The Bushman Battalion

The tiny (average height 5 ft.) Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert are the oldest human inhabitants of southern Africa and one of the oldest distinct races of mankind. They speak a unique and difficult language, which one anthropologist describes as "an array of weird phonemes—clickings, croakings and raspings." They believe God hurled to earth a piece of turf that broke into pieces; the pieces became nations and the particles of dust their own minute, wandering tribe. Today only a few of the 55,000 remaining Bushmen still pursue their ancient way of life as nomadic hunters, tracking game across the Kalahari's parched...