Sunlight sparkles through the drops of water that tumble off the edge of the cliff. Painted on the rock face behind the tiny waterfall are a pair of faded eland, the largest antelope in Africa. Behind them are two barely visible human figures. This is a sacred place, says Raphael Mnkhati, a guide from the Kamberg Rock Art Center. Water is important for all life, and it was important for the people who lived here. The tiny cave behind the waterfall is only one of thousands of such hidden, secret shelters in the Drakensberg-Ukahlamba Mountains of South Africa. They were the home of the Bushmen, the original inhabitants of this country, who fled to these mountains to escape other Africans moving down from the north of the continent and white settlers moving up from the Cape. The Bushmen were wiped out in the countless conflicts that resulted. Scattered throughout these mountains are some 60,000 individual images, visible at about 600 different sites. The artists used the blood and fat of the eland as well as whitened clay, bird droppings and charcoal as pigments. The delicate lines of the figures were etched with twigs, porcupine quills and ostrich feathers. Scientists believe that these figures were created by the Bushmen while they were in trance states, and that the paintings reflect the people's deep reverence for the beauty and power of the natural world that surrounded