the crops left neglected in the fields. But as the provisions in the
warehouses were consumed or spoiled, they hunted the animals, lately
tame and as yet but half wild. As these grew less in number and
difficult to overtake, they set to work again to till the ground, and
cleared away small portions of the earth, encumbered already with
brambles and thistles. Some grew corn, and some took charge of sheep.
Thus, in time, places far apart from each other were settled, and towns
were built; towns, indeed, we call them to distinguish them from the
champaign, but they are not worthy of the name in comparison with the
mighty cities of old time.

There are many that have not more than fifty houses in the enclosure,
and perhaps no other station within a day's journey, and the largest are
but villages, reckoning by antiquity. For the most part they have their
own government, or had till recently, and thus there grew up many
provinces and kingdoms in the compass of what was originally but one.
Thus separated and divided, there came also to be many races where in
the first place was one people. Now, in briefly recounting the principal
divisions of men, I will commence with those who are everywhere
considered the lowest. These are the Bushmen, who live wholly in the
woods.

Even among the ancients, when every man, woman, and child could exercise
those arts which are now the special mark of nobility, _i.e._ reading
and writing, there was a degraded class of persons who refused to avail
themselves of the benefits of civilization. They obtained their food by
begging, wandering along the highways, crouching around fires which they
lit in the open, clad in rags, and exhibiting countenances from which
every trace of self-respect had disappeared. These were the ancestors of
the present men of the bushes.