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South African Philology, as the pioneers who laid the foundation-stone of the Comparative Grammar of the KafirCongo or Bantu Languages.* Whatever has been written afterwards on Bantu Grammar, is based on the researches of these twin-stars in the realm of the Science of Language. In availing myself of this opportunity I simply pay a debt of gratitude. I was so fortunate as to have Professor Pott as my master and foster-father in the Science of Language for nearly four years, while I studied at the University of Halle, and my holidays were often spent at Poschwitz, the castle of Herr von der Gabelentz, where I had free access to his excellent African library.

Last, but not least, I have to tender my sincere obligations to Professor Max Müller for undertaking so kindly to see this treatise through the press.

THEOPHILUS HAHN.

STELLENBOSCH, Cape of Good Hope,

March 24, 1880.

*Pott, Die Sprachen vom Kaffer und Kongostamme, in Zeitschrift der D. M. Gesellschaft, ii. 5-26, 129-158; and H. C. v. d. Gabelentz, in the "Proceedings" of the same Society, i. 241, seq.

TSŨI-||GOAB.

CHAPTER I.

The facts of language, however small, are historical facts.MAX MÜLLER.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE ETHNICAL CONDITION OF THE KHOIKHOI IN PREHISTORIC TIMES, BASED ON THE EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE.

THE Khoikhoi form a branch of the most peculiar and, doubtless, of the most interesting race of all the representatives of mankind on our continent. These Khoikhoi generally go by the name of Hottentots, a term to which I must object, as up to this moment it has been the cause of gross misunderstanding and heartburning, especially to ethnologists, when they had in view the classification of the South African races and nations.

In order to introduce to the reader the worshippers of 'Tsui-llgoab and to lay a secure basis for the study of the Science of Religion as regards the Khoikhoi branch, I shall endeavour in a short sketch to delineate their prehistoric ethnical condition.

When the first European navigators, especially the Dutch, became acquainted with the Cape of Good Hope, they found a yellowish race of men, who possessed large herds of cattle, sheep and goats, and were on the whole, even after they had received a very provoking treatment at the hands of the Europeans, peaceably and 'hospitably

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inclined towards strangers.

On account of their curious language abounding in harsh faucal sounds and clicks, the Dutch called them Hottentots. Hottentot or "Hüttentüt means in Frisian or Low German a quack, and therefore the old Dutchmen, who were so much puzzled and did not know what to make of such an unheard-of language, more akin to the chat of a parrot than to human speech, called it Hottentot-i.e., a mere gibberish. They very little knew that they had before themselves a highly-developed language, so highly, indeed, that the ingenious Martin Haug supposes that its higher and more refined constituents must have been acquired by contact with a civilized people.

The old Dutch also did not know that their so-called Hottentots formed only one branch of a wide-spread race, of which the other branch divided into ever so many tribes, differing from each other totally in language, and having only a phonetic relationship, as regards certain peculiar sounds, of which the clicks formed the essential part. This other branch differed also entirely in language from those the Dutch had met first. While the so-called Hottentots called themselves Khoikhoi (men of men, i.e., men par excellence), they called those other tribes Sā, the Sonqua of the Cape Records.

This yellow race, consisting of these two branches, inhabited in ancient times the greater part of South Africa, at least the territory south of the rivers Kunéne and Zambesi.

The appellation Hottentot is now en vogue, and as Goethe has it :

"Wo die Begriffe fehlen,

Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein."

(For there precisely, where ideas fail,

A word comes in most opportunely.)

It is useless therefore to extirpate it, for the custom of more than two centuries has sanctioned its use; and all we can do is to define it more accurately. We should apply the

term Hottentot to the whole race, and call the two families, each by the native name, that is the one, the Khoikhoi, the so-called Hottentot proper; the other the San (Sa) or Bushmen.

In the Nama language, one of the Khoikhoi idioms, the Bushmen are called Sa-n (com. plur). The meaning of this term is not quite intelligible, and I frankly confess that, after nine years, of which I have spent nearly seven amongst the Khoikhoi, I did not succeed in arriving at a quite satisfactory etymology, and I must still adhere to the interpretation which I first gave in the Globus, 1870, where I traced the word Sa-(b) to the root SA, to inhabit, to be located, to dwell, to be settled, to be quiet. Sa(n) consequently would mean Aborigines or Settlers proper. These Sa-n or Sa-gu-a, Sonqua or Sounqua, &c. (obj. plur. msc.) as they are styled in the Cape Records, are often called Bushmen-the Bossiesman, Bosjesman, Bosmanneken of the Colonial Annals, a name given to them to indicate their abode and mode of living.

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The word Sa(b) has also acquired a low meaning, and is not considered to be very complimentary. The Khoikhoi often speak of Uri-San (white Bushmen) and mean the low white vagabonds and runaway sailors who visit their country as traders. One also often hears, Khoikhoi tamab, Sab ke," he is no Khoikhoi, he is a Sā, which means to say, "he is no gentleman, he is of low ex. traction, or he is a rascal." A Nama will say of a man who is very proud and reserved in his manners, who only mixes in good society, "Khoikhoisen ra aob ke," the man makes-a-Khoikhoi-of-himself, that is, he stands very much upon his dignity, and also, he keeps himself very much to himself.

Those who desire to have information on the natural and physical condition of the Khoikhoi and Sā-(n), I refer to Dr. Gustav Fritsch's standard work, "Die Eingeborenen Süd-Africas," and to three Essays published by me, Die Namas, and Die Buschmänner, in the

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