he insisted upon my accepting it; because he believed that, as long as I refused to accept his cow, I had not forgiven him. I afterwards made him a present of ammunition, and, as anxious as a Nama is to possess that most precious material, he said: "No; you want to pay my cow, and I shall not accept it." My father was missionary of the Rhenish Mission Society in Bethany, Great Namaqualand. The year 1848 was a very lucky year; the desert was a flowergarden, and honey was brought by waggon-loads to the station; but honey-beer (kharis) was also made in immense quantities, and the new converts very soon had too much of a good thing. The following Sunday my father expressed his indigntion at their drunkenness, and said: "I wish, after you have made such bad use of what the heavenly Father has given you to enjoy moderately, that He never again will give you a year so rich in honey!" Strange enough, up to this date there has never again been an abundance of honey. When, a few years ago, I asked the old chief, Naiyab of Bethany, quite accidentally, if he could get me some honey, he answered: "What, you ask me for honey? and your father has cursed the bees not to make honey. Tell him, at first, to take back his curse and you will again eat honey." 29. The eclipse of the moon is always considered a bad omen. Hunting parties, or an expedition of war, will certainly return home, and they say, "||Gaunabi ge dahe hã," we are overpowered by Gauna. They commence to cry aloud, and say, "torob ni ha, llō ge ni," war is approaching, we are going to die. The same is said at the appearance of the Aurora australis, or if the awful tail of a comet is seen in the blue vault. There are some superstitions of a very recent date, which show that the mythological power is still alive. 30. If the cold westerly sea breeze (huri- ‡oab) is blowing, the Namaquas say: "Hub ke ni ha," or "Smaub ni ha," the white man is coming, or the trader is coming. 31. If a cock stands before the door of a house and crows into the house, visitors are expected. 32. If hens try to crow they are caught and killed or chased to death. If this be neglected, the owner is sure to die. 33. If a party goes out on a warlike expedition a crow's heart is burnt and pounded and loaded into a gun. The gun is fired into the air, and they believe that as this pounded heart is blown into the air, in the same manner the enemies will fly and become faint-hearted, and they will disperse like timid crows. 34. Another most powerful charm is the Duba, a substance of white colour, and of the size of a fowl's egg. This duba is generally found in ant heaps. The duba is pounded and mixed with tobacco, and then put into the pipe. If a girl smokes this mixture she will fall in love with the fellow who offered her the pipe. That these superstitions are of a very recent date is obvious from the fact that the Khoikhoi, only through the white people, have become acquainted with fowls, pipes, guns, and ammunition. Therefore such superstitions in which things, brought from foreign countries, are mentioned, cannot be considered to be common to all Khoikhoi tribes. In this respect each clan has its own superstition. It is curious to observe that the Khoikhoi have not accepted anything from the Bantu nations, while as regards language and religion, and even customs, it cannot be denied that the Bantu nations, who came in contact with the Khoikhoi, have adopted much which had an improving effect on their original condition. That the Gona-Khoikhoi in the East greatly influenced the Ama-||khosa; that these people became less ferocious than the Zulus; that the rule of the chiefs among the ||Khosa was no longer so despotical as it generally is among the rest of the Bantu tribes—who could deny? Nay, even the short time that the Bandieru, a branch of the Herero, stood under the sway of the tribe of the Geil Khaua, has left an impression on those natives which manifests itself in softer manners and a kinder disposition towards strangers, if compared with the manners of the more northerly Hereros towards the Kaoko and Ovamboland. NOTES TO THE SECOND CHAPTER. 1 There must have been a peculiar-shaped stone fetish, such as Wangemann describes in "Ein Reisejahr in Süd-Afrika," Berlin, 1868, p. 500: "In a great channel, worked by the rain, we found a big granite block, about six feet in diameter and as round as a ball, which rested on a basis of a softer material. This stone the Basuto worship as their God. They dance round it on one leg, and at the same time spit at it. The place's name is Cha Ratau, close to Sekukuni's stronghold. 2 The honourable gentleman had a conversation with some Hottentots, who were on the most friendly and confidential terms with him. They informed him that they worshipped a certain god, whose head was as large as a hand or fist, who had a hollow in his back, who was possessed of gigantic proportions. To him they prayed for assistance in times of famine, scarcity, or in any other calamity. It was a custom that their wives. spread on the head of this deity a red kind of earth, buchu, or other sweet-smelling herbs, this being not one of their offerings only, but one of many. From this it can be seen that the Hottentot worship also a god. 3 Almost verbally the same said a Namaqua, who never had come in contact with missionaries, and who led a Bushman life in the mountains west of Geilaus (about latitude 24° 25', and longitude 16°). He said: "Guruïrao ogu ge Khub ta goba, tira mĩ khoiga; Igabehegu goma ra." The people say, if it is thundering, the Lord is speaking; He is scolding them. 4 As to Valentyn's authority, I may add that he refers to certain documents of the Governor, Simon van der Stell, and to the very learned Secretary of the Dutch Government at the Cape, Grevenbroek, who had written a Latin essay on the Hottentots; all these documents were also put at Valentyn's disposal. 5 This is nothing else but the Tsui-llgoab worship, as I have identified in the third chapter Tsui-Ilgoab, with the Dawn. It is still the way of the Aborigines of Great Namaqualand to leave their huts with the first rays of the dawn, and to implore Tsui-||goab. 6 Gaunia, evidently from the verb gou or gao, to rule. I am, however, suspicious that Kolb, who often is careless in expressing the clicks, has understood ||Gaunia-i.e., Gauna, the Bad Being, the demon who is opposed to Tsui-||goab. 7 The evil-doer, who fights against Tsui-llgoab, is ||Gaunab, and that insect Mantis fausta, is also called Gaunab, both derived from a root gau. As will be more minutely explained hereafter, ||Gaunab means the destroyer, from the root Ilgau, to destroy; and Mantis is called ||Gaunab, from the root ||gau, to show, and is the one who shows luck." Here we have an instance that the same word spoken in a different tone will have a different meaning. Vide Theoph. Hahn, "Die Sprache der Nama," p. 23. The same instance we have in the language of the Mandengas, Steinthal, "Mandeneger Sprache Berl.," 1877, § 34; and in Siam, vide Bastian, “Monatsbericht der Köngl. Preuss. Akademie in Berlin,” Jan. 1867, p. 357 8 To this I could add, from experience, that I have often observed true gratitude shown to me by Namaquas whom I had helped in troubles either with food, ammunition, or medicine. This convinced me beyond doubt, and will also convince the greatest sceptic, that the Khoikhoi know how to be thankful, and are very sensible of kindness bestowed upon them. The Basler Magazine of 1816, p. 366, offers some remarks on the Religion of the Khoikhoi, quoting Adams' "View of Religions." But when comparing Adams with Kolb, whose remarks we have given above, there is no doubt that Adams, who never was at the Cape, must have drawn from Kolb. 10 This journal is contained in "Nieuwste en beknopte Beschryving van de Kaap der Goede-Hoop, nevens een Dagverhaal naarhet binnenste van Afrika, door het land der kleine en groote Namaquas," Amsterdam, 1778. The Expedition started from the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of July, 1761, and returned safely to the Cape on the 27th of April, 1762. According to p. 50 of that Journal, the most northern latitude they reached was latitude 26° 18'. As their instruments were not very exact, we cannot expect a great correctness of observation; and as every one who is acquainted with the territory in question can learn from Hop's Journal, the most northern spot they reached was the "Ford of the Xamob River," about twenty miles south of the present Rhenish mission-station, Keetmanshoop or Zwartmodder (latitude 26° 32'), thus the corrected latitude of Commander Hop's most northern point should be 26° 50'. Seventy years afterwards Captain Alexander, later Sir James Alexander, who managed to reach Walefish Bay by land, took almost the same route, and crossed the Xamob River at a place Nanebis, only a few miles below the abovementioned ford. The grandson of one of the members of that expedition, Jacobus Coetsee, is now a wealthy farmer at Misklip, at the foot of the Vogelklip Mountain, the most northerly station of Sir Thomas Macclear's astronomical survey; and the descendants of Pieter Marais, another member of the same Expedition, are wealthy, and much respected farmers in the town of Stellenbosch. |