rain are, for a Bushman, the acme of all that is good and beautiful’ (p. 75). There is a story

about a jackal in which fat in a calabash, stolen from the ‘Klipkaffers’ (Bergdama) plays a

prominent role (pp. 83 ff.).

‘Herbs’ are thrown into a fire to please Haua, a deity of sorts (p. 21). Herbs are thrown

into a fire so that fate may favour the imminent birth of a child (p. 73).

P. J. SCHOEMAN (1951)

(This book is about his experiences with an old ‘Haikum’ Bushman and his daughter and

some of the stories that they told him.)

A wound from a poisoned arrow is treated by cutting out a piece of the flesh from the

wound and washing the place with a woman’s urine. The patient must drink quantities of

‘lukewarm water (p. 39).

When a boy shoots his first guinea-fowl or partridge, he is ‘inoculated’ with (a paste of)

wing bones and roots (p. 39).

In a story, cuts are made in a man’s forehead and powdered roots rubbed in (p. 55).

The author mentions the grease on a Bushman after a feast of meat (pp. 67-68).

Honey-beer is mentioned in a story (p. 85).

Buchu is strewn on a grave (p. 87).

224 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

An edible fungus, growing on antheaps after the first rain, is called ‘duiwelsbrood’ (devil’s

bread) (p. 98).

Marrow-bones are sucked out, some of the marrow is rubbed on the ears (p. 108). In a

story, women rub marrow into the backs of their men (p. 133).

There are various references to buchu in tortoise-shells (e.g. pp. 137, 155).

There is a description of Bushman hunters straining the stomach contents of a gemsbok

through twigs and grass—the liquid is drunk (p. 162).

In the marriage rites, cuts are made in the thighs of the couple and their mixed blood is

rubbed in the cuts (p. 196).

G. BoLINDER (1952)

Bushman women in southern Angola use ground, sweet-smelling wood mixed with fat for a

cosmetic (p. 121).

V. ELLENBERGER (1953)

(Some of Ellenberger’s information was obtained from the literature and it is not always

clear when he is using his own information, mainly about Lesotho, then Basutoland.)

An old Basotho woman had seen Bushman rock painters at work. She said that a small

container with red paint in it was kept; the pigments were mixed with melted fat. She was

certain that the Bushmen did not use ‘ochre’ for their paintings, but did not say what they used

(pp. 148-149). An old colonial Boer had seen Bushmen painting and described the use of bone

splinters for ‘brushes’ (p. 160) (unacknowledged from Moszeik 1910). Ellenberger speculated

on the ingredients for paints and stated that the Basotho insisted that the Bushmen also used

animal blood for paint (pp. 164-165). He described the use of mineral powders, //hdra and tto

for pigments (taken from Bleek & Lloyd 1911, acknowledged) (p. 195).

J. Maupuir (1954)

At his page 73 is a photograph of two young Kalahari Bushman girls in ‘festive dress —

strings of beads, and a ring-ornament suspended from the hair on to the forehead of one, and

painted faces (Fig. 19 herein). The pigments were not given.

P. V. Tostas (1955; 1976 and 1979 pers. comm.)

Many of the Auen and Naron Bushmen, particularly the women, greased their hair and

made the tufts into long ringlets (1955). In Botswana he was informed that some of the women

wear long ringlets, prepared with a pomade of mud and dung, sometimes reddish clay and

ochre as well (1976, 1979 pers. comm.).

J. H. WILHELM (1955)

The dress of Hukwe men in south-eastern Angola consists mostly of the cotton pieces

common among the Ovambo. Two layers cover both back and front and the cloth is rubbed

with fat or red ochre to make it last longer (p. 21). Brass cartridge cases are used as containers

for sweet-smelling powder. The women elongate their hair with animal hair and vegetable

fibres, like the Ovambo women. He quoted F. Seiner (1910, Globus 97) who said that Hukwe

women rubbed lime or fat into the hair to exterminate vermin.

R. Story (1958)

Gum for eating is obtained from acacias.

The fruit of Ochna pulchra, a semi-deciduous tree, is boiled to yield a fat that can be

skimmed from the surface and used as a food.

L. MarsHa_t (1959, 1961, 1962, 1969, 1976a, 1976b)

The following information, mainly about the ‘!kung’ of north-western South West Africa,

is repeated in various papers and is grouped here.)

‘The mother had brought a little fat (eland fat, if they had it, would be used) and a bit of

powdered red stone, one of the red earths (/gam !gai gwoie) mixed with fat. She rubbed !Nai all

over with fat and drew a line on her forehead and a circular design on her cheeks with the red

powder mixed with fat’ (1959: 355, 1976b: 276). Photographs show this young bride with the

design painted on her face (1959, 1976b).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 225

In the Ceremony of the First Menstruation (often years after the wedding ceremony), the

design on the face is the same and ‘she is washed and anointed with both eland and other fat

and the oil of the tsi (Bauhinia esculenta Burch.)’. ‘‘‘It is our custom” was all the people could

tell me’ (1959: 365).

The women use the powdered red earth for ceremonial markings on their faces

(1961: 248).

A husband gave his wife oil and ornaments for her hair.

‘A tortoise-shell filled with plant substances and marrow or fat is the one piece of

equipment a medicine-man uses in curing.’ One of the plant substances is the root of the

camel-thorn tree. Anyone may rub charred bits of the medicinal plants into little incisions to

cure an ache or pain (1969: 359). The medicine-men pound the charred plants to powder with

mortar and pestle and mix the powder with marrow or fat—the latter are for their cohesive and

inflammable properties. Marrow from the foreleg of a giraffe is preferred. A glowing coal is

dropped into the mixture in the tortoise-shell to make ‘smoke medicine’ (1969: 360).

All !kung women are scarified for beauty from the age of 12; a mixture of charcoal and fat

is rubbed into the cuts (1976: 34-35).

Marrow is cherished for eating (1961: 237). Eland fat is a very highly valued gift. An eland

provides so much fat that people can afford to be a little luxurious. They rub it on themselves

and on their implements, and they eat it. ‘+Toma’ said that, when he had eland fat to give, he

took note of certain objects he would like to have and gave their owners especially generous

gifts of fat (1961: 243; see also 1976a: 366). Fat is mentioned frequently in Bushman stories,

e.g. wooden basins are rubbed with ‘paauw’ fat (1962: 229); a deity smears a spirit with a

mysterious kind of fat (1962: 243).

The blood of a slaughtered animal is carried back to the camp in bags made of the

stomach, rumen, and bladder. Soft parts, including brains and blood, are often given to the old

people with poor teeth (1961: 237). Eland blood for eating (by old women) is mentioned in a

story (1962: 230).

In the Ceremony of the First Killing (of a large animal), the young hunter is scarified—

‘charred meat and fat, turned to magic by the ceremony, are rubbed into the several lines of

vertical cuts on his face, arms, back and chest to give him the will to hunt, good sight, and

accurate aim; also to enable him to find the animal and to protect him from being seen by the

animal’ (1959: 351).

In the hot dry months, the people ‘dig shallow pits and lie in them covered lightly with

sand which they have moistened with their urine for coolness’ (1959: 356).

An invisible supernatural substance for medicine-men is ‘//Gauwa’s urine’ (a lesser god), or

the urine of a supernatural giraffe (1969: 360).

“A widow should not remarry until one rainy season has passed.’ ‘The rain washes away the

death from the widow’ (1959: 357). ‘When she is about to go to her new husband, she prepares

herself by washing in the ordinary way’ (1959: 358).

Water is poured over a medicine-man in a trance to cool him down (1969: 378).

Ostrich eggs are eaten (1961: 236), but not by men and women between the age of puberty

till they are old enough to have had five children (19766: 126-127). Beads are made from the

shells and traded (1961: 242). The shells are used for water containers (1961: 243). There were

various references to ornaments made of ostrich egg-shell.

Honey is eaten (1961: 245; 1962: 246; 1976b: 129), also by the spirits (1962: 243), and it

often features in stories (e.g. 1969: 367).

Gum is used to close the lower apertures in tortoise-shell containers (1969: 359). It is eaten

(1976b: 121).

Fresh bone, pounded to powder, is used to clean and soften karosses (1961: 246).

The medicine-man rubs sweat from his body over the person he is curing (1969: 371, 378).

‘The woman whose fire it is may welcome the visitor by taking a pinch of the sweet-

smelling s@ powder, which she carries in a little tortoise-shell hung from her neck, and

sprinkling it on the visitor’s head in a line from the top of the head to the forehead’ (1961: 235).

Women toss sa powder on to the medicine-men ‘for their well-being and on to visitors to greet

them, and which they use as a cosmetic to powder themselves with’ (1969: 359). ‘Sa powder,

tossed or rubbed lightly on a medicine-man, enables him to see more clearly where the sickness

is in the person he is curing and the n/um [supernatural potency] in the sa also keeps the

medicine-man from feeling excessively tired after a night of dancing’ (1969: 365).

226 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

E. MARSHALL THOMAS (1959, 1963)

A young ‘Gikwe’ woman ‘had no ornaments except a row of blue scars over her eyes’, and

‘a row of striped scars along her thighs’ (1959: 42). Charcoal is rubbed into the cuts (1959: 43).

Gikwe Bushmen drink the milk taken from a dead gemsbok (1959: 47). The animal is

slaughtered without spilling the blood which is collected in the skin which is placed hair side

down in a pit. Intestines are cleaned and the liquid from them is saved with the blood collecting

in the bowl of the body. The rumen is slit over the skin containing the blood, so that the liquid

from it is saved. The contents are then squeezed over various containers to catch the moisture.

The people drank the raw blood, scooping it out in handfuls to their faces so that they were

stained with it (1959: 47-48).

The skins of ‘Delalandes foxes’ were cured with urine, as water was scarce; the urine was

rank, having been saved in tsama rinds for days by all the Gikwe people in the camp (1959: 91).

‘Kung’ Bushmen use metal arrow points and require a binding-fluid to make the poison

adhere to the metal. They chew the bark of a tree, spit it into a small mortar (made from the

kneebone of an antelope) ‘into which they have squeezed the milky juice of sansevieria plants,

got by wringing the hairy, thick leaves. This juice has an irritating effect when it is dissolved in

a wound.’ Gikwe Bushmen have bone arrow points and do not have to use a binding-fluid

(1959: 96).

Melons and various other plants provide water for the Gikwe (1959: 104). ‘Bi, a fibrous,

watery root, the mainstay of the Gikwe Bushman’s diet during the hot season when the melons

are gone . . . is scraped and squeezed dry. The people drink the juice they squeeze.’ Shallow

pits are dug in the shade: ‘They urinate on the bi scrapings and line the pits with the moist pulp.

They lie still in the pits during the hot day to preserve the moisture in their bodies’ (1959: 105;

1963).

‘The Gikwe put a medicine powder, a fragrant brown powder made of a herb called sasa,

in the nostrils of a dead person and sprinkle his body with sasa before burial.’ The Kung strew a

grave with sasa powder and whenever they pass a grave (1959: 126-127).

A ‘ground nut’ called ¢si, which grows on a vine, is fatty. These nuts are roasted and eaten

(1959: 209). The Kung regard it ‘as a very powerful food, one of the powerful foods in which

there is a special essence. . . . These foods are the mainstays of a Bushman’s diet and are fat;

and every year people in their child-bearing years, when they consider themselves subject to

harm, protect themselves against these foods by a ritual act’; this is called choa (1959: 155). In

the ceremony for tsi an old woman chews a mouthful of tsi and a root called shasha or some

other root, washes her hands with the paste or rubs it on the young woman’s arms and chest if

she is performing the ceremony for the other (1959: 156).

Nuts from manghetti trees are eaten (1959: 215).

The clothing of a Kung child-bride of 8 years was rubbed with red, sweet-smelling powder.

The day after the marriage ceremony the bride and groom (16 years) were anointed with fat by

their mothers (1959: 158-159).

A ‘Bushman’ burns his hair or urinates in a fire to make the weather change (1959: 161).

After giving birth, a young Bushman (!kung?) woman washed the blood from her legs with

water from an ostrich egg-shell (1959: 164).

A Kung man was dark as he had rubbed himself all over with medicine paste which had

accumulated dust. When the rains came, he scrubbed himself, revealing a pale golden skin

(1959: 173).

A Kung woman had blue scars on her forehead and thighs. She kept her hands and face

washed (1959: 184). A fine row of scars between the eyes and on the arms and chest are marks

of a man who has hunted successfully. Paste made of an animal’s meat (here kudu) is rubbed in

(1959: 197). Thomas’s plate 11b shows a ‘Kung’ woman with numerous cicatrization marks on

her thighs.

The fragrance of certain young Kung girls was ‘heavy and sweet, the perfume of the leaves

of sa and the wood of tchambuti, which Bushman women grind to powder and rub on their

bodies’ (1959: 226). A Kung woman gave the white visitors sa, ‘the finely powdered yellow-

green leaves that smell half-way between roses and sage’ (1959: 232).

A young married Kung girl (10 years) ‘wore a fine kaross which she had rubbed with red

powder, often a sign to men that a girl is menstruating, as perhaps she was, that a man may be

careful not to touch her and endanger the powers to hunt’ (1959: 234).

In the evening some Kung women went to bathe in the pan—they washed arms, legs, and

faces, and waded in the water (1959: 256).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS ay

Honey is gathered for eating (1959: 174, 258 ff.).

The face of a Kung man in north-western Botswana was darker than his body as it had

been rubbed with fat and a black paste (1963).

Bone marrow is eaten. Cooked blood goes to the aged with poor teeth. Liquid is obtained

from melons, scraped roots, and bulbs. Ostrich eggs are eaten (1963).

Three photographs show young Kung women and girls with dark scarification marks on

cheeks and foreheads (1963).

J. ByeRRE (1960)

(He spent some time with a Bushman ‘clan’ in north-western South West Africa. Some of

his information is not first-hand (unacknowledged) and the book contains many inaccuracies. )

The Bushman women gather honey (p. 113).

Various ways of obtaining water or substitutes are described (p. 134).

A description is given of incisions being made in the upper arm of a young hunter into

which burnt parts of the tendon of an antelope were rubbed for luck in hunting (p. 117, illus.

p. 160). Another had several such scars on his arms (p. 118).

The women have tortoise-shell containers with a powder made from fragrant pulverized

grass seed; a powder-puff is made from a scrap of leather; they powder their necks (p. 136).

A pregnant Bushwoman often identifies her condition by smearing herself with soot

(p. 138); during the birth the women throw special herbs on a small fire to placate the spirits

(p. 139). (His further description of the birth was obviously taken from Schapera (1930) as well

as descriptions of other rites.)

Black ash is smeared into 5—10 cm incisions in the outer thighs of young girls for cosmetic

purposes (p. 147).

Boy initiates who have just killed their first big game have their foreheads scarified; ashes

from burnt scraps of meat from certain parts of the animals are rubbed into the cuts; this

endows them with the buck’s keen eyesight, vigilance, strength and stamina (p. 153, illus,

p: 97).

‘PAUL’ OF UPINGTON in 1960

Paul, a very old Bushman, was interviewed at the Upington Catholic mission in 1960. He

was Nama-speaking and originally came from the Bethanien area in South West Africa, but

later went to live among the Bushmen in the sand-dunes north of Upington. The Bushmen in

those parts, he said, had used ‘blinkklip’ (specularite) for painting themselves. They ground red

ochre on grinding-stones. (Personal observation 1960.)

M. W. How (1962)

The author mentions that in 1888 T. B. Kennan visited a cave near Qhoasing Falls

(Lesotho); he described the paintings there and the paints that had apparently been used.

There is some discussion about Bushman painters and their techniques (see section on theories

and experiments in rock paintings).

In 1930, at Moshei, ‘between Qacha’s Nek and Mokhotlong’, a trader had iron arrow-

heads and red pigment that had been ‘taken off a dead Bushman by a Mosotho many years

before’.

E. MARSHALL THOMAS (1963) (see Thomas 1959, 1963)

G. B. SILBERBAUER (1964, 1965, 1972)

(This information is from a study of the G/wi of the central Kalahari.)

Various food plants are listed, including those used for moisture. Plants containing fat

include Bauhinia esculenta (roasted and shelled), B. macrantha (roasted green or dry and

shelled), and Citrullus vulgaris (tsamma, eaten raw, the seeds toasted and ground) (1965: 44—

46). Vegetable fat is obtained from tsamma seeds and from the seeds of other vine-borne

plants. The intake of animal fat is very low, due to the small amount carried by nearly all game

animals (1965: 109).

The G/wi are light coppery yellow, darkened by sunburn and dirt. A protective lotion

against sunburn and blistering is made of the fat from roasted Ximenia seeds (1965: 109). In

pregnancy the stomach is massaged with Ximenia fat; during childbirth other women massage

the woman’s legs with this fat; the back is massaged (1965: 111).

228 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

When an animal is slaughtered, ‘the blood and the rumen contents, and also the amniotic

fluid found in gravid cows, are drunk and provide important sources of moisture in the absence

of water. Blood is also roasted in the smaller sacs found in the viscera of the buck and makes a

sort of blood-pudding’ (1965: 49; see also 1964; 1972: 287). The principal source of salt and iron

is probably the fresh blood of game animals which is drunk and baked in sacs of viscera

(1965: 109, see also 1972: 287).

In the puberty ceremony, the young girl-wife is secluded in a small hut for the first

menstrual period. On the fifth day she and her husband are washed with the moist shavings of a

bisa root (Raphionacme burkei)—it is always done, it cleans them’ are the reasons given. The

couple are tattooed and blood from one is rubbed into the incisions of the other—‘this is not

only powerful symbolism but a magical process which the G/wi believe to have the effect of

linking the couple together in harmonious relationship’. Ashes of magical and medicinal roots

are rubbed into the cuts, leaving black cicatrices—'these ashes strengthen the uniting influence

of the mixed bloods and also help to ensure the couple’s prosperity and happiness’. The wife

runs in a symbolic shower of rain, said to bring good fortune and attract to her good falls of

rain. The couple are then painted in matching patterns, according to the taste of the woman

doing it, with a mixture of ground ochre and fat, the purpose being decorative. Chewed leaves

are spat on the girl’s head ‘so that the food she eats may sit comfortably in her stomach’.

(Further details are not relevant here (1965: 84-89).)

In the boys’ puberty ceremony they are lightly tattooed with incisions under their scapulae,

medicines of burnt roots are rubbed in, leaving black cicatrices (1965: 88).

A new baby is washed with bisa root scrapings. On the tenth day the baby’s head is shaved

and only then is it washed all over (1965: 111, see also p. 77).

A man who collapses in a trance during an exorcising-dance is massaged with perspiration

from under the arms—this, and head-sweat, are believed to have curative powers’ (1965: 97).

When poison is scarce, the juice of Aloe zebrina is used for a thin outer casing to the

poison to prevent its chipping and desiccation. After working with the arrow poison, hands are

carefully washed; ‘if no water or plant juice can be spared, urine serves the purpose’ (1965: 57).

The G/wi wash their hands before eating; if water is not available, urine is used. To keep

cool in summer, the men urinate on a patch of sand under the men’s tree and lie in it, throwing

the moist sand over themselves. This helps to conserve body moisture. Urine, if not infected, is

a good antiseptic (1965: 105).

In Silberbauer (1972: 281) a legend for a photograph reads: ‘A hartebeest hide is pegged

out in the sun to dry before fat and other tissue are scraped off. When this has been done the

hide is softened and tanned by treatment with rotted brains, plant juices and urine’ (1972: 281).

‘The curing process consists of repeatedly moistening the cleaned skin with a variety of fluids

(plant juices, urine, rumen contents), wringing it out to expel the moisture and soften it, and

then allowing it to dry, and again kneading it by hand’ (1972: 293).

Honey is a rare delicacy. Eggs of bird, including ostrich eggs, are eaten. The shells of the

latter are used for water containers and to make into beads (1972: 184-185).

H. HE1nz (1966)

(This information is from a study of the ‘!K6’ in western Botswana.)

On its return to the camp after an absence of a few months, a baby is greeted with

handshakes by the band members, who rub fat on its little nose to introduce it to ‘the smell of

our village’ (p. 64).

In a renaming ceremony, the old name of the child is ‘washed off’ with oily, roasted,

pounded tsamma seeds mixed with saliva in the grandmother’s mouth. Girls use this mixture for

cleaning in the absence of water (p. 155, fig. 29).

In the puberty rites, the girl’s face is ‘painted to resemble the gemsbok shield, i.e. the

brow-skin of the gemsbok hung in the back of the hut’ built for the occasion (p. 119, fig. 18c—e,

j). When the girl has completed her second period, the decorated sticks previously used in the

puberty rites are burnt and the charcoal is used for her tattoos (p. 123, fig. 22a—b, see also fig.

23a-b). The simple marriage ceremony occurs only later (they do not have child-brides

(p. 193)) when the bride may blacken her eyebrows with charcoal; she is neither painted nor

anointed with fat (p. 206).

A wife ‘may decorate her face discreetly with black eyebrow cream. . . . She may wash and

then smear herself with fat or oil from tsamma melon seeds’ (p. 210).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 229

Before remarrying or returning to her parents, a widow must wait for a year ‘until the next

rain has washed all the deceased’s spoors away’ (p. 222). A widower also waits for a year

(p. 223).

In male puberty rites, the ‘gemsbok brow-shield pattern is painted on their faces. This

design is supposed to last for many months’ (p. 128). Charcoal from camel-thorn wood, mixed

with eland fat, is rubbed into their tattoo cuts. Their hands are washed with water or the

chewed tsamma seeds (pp. 131-132).

After a certain period an initiate may eat honey from three species of trees only, after a

longer period he may eat honey from other trees (p. 141). At the age of about 12 to 14 children

are prohibited from eating tree gum as it will make them ‘weak in the knees’ (p. 140).

R. B. LEE (1967, 1972)

Mongongo (or mangetti) nuts from Ricinodendron rautanenii is a primary food for the

Bushmen of the Dobe area. ‘The kernel of the nut was found to yield 60 per cent by weight of a

quick-drying fixed oil, rich in proteins’ (1967: 101-102); the small nuts of the ‘morula tree’

(Sclerocarya caffra) are also eaten (1967: 103, see also 1972: 340).

The Bushmen who were studied (‘!Kung’), eat ten species of edible gum (1967: 106).

Bird’s eggs, including ostrich eggs, are eaten (1967: 119).

The dried, raw hide is softened by a tanning agent from the plant Elephantohiza burkei

[sic] (1967: 123).

Ostrich eggs supply water containers and material for making beads (1972: 341).

P. Buys (Windhoek 1969 pers. comm.)

The following notes were made by Jalmar Rudner from information received at the State

Museum in Windhoek: ‘Oubaas Piet Brand from Perdepan, Leonardville, south of Gobabis,

over 80 years of age, grew up in the Kalahari with Bushmen. He told that the very old

Bushmen told him that they boiled buck brains till hard. They then ground ‘rooiklip’ at Khoup

(Kalkrand) which they mixed with the brains to a putty-like substance which they kept in a

tortoise-shell. When they needed some colour, they took the paste and heated it over the fire,

when it became soft and fluid. They said they used this for painting on rocks. These Bushmen

came from the north in Bechuanaland. When you remelt the brains like this it stays like an oil.’

L. MARSHALL (1969) (see Marshall 1959 et seq.)

H. P. Steyn (1971)

‘Besides these ornaments, Nharo women also use certain cosmetics. Foremost among these

is the aromatic powder (tshaa) which is made from roots and carried in a small tortoise-shell

(damba) ... the hind leg apertures filled with a pulp obtained by pounding the roots of a

Grewia flava tree or with beeswax’; a piece of soft skin or cloth is used as a powder-puff

(p. 293).

‘If fat is available the women rub it on their bodies, smaller quantities are mixed with

powdered red ochre obtainable at the shop and the mixture is rubbed on the forehead, the

bridge of the nose and the cheekbones by means of a finger. Young girls sometimes paint their

eyebrows with a mixture of fat and powdered charcoal. (It can also be mentioned here that

during a girl’s puberty ceremony she is decorated with a mixture of fat and powdered morama

nuts (Bauhinia esculenta). The mixture is applied on the cheekbones and round the eyes)’

(p. 294).

The personal possessions in one bag shared between husband and wife, included: 1 bottle

with fat and ochre; 6 polish tins, 2 with ochre and fat mixture; 3 pieces of fungus found on trees

and used in the tinder-box; and bits of charcoal (p. 289).

‘Normally men do not use cosmetics at all’ (p. 291).

Only women are incised for ornament. Girls are tattooed on the forehead, between the

eyes, on the cheekbones, and on the thighs; charcoal is rubbed into the cuts (p. 294).

Similar cuts are made for medicinal and magical purposes; a mixture of roots and fat is

rubbed into these cuts. During initiation, vertical cuts are made on the forehead between the

eyes of the boys, to ‘open’ their eyes, enabling them to see Hisheba, a mythical figure (p. 294).

For luck in hunting, magical scars are made between the eyes and on thumbs and wrists; a

medicinal root is roasted, powdered, and mixed with fat, and rubbed into cuts. Powdered dried

meat from the front leg of a steenbok is mixed with fat and rubbed into such cuts (p. 307).

230 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

A soft stone (n//oaba) is powdered between grinding-stones, mixed with fat, and the

mixture is rubbed on the skin bags to give them a brown colour (p. 288).

Ostriches are hunted as the fat is much sought after (p. 296).

The bow-stave and string are regularly rubbed with fat to prevent them from drying out

(p. 299).

Water is normally not used for washing and is usually unavailable; both sexes ‘wash’ and

oil their bodies, usually arms, neck and legs, by wetting pounded melon seeds in their mouths

and rubbing the pulp on their bodies (p. 294).

B. HEINTZE (1972)

Guerreiro (1966) is quoted on the cultural contacts between the !kung and Kwanyama and

exchanges by Bushmen of game meat, wax, skins, and Jukula, a mixture of butter and red

wood, for tobacco, hemp, grain, butter, alcoholic drinks, ornaments, and utensils.

R. LEE (1972) (see Lee 1967, 1972)

E. PALMER & N. PITMAN (1972)

The oil from the kernel of the sour plum, Ximenia caffra, is used by Bushmen to oil their

bows and bow strings, and as a cosmetic—it softens the skin (pp. 283, 563). ‘The kernels of the

manketti nut, Ricinodendron rautanenii, of South West Africa and Botswana, yield up to 63 per

cent of bright yellow edible oil’ (p. 283). Bushman women use the leaves of Croton gratissimus

(‘bergboegoe’) of the Euphorbia family, as a perfume or buchu (p. 284).

The wood of Pterocarpus angolensis (kiaat or bloodwood) is used by Bushmen and other

people in northern South West Africa as a cosmetic and to colour clothes. The red inner bark

of the root is sold in bundles. The sap is said to leave a permanent stain.

G. B. SILBERBAUER (1972) (see Silberbauer 1964, 1965, 1972)

B. H. SANDELOwSky (1974)

A dung floor was found during an excavation in the Namib Desert: ‘Dung floors of this sort

are a rare occurrence, known to me only from one location in Rhodesia (Cooke, pers. comm.)

and from Botswana where I was told that Bushmen paved the floor of a rock shelter with a

mixture of dung and mud (Borland, pers. comm.).’

H. J. Heinz & B. MaGuire (1975?)

The area of research was some 100 km south of Ghanzi in Botswana.

Although Bushman informants ‘were fully aware of basic colours as well as many varieties

of shades, it was impossible to obtain complete agreement or even close conformity in regard to

the terms used to describe basic colours. It seems that no such specific names for colours exist

in the !ko language.’ Colours were named by referring to certain fruits, but confusion arose as

various informants could be referring to fruits at different stages of ripeness; other terms

included ‘blood’, ‘sky’, ‘gall’, and ‘cloud’.

The bark of Acacia luederitzii (!ola) is used for tanning skins.

Pergularia extensa (ga !obe) is used fora powder-puff in the tortoise-shell ‘compact’.

Arrow poison is mixed with gum from Terminalia sericea (+ hee). The arrow-shaft is glued

with gum from Acacia luederitzii. Gum from Terminalia sericea is used for bird-lime.

Dye for colouring skins is masiri (not seen) and n//ami (Elephantorrhiza sp.).

Fat for cosmetic purposes is obtained from the seeds (sa’aa) of Citrullus vulgaris (tam)

[tsama]. Fat-containing nuts are eaten, e.g. mangetti (Ricinodendron rautanenit).

Charcoal black is obtained from various woods.

Medicines to release girls from food taboos are from Aptosimum sp. (Hibiscus sp.) and

Cassia italia spp. arachoides.

Various plants are substitutes for water.

J. Hosrorp in 1975

The following observations were made in 1975 at Gautscha Pan, north-western South West

Africa, at the request of the author. The leader of the !kung Bushmen there at the time was

+ toma, mentioned in Thomas (1959).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 231

The women, particularly the young girls, use animal fat on their bodies; the fat is kept in

little boxes or tins. In this case they were using kudu fat.

A few women had reddened their faces to below the eyes with an aromatic wood powder.

Some of the young girls had dusted their fat-besmeared bodies and hair with this powder. One

had a stripe of the pigment down between the shoulder-blades. The powder is used decoratively

and is from pounded wood (uchende); usually a wooden mortar is used, but in this case it was

the hollow metal top of a gas cylinder used with a wooden pestle, and the powder was used

straight from the mortar, while the rest was put into a small flat bottle. (Colour photographs

taken by John Kramer (South African Museum) show several of the women wearing this

bright-red pigment on their faces.)

Animal skins are coloured with the same red powder.

A black substance (unidentified) is used on faces—across the eyebrows—for certain

ailments; it is also used on babies and young children.

Aromatic powders are kept in tortoise-shell containers.

Virtually every woman in the band had bluish (colouring matter unknown) cicatrization

marks on foreheads and cheekbones, backs of thighs and upper arms; they were for beauty.

The men had cicatrization marks on faces and backs (reasons not given).

Small pieces of dry fungus (gunu), ‘like the cabbagey ones on wood’, are used in the

tinder-boxes. (It was not ascertained whether a fungus was used for pigment.)

L. MARSHALL (1976) (see Marshall 1959 et seq.)

J. TANAKA (1976)

‘The ‘+ Kade people’ obtain more than 90 per cent of their water requirements from plants

(p. 100). For more than 300 days annually they lack standing water and are obliged to obtain

water from plants and animals (p. 102). Blood and the moisture squeezed from the stomach

contents of slain animals are good water sources but big game is seldom obtained.

Y. E. YELLEN & R. B. LEE (1976)

Various edible nuts provide proteins and fats (p. 38). ‘The underground species [of

warthog] are highly desired because they are very fat, and animal fat is one of the elements

most scarce in the San diet’ (p. 39).

A. BARNARD (1979)

Nharo medicine consists of natural substances extracted from plants or, occasionally,

animals, usually boiled with water or sometimes by rubbing the substance into the patient’s

skin. Sometimes honey is used. Some illnesses may be washed away with the contents of a

goat’s stomach rubbed on the body of the patient.

‘In order to make it rain, such a medicine-man might grind up the raw eggs of some (or

any?) large bird, cook the eggs in water, and wash his body with the mixture. . . . To make it

stop raining, the medicine-man might throw the same mixture and some salt into the fire.’

‘Konu is a black substance produced by charring and grinding the leaves of the species

Grevia flava.’ This is rubbed into shallow incisions in the patient’s skin. It is also used for

fertility and birth control cuts as well as hunting cuts. The healing cuts resemble the tattoos

made for beautification.

P. JOHNSON et al. (1979)

The photographs were taken in Bushmanland, north-eastern South West Africa (!kung?).

Eggs are eaten (figs 28, 31). Honey is relished (fig. 168). Blood is saved for eating (fig. 74).

Various figures show women with dark tattoo scars on their foreheads and cheeks.

Medical scars are rubbed with fat and herbs (fig. 90).

O. KOHLER (1979)

These observations were recorded on visits between 1959 and 1974. After touching objects

with ‘dangerous power’, the ‘Kxoe’ Bushmen (in eastern Okavango and western Caprivi, called

‘black Bushmen’ by Gusinde) purify themselves with the red powder of Pterocarpus angolensis

wood, carried in a tortoise-shell. The father of an unsuccessful hunter powders his bow and

arrows as well as arms, forehead and temples of the hunter with this pigment which contains the

232 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

ritual colour of life. In earlier days, strings of ostrich egg-shell beads were coloured with this

powder or with blood. The red ‘Dolfmedizin’, symbolic for the power of life, which is rubbed

on the hunter’s face, makes the face light. Illness is brought by a being who is red. The

medicine-man shakes the red powder in a bowl to determine whether the patient will live or

die. The patient is rubbed with a mixture of fat and the powder.

Charcoal from certain roots is rubbed into incisions on arms to strengthen the arms.

Carbon from plants mixed with fat is rubbed into the chest to cure a cough.

SouTH AFRICAN MusEUM, ETHNOLOGY COLLECTION

There are various Bushman objects coloured with pigments in the collections of museums

(e.g. Wilman 1933). A few in the South African Museum are mentioned below by way of

example. Little or nothing has been recorded regarding the pigments used to colour these

objects.

SAM-AE1546a: ‘Skin bag’, one of seven. ‘Bushman, Gordonia, purchased by Miss D. Bleek,

1913.’ ‘Made of buck or goat skin, decorated, worn on shoulder by men and women to carry

quivers, digging-sticks, etc. //y.ke, southern Bushman.’ The bag is yellow-brown inside and

outside from some tanning agent; three large circles had been scraped into the skin on either

side, with a pattern of wavy lines in the circles.

SAM-AE4020: ‘Skin satchel, Bushman, South West Africa, purchased by Rev. H. Kling,

1922.’ The bag is drop-shaped, the inside is the usual light-brown skin colour; outside it had

been coloured with 1,5 to 2 cm bands of red pigment alternating with 2 to 3 cm bands of white

on which two or three rows of rectangular red spots had been painted with a square-tipped

instrument. The catalogue card says ‘decorated with ochre designs’.

SAM-AE 10085: ‘Skin bag.’ ‘Bushman, Kalahari north of Upington, collected by Dr W. M.

Borcherds, presented by his daughter 1971.’ (Dr Borcherds was known to the author and his

collections would most likely have been made in the 1920s and 1930s.) The bag is half-round, of

soft leather with several finely-worked patches sewn on it. Colour slightly reddish-brown from

some tanning agent, patterns (squares, circles, and a half-circle) scraped into the skin.

SAM-AES5878: ‘Woman’s apron.’ ‘Bushman, presented by Mr Donald Bain, October 2nd

1937.’ The apron is of leather, with three rows of ‘tassels’ of ostrich egg-shell beads covering it,

each tassel or string of beads beginning with a small, brown, striped seed. A dull red-brown

colouring matter had been applied to the apron and the beads.

SAM-AE7574: ‘Necklaces and rectangular ornament of ostrich egg-shell beads.’ ‘Collected by

D. Bain 1936, N. E. Kalahari.’ The ornament is 5,5 x 6,5 cm. A red pigment covers the beads

and is caked between them. The same small seeds have been incorporated into these ornaments

as those used on the apron (above) and they seem to belong together.

SAM-AE10790: ‘Loin-cloth.’ ‘Bushman, Tsumkwe, Bushmanland, South West Africa, purch-

ased for South African Museum by Bushman Commissioner, Tsumkwe, January 1976.’ The

skin had been reddened with a colouring matter applied to the right side only, and was

decorated with circles and rectangles of small coloured trade beads sewn on to it.

KHOISAN PIGMEN7S AND PAINTS 233

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE 7OR

THE USE OF PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

So far the study has dealt with the historical and ethnographical evidence.

In this section evidence further back in time for the use of pigments and paints in

southern Africa is noted.

GENERAL FINDS AT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

Although many archaeological reports mention the finding of pigments or

evidence for the use of pigments, usually on or in Late Stone Age deposits but

even earlier, few stress the information, and one suspects that some such finds

have been overlooked or were not thought worth mentioning.

It is not necessary here to list all the evidence: a cross-section will suffice.

Some of the information has already been put forward in the section on theories

and experiments, and the evidence from the rock paintings will be examined in

the next section.

Various writers in the first few decades of this century mentioned general

finds of earth pigments in cave deposits (e.g. Moszeik 1910: 30; Lebzelter

1930: 202; Dunn 1931: 43, 110) and of pigment-stained grinding-stones and

‘palettes’ (e.g. Dunn 1931: 43, 110).

In a survey of coastal kitchen middens from South West Africa to the

south-eastern Cape, Rudner & Rudner found that many of the pots, attributed

mainly to the Hottentots, had been stained on the outside with haematite while

being manufactured (J. Rudner 1968)—according to Ten Rhyne (1686), the

Hottentots smeared their pots all over with a red colouring matter. Rudner &

Rudner also found that some of the upper and lower grinding-stones were still

stained with red ochre, despite the fact that these were all surface finds in

exposed positions along the coast. This is a clear indication of the tenacity of red

ochre. Hottentot-type pottery that they found at open inland sites, particularly

along the Orange River, was frequently burnished with haematite (J. Rudner in

preparation).

During their survey of rock art in southern Africa, Rudner & Rudner

(1970) found some similarly stained grinding-stones on the floors of painted rock

shelters, as well as numerous lumps of ochre, usually red—the latter were often

exposed along the drip line.

Other reports show that such finds have been made throughout southern

Africa at rock art sites as well as at other sites.

A bivalve sea-shell with traces of red ochre on it, mentioned by Péringuey

in a letter (see p. 54), was found at Woltemade Station on the Cape Flats in 1913

(SAM-AA 1655).

All three excavated layers of the Late Stone Age midden at Gordon’s Bay

(dated up to 3220 + 55 B.p.) yielded pigments—red, yellow and white—as well

as palettes, some covered with red pigment (Van Noten 1974).

234 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

In the Bonteberg shelter on the Cape Peninsula, the top two layers

produced numerous pieces of ‘ochre’; a few showed flattened sides and striations

from grinding (Maggs & Speed 1967). Various other shelters in the south-

western Cape, such as the one at Rooi-els excavated from 1922 onwards,

contained red ochre pieces, ochre-stained grinders and palettes, etc. (South

African Museum archaeological catalogue).

Fragments of a ‘dark-red ochreous pigment’ similar in colour to the paint-

ings on the rock wall, were excavated in a painted cave in the Clanwilliam

district (Goodwin & Van Riet Lowe 1929: 265). In another cave at De Hangen

in the same district, ‘ochre’ was found on potsherds, other items of equipment,

and in the paintings on the rock walls; various shades of red and yellow ochres

were found on the surface in the vicinity (Parkington & Poggenpoel 1971a).

Pieces of haematite and ochre-stained stones such as grinders were found in

many shelters along the south coast and in the eastern Cape (South African

Museum archaeological catalogue).

In an excavation at Die Kelders on the south coast, pieces of red ochre, and

occasionally yellow ochre, were present throughout the deposit, which covered

some 2 000 years. Some pieces showed marks of abrasion. Powdered ochre was

found in shell containers and as a coating on perforated shells, ostrich egg-shell

beads and snake vertebrae, and a child burial was partly enveloped in a thin

layer of red ochre, while the cranium was heavily ochre-stained. Most of the

upper and lower grinding-stones as well as a number of unworked pebbles and

cobbles were stained with red ochre. There was black staining on a third of the

rubbers; sometimes red and black occurred on the same rubber or lower

grinding-stone. The black was smooth and fatty (Schweitzer 1979: 181). Some of

the pottery appeared to have been stained with red ochre (Schweitzer

1979: 164).

In the Oakhurst cave, yellow and claret ochre fragments came from the

uppermost Wilton layer; a few ostrich egg-shells, sea-shells, and gravestones

showed signs of ochre. The ‘Smithfield C’ material included stone palettes and

fragments of red and orange ochres (Goodwin 1938: 307, 316). There were also

red burials (see below).

A cave deposit at Robberg, excavated in 1917, contained pieces of ochre,

flat stones covered with a red pigment, a piece of wood with red pigment on it,

and a stone with black figures painted on it. Two other cave deposits contained a

red-stained grinding-stone and a stone with black figures painted on it. West of

Robberg, a cave yielded seventeen painted stones; in a letter Péringuey wrote

that the black pigment came off at the slightest touch. In another cave deposit

along this coast excavated in 1932, were ‘an artificially pointed fish bone with

signs of red paint on it’, and a red-stained grinding-stone. It is not clear how

many of these stones had been ‘burial stones’ (Rudner & Rudner 1973).

The deposits of two coastal caves at Klasies River mouth, near Humans-

dorp, yielded pieces of red ochre in all the Middle Stone Age levels (Dart 1968).

Two painted stones were also found in one deposit (Singer & Wymer 1969).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 235

Much red ochre was present throughout the deposit at Matjes River rock

shelter. A bored stone smeared with ochre was found with a burial, and there

were paint palettes and stone pestles and mortars with traces of red ochre on

them (Louw 1960). Besides pieces of haematite, the excavators recovered pieces

of limonite and carbonite of iron. A piece of brittle, black gum ‘may perhaps

have been a constituent of paint’ (Meiring 1953). Red ochre burials and a

gravestone were also found (see below).

Coastal and other sites in the Transkei and Ciskei yielded pieces of red

ochre (Derricourt 1977: 98, 111, 161, 183, 184).

Palettes were found with the ‘Wilton industry’ in the eastern Cape (Good-

win & Van Riet Lowe 1929: 257-258).

At Boomplaas cave, near Oudtshoorn, an excavation revealed forty-six

storage pits lined with the papery leaves of the Boophone bulb (‘gifbol’) and

grass. Some of the pits had contained the fruits of Pappea capensis, a well-

known source of vegetable oil. Three of the stones marking the pits had been

painted. A fourth such stone was also found. All were associated with Holocene

deposits and Wilton stone artefacts. This shows that such painted stones are not

always associated with burials (Deacon et al. 1976).

The painted Melkhoutboom cave contained a palette and pieces of ochre

among the Wilton artefacts (H. Deacon 1969).

At Grootdrink on the Orange River in the north-western Cape, several

finds were made during the construction of an irrigation canal, including an

ostrich egg-shell container stained with red ochre and associated with a burial,

and a Hottentot-type pot radiocarbon dated to about a.p. 1655. Another

egg-shell and pot contained ground specularite and red ochre respectively (see

below) (J. Rudner 1971a).

Palettes were associated with the ‘Smithfield industry’ in the Orange Free

State (Goodwin & Van Riet Lowe 1929: 153).

Middle Stone Age people at Olieboompoort, Transvaal, used haematite,

possibly for body adornment as there is no evidence that they painted on rocks;

haematite and ‘ochre pencils’ and a red-stained grinding-stone were dated to

33 000 B.p. (Mason 1962: 236, 259). At the Cave of Hearths they used yellow

ochre (Mason 1962: 236). The Late Stone Age deposit at Olieboompoort

yielded some specularite fragments, and at Magabeng cave the Smithfield people

had used haematite (Mason 1962: 320, 323).

In Bushman Rock shelter, Ohrigstad, eastern Transvaal, where there

were a few monochrome red and black paintings, ‘pigments’, both unused and in

the form of ground ‘pencils’, occurred in most of the Late Stone Age layers

and down to the last Middle Stone Age layer. Several broken grinding-stones,

some discoloured by pigment, occurred down to the second-last layer (Louw

1969).

In the deposit of Mwulu’s cave, Potgietersrus district, were found a number

of pieces of specularite; several pieces had been rubbed to a smooth surface,

with one in the shape of a pencil (Tobias 1949).

236 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

In the Natal Drakensberg, pigments and pigment-stained grinding-stones

have been found in shelters (e.g. Mason 1933; Pager 1971).

Wilton deposits in Rhodesia yielded pigments (Goodwin & Van Riet Lowe

1929: 255). At Bambata cave in the Matopo Hills, fragments of haematite were

found in various layers in the deposits (Arnold & Jones 1919). Excavations in

Pomongwe cave, in the same area, which contains rock paintings, yielded

colouring materials, mainly red haematite, at all levels, either in lumps or as

ground pencils. Red, yellow, and purple were present ‘at every cultural stage’

(‘Wilton to Sangoan’). Ostrich egg-shell beads stuck together and coated with

red ochre occurred in the Late Stone Age level. Grinding-stones bore traces of

pigment. It was concluded that the paintings belonged to the Late Stone Age

Wilton culture, although haematite occurred even in the lowest level, radiocar-

bon dated to 43 200 + 2 300 B.p. (Cooke 1963). Throughout the deposit in the

painted Zombepeta cave, Mashonaland (dated up to 40 720 B.p.), pieces of

haematite (including specularite), limonite, white talc (magnesium silicate),

crystalline iron pyrites, and conglomerates of metallic ores occurred (Cooke

1971a).

At various sites in South West Africa, Wendt (1972) found pigment-stained

grinding-stones, pestles, rubbers, palettes, and a hammerstone, fragments of

ostrich egg-shells with painted lines on them, pieces of sea-shell with traces of

pigment, several lumps of resin, and ornaments of ostrich egg-shell stained with

red as if they had been worn against a greasy, red-painted skin; lumps of various

pigments, including red and white, were found at most of the sites, some of

which contained paintings, others not. Seven painted slabs of stone (two being

parts of one slab) came from one deposit in Middle Stone Age layer E, and were

dated ‘with almost certainty’ to between 27 500 and 25 500 B.p. The Late Stone

Age layers and Middle Stone Age layer F also contained pigments (Wendt

1976).

Among the finds in the excavation of Mirabib Hill painted shelter in the

Namib Desert, were red-stained grinding-stones and strands of hair caked

together with clay and/or ochre (Sandelowsky 1974).

In Maltahohe district, South West Africa, there were two instances in which

‘red powder was found in dwelling caves with rock paintings’ (J. Gaerdes 1971

pers. comm.).

RED BURIALS AND “BURIAL STONES’

Various reports mention burials with traces of red ochre on the remains, but

it is impossible to say whether the person had been wearing the pigment before

death or not, although there have been indications that red ochre might have

been sprinkled on the corpse. Painted stones, including the so-called ‘burial

stones’ have been found in various excavated deposits. Although they were

often associated with burials, the painted stones found by Wendt (1976) in South

West Africa, and Deacon et al. (1976) in the Little Karoo, have shown that this

is not always the case.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 237

At Milnerton, on the beach front near the lagoon and near scattered

midden deposits, an adult skeleton was found with ostrich egg-shell beads

preserved in their original design in the pelvic region; red ochre was preserved

on and between the beads. Other disturbed ochre-stained beads suggested

further ornamentation. A child skeleton also showed traces of red ochre

(G. Avery, South African Museum, 1980 pers. comm.).

At Noordwesbaai, in the Vredenburg district, the bones of a baby were

found in a scattered midden; the sand round the skull was stained with red ochre

(G. Avery 1980 pers. comm.).

Near Clanwilliam a Late Stone Age burial with three ochre-stained grind-

ing-stones was found in Klipfonteinrand cave (Parkington & Poggenpoel 19715).

The coastal site at Die Kelders yielded the red child burial mentioned above

(Schweitzer 1979: 181). Various other south coast sites, notably in the Robberg

area, yielded painted burial stones (Fig. 21) (see Rudner 1971b; Rudner &

Rudner 1973 for summary and references). At Oakhurst there were various

burials with ochre-stained skulls and bones, stones with red paint on them,

palettes, and fragments of red ochre in the graves. One grave contained a small

mountain tortoise-shell with blue pigment in it, and another some Donax shells

filled with red ochre. A child skeleton had also been covered with red ochre

(Goodwin 1938).

Fig. 21. The Coldstream Cave burial stone (SAM-AA6008) with paintings of people with

painted bodies and faces (from drawing in Rudner & Rudner 1970).

238 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

At the Matjes River rock shelter, ‘Smithfield folk’ had poured ‘powdered

ochre’ in quantity over burials, and graves in the lower levels revealed lumps of

ochre or powdered ochre on or near the skulls (Dreyer 1934). Layer C contained

a painted ‘gravestone’ and an ochre-stained bored stone was found with a burial

(Louw 1960).

Human bones stained with red ochre were found in a cave at Zitzikama

(FitzSimons 1923).

A ‘Khoisanoid’ burial from Cape St Francis, dated to 5 180 + 65 B.p.,

included pieces of haematite and quartz (De Villiers 1974).

Burial stones were found at sites in the Albany district (J. Rudner 1971b).

In the painted Wilton cave in the eastern Cape, the remains of burials showed

that the corpses had been covered with flat stones painted red on their under-

surfaces (Goodwin & Van Riet Lowe 1929: 251; J. Deacon 1972).

Along the Orange River, Dreyer & Meiring (1937) found that in ‘old

Hottentot’ graves the skulls were thickly covered with powdered specularite and

in one were lumps of what appeared to be ‘haematic manganite mixed with fat and

containing crinkly hair’. In a ‘late’ grave of a Hottentot chief, said to be about 75

years old, the skull was thickly covered with powdered specular iron ore.

A burial at Driekopseiland engraving site included an ochre-encrusted

lower grinding-stone, a few small pieces of red ochre, and half an ostrich

egg-shell coated inside with specularite and outside with red ochre; part of the

grave and bones were stained with red ochre (Mason 1954).

A burial on the Riet River included human hair thickly matted with

powdered specularite and ostrich egg-shell beads coated with specularite. A

lump of red ochre was found and there were traces of red ochre on the bones. In

the vicinity a fragment of specularite was found—this mineral is unknown in this

area and must have been brought there, according to Humphreys & Maggs

(1970). Another burial near the Riet River at Weltevreden contained a skull

with a faint red smear, and one at Pniel contained an ochre-stained upper

grinding-stone (Humphreys 1970). One of the many Koffiefontein (Orange Free

State) burials included an ochre-stained grinding-stone, and ochre was apparent

and relatively widespread in these graves (Humphreys 1970).

Old ‘Hottentot’ graves in southern South West Africa were found to contain

red ochre burials (A. Albat, Berseba, 1972 pers. comm.).

CACHES OF PIGMENTS

Caches of powdered iron ore, most of them described as specularite, have

been found in various parts of southern Africa, indicating that this must have

been a fairly widespread precious commodity. In this study it was found that

specularite was known to have been used mainly by some Tswana groups, and

also by some of the Hottentot and Bushmen groups along the Orange River and

elsewhere in the north-western Cape, an area known for its specularite (‘blink-

klip’) mines or diggings since historical times (see below). At least some of the

ore was obtained by barter (e.g. Burchell 1822-4 2: 182; Campbell 1822 2: 194).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 239

Information about a number of such caches has been traced (Fig. 22), and

there must be others.

A small Hottentot-type pot filled with specularite was found at Fraserburg

and presented to the South African Museum by J. X. Merriman in 1875

(SAM-AA5344). Péringuey (1911: 124, pl. 24 (fig. 176)), and later Schofield

(1948) described a necked ovoid pot ‘from the Zuurberg’ that was found

partially filled with specular iron, but it was the Fraserburg pot, mentioned

above, with its distinctive decoration. Another necked conical pot, also contain-

ing specular iron, was found at Port Nolloth (Péringuey 1911, pl. 24 (fig. 180))

(see also Péringuey letter to Van Zyl 1919 in section on theories and experi-

ments p. 56).

A spouted ‘Hottentot—Bush’ pot filled with specularite was found buried

near Vanryhnsdorp and was presented to the South African Museum in about

1922 (SAM-AE4028).

Rudner & Rudner were told in 1960 that at Rouxville, a Late Stone Age

site along the Orange River near Upington (see Rudner & Rudner 1959b), the

lower part of the pot with a pointed base containing red ochre had been found.

At Grootdrink, in the same area, an undecorated ostrich egg-shell filled with

specularite (SAM-AA6031) had been dug up during construction work

(J. Rudner 1971a), and one of the Hottentot-type pots (SAM-AA6026) found at

the same site had contained red ochre—it was radiocarbon dated to about A.D.

1655 (J. Rudner 1971a). The egg-shell and pot were associated with a burial.

An ostrich egg-shell filled with powdered ‘manganese’ or ‘specularite’ from

Niekerkshoop, was taken to the National Museum in Bloemfontein (E. Baard,

National Museum, 1973 pers. comm.).

Humphreys (1974) recorded caches of powdered specularite in ostrich

egg-shells along the Orange, Vaal, and Riet rivers on the farms Tipperary,

Olierivier, Moirdal, and Kafferfontein. He included the ostrich egg-shell coated

with specularite inside that Mason (1954) found in a burial at Driekopseiland.

A number of caches were found in South West Africa. Sydow (1967) noted

that eight pots filled with ‘iron ore, in all cases sedimentary magnetite’, had been

found buried but without associated cultural material. He gave the localities of

five; Fish River plain near Mariental; Windhoek; Okamongongua, Okahandja

district; Omandumba West, Erongo Mountains; and Karios, Warmbad district.

Recently Sydow (1980) reported the discovery of another pot on the farm

Varkbosch in the Maltahdhe district, which contained 20 kg of dark-grey pow-

dered magnetite. He noted that there is no record of the traditional use of this

ore in South West Africa and suggested that the caches of minerals found in that

territory might have been obtained by barter from the Tswana trading as far

afield as South West Africa.

According to J. Rudner (1968, and in preparation), the pots can all be

classified as ‘Hottentot’, but this does not mean that they might not have been

used by others such as the Bushmen. Sydow’s suggestion that the contents of the

caches might have been derived from trade with Tswana people cannot be ruled

240

15 ‘4

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 22. Map showing where caches of pigments have been

found in South Africa and South West Africa.

Powdered ore in pots (1-14)

1. Omandumba West (Sydow 1967); 2. Okamongongua, Oka-

handja (Sydow 1967); 3. Windhoek (Sydow 1967); 4. Nakais,

Rehoboth (Sandelowsky 1971); 5. Somaubes, Rehoboth (San-

delowsky 1971); 6. Noab, Naukluft (Rudner herein); 7. Vark-

bosch, Maltahohe (Sydow 1980); 8. Mariental (Sydow 1967); 9.

Bethanie (Jacobson 1977); 10. Bethanie (Jacobson 1977); 11.

Karios, Warmbad (Sydow 1967); 12. Port Nolloth (Péringuey

1911); 13. Vanrhynsdorp (SAM-AE4028); 14. Fraserburg

(SAM-AA5344) (Péringuey 1911); — Three in South West

Africa, localities not given (Sydow 1967)

Powdered ore in ostrich egg-shells (15-22)

15. Auchas (Jacobson & Wendt 1979 pers. comm.) (found in

‘shells’); 16. Grootdrink (Rudner 1971a); 17. Niekerkshoop

(Nasionale Museum 1973 pers. comm.); 18. Kafferfontein

(Humphreys 1974); 19. Olierivier (Humphreys 1974); 20.

Driekopseiland (Mason 1954); 21. Moirdal (Humphreys 1974);

22. Tipperary (Humphreys 1974)

Red ochre in pots (23-24)

23. Rouxville (Rudner herein); 24. Grootdrink (Rudner 1971a).

1718_ ~<—"59

——

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 241

out as a possibility, but a whole series of iron ore deposits are known in South

West Africa (Geological Survey, Windhoek, 1979 pers. comm.) from which the

mineral pigments could have come. Analysis of the contents of these caches and

a comparison with iron ore deposits may provide an answer.

In 1957 Rudner & Rudner (J. Rudner in preparation) found the lower half

of a Hottentot type filled with powdered iron ore along a river-bank at Noab, in

the Naukluft Mountains.

A cache of three Hottentot type pots, two containing a quantity of specula-

rite, was excavated in the Bethanie district (Jacobson 1977).

At Auchas, on the Orange River, a burial was found associated with ‘two

(sea?) shells’ containing specularite—the latter are in the Geological Depart-

ment of the Consolidated Diamond Mines at Oranjemund, the skull is in the

State Museum at Windhoek (L. Jacobson & E. Wendt 1979 pers. comm.).

A clay pot filled with magnetite was found at Nakais, Rehoboth district,

and another at Somaubes in the same district; Sandelowsky (1971) was told

that the Herero used this powdered mineral but that the Nama used red ochre,

and suggested that the ore might have been smelted and reduced to metal. This

suggestion does not seem feasible—the quantities are too small and there is

virtually no evidence that the Khoisan peoples smelted iron ore. Laidler

(1935: 566) noted that Péringuey had found a smelting-site with ‘iron ore’ and

a stone hammer on the Cape Flats, but there is no evidence regarding the

identity of the smith. There is information in the literature that the historical

Hottentots worked old iron obtained by barter (e.g. Dapper 1668: 57), but

there is only slight evidence of their having smelted iron, if Kolb (1731: 237-

238) can be believed: he said he had seen them smelting iron ore to use for

weapons and that they also smelted copper. Meerhof (1661 in Moodie

1838: 233) noted that the ‘Namaqua’ (south of the Orange River) had copper

and iron beads, and that they worked copper and iron. Meerhof himself gave

them copper as gifts. Van der Stel (1685-6) recorded copper mining in Nama-

qualand. However, records of actual smelting have not been traced, beyond

the information of Kolb. Wikar (1779: 77-79) stated that the Zambdama

(Bergdama) smiths beat out copper and iron beads for the ‘Namaqua’ north of

the Orange River, but he did not actually mention smelting. Vedder (1938: 28,

109) noted that the Bergdama were the first smiths among the Herero and

Nama; they traded the iron from the Ovambo from whom they had acquired

their skill as blacksmiths, and they ‘understood the art of melting and working

iron’. However, he did not give proof of the statement that they actually

smelted the ore.

Sparrman (1785: 196, ed. Forbes) noted that some Bushmen were using

iron arrow-heads in 1775, instead of the traditional bone points. The Bushmen

only reworked old iron, they did not smelt ore. In 1974 in Ovamboland, the

author saw a Bushman smith who was permanently settled in his own Ovambo-

style kraal and who traded his Ovambo-style metal products for Ovambo goods;

he used only old iron found at construction sites, etc.

242 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Copper beads have been found in excavated deposits in South West Africa,

e.g. J. Rudner and R. MacCalman found such beads with Wilton artefacts in

Numas Entrance Cave in the Brandberg (J. Rudner pers. comm.), but they

might well have been traded or made from metal obtained from other people.

PIGMENT MINING

There is considerable evidence for the ‘mining’ or digging for pigments,

particularly haematite, in southern Africa in historic as well as prehistoric times.

Some diggings are still in use by Khoisan as well as by black people for cosmetic

and other colouring purposes, as has been shown in this study, but many

diggings would have been so slight as to have gone unnoticed. Much of the ore

from these diggings was used by the black peoples for smelting.

Apart from the diggings, there are the nodules containing mineral powders,

the ‘Bushmen paint pots’ mentioned by Péringuey, Moszeik and others, and the

ochreous powders found in pockets in the rock that were all sources of pigments.

Ten Rhyne’s (1686: 113) reference to ‘a mountain that produces colours’ is

the earliest known historical record of pigment diggings; its locality, and that of

Valentyn’s (1726 2: 109) ‘workings of red and white chalk, various sorts of

mixed earths’ are unknown—both were apparently in the south-western Cape

and might have been the same site.

Barrow (1806) found that ‘ochres’ were common everywhere, including the

haematite nodules ‘of the hardness and consistency of baked earthenware’; near

the False River, a tributary of the Gouritz, a mine was being quarried.

Steedman (1835) wrote of a red clay ‘found in the vicinity of the Fish River

and it is surprising how distant a journey these people will undertake to procure

iti

According to Derricourt (1977: 17), ‘Grahamstown was_ historically

favoured for obtaining ochre for the Ciskei—pits are normally dug to obtain

ochre’. Beaumont (1973) noted several such diggings in the eastern Cape.

The pyrolusite mined at Sekameng in Lesotho is highly prized and is sold

over a wide area (Walton 1954).

Arbousset & Daumas (1846: 50-51, 248) wrote of platinum mining in what

is now Lesotho, and of ‘copper ore’ that the Bushwomen near Bethulie (Orange

Free State) extracted from the Bosjesspruit and ‘burn in the fire’ for a hair

powder; the same ore was collected by villagers from a ravine at Thaba Patsoa

on the Caledon River; asbestos was also found here and used by the Bushmen in

their hair.

Other old diggings are known in the Orange Free State and in the Transvaal

(Beaumont 1973).

Already in 1779 Wikar wrote that the ‘Namnykoa’ obtained from the

‘Bliquas’ a stone that they powdered, mixed with fat and smeared into their

hair. Harris (1852: 43) mentioned specularite or ‘sibilo’ mines of the Tswana

‘which are visited from all parts of the country’. Dunn (1872: 380) described a

‘famous locality’ near Naugat in the Prieska district, where a large hole had

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 243

been dug for haematite—the tools left in situ were ‘half an old axe-head with a

piece of stick thrust through for a handle, the edge of another broken axe, and

an old koodoo horn’. Elsewhere he (Dunn 1931: 111) wrote that ‘Nauta’ was

the principal source of haematite in Bushmanland. He mentioned that ‘in the

Stormberg red haematite occurred in a bed of conglomerate just above the

chief coal seam’. In the nineteenth century, one of Bleek & Lloyd’s (1911: 379)

Bushman informants told them of //hdra (specularite) and tto (haematite)

diggings near Prieska.

The best known haematite workings are at Blinkklipkop, near Postmasburg,

visited by Borcherds (1861: 73) in 1801 and described as ‘a cave abounding in

red earth mixed with mica’; Lichtenstein (1811) saw the diggings in 1805 and

called them the caves of ‘Sigihlong’; Campbell (1822) explored the ‘Blink (or

Shining) Hill’ cave with a lighted candle in 1814; and Burchell (1822-4 2: 182)

used the ‘sibilo’ from ‘Sensavan’ or ‘Blink-klip’ (his terms) with gum water or oil

for painting some of his pictures; it was ‘a shining, powdery iron-ore of a

steel-grey or bluish lustre, and soft and greasy to the hands or clothes and

staining them of a dark-red or ferrugineous colour’. He mentioned other

workings in the vicinity and the extensive trade with the pigment.

Thompson (1827) noted that when the ‘Matclhapees’, a Tswana tribe, were

threatened with attack, they fled with their most valuable possessions, including

‘red paint stone, powder of the blink-klip’ packed on their oxen.

The ore in these areas was extracted by the Tswana and traded to the Kora

and others, as early travellers testified. This trade came to an end only in 1910,

Boshier & Beaumont (1972) were told. (See Boshier & Beaumont (1972),

Beaumont (1973) Beaumont & Thackeray (1981) for further details about this

mine and others in the area.)

There are ancient haematite workings in Zimbabwe (Schofield 19326;

Summers 1969), and Dart (1934) recorded the discovery of a Stone Age

manganese mine at Chowa, in what is now Zambia—he has written various

papers on other ancient pigment workings.

Boshier & Beaumont (1972; Beaumont 1973 et seq.) devoted considerable

attention to pigment ‘mining’ in southern Africa; they traced and relocated

various recorded workings, found others, and investigated and excavated several

such sites, notably two caverns at Bomvu Ridge, Ngwena, in Swaziland. The

radiocarbon dates for Castle Cavern indicated that specularite digging had begun

some time before A.D. 400, and the oldest of several such dates for these

activities in Lion Cavern was more than 41000 B.c. The workings were still used

within living memory, and modern mining operations are taking place there.

Excavations in the rubble at Castle Cavern produced stone mining-tools, pot-

sherds, and rusted iron fragments ascribable to the Iron Age, according to the

authors. The deposit at Castle Quarry 2 yielded stone mining-tools, grindstones,

and Late Stone Age artefacts, and was dated to about 2 000 years. At Lion

Cavern (Beaumont 1973) the upper level of the soil and rubble deposit con-

tained ‘sporadic Iron Age and Later Stone Age debris’, while the basal 76 cm

244 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

yielded ‘tens of thousands’ of in situ stone artefacts, including mining-tools

belonging to the ‘full Middle Stone Age’.

An excavation at Border Cave in northern Natal, a rich pigment mine with

bone and stone artefacts, produced, from charcoal overlying a child burial, a

radiocarbon date exceeding the limits of radiocarbon dating (60000 B.c.)

(Boshier & Beaumont 1972).

Among the workings in the north-western Cape that were investigated

(Beaumont 1973), was one of the two at Doornfontein, near Postmasburg,

where specularite had been dug and which yielded ‘Later Stone Age type’ stone

artefacts, ‘Hottentot’ pottery, bone arrow points, hundreds of ostrich egg-shell

beads, and ‘large Khoisan’ human bones; carbon samples from middle and basal

levels both gave a date of A.D. 830.

Beaumont (1973) suggested that the intensive exploitation of various col-

oured and glittering minerals was already in progress at about 120000 B.c.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Archaeological finds confirm that earth pigments, mainly haematite, were

used throughout southern Africa during prehistoric times. The presence of such

pigments on or in deposits in painted shelters couple their use to the paintings.

Their presence in other Late Stone Age and Middle Stone Age deposits and

finds such as red ochre-stained grinding-stones, potsherds, and ornaments (e.g.

ostrich egg-shell beads) suggest other uses too. The ornaments might have been

stained by design, but also by having been worn against ochre-smeared bodies;

the use of pigments for cosmetic purposes is indicated by traces of haematite in

burials, and ritual uses are shown by the apparent additional use of pigments on

corpses and the presence of containers with pigments in them in burials, as well

as the presence of red-stained and other painted burial stones. However, some

of the painted stones that have been excavated were not associated with burials.

These burials have been identified as ‘Khoisan’, while some of the Late Stone

Age and historical burials have been identified as ‘Hottentot’.

The author’s fieldwork among the Nama in South West Africa revealed a

superstition that were a person to die while wearing red ochre paint, boro, it

would not be possible to remove the pigment, therefore a person who is ill does

not wear the paint (see herein). But old Hottentot burials found in South West

Africa showed the presence of red ochre which might or might not have been

applied after death (see herein).

The suggestion that caches of ore found in pots in South West Africa might

have been for smelting and reducing the ore to metal must be disputed. The

quantities are too small for this and there have not yet been any finds to prove

that there were Khoisan iron-smelting works. There is very slight information

only that the historical Hottentots smelted iron: they and the Bushmen were

known to have reworked old iron.

The distribution of the caches found accords with the distribution of

Khoisan peoples, except for the south-western Cape and southern Cape coastal

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 245

areas, where caches have not been found and which were probably too far from

the sources of supply as far as the mineral ores such as specularite are

concerned, but red ochre burials do occur in these regions. The containers in

which these pigments were kept were ostrich egg-shells, known to have been

used by Bushmen and Hottentots, and Hottentot-type pots, perhaps used by

Bushmen as well as Hottentots.

Even though the Nama of today apparently do not use specularite (or other

ores), there is ethnographical evidence that it was used as a cosmetic pigment by

some Hottentot tribes in historical times, as well as a little evidence of its use by

Bushmen, in areas around or close to the sources, mainly along the Orange

River and in Griqualand West (see below), where archaeological evidence also

exists for its use by Khoisan peoples.

As the caches included red ochre as well as specularite and other ores

(perhaps not always correctly identified), they suggest, rather, a precious com-

modity used as a pigment, particularly in the light of other evidence.

Haematite is known to have been used and traded by some Tswana people

in historical times, and it was probably so further back in time. Pigment mining

in southern Africa dates back at least to the Middle Stone Age. With the advent

of the Iron Age, the ore was also mined for smelting. Most of these mines in

southern Africa occur in the northern and north-western Cape and Transvaal,

with some in northern Natal and Swaziland. Iron deposits also occur in South

West Africa, which might have been the sources of the caches in that region, not

necessarily, as has been suggested, through trade with Tswana people,

The presence of oil-containing fruits in storage pits in the Boomplaas cave,

Oudtshoorn district, indicates that the occupants of the time might not have had

sufficient animal fats for their needs. From this study it appears that the

stock-owning Hottentots who had ready access to animal fats did not make use

of vegetable fats, which require more labour to obtain and extract, but that the

hunter-gatherer ‘Bushmen’ (perhaps including stockless Hottentots) augmented

animal fats with vegetable oils and still do so today.

246 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

RELATING KHOISAN PIGMENTS

AND PAINTS TO THE ROCK PAINTINGS

The relevant data in previous sections in this study are related here to the

rock paintings.

The rock paintings themselves can provide an indication of the pigments

that were used by the artists and, to a lesser extent perhaps, the media and

techniques of applying the paint. They also provide information about other uses

for the paints, such as body painting. The problem of weathering, which

influences the paintings and their colours, must also be taken into account.

PIGMENTS AND COLOURS

Visual examination of the paintings can give some indication of the pig-

ments that were used, provided it is known exactly which colours the various

possible pigments will produce and a detailed colour chart is used. It was 36

years ago that Van Riet Lowe (1945) pleaded for greater accuracy in determin-

ing the colours in rock paintings: he published a chart drawn up by Breuil to

show how one colour, e.g. sepia brown, will range over numerous colours in two

different colour dictionaries. Add to that the various shades of red, orange, and

yellow, he wrote, and ‘one is lost in an ochreous haze’. And still a standard

colour chart for use by rock art workers does not exist. Virtually all have erred,

and still err, by not defining the colours more accurately. Pager (1971: 234) used

the Munsell soil colour chart to define his designation of ten colours for the

Ndedema Gorge paintings, and he pointed out the difficulty of matching colours

accurately under various conditions of light, etc. Battiss (1948) broadly used the

artist’s terms for colours and pigments and apparently often guessed which

pigments might have been used in the rock paintings.

There is need for further work in this neglected field of rock art research to

determine not only the colours and frequency with which they occur in given

areas (and there may be style, subject, regional, and time differences related to

the choice of colours), but also the shades, whether there were obviously mixed

colours, e.g. pink, whether the colours were transparent or opaque; the latter

qualities might have been influenced by the type of media used or the thickness

of the paint. This information should then be matched against the known range

of colours and shades produced by various pigments. Experiments are necessary

to show to what extent media might have influenced the colour of the pigments,

by using the likely media suggested herein.

Such analysis can refer to the present situation qnly—it is not always

obvious when some colours have weathered away, nor can one determine the

extent to which weathering might have changed the shades and even the colours.

In a previous section it was shown that some chemical tests have been

undertaken to determine the pigments or media used by the rock artists, but

there must be sufficient paint available to provide a sample. Experiments have

also been conducted with ultra-violet photography.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 247

At this stage it is possible to refer only in general terms to the basic colours

in rock paintings and to conclude that, because of their traditional use and

availability, certain pigments would have been used. Conclusions drawn from

the author’s fieldwork and study of rock art in southern Africa with Jalmar

Rudner are summarized below, together with further relevant evidence of

others.

RED, BROWN

Many kinds of red and brown with many shades occur in the rock art. These

have been variously described as maroon, vermilion, brick, dark, light, pink,

reddish brown, brownish red, chocolate, etc.

The reds seem everywhere to have been the most durable colours and,

where the paints have weathered, the reds have usually been the main ones to

have stood the test of time.

According to some tests mentioned previously, iron oxides were used for

reds and browns, while a pink in the Drakensberg was composed of ‘burnt ochre

and quartz’, but relatively few laboratory tests have been conducted. Because of

the appearance of many of the reds and browns in the paintings, workers have

frequently suggested that iron oxides were used for these colours. There is some

historical as well as archaeological confirmation of their use in rock art, and

there is no doubt that these earth pigments must have been used because of the

general durability of the reds in the paintings—ferric oxides are fast colours.

Powdered red oxides adhere readily to a surface, even without binders, as

anyone who had handled them will testify. Moreover, they are readily available

and the red colour would have been desirable to the painters here, as it was

throughout the world.

It has been shown that the Khoisan peoples made extensive use of ferric

oxides, particularly the reds, for painting themselves and sometimes their

material possessions. Numerous references to such use by apparently all the

groups of the historical Hottentots date from the early years of the Dutch

settlement at the Cape up to the present day, but references to the metallic

forms, such as specularite, are rare, and their use seems to have been confined

to the north-western Cape and Orange River regions. The author has recorded

that earthy ferric oxides, mainly red ochre, are still used by the Nama, both

cosmetically and to colour objects, but specularite seems to be unknown to them

(Tables 15, 25).

References to the use of ferric oxides by the Bushmen are fewer, perhaps

because of fewer contacts with them by early travellers, and it is difficult to

judge how widely these pigments were used by comparison with the Hottentots

(Table 40).

Further evidence for the use of specularite was found in Khoisan burials in

the north-western Cape, and red ochre also occurred in Khoisan burials. The

various caches of pigment—red ochre and metallic powders—that have been

found, were most probably all of Khoisan peoples.

248 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

There is, therefore, good reason to believe that the Khoisan rock artists

would have extended the use of these traditional pigments to include rock

painting. There is also a limited amount of historical evidence that they used

haematite pigments for the paintings.

Red was also obtained from plant pigments: early travellers recorded such

use by the Hottentots and the Bushmen, the author found that the Nama still

use red plant pigments, and some Bushman groups still use them (Tables 17, 27,

42). These pigments seem to have been used not only for their colour but

sometimes also for the scent, i.e. as buchu. The possibility that they might also

have been used by the rock artists is not ruled out, although the durability of the

colours is unknown, particularly when mixed with binders. Most plant pigments

fade. Only analysis of the paints in the paintings themselves will confirm their

presence or not.

Blood has been suggested as a pigment for the paint used in rock art, and

there is some hearsay evidence of its use in Lesotho as a binder; traces of its

presence in many rock paintings in various areas from the Drakensberg to South

West Africa are claimed to have been found. However, the writer has ascer-

tained experimentally that blood, when used on its own as a paint, does not

remain red but fades away completely in less than 4 years under conditions

where it is protected from direct sunlight and rain. The addition of other

substances may retard this process. The suggestion that blood as a medium may

increase the durability of the paint (more than other binders?) should be tested

under controlled conditions. It is questioned here whether the presence of blood

in the rock paints is, indeed, as universal as is claimed; alternatively, other

albumin-containing substances might perhaps have been used.

Some slight ritual use by the historical Hottentots of blood as a body paint

has been recorded, and the author found it still to be known among the Nama

people. A few such uses by the Bushmen have been recorded, but there is no

evidence that it was generally traditional. There is not sufficient ethnographical

evidence to suggest that blood had been generally used by the Khoisan as a

paint.

YELLOW

The rock paintings include a variety of yellows of many shades, ranging

from brownish to light yellow and including some with a greenish or khaki tinge.

It is not known to what extent the choice of media or weathering would have

influenced the colours.

Earth pigments, mainly limonite (hydrous iron oxide), have been suggested

for yellow, and some tests also revealed the presence of limonite. The Khoisan

peoples were known to have used yellow pigments for purposes other than rock

paintings; these included limonite as well as plant pigments (Tables 15, 17, 27,

40, 42). There are some references to the use of yellow aromatic plant pigments

by the historical Hottentots, and the author recorded several such among the

Nama, but there are only a few references to their use by the Bushmen. Here,

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 249

again, only chemical tests will determine whether plant pigments had been used

for the rock paintings. It is doubtful whether the colours would have lasted.

ORANGE

Orange sometimes occurs in the rock paintings, although not in all areas.

Orange paint might have been made by mixing a red and a yellow pigment,

although it is also found in natural form in nodules. Mention of this colour for

use by Khoisan peoples for purposes other than for rock paintings has not been

found.

WHITE

White was frequently used in the paintings, sometimes without the presence

of other colours, but more often for decorative or additional features such as in

the various figures of people or animals, when the white might have been

painted on another colour, e.g. white beadwork or body paint on a red figure

(Fig. 23).

Various kinds of white pigments appear to have been employed by the

artists, ranging from a ‘pure’ white to ‘dirty’ yellowish or greyish white. It may

be that the colour was influenced by the medium, if any, but it is not possible by

visual inspection to determine the pigments that were used.

Some white pigments seem to have been as durable as the reds—perhaps

due to the medium—but others were often among the first to have disappeared

through weathering or other factors, possibly due to the media employed as well

as the pigments. As mentioned in a previous section, some white mineral

pigments are insoluble or only slightly soluble in water (but other media might

have been used), while others are fairly coarse-grained and will therefore not

form a very durable paint. There are various carbonates, sulphates, and silicates

and silica that could have been used.

Numerous ‘crude late’ paintings, some possibly made by black people, were

executed in white (e.g. Rudner & Rudner 1970: 49, fig. 37, pls 28, 31, 46).

Various pigments for white paint have been suggested, from ‘bird drop-

pings’ to earth pigments and plant latex (Table 3). Some of the plant latexes dry

colourless and it had yet to be proved that any remain white for a long time.

Some few tests revealed the presence of ‘china clay’ and gypsum, and zinc oxide.

It has already been noted herein that white clay is used by many black

peoples in southern Africa, mainly for personal adornment and often in rituals,

but there are relatively few references to the use of white pigments by Khoisan

peoples for purposes other than rock painting. The Bushmen were said some-

times to have used white (unidentified) for body decoration, and the Nama and

Kora used white quartz on their bodies on certain occasions, as noted herein.

BLACK

Black occurs generally in rock art, but it is usually used for features such as

horns, hooves and outlines (e.g. Rudner & Rudner 1970, pls 8, 44-45) rather

250 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

Fig. 23. Rock painting of figure in red with the body deco-

rated with white paint, some of which may depict beadwork

(Ha Khotso, Lesotho).

than for full figures, although these do occur. In the eastern Cape some of the

latest paintings are small black ones.

In many instances the black is fugitive, in other cases it has lasted along with

the red iron oxides, and sometimes longer than any of the other colours on the

same rock (see p. 253).

There are rock paintings, usually of the ‘crude late’ type, that appear to

have been made with a crayon of charcoal.

The various suggestions for black pigment in rock paintings (Table 3) were

nearly always charcoal, but manganese and graphite were also mentioned. Tests

revealed the presence of charcoal.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS Oeil

The Khoisan people, particularly the historical Hottentots, made use of

charcoal or soot for a black body paint (Table 16), but it was found to be rarely

used by the Nama of today. Some historical Hottentots and some Bushmen

groups in certain areas also used specularite which is metallic black that may

have a reddish tinge.

GREEN

This colour is almost non-existent in the rock paintings. A painting at

Clarke Siding in the eastern Cape that appeared to be green was found to be a

transparent yellow over black (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 167, pl. 50). Other

green paintings have not been found by the author. A khaki-yellow paint has

already been mentioned under the yellow paints. Schoonraad (1960) found a few

rare green paintings close to copper mines with malachite surface outcrops.

No information regarding the use of green paints by the Khoisan peoples

was found.

OTHER COLOURS

The author has not seen any rock paintings in blue, but a few have been

recorded. Grey or greyish-white paintings have been recorded.

The Khoisan peoples used some miscellaneous pigments, including the

dark-brown hyraxeum used by the historical Hottentots (Table 7) and the

present-day Nama (Table 28), and said to have been used by Bushman rock

artists (Table 3). Only chemical tests, if possible, will determine the presence in

the paintings.

REGIONAL VARIATIONS

Not enough work has been done to make a proper assessment of the

regional variations in the use of colours, but there are indications that there

were colour preferences, no doubt also influenced by the availability of certain

pigments.

The summary given here refers to present conditions of the paintings and

the fieldwork that has been undertaken—there is often no way of knowing

where colours have disappeared, although in many cases slight traces remain and

in Others it is apparent that features are missing in the paintings.

The paintings in the Drakensberg areas contain the most polychrome and

shaded paintings in southern Africa. Vinnicombe’s (1976: 362) analysis of Natal

paintings showed that monochromes still far exceed bichromes and polychromes;

the predominant colour is red (see also Rudner & Rudner 1970: 268, schedule 2;

Pager 1971: 328), with black and white equally much in evidence, and with

yellow used very little, even less than orange. But Pager (1971: 328) found at

Ndedema Gorge in Natal that orange had been used less than yellow.

Other Drakensberg paintings such as in Lesotho include numerous

polychromes as well as bichromes, and here, too, red was used the most, or

survived the best. Smits (1971) noted that there were many small, black

252 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

monochromes and that ‘most colours normally used in rock paintings are

represented’.

In the Orange Free State, Rudner & Rudner have found that reds pre-

dominate, and there are polychromes and shaded paintings in the Drakensberg

areas.

In a survey of thirty shelters in the eastern Cape, Rudner & Rudner

(1970: 268) found red paintings only in ten of the shelters, other monochromes

and bichromes in twenty shelters, and polychromes in twelve. There were some

shaded paintings.

The khaki-yellow colour from Leeukraal in the Aliwal North district (Rud-

ner & Rudner 1970, pl. 52) is unusual and the author has not seen this colour in

the south-western Cape or in South West Africa.

In the southern Cape, Rudner & Rudner (1970: 268) found that out of

nineteen shelters, ten contained only red paints, eleven had other monochrome

and bichrome paintings, and one had a polychrome painting.

In the Soutpansberg of the northern Transvaal, Rudner & Rudner

(1970: 268) found red paintings only at two sites, and other monochromes and

bichromes at two. White predominated among ‘crude late’ paintings. In the

Limpopo Valley, Schoonraad (1960) recorded that most of the paintings were of

large animals in monochromes with a number of bichromes and one trichrome

painting. The colours were reds, white, grey, orange, black, and, in several

instances, green (see above). There are some shaded paintings in the northern

and eastern Transvaal.

Masson (1971) recorded twenty-nine sites in Swaziland: monochrome

silhouettes, usually in dark red, predominated, though lighter reds, blacks, and

yellow-browns were not uncommon; one bichrome only was found and there

were no polychromes.

The paintings of the Great Karoo are mainly designs, or, more rarely, crude

animal pictures (Rudner & Rudner 1969; 1970: 234, pl. 52) in red, white, black,

or yellow. A survey of twelve sites (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 268) showed eleven

with red paintings, ten with white, five with black, and four with yellow.

At Buffelshoek, in the Oudtshoorn area, the author saw a deep shelter with

pockets of fine, red-brown powder in the rock; handprints of an unknown age

were made on the rock, obviously with the powder only, which has tenacious

qualities. There are also a few pictures in the same colour.

Among the paintings of the south-western Cape, monochrones in red

predominate, and white occurs frequently, often superimposed on red, for

decorative features such as beadwork. Some white has lasted well in protected

shelters, but much of it must have been fugitive judging by the traces left in

paintings or the obvious absence of some features. In the Cedarberg area,

yellow occurs frequently. A survey of forty-two shelters showed that only red

paintings occurred in thirty-five, other monochromes and bichromes in eleven,

and polychromes in one of the shelters (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 268).

In the main rock painting areas of South West Africa, the Brandberg and

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 253

Erongo Mountains, Rudner & Rudner (1970, pls 2-4, 8) found that red

monochromes predominate. There are also bichromes and fewer polychromes,

usually with black and/or white, especially for details, and occasionally yellows.

Some of the white and black paints lasted as well as the reds, others were

fugitive. In some paintings in the Brandberg, the black paints were the only ones

that lasted, with mere traces of the other paints, while in others the black had

obviously disappeared while the red had remained. Out of thirty-four sites

surveyed in the Brandberg, only red paintings occurred at twenty-seven, while

other monochromes and bichromes occurred at six, with polychromes at one site

only. In the Erongo there were red paintings at a total-of seventeen sites with

one other colour only (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 268).

Painting sites are few in Angola: Rudner & Rudner located three, although

they did not go far north of Luanda, and there was no information to be had

about others. One site contained two painted shelters. Paintings in all four

shelters differ markedly in choice of colour as well as in style of paintings, an

indication that there was not a general rock painting tradition and that perhaps

different peoples had made the paintings. In one of the shelters at Tchitundu

Hulo, in the southern desert, there are crude white and red designs, apparently

painted with the fingers, while in another shelter in the same area there are

complex, large designs and crude animal pictures in white, red, maroon, pink,

brown, and black. The only paintings in any way resembling these designs that

the author has seen, are in northern South West Africa at Ombaranga. At

Moma, in the Huambo district, a large shelter contains designs and crude, large

insect-like and human figures, mainly in white, but also in black, red, and

orange. The third site, Lumbi-ia-Suco, north of Quibala, is a large shelter with

red designs and crude black or red human figures (see also J. Rudner 1976).

In Botswana, the most important painting area is the Tsodilo Hills in the

north-west. Out of twenty-two painting sites located by the author in 2 days, all

but two contained paintings in red only. They covered various styles, including

shading, and periods. At one site, late finger-drawn designs and a handprint in

white were superimposed on earlier red paintings, and there were also bichrome

maroon and white rhino figures. At another site were crude, late finger-painted

designs and figures in white (I. Rudner 1965).

Red monochromes predominate in the rock paintings of Mashonaland and

Matabeleland, but there are also bichromes and polychromes that include white

and yellow, sometimes black; pink has also been recorded (see Summers ed.

1959). There are some shaded paintings. In twenty-two out of twenty-seven

shelters in Mashonaland the paintings were in red only, five shelters had other

monochromes and bichromes, and two had polychromes. In all ten shelters

surveyed in Matabeleland, there were paintings in red only, with three other

monochromes or bichromes (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 268).

It must be stressed again that present conditions could well be misleading

and there might originally have been more bichromes than are now apparent

from the present state of preservation. However, there is no doubt that red was

254 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

the colour most preferred by the artists, not only because of the availability and

tenacious qualities of the ferric oxides, but perhaps also because of the red

colour and its possible symbolism: it has been noted herein that some Khoisan

women used the pigment as a sign of menstruation and that Hahn (1881)

suggested that the red ochre with which Nama women painted sacred stones was

a substitute for blood, while Laidler (1928) said that red paints were used as

remedies because blood was red. Other ritual uses of red pigments, such as the

red burials, might have had their origin as substitutes for blood.

MEDIA AND TECHNIQUES OF APPLICATION

Although it is impossible to judge from visual evidence the type of media

used in the paints, it is clear that some paints were applied thickly as a paste,

while others must have been very fluid to have achieved the very fine lines and

details in some of the paintings. There is evidence, too, that crayons, e.g. of red

ochre or charcoal, were used and that some pictures, probably few, might have

been made with a powdered pigment only.

At many well-sheltered sites the paint, especially the red, is so thick that

some of it can be rubbed or scratched off—at Driehoek, near Clanwilliam,

people rubbed off paint from large red paintings to draw their initials on the

rock next to the paintings (Fig. 24) (see also Rudner & Rudner 1970: 114, 119,

Fig. 24. The paint on these paintings at Driehoek, Clanwilliam district, south-western Cape,

was so thick that children used some of it to write their initials on the rock.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 255

pl. 36). In the eastern Cape, especially, paintings in shelters have been smeared

into a mess up to more than a metre high, possibly by the bodies of livestock,

showing that at one time there must have been an excess of paint. A low smudge

along the walls may also indicate that people with painted bodies or clothing had

sat there, not necessarily Khoisan people, as it has been shown that black

peoples also used pigments on themselves and their clothing.

Finger-painted pictures abound, particularly in the south-western Cape and

the Karoo (Rudner & Rudner 1970).

There is, therefore, abundant evidence that some paints must have been

thick and pasty and would have had to be applied with fairly robust sticks,

spatulae of some kind, or the fingers.

At other sites the painted lines are sometimes so thin and delicate that only

a brush, feather, or thin stick and very fluid paint could have been used (see Figs

25-26). And yet these paintings survived.

The author was shown a colour slide of paintings in the Vumba Mountain,

Manica Province, Mozambique (M. da Luz Pilata Dias 1975 pers. comm.) that

showed that the top few figures were very clear and belonged to a different

period both in style and preservation from the lower figures (of animals and

humans) that were badly smeared vertically, caused by water that had made

the paints run. This was clear evidence that some paints were water soluble

and the author has seen this, but to a lesser extent, elsewhere in southern

Africa.

At one time the paintings covering a vast cave wall in Lesotho were

regularly wetted with water from a large garden spray to bring out the colours of

the paintings for the benefit of visitors; the fact that so many of the paintings

have withstood this treatment shows that at least some of the paints were not

water soluble. The sinter that has formed over the paintings and now partly

obscures them, also partly protects them against this wetting.

Handprints, another way of applying paint to the rock, are common in the

south-western Cape (Rudner & Rudner 1970, pl. 34, index), but are not quite as

common elsewhere in southern Africa (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 268). In the

Elandspunt cave on the Cape west coast, the rock walls are covered with stylized

handprints for which the palm of the hand was painted in a horseshoe pattern

before being pressed against the rock (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 125, fig. 52).

More commonly, the entire hand was covered with paint before making the

print. Some handprints occur in the Karoo, too, where finger-paintings are very

common (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 125, pl. 44). Paintings such as these usually

belong to a late period, as superpositions show (e.g. Rudner & Rudner 1970: 49,

125, fig. 37, pl. 44).

Further information, mainly speculation, on possible techniques has already

been noted in the section on theories and experiments.

This study has shown that few of the suggested media for paints for rock

paintings are known to have been used by the Khoisan peoples and that many of

the suggestions were not based on any evidence whatsoever.

256 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

The historical Hottentots used blood very occasionally as a body paint,

usually ritually, and such occasional use has been recorded by the present-day

Nama, and the Bushmen of apparently one group only. There are some

historical indications and also apparently chemical indications that blood might

have been a binder in the paints for rock paintings, although it has been

questioned here whether blood was as generally used as is claimed (see discus-

sion pp. 31-34).

The historical Hottentots used animal fats as a binder for their traditional

paints, and they used water with hyraxeum for a facial paint. The Nama today

almost always use animal fats or a substitute such as Vaseline, and very

occasionally water. An emulsion of spittle and raw fat forms the basis of their

traditional cosmetic paints; sometimes pigments are applied in powder form

only; these include the aromatic plant pigments (buchu) as well as earth

pigments.

The Hottentots rendered fat and whale blubber in their pots and melted fat

for drinking and other purposes, so that they would have known of the

advantages of fat as a fluid medium. This, together with their use of emulsions,

makes it highly likely that fat, perhaps with a little water, could have formed the

medium for rock paints, had they used them.

The Bushmen traditionally use animal and vegetable fats as media for body

paints, but frequently a pigment was, and still is, applied without a binder. They

usually did not have animal fat to spare, hence their use of vegetable fats to

augment their diet as well as for other purposes. Perhaps the prehistoric

hunter—gatherers were more fortunate in obtaining large game animals with fat,

but the discovery of storage pits for fat-containing seeds in an archaeological

deposit (at Boomplaas cave) indicates that animal fats might even then have

been a fairly scarce commodity and that substitutes had to be used. The

Bushman’s traditional preference for eland fat in areas where this animal occurs,

or occurred, possibly lies in the fact that an eland is a large animal that carries

more fat than smaller game; according to Lichtenstein (1811 2: 40), it has a lot

of fat round its heart, which melts easily, but this must have been exceptional as

all antelope carry relatively little fat under normal conditions (R. Rau, South

African Museum, 1980 pers. comm.). In areas such as South West Africa and

the Karoo regions, from where the informants of Bleek & Lloyd (1911) came,

the gemsbok, more often than the eland, plays a prominent role in folklore, and

fieldwork by Rudner & Rudner has shown that in these drier regions the

gemsbok is usually the biggest antelope in the paintings and engravings, while

the eland is seldom depicted, or not at all. Probably the ‘eland cult’ in folklore

and in paintings in areas such as the Drakensberg—where the eland mask or

head is portrayed on human figures—was partly related to the large amount of

food that the animal provided, and, similarly, the gemsbok was a favourite

animal in some dry regions, where the gemsbok mask was in vogue.

There is limited hearsay evidence regarding the use of plant sap for making

rock paints in Lesotho, but ethnographical evidence for such use of plant sap

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 257

and other plant substances was not found; however, their presence could

perhaps be established by means of chemical tests.

Many thousands of rock paintings must have weathered away in time,

particularly those in the unsheltered positions. Those that have survived would

have had to be well protected from the elements or be fairly waterproof. It is

unlikely that all the rock artists in such a vast area as southern Africa would

have used identical media and there must have been regional differences. But,

from the evidence, fat was used by all the Khoisan groups as a medium for body

paints, and its use would probably have extended to the paints for rock

paintings—there is also some evidence to this effect. Not only is fat reasonably

waterproof, but when warmed by the sun it makes an admirable binder for paint

for use on stone, particularly when a small amount of water is added to make an

emulsion such as that used by the Nama, and as the author has found ex-

perimentally.

It is suggested that future investigators look for traces of fat in the rock

paintings.

BODY PAINTS IN THE ROCK PAINTINGS

There is much evidence in the rock paintings that body or cosmetic paints

were used by the indigenous peoples, and this has been noted in various books

on rock art, particularly in the past decade or two when more emphasis has been

laid on detail than was the case in the past. A few instances only are mentioned

here by way of illustration.

Patterns painted on bodies, particularly on faces, occur mainly in the

Drakensberg areas (e.g. Figs 23, 26), the Orange Free State, south-eastern Cape

(e.g. Fig. 21), south-western Cape (e.g. Fig. 28) and Mashonaland (Rudner &

Rudner 1970: 268, schedule). As white was often used for decorative features

_ but is frequently an unstable paint, there are indications that such features could

have been more common in the paintings than is now the case.

In Ndedema Gorge, Pager (1971: 334) found ornamental body paint on 37

recognizable human figures out of over 4 500, 10 of which had been painted

white. This is not to be confused with decorative features such as arm and leg

rings and beadwork. His analysis showed that the patterns consisted of stripes,

stipples, dots and crosses, alone or in combination, and sometimes lines had

been painted on faces depicted in a light colour (Pager 1971: 333, figs 306-308 et

seq.). Among the paintings in the Drakensberg areas are human figures,

including hunters, semi-human figures with features such as animal heads (Fig.

25) and hooves, and other strange creatures that have faces and bodies deco-

rated with dots and lines (Fig. 26); some figures have body patterns and others,

both male and female, have white faces. Scarification among Bushmen has been

mentioned when noting such paintings (Vinnicombe 1976: 256-257), implying

that some of the body decoration in the paintings may depict scarification—this

is possible. There are some few early references in the literature to ‘grooves and

cuts’ in the skins of Hottentots at the Cape (see Raven-Hart 1971, index), but it

ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

‘TRIEN “SAIISOY IINIVN IPISVD SJURID ‘aAR_ aNeg ‘somnsy poyseul 10 popeoy-jeultuR YIM aUd0g “GZ ‘SI

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 259

cy!

Fig. 26. A strange figure painted with dots and lines, Willcox

shelter, Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve, Natal.

may be that these marks were the patterns made with finger-nails in body paint,

and these, too, could have been depicted in the paintings. There is some

evidence of scarification among the Hottentots, but much less than among the

Bushmen. Body decoration by the Bushmen has been emphasized in connection

with rock paintings (Vinnicombe 1976: 253), but it has been noted in this study

that the Hottentots were as prone to painting themselves with patterns as were

the Bushmen, probably more so, judging by the amount of references to this in

the literature, although this may be misleading. In discussing painted faces in

rock art (Vinnicombe 1976), reference was also made to the faces of !x606

initiates being painted to resemble the ‘face’ of a gemsbok (see Heinz 1966, who

260 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

mentioned the gemsbok ‘brow shield’), but it has been shown in a previous

section here on the historical Hottentots (Figs 5, 7) and by the author’s

fieldwork among the Nama (Fig. 1B—D) that the custom of paintings masks or

masklike-patterns on faces was much more prevalent among these people than

among the Bushmen. Incidentally, the ‘gemsbok brow face’ noted and figured by

Heinz bears no resemblance to the ‘gemsbok face’ of the Nama (Fig. 1B).

As noted in the section on Bushmen, Anderson (1888) mentioned a

Bushman girl with white stripes painted all over her body, and in Stow (1905)

this information is so similar that it might have been taken from Anderson by

Stow’s editor (G. M. Theal), while further information about elaborate body

paintings sounds as if it had been obtained from a study of the rock paintings

themselves. Dornan merely mentioned that he had heard of striped body

painting and quoted Anderson. So there is scant reliable information regarding

elaborate body painting—as depicted in the rock art—by Bushmen, but this does

not mean that it did not exist, perhaps in earlier times; but, here again, there is

far more evidence that the Hottentots made patterns on their bodies and faces.

J. Walton (1980, Cape Town, pers. comm.) has suggested that at least some

of the figures with this body paint in the rock paintings of the Drakensberg and

adjacent areas may depict black people: on several occasions he had seen

Basotho people with their bodies decorated for rituals in the identical way to

these figures in the paintings (see Fig. 23); some Basotho groups also make use

of animal heads for masks in certain rituals, and it may be these that are

depicted in some of the animal-headed figures in the Drakensberg. Figure 27

shows details of two such heads, but this does not imply that they are of

Basotho.

This elaborate body paint does not occur in the paintings in the western

parts of South Africa.

Although all this does not prove that the figures with body paints do not

depict Bushmen, there is a strong possibility that the artists, who might have

been Bushmen, were depicting other people, as, indeed, they sometimes did.

One cannot, therefore, establish the identity of the rock artists by selective

evidence, i.e. referring to the practice of body painting by Bushmen and

ignoring this apparently more common practice among other groups.

Vinnicombe (1976: 253) did not know of Bushmen painting faces white, but

said it is common among Pondo, Xhosa, and Bhaca initiates as well as among

novice witchdoctors (see also the section on cosmetic customs among black

people, herein pp. 11-15). Pager (1971) suggested that the lighter faces inside

the ‘hooks’ depicting hair or a head covering of sorts may be a painted face or a

mask, but this is hardly likely, as even the faces of children are sometimes

painted in this way. This style occurs in the Drakensberg areas and is very

common in the south-western Cape and South West Africa—the lighter colour

may be yellow, pink or white, and often it has disappeared, leaving only the

characteristic ‘hook’. As pointed out elsewhere (I. Rudner 1973), the light faces

might have been only to differentiate between face and hair—the rock artists

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 261

Fig. 27. Details from the painted scene in Battle Cave showing

animal heads or masks (lower picture: from a tracing in Rudner

& Rudner 1970).

262 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

had scant regard for the real colours of the subjects that they portrayed, and this

was found among Bushmen who were given drawing materials where their

choice of colours was not as limited as in the veld (I. Rudner 1970).

In the south-western Cape and South West Africa especially, the lighter

paint of the face has seldom been preserved, and patterned faces are seen only

occasionally (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 268). One of the few examples is in the

Kriedouwkranz cave in the south-western Cape (Rudner & Rudner 1970: 122,

pl. 39) (Fig. 28 herein). Because of the dress and other accoutrement shown in

these paintings of the ‘Formal School’, Rudner & Rudner (1970) have suggested

that such paintings, which do not make up all the paintings of these areas, seem

to depict Hottentots and might have been the work of early Hottentots or their

ancestors. The fact that the Hottentots had a tradition of painting themselves,

which is also found in these rock paintings, could support this suggestion.

Fig. 28. A patterned face from a rock painting at Kriedouw-

kranz, near Clanwilliam, south-western Cape (from a tracing in

Rudner & Rudner 1970).

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 263

WEATHERING

Some opinions on weathering and ‘fading’ of paintings have already been

noted in the section on theories and experiments.

It is not correct to refer to the ‘fading’ of colours produced by means of

mineral pigments such as iron oxides, as these do not fade. Plant pigments fade,

but we do not know whether they were used and how long they would have

lasted. The red colour of blood changes to black and fades away completely, as

indicated previously herein.

Various writers noted that paintings had faded or disappeared in their

lifetimes, others noted that they had changed little in a century, such as the

Ezeljacht paintings mentioned before. Rudner & Rudner (1970: 114) mentioned

paintings photographed at Driehoek, near Clanwilliam, in 1885 that showed no

apparent change in 80 years. Tongue noted that the paintings that she copied

(before 1909) in the eastern Cape (also copied by Stow before 1882) were

becoming ‘fast obliterated’, but the paintings that they saw are still there

(Rudner & Rudner 1970: 141).

Much may depend on the type of paints used—Bleek (in Stow & Bleek

1930: xiv) remarked that after 60 years ‘in many pictures in open shelters where

Stow found and copied clear white, there is only a faint trace of colour left’; that

some colours seem to be more fugitive than others has already been noted

above.

The situation of the paintings is the most important factor regarding their

preservation. Scouring of a rock-face by sandstorms, rain, or running water will

cause mechanical wear that can give the impression of fading, and will lead to

the eventual destruction of the pictures.

One of the main causes of deterioration of paintings is the weathering of the

rock itself. Stow (1905: 25-26) recorded the disintegration of both rock and

paintings made ‘some 40 years previously’ (prior to 1882). In the Drakensberg

areas the granular disintegration of the friable Cave Sandstone is a major

problem in the conservation of the rock paintings. This, and its instability that

causes shelter roofs to collapse, must have destroyed untold numbers of paint-

ings (see Van Riet Lowe 1949). In fine-grained granite areas such as the

Brandberg, and the Matopo Hills in Matabeleland, and the fine-grained Table

Mountain Sandstone of the south-western Cape, these processes of disintegra-

tion are usually very slow, but in coarser granites, where the surfaces flake and

blister, the process can be quite rapid (see Schofield 1932a; Mabbutt 1952;

Cooke 1971b).

Reports that there are now fewer paintings to be seen at Ndedema Gorge

than when they were recorded by Pager (1971) may be that an untrained eye

cannot detect the paintings as easily as a trained and experienced one—the

writer has found this to occur often.

Ways and means of retarding the disintegration of rock surfaces on which

paintings occur is a long-term project of the National Building Research Insti-

264 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

tute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in its work on the

preservation of rock paintings.

Vandalism has been responsible for extensive damage to, and the complete

destruction of, numerous paintings (see Rudner & Rudner 1970: 261 ff.).

CONCLUSIONS

What, then, has been learnt about the pigments and paints of the Khoisan

people and their relationship to the rock paintings? The following is a summary

of the main relevant conclusions.

In an examination of the recorded data on the substances that were said to

have been used by the Khoisan rock artists, it was found that there is virtually no

primary information, that little of the recorded information is reliable, that there

has been much plagiarism and conjecture, and that a chain of uncritical

acceptance of published statements by subsequent writers has lent credibility to

dubious information. From the more reliable of this information, it appears that

the chief media for the paints used by the rock artists would have been animal

fats, sometimes heated and, perhaps, with a little water added as well. Other

media might have been water, blood and plant sap (secondary evidence in

Lesotho), gum, and honey, but the evidence for the use of these is thin. Apart

from fat, it is not possible to judge how widespread the use of these media might

have been. Many authors did not advance any evidence for suggesting various

other substances as binders for paint. As far as the pigments are concerned, it

appears that there is virtually no reliable first-hand information either. However,

it seems from these reports that mainly earth pigments, notably red ochre, must

have been used, and there is some indication of the use of plant pigments.

Experiments by several people with various pigments and media produced

conflicting reports. Some mineral pigments were identified in a few tests. The

presence of blood as a pigment and blood or blood serum as a binder was

claimed to have been ascertained chemically, almost without exception in

samples of rock paints taken in various parts of South and South West Africa;

this universal use is questioned here as well as some of the deductions made

about the age and ageing of the paintings. The claim that blood was a pigment

that faded over centuries is disputed and it has been ascertained experimentally

that blood painted on stone fades in a few years under conditions protected from

direct sunlight and rain. It is not known to what extent the addition of other

substances might have influenced the fading.

Bushmen were rock artists and there is one report of Nama women having

painted ritual marks on rocks. There is evidence in the paintings of the

south-western Cape and South West Africa that Hottentots or their ancestors

might have been responsible for some of the paintings in these areas.

All the Hottentot groups made extensive use of pigments and paints, mainly

for personal adornment, which included ritual uses and elaborate body and

facial patterns and masks. There is some limited evidence that the Hottentots

practised cicatrization for which substances such as fat, also used for paints,

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 265

were utilized. Objects such as garments were also coloured or painted. The chief

pigments were various forms of haematite, mainly red ochre; in the northern

and north-western Cape areas, specularite or related ores were also used. Other

traditional pigments were charcoal and soot (most frequently recorded at the

Cape in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), pounded quartz, plant pig-

ments (which also served as aromatic powders on their own), plant dyes,

hyraxeum, and some unidentified mineral substances. The only media found to

have been used were animal fats and, sometimes, water. Rendered and melted

fat was used in various ways, also with pigments.

Fieldwork among the present-day Nama people in South West Africa

showed that they still make traditional use of these pigments and paints, mainly

for cosmetic purposes, which include patterns and masks on faces, and some-

times for ritual or semi-ritual purposes. Cicatrization is not practised. Skin

clothing and other objects are still coloured with pigments and paints. Red ochre

is still the most important pigment, but specularite is apparently unknown. Plant

pigments, which also serve as aromatic powders on their own, are used exten-

sively. Other pigments are white quartz and hyraxeum (both traditional), and

bat droppings (for which a previous record was not found). Charcoal and soot

are almost never used. The only media for the paints are animal fats or Vaseline

and, sometimes, water. Fats are rendered for use, but cosmetic pigments are

often mixed with raw, chewed fat that includes the spittle to form an emulsion.

Blood is used ritually on rare occasions as a slight body paint.

It seems that all Bushman groups must have used pigments and paints in the

past and they still do so today. Red ochre was the most widely used pigment,

chiefly for cosmetic purposes. Specularite, or related ores, were known and used

in the northern and north-western Cape. Other pigments recorded were char-

coal, soot, and ash, mainly used in cicatrization scars, a practice that is still

widespread; plant pigments, also used as aromatic powders without binders;

and, infrequently, an unidentified white pigment. Two contemporary references

were to the use of blood as a body paint. Far fewer facial and body patterns

were recorded than for the historical Hottentots and the Nama. The only

medium for paints found to have been used was fat, including both plant and

animal fat, with some hearsay information regarding plant sap or blood as

binders for rock paints in Lesotho.

Many of the media for rock paints suggested in the literature were found

not to have been used by the Khoisan people for their paints.

This study has noted some strange customs, some perhaps exaggerated,

among the Khoisan peoples, but they are no more strange than many that

existed, and still exist, among other societies in other parts of the world. It has

been established that there are threads of traditions and customs associated with

pigments and paints running from the sixteenth century Hottentots at the Cape

coast, through all related groups to the Nama of today in South West Africa.

The picture for the Bushmen is more fragmentary and blurred, due mainly to

lack of sufficient historical evidence, but it would seem that all groups apparent-

266 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

ly made use of pigments and paints but usually to a lesser extent than the

Hottentots, and not with the same uniformity of use. Marked similarities in

these practices are shown to have occurred among some of the Kora and some

Nama groups, while there are also similarities in detail in some practices

between the Nama and the Hottentot-speaking Hai//?om.

There is archaeological evidence from Late Stone Age and Middle Stone

Age deposits that the Khoisan peoples and their ancestors used earth pigments,

mainly haematite; the so-called ‘red burials’ indicate cosmetic use for living

people as well as ritual use in burials. Some of the so-called painted burial stones

were, indeed, associated with burials and show ritual involvement with the rock

art, but some were not so associated. Known caches of red ochre and specularite

and other ores, apparently for use as pigments, correspond to the historical

distribution of Khoisan peoples in South and South West Africa, except that

caches are not known to have been found in the south-western and southern

Cape, but there red burials also occur. The containers for the caches were

Hottentot-type pots (which might also have been used by the Bushmen in

contact with the Hottentots) and ostrich egg-shells; these caches suggest trade

for some of the pigments with black Tswana people who are known to have

mined them. Pigment mining in southern Africa is known to date back to the

Middle Stone Age. One archaeological deposit has revealed that some of the

occupants of a painted cave in the southern Cape used oil-containing fruits; this

is evidence that they might have been hunter—gatherers short of animal fats,

unlike the stock-owning Hottentots.

Visual examination of the rock paintings indicates that the pigments must

have included ferric oxides, as some tests have also shown, and there is

archaeological, historical and contemporary confirmation for their use in paints,

also for other purposes, by Khoisan peoples. The main colours in the rock art

are various hues and shades of red, yellow, orange, white and black, and

occasionally green and blue have been recorded. One can assume that the

colours that have lasted must have been mineral pigments as plant pigments

fade—other mineral pigments, apart from ferric oxides, have, indeed, been

identified in a few tests. Some of the black and white paints are more fugitive

than others. Charcoal is a traditional Khoisan pigment and tests have revealed

its presence in some paintings, but white was apparently seldom used by

Khoisan people other than in rock paintings.

Colour preferences, perhaps connected with the availability of pigments,

occur in regions, but this can be assessed on present conditions only as it is not

always obvious where paints have faded or worn away.

Visual examination of the paintings also gives some information on fech-

niques and media. Some paints were applied as a paste, definitely with the

fingers, but perhaps also with an instrument of sorts. Others were fluid enough

to apply in fine lines and details with some kind of brush or thin stick. Some

paints have proved to be waterproof, while there are paintings where the paints

have run, and yet others that have disappeared completely: much will have

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 267

depended on the media that the artists used, as well as on the textures and kinds

of pigments. Obviously shelter from the elements was an important factor in

preserving the paints, some of which would not otherwise have stood the test of

time.

Body painting in rock art cannot be related to the Bushman people only,

whether or not they were the only artists, for, according to the available

information, there was a high incidence of body painting—and sometimes more

elaborate—among the Hottentot peoples, which is still practised among the

Nama, while some black initiates in Lesotho are still painted in ways similar to

some of the figures in the Drakensberg paintings.

The deterioration of rock art is a world-wide problem and is being recog-

nized and dealt with in various countries. The main objects have been to find

ways and means of protecting the rock paintings by determining how weathering

of the rock surfaces on which they occur can be retarded or prevented, to

determine the ingredients that went into making the paintings, and how the

paintings themselves can be protected. Methods such as scanning electron

microscopy and X-ray analysis have been used to identify pigments (see Philip-

pakis et al. 1979) and to determine bonding of paints with rock surfaces,

chemical weathering processes, and the formation of crusts on paintings, and

can, perhaps, ascertain whether some rock surfaces were specially prepared by

the artists. The work of the National Building Research Institute to determine

ways of preserving South African rock paintings has been mentioned in the

introduction.

Radiocarbon dating is possible for painted stones found in datable deposits,

but a method of determining the age of the paintings on the rocks should be

further investigated—apparently experiments are in progress overseas.

Fieldworkers can assist in trying to identify the pigments that were used for

rock paintings by a series of regional surveys to determine the colours used by

the rock artists and the frequency with which they occur, as has already been

done in limited areas; a standard colour chart should be used by all. This data

should be matched against the known range of colours produced by various

natural pigments, and would add in other ways to our knowledge of rock art.

There is a great deal of co-ordinated work to be done if we are not to lose

an irreplaceable heritage.

268 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am especially grateful to Prof. Murray Schoonraad and his wife, Elzabe,

for their interest and encouragement with this project, and to the University of

Natal and Dr Tim Maggs of Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg. Prof. Schoonraad

and Dr Maggs were supervisors for the M.A. thesis that has here been revised.

The friendly co-operation of various officials of the then Department of

Coloured Relations and Rehoboth Affairs in Cape Town and Windhoek enabled

me to obtain valuable information in the Nama areas. I am also indebted to the

Nama people and officials (mentioned in the text) who were interviewed.

Many others provided information collected over a period of years—their

assistance is gratefully acknowledged; the addresses given below were those

current at the time.

Botanical data were supplied by Mrs Pauline Fairrall and Dr J. P. Rourke

(National Botanic Gardens of South Africa, Kirstenbosch), Dr A. Jacot-

Guillarmod (Rhodes University, Grahamstown), Dr O. Leistner who also

supplied plant specimens, and Dr M. J. Wells (Botanical Research Institute,

Pretoria), and Dr S. Talukdar (University, Roma, Lesotho) who also supplied

plant specimens that were kindly delivered by air by Miss S. Willet (University,

Roma).

For information and discussions on blood I thank Dr W. H. E. Bunge

(State Pathology Laboratory, Cape Town), Dr A. J. Louw and Mr J. P. Traut

(Maitland Abattoir, Cape Town) who also arranged for blood samples, Prof.

T. G. Schwar (Faculty of Medicine, University of Stellenbosch), Mr and Mrs

M. Snyman (Blaauwkrantz, Carnarvon) who arranged for blood samples, and

Dr R. H. Stead (Western Province Blood Transfusion Service, Cape Town) who

also supplied valuable notes.

Data were supplied by Prof. P. V. Tobias (Medical School, University of

the Witwatersrand), who also permitted the use of information prior to its

publication; and Plascon Paint and Chemical Industries (Johannesburg). In-

formation received from many others is also acknowledged in the text.

Permission to use information from old correspondence files of the South

African Museum and Sir Andrew Smith’s notes on Hottentots was granted by

the Director, Dr T. H. Barry. The librarians of the South African Museum

frequently helped in the search for literature.

The help of the Rustica Press (Wynberg, Cape) is gratefully acknowledged.

Mrs E. Paap (Fehr Collection, Cape Town) provided the negative for

Figure 6. I am very much indebted to Mr Anthony Bannister (Honeydew,

Transvaal) for allowing me to have black-and-white prints made from some of

his colour slides (Figs 16-17, 20), and to Mr Aubrey Byron (South African

Museum) for processing the photographs for this publication.

My greatest debt of gratitude is owed to Jalmar, Bjorn and Sigurd Rudner

for their encouragement and for sharing numerous expeditions during which

some of the information for this project was also gathered. We received

hospitality and help from many farmers and others during fieldwork and are

grateful to them all.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS 269

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Table

CAN DARYNE

Table 10.

Table 11.

Table 12.

Table 13.

Table 14.

Table 15.

Table 16.

Mablenl7

Table 18.

Table 19.

Table 20.

Table 21.

Table 22.

Table 23.

Table 24.

Table 25.

Table 26.

Table 27.

Table 28.

Table 29.

Table 30.

Table 31.

Table 32.

Table 33.

Table 34.

Table 35.

Table 36.

Table 37.

Table 38.

Table 39.

Table 40.

Table 41.

Table 42.

Table 43.

Table 44.

Table 45.

KHOISAN PIGMENTS AND PAINTS

APPENDIX. LIST OF TABLES

WIHOLWELE LUN CEARUSISietrrer remeron otic etesiectcteysinters at ciisnines, suche veaiave cyanea s

Possible)mediaiusediinirock paintings (ong. crete ese te tien asnys seca

Possiblespigmentsiusediammockypalntin est ame racists ceitirielel« ie) osns ajele ts

Possible techniques and tools used in rock paintings......................

Ratiusedibyithesottentotsmeremerritrime serie teteratris ttverstevelcicr cits cat

DW Vays WA! LON7 (NS ISOM: o oyoonoo oud omooe ob adhe bo ou dnndbo> benno ae

Wrinewusedibyatheshottentotsmrm emcee reer ter crierisee eile este ote

Bloodiusedihythestlottentotsmmcre cere retinal)

Milkausedibythe im oftentotsememmer er cre eiiern trios her atrial ser:

Esosiisedibyithenlotientotssoanerm eet ner crits sist etic

Merny Gey) WR ON TNS SOUMNENIONS, 56 conse conbenooedoendsonauuppoeouuedoE

Gumypusedibyithelottentotsmrn eee ere acre erry ris air ek:

Honeyaisediby thesottentotshnmn aia seein ei ree cee ae =

BenlcoxidessusedibyithewAOlentOotsmme enema een iecia tec ciel:

Sootyicharcoaleashimsedibyithe Elottentots ecm errin ee seine tits ere: re

Plantipismentsiused|bysthe ky OLLCDtOtSm me rereire teia tise teiie iets etch ole =

Miscellaneous pigments used by the Hottentots..........................

BuchumsedibyithesHottentots wee ane ei oenc oe socian sors:

Patterns made with cosmetic pigments and paints by the Hottentots ........

Hatusedibytne present-dayaNamanrrn nan panaereaeaae cocicin teas 3 ost

Dungised bythe present-dayNamanneneaeenercrianse teins ae ier -

Bloodiusedibyathe present-day Namabemnnr ne aetrrinas aaeer een rae

Special use of water by the present-day Nama 725... . 2-0-0. +--5-+ 200-6:

Ferric oxides used by the present-day Nama. Red ochre ..................

Soot charcoal usedibyithe present-dayaNamauenene ner ae ares eane ees -

Plant pigments used by the present-day Nama...........................

Miscellaneous pigments used by the present-day Nama...................

BUchURUSediby the) present-dayaNamiaee errr einer crt

Patterns made with cosmetic pigments and paints by the present-day Nama

HatsusecibyatheyBuUShMenk ey -eeseyara setter Were cerned epee aera. te chassis ocheetsaet es

Wrinesusedibyathe Bushmen teense aera cy miyenisnee ss cies eens ire srs

SY loxeyal Wate oy Wats TENNEY ose conooonod codapocusabe Cagadooneaeems an

StomachiliquidiusedibystheyBushmenky ayers tet ae nia

Specialluselofiwater bythe Bushmen eee) lease is le eels ees ies

Ep esmsedibyathewsUSOMen ersten sti al fererarens Sort ewrsie incy tects ee nee setts

lantesapruseGibyathesB uShiMenb rete: espeitetereieierel transis ete ts aera ape cee ee

Gumiusedibyzthesb ushime nee ert armiaeiin teeta rear eaereoia se canes ee

lone yauscdibyathe Bushmeneer ence erence eit rei ae

IRS FaOO.6GlsS USAall hy WNSIBUS NE concnsuococcvonmoguceecmuooUggGdounS

Sooteicharcoalfashiusediby the Bushmentery rss eee ieee

ianaplomMmentssusedtbyathe SB USOMIC Diner etree et iin trainee eis

Miscellaneous pigments used by the Bushmen...........................

Buchipusedibyathess UShine nies ee er eee re eee eee ree ee

Patterns made with cosmetic pigments and paints by the Bushmen .........

281

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