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RIDDLE OF THE AFRICAN BUSHMAN

By L. TAYLOR HANSEN

(Illustrated by Joe Sewell)

Was the African Bushman once the superman of Earth's dim
past? Here is a riddle of time which will make you think deeply

PROBABLY one of the most puzzling scientific riddles of all time is that of the African Bushman. When our parents and grandparents were going to college there was nothing remarkable about this small, unprepossessing and somewhat stupid savage, but recent investigations have concentrated the eyes of the scientific world upon him.

Now if there is one characteristic which distinguishes Modern man under the influence of civilization, it is the continual shrinking of the jaw. Neanderthal man for example, was not devoid of brain-capacity, but that capacity when taken in ratio to his powerful jaw was certainly less than the Modern skull. Similarly, the ancient skulls of Cro-Magnon display a jaw that is greatly superior to their descendants, and more than proportionately superior to their unusual brain-caparity.

Knowing all of these facts, science naturally expected to find the fossil men in Bushman territory to be small-brained and great-jawed creatures. Instead, anthropologists received one of the most profound shocks of their lives when between 1927 and 1930 skeletons of supposed Bushman ancestry were uncovered which were not only much greater-brained, but in some cases the brain-jaw ratio made them less primitive than their descendants!

In the little inlet of Fish-Hoek, near Cape Town, a resident with scientific interest took, pains to study scientific excavation, and then went to work in the local cave under the partial direction of the near-by university. At first he came upon a layer of crude culture, with skeletons which were similar to the Bushmen. Below this was a layer with strong Mousterian influence. In Europe, this culture is always associated with Neanderthal man. Therefore he had every right to expect the discovery of a Neanderthal burial. A burial was found below this layer but the skeleton was not Neanderthal. He was much closer to Cro-Magnon!

Prof. M. R. Drennan of the Cape Town University was much excited at this find, and his enthusiasm soon communicated itself to the entire scientific world. Then for the first time the eyes of the world's anthropologists turned inquiringly upon the Bushman. And indeed, well might they have done so, for this ancient African was narrow-nosed. His cheek bones were high and prominent, his brain-capacity better than the average for any living race of men, while his jaw and teeth were proportionately small!

In this matter of jaw-to-hrain ratio, this ancient African from Fish-Hoek is amazing. For each cm of palate, he has 66.6 cc of brain-space. In other words, as Dr. Keith has worked out this table, he stands 1 :66.6. The ratio is greater than in any adult skull from either ancient or living races. The closest ratio is to be found in living Europeans, which is no higher than 1 :60.

Yet in spite of this little matter of brain-superiority, his living descendant is the modern Bushman!

Suspicious scientists immediately compared skulls from this tribe of negroes. In spite of the fact that the Bushman skulls were much smaller, they were of the same shape. Bushman teeth are smaller than those of other negroes. When placed against the ancient skull, the face and teeth were seen to have changed but little, and the great difference in the size of the head caused the change in ratio. However, when the face of another negro tribe was placed against the face of the ancient African, the modern negro proved to have the larger teeth and a more chinless type of jaw than the ancient African!

Now if this had been the only discovery, we would be more than justified in being skeptical, for individual differences are tremendous, even among the modern low-capacity Bushmen skulls. However, such is not the case. In the northern Transvaal, is an arid country called Springbok Plains which was once, in another climatic cycle, a fertile woodland. Apparently a body had once been buried here, the soil around it had become swampy and turned into limestone from the water

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