1831.] Bushmen of South Africa. during the great heat of the day, doubtless soon made them aware of the want of some protection against a powerful sun, and suggested the present method they pursue, of forming a sort of umbrella by the disposing of ostrich feathers round the extremity of a common walking stick. All, as well male as female, betray a remarkable anxiety after ornaments, and evince a marked desire for every article that appears to them either gaudy or uncommon. Amongst such, the most in esteem are perhaps beads, buttons, and pieces of copper, brass, or polished steel; and what of those they happen to procure, they attach to different parts-such as the neck, ears, hair, loins, extremities, &c. and not unfrequently also to their different articles of clothing. Indeed, so strong is their love of decoration, that they will, in the absence of the more desired objects for that purpose, employ those of their own construction-such as sashes formed of circular pieces of the shell of the ostrich egg, pieces of wood, teeth of wild animals, shells, young tortoises, &c. and those they display in different positions and forms, according to the fancies of the wearers. The circumstance of their having no fixed abodes, goes to prevent them from having any established huts; and the constant necessity of moving from one place to another in quest of an uncertain and scanty subsistence, inclines them to bestow little care or labour on their temporary dwellings. They either erect a shelter of bushes for the night, under the shade of which they repose, or dig a hole in the ground, into which they creep, or else seek a refuge in some natural crevice of a rock, or under a projecting stone, either of which they consider as quite sufficient for a transient residence. Though such is the general method they follow, in protecting themselves against the effects of the weather during the periods of their repose, yet some are more particular, and extend their consideration so far as to supply themselves with a sort of mat, which they place nearly upright by means of a couple of poles, viz. one at each extremity, and under the protection of that they seek their rest. For subsistence the Bushmen trust principally to the fruits of the earth, and to the game which their plains afford; but when either of those are found deficient, few have any hesitation in supplying their wants from the flocks of the neighbouring farmers. With even such a variety of resources, they are nevertheless often sufferers from extreme want, and are thereby necessitated to consume almost every article which is to be found within the range of their retreats. Of the vegetable productions, many roots, both fibrous, fleshy, and bulbous, form articles of their food; and of berries and other fruits, they employ almost all that are met with, 31 whose qualities are not prejudicial to health, and many of which are doubtless possessed of no properties beyond those of filling and distending the stomach. Amongst the most useful and nutritious of the vegetable products, is the seed of a species of grass which grows in their country, as well as in the northern parts of the colony, and which, when cleaned and boiled, has considerable resemblance in taste to barley similarly prepared. This at the proper season occurs in considerable quantities, and is acquired in two ways either by directly collecting the tops of the grass, and then separating the seed, or by robbing the black ants which there occur, and who carry quantities of it as food to their subterranean abodes. Subservient as the vegetable kingdom is thus rendered, the animal one is made not less so; for, from the largest quadrupeds that inhabit their wastes, to the most disgusting reptile or the smallest insect, almost all are in some way or other employed as articles of provision. The hippopotami, zebras, quaggas, different species of antelopes, jackals, &c. as well as the ostrich and bustard, form the favourite objects of pursuit with the men; and the pursuit of the hares, dassies, moles, rats, snakes, lizards, grasshoppers, ants, and such like, forms the occupation of the women aud boys. There is scarcely a four-footed animal which they can destroy that they do not convert to food, and there is hardly a portion of any one of those, with the exception of the bones, that they do not devour. The flesh in every situation they greedily consume; the stomach and intestines they esteem as delicacies; the liver and kidneys they often swallow even raw; and the contents of the stomachs of many animals they drink or eat either pure or diluted with water. The blood of most animals they highly prize, and though usually cooked before it is used, yet it is often, either from choice or necessity, occasioned by a want of water, swallowed as it flows from the body. The skins, at least of the larger animals, are not even rejected, and those they often feed upon with a degree of rapacity, which nothing but extreme hunger would support. Some of the articles just stated are regularly made use of in their natural state, but the majority only when cooked. The vegetable productions that require such preparation, are either boiled or roasted; and those belonging to the animal kingdom are mostly treated in the latter way, with the exception of grasshoppers, larvæ of ants, and ostrich eggs, which are commonly consumed without being submitted to the influence of cooking; all the others are, when choice can be exercised, more or less prepared; and what requires most labour, is the dried skins of the larger animals. Those are first moistened by water, and then 32 Bushmen of South Africa. stamped and roasted; or else roasted first, and stamped afterwards. Though the employment of articles like the last-mentioned is calculated to create a degree of wonder in those who have never suffered severely from the pangs of want; yet how much more adapted for such a purpose the observance of a fact, which almost daily occurs amongst the Bushmen, namely, the preparation of pieces of old shoes, &c. for the purpose of furnishing a scanty and tasteless meal. The vegetable products are principally obtained without much labour; and, if we except the different roots, few require much exertion. The latter it is necessary to dig out of the ground, and for that purpose they employ either a piece of pointed wood, hardened by having been previously a little burnt, or else a gemsbok horn, and by either of those they loosen the surrounding soil with amazing rapidity. The animal productions are partly procured without much trouble, but the majority not without very considerable exertion, as well as the exercise of no small degree of dexterity and cunning. The bow and arrow are the means upon which they mostly rely for obtaining the latter; and next to those, snares and dogs. In employing the former, they either endeavour to approach the animal within a suitable distance to wound him severely, or else to conceal themselves, so as to be in the way as he may be pursuing his progress; or, lastly, by the practice of decoys, to bring him into a fitting position. The facility they have of creeping, and the similarity between the colour of their skin and the arid wastes over which they hunt, when conjoined to the amazing sharpness of their sight, enable them often to advance within a very little distance of game, and often by a wound of a poisoned arrow to intimate to the animal its unfortunate situation. He observes every motion of its head during his approach, and whenever it is possible for its range of vision to extend to him, he remains most perfectly quiet; but when that is not the case, he advances with circumspection, and is sustained by such patience, that he will sometimes pass a whole day in the pursuit, without any particular prospect of success. When again he adopts the second plan, he remarks the direction the animal is following, and the position of the best vegetation in the quarter towards which he is proceeding; and having fully satisfied himself as to its probable course, he digs a hole in the ground, and there conceals himself, till fate determines what shall be the result. The third mode, or that by decoys, is practised generally with success where the requisites for forming such are procurable. They are principally, if not invariably, executed through the instrumentality of young animals, which, when obtained, are fixed a little way in ad [July, vance of a low bush fence, behind which the hunter is secreted, and from whence he destroys the dam, as she visits her offspring. Another description of plan he follows, and one not less successful, in hunting the ostrich, namely, that of digging a hole close to a nest, and concealing himself therein. When in that position, and having previously provided himself with a dog, he throws it upon the eggs; and as soon as the bird sees the animal in that position, it hastens to the spot to drive him away, when it instantly falls a victim to the ingenuity of its betrayer. Snares they construct in various ways, and by such they often greatly increase their supplies. Some are formed of nooses placed in positions through which animals are accustomed to pass, and others consist of large and deep holes dug in the ground, and so covered over with grass and other articles, as not to be distinguishable from the surrounding parts, till discomposed by the steps of a visitor, when it is usually too late to discover the fraud. By this method, when practised in situations where water or grazing ground occurs, seacows, zebras, quaggas, and various of the antelope species, are frequently obtained. By the formation of trenches, or long narrow ditches, grasshoppers are also commonly entrapped, particularly when driven in great abundance towards them, as when they fall therein they are totally unable to escape again. The resort of the white ants they discover by observing the hole at which they enter the ground; and when that is accomplished, and the object is to secure the young, they dig away the earth till the nest is discovered, when it is immediately exposed, and the larvæ, as well as many of the older specimens, are selected. In the pursuit of these, they often dig holes several feet in depth, and three or four in diameter; and after that, they are not unfrequently disappointed of the objects in view. When, however, they are successful, they carry the fruits thereof to their temporary residence, and there, by the assistance of a small piece of dried skin, remove all the earth and other impurities, after which they either devour the remainder, or else place them in a pot upon the fire, and warm it a little; during which time they keep agitating the contents, so as to prevent them from burning, &c. After a few minutes of such treatment, they are considered as prepared and adapted for food. In this state they are not unpalateable, and it is only the knowledge of their nature that gives any thing like a disinclination to relish them. By the Bushmen, the food under consideration is highly esteemed; and that and the ostrich egg are, perhaps, the most admired articles of their subsistence. 1831.] [ 33 ] REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham. By George Lipscomb, Esq. M.D. Vol. I. Part I. 4to, pp. 304. Plates. THE Fœdera of Rymer, and the abstracts published by the Record Commission, are books highly and justly appreciated, both for their literary and business value. Of course, County Histories, which consist of similar matter, concentrated into one district, must have the same character. Every other kind of County History, namely, one which neglects record, is only a miscellany, and cannot be a County History, because it is essential to the latter that it be a register of the property and families of the ancient possessors. We are happy to find that the work before us is written according to standard, and is so copious in materials and elaborate in construction, as to entitle the author to high credit. We shall extract such matters as may be instructive or amusing. It is a trite opinion that the Conqueror utterly dispossessed the AngloSaxon landholders, or made them tenants only of their previous estates. Peter of Poictiers however says, as quoted in a very scarce pamphlet, entitled, "Argumentum Ante-Normanicum," that he ousted only those who had fought at the battle of Hastings, or had otherwise opposed him. We are sure, that several Anglo-Saxon families were permitted to hold their estates, though subjected, as to military and feudal services, to Norman officers; and that it is a great mistake to head so many pedigrees (as has been done) with Norman ancestors. An instance here occurs, which shows how matters of this kind were adjusted; and which was one of the measures mentioned in the preface of Sir William Dugdale's Warwickshire, Matthew Paris, &c. "Wigo de Walingford [an Anglo-Saxon] came out to meet the Conqueror, and delivered up to him, voluntarily, the possession of his town and castle of Walingford, which had been a place of importance, even from the time of the Romans. Wigo splendidly entertained the Conqueror, until Archbishop Stigand, and other adherents of Edgar, had submitted to the new Sovereign; and it is said, that the alliance between Wigo's daughGENT. MAG. July, 1831. ter Aldith and Robert D'Oyly, was an affair of policy, by which the Saxons were propitiated, and the follower of the Conqueror at the same time rewarded.”—p. 17. We meet with graziers or cattledealers as a distinct trade in the reign of Edward III., and that surnames were apparently ascribed to some persons from the mere situation of their houses. "In the reign of Edward III. it was certified, that Ashendon might be assessed to the subsidy called the ninths, at nine marks, and no more, because forty acres of land were uncultivated and waste, many of the possessions of the Church exempt from payment, and there were no cattle-dealers of merchants here. This certificate was attested by Roh. le Couherde, Nicholas le Pek, William ate Hulle, and Thomas Yve, names apparently taken from their employment or the situation of their houses."P. 24. We are of opinion, that names with at, as one of those above, might, in some instances at least, denote an original Anglo-Saxon family. The following practice appears to have been the substitute at the Reformation for the old paternosters and aves of bedesmen and poor people. An almshouse for poor widows was founded at Brill about the year 1590, and a certain sum was directed to be "doled or distributed after morning prayer in the Church of Brill, to five poor widows, who there kneeling together before the comthankes by saying the Lorde's prayer for his munion table, shall render unto Almighty God mercifull and greate benefytte bestowed upon them."-p. 115. The usual places of execution were out of towns, and every body knows the custom of burying suicides in cross ways. Under Chearsly we find, that Chilton, Crendon, Cuddington, and Win"at the intersection of old trackways from chendon, several skeletons have been dug up which seem to confirm the traditionary account of this being the site of the gallows, one of the feudal privileges of the ancient Lords of the place."-p. 122. The Church of Chilton is raised upon an artificial mount (p. 136). It was usual among the Anglo-Saxons to put places of worship upon sites used by the Britons for that purpose. 34 REVIEW.-Lipscomb's History of Buckingham. Sugar-loaves occur as common presents to great men, in the Paston Letters, Morant's Colchester, &c. &c. An instance of such a donation made to a Judge by Sir John Croke, is here mentioned so late as 1668 (p. 141). Under Chilton (p. 143), we find that the "Alms-box" or truncus, a relic of the "oulden times," was taken away when the open seats were replaced by modern pews. To this is subjoined the following note, and certain it is, that vicarages were endowed to prevent the disgrace of their soliciting a maintenance by mendicancy. "Kennet says, that this was often the depository of contributions in aid of the ecclesiastics of small vicarages, and made no inconsiderable portion of their emoluments. Vicarius habebit oblationes quascunque ad tranios, tam in dicta ecclesia et quam alibi infra parochiam ipsius ecclesiæ factas.' (Paroch. Antiq.) However, in later times, it was chiefly destined for the poor; all persons being prohibited by Statute from making open or common dole,' or giving any money in alms, but to the common boxes and gatherings in every parish, on pain of forfeiting ten times so much." In p. 167 we find traces of a custom derived from the sites of Roman sta tions, viz. a village [East Claydon] built on a rising ground at the intersection of ancient roads." The following description of a tomb erected in the Church of Britford near Salisbury, to the memory of Humphry Duke of Buckingham, beheaded by Richard III, shows a rare instance in regard to the pleureurs or weepers, as the figures in niches around the base of table tombs were denominated. "At one end of this tomb are two shields with the arms of Stafford and Rivers [his Duchess's family], and on the base six niches, with a statue in each of them, excepting the first. The second contains a female figure with a coronet on her head, representing the Duchess [of Buckingham]; the third, a mitred Bishop [Lionel Widville her brother, Bishop of Salisbury at the time of the Duke's execution]; in the next a female with a coronet, holding the Duke's bonnet and sword; the fifth contains the figure of the executioner with a sword in his hand; and the last a female, with a child in her arms, deploring the sad event. Thus we find (Sir Richard Colt Hoare remarks in a letter to the author of this work) the fate of this unfortunate Duke explained as satisfactorily as by an inscription."—p. 152. Ralph second Earl of Verney, who [July, died in 1791, was one of the last of The Crendon Park is the only one in this county mentioned in Domesday, and as the Giffards had a castle here, Dr. Lipscomb thinks it probable that the Conqueror's followers appropriated to themselves the seats of the AngloSaxon Chiefs, as the latter had before done with those of the Britons. names of Cony-gaer (so Dr. L. but see postea) and El or Eld-burgh, support this conjecture, which is further confirmed by the discovery of an ancient cemetery at Angle-way near Cop-hill, N. E. of the Church, on a conspicuous eminence, and near the supposed site of the castle of the Giffards. This spot is also adjacent to ancient British trackways and Roman roads. are The discoveries of pottery, of which portions are engraved, p. 212, similar in shape to some which have been excavated at Kingsholm near Gloucester, of which we have correspondent remains, as well in Samian ware as otherwise. Kingsholm adjoined the Mercian palace. The widemouthed vessels, here called urns, were amphora; for we have not only specimens with similar handles, but the spike usually belonging to the bottom of these vessels. A lamp and brass rings set with stones, two of them so compressed as not to form a complete circle, with portions of wire apparently attached for ear dependants, have also been found. [Of the latter, see Encycl. of Antiquit. i. 262.] Conigaer is not an Anglo-Saxon word, but of Norman origin, from the old French Connil, a rabbit, and Garrene, warren; nor do we think that there were any such appendages to our Anglo-Saxon residences. The pedantry of the reign of James the First, is well-known, and a superb specimen of bombast is the proemium of the address to the Court and Jury, convoked to try Garnet and his confederates in the Gunpowder Plot, by Sir Thomas Phillips, Master of the Rolls. See our last Supplement, p. 580. 1831.] REVIEW. Tytler's Lives of Scottish Worthies. "The matter now to be offered to my Lords the Commissioners is matter of Treason; but of such horror and monstrous nature, that before now the tongue of man never delivered, the ear of man never heard, the heart of man never concerted, nor the malice of hellish or earthly devil ever prac tised. For if it be abominable to murder the least; if to touch God's anointed be to oppose themselves against God; if by blood to subvert princes, states, and kingdoms, be hateful to God and man :-how much more, then, too too monstrous shall all Christian hearts judge the horrors of this treason to murder and subvert such a King, such a Queene, such a Prince, such a progenie, such a State, such a Government," &c. Shakspeare has, it seems, made a great error in ascribing the Duke of Buckingham's defection from Richard the Third, to the King's refusal to bestow upon him the lands of the Bohuns, to which he the Duke was heir. A grant was actually made of them to him 1 Ric. III. but not confirmed, because he was decapitated before Parliament was convoked (p. 208). It appears from Stowe and Hall, that the cause of the quarrel between the King and Duke is not exactly known, and that there were various causes of disagreement, but it plainly appears that the Duke instigated a rebellion against the reigning tyrant-and affected to be, as Mr. J. G. Nichols happily states in his Autographs, another Warwick King-maker; not as the modern times, a King-mender; much the best thing of the two, because it leaves them without a deaf ear to turn to complaints of their subjects. Here we must leave this work, and having given the character of it in the early part of this notice, again warmly recommend it. Lives of Scottish Worthies. By Patrick Fraser Tytler, Esq. F. R.S. and F. S. A. Vol. I. 16mo, pp. 416. COWARDS (generally speaking) are only to be found in commercial and luxurious nations; and the worthies of all barbarous countries, not ecclesiastics, consist of course of warriors. The chief of these in the volume before us, is Sir William Wallace, a fighting fellow, who would have honoured the heroic ages, though from certain acts of cruelty not those of chivalry. We shall give a short sketch of those romantic incidents of his life, which will illustrate our opinions. Wallace 35 was the second son of a Sir Malcolm Wallace. His youth was passed under the care of an ecclesiastical uncle, at Dunipace near Stirling, a man of noble feelings as to independence. All the nephew derived from his education was a proverb (libertas optima rerum, &c.), and it is probable that his uncle's discipline was in all other respects lax. When Edward the First was triumphant after the battle of Falkirk, and the Scots were ordered to take the oaths of allegiance, his father absconded, his mother took refuge with her relations, and "Wallace, now advancing into manhood, found himself driven from his paternal home, an object of suspicion to the Government, and avoided by those cautious and timid friends, who regarded Scotland as lost, and preferred the quiet security of servitude to the desperate chances of insurrection."—p. 167. The misfortunes of his family and himself rendered him a malcontent, and his exacerbation was aggravated by an untoward incident. He was in love with a pretty girl at Lanark, and in passing through that burgh, was insulted by a troop of English soldiers. He would have avoided their insolence, but one of them having made a contemptuous blow against his sword, he drew and killed the offender. A tumult arose, and he escaped with difficulty to the house of his mistress, and from thence to the neighbouring woods. William de Heslope, the English Sheriff, seized, condemned, and executed the poor girl. "Wallace's revenge, when he heard of her unmerited fate, was as rapid as it was stern. That very night he collected thirty faithful and powerful partisans, who, on entering the town when all were in their beds, reached the Sheriff's lodgings in silence. It was a room or loft, constructed like most of the buildings of those times, of wood, and communicating with the street by a high stair. Up this Wallace rushed at midnight, and, beating down the door, presented himself in full armour, and with his naked weapon, before the affrighted officer, who asked him whence he came, or who he was? I am William Wallace (he replied), whose life you sought yesterday; and now thou shalt answer me for my poor maiden's death.' With those words he seized his naked victim by the throat, and passing his sword through his body, cast the bleeding wretch down the stair into the street, where he was immediately slain."-p. 169. He and his party then made off t |