These aborigines, totally distinct as they were in their primitive state from all other African races, have been generally regarded as the most ancient inhabitants of the land. A little more than two centuries ago they were a numerous people, whose nomadic tribes or clans and families were spread over the territory now distinguished as the Cape Colony; and tradition, as well as the evidence afforded by names of places and surviving peculiarities of manners and language, points to their having in prehistoric times extended much further to the north-westward and eastward, where they have been supplanted by the Kaffre or Negro tribes. The freedom, security, and protection enjoyed by the Hottentots since the Cape of Good Hope became a portion of the British empire have in no small degree arrested the process of extermination of the race which was rapidly proceeding at the close of last century. When Sir John Barrow described their condition in 1798, he estimated their numbers at about 15,000 souls. In 1806 the official return gave a population of 9784 males and 10,642 females. In 1824 they had increased to 31,000. At the census of 1865 they numbered 81,589; and the census of 1875 gave the Hottentot population within the Cape Colony at 98,561. In the returns for the last-mentioned periods, however, the designation “Hottentot” has no doubt embraced many persons of mixed race. It is only at the mission stations or in their vicinity that any genuine descendants of the early tribes are now to be met with. Beyond the colonial borders, however, they are numerically strong. Dr Theophilus Hahn gives the following as an approximate statement of their numbers (amounting in all to nearly 17,000) in Great Namaqualand and Damaraland :— Pure Namaquas— Geikous, or Red Nation, 2500; Topnaars, 750; Kharo-oas, 300; Khogeis, 100; Ogeis, or Great Deaths, 800; Khau-goas, or Young Red Nation, 1000; Habobes, or Velschoendragers, 1800; Karagei-Khois, 800; Gaminus, or Bondlezwaarts, 2000; Gunungu, or Lowlanders, 200. Namaqua Hottentots or 0erlaams— Eicha-ais, or Afrikaaners, 800; Kowisis, 2500; Amas, 2000; Khauas, 700; Gei-Khauas, or Gobabis people, 600.

The pure Namaquas claim to be the aboriginal tribes, while the “Oerlaam” are the new comers, or those who migrated across the Orange river from the southern part of Cape colony. The latter tribes and many of the former may be said to be in a semi-civilized state, and have in a great measure adopted the customs, habits, language, and pursuits of the colonists. Some are in good circumstances, rich in waggons, horses, cattle, and sheep; while others retain all the improvident, idle, nomadic habits of the aborigines.

The primitive character of the Hottentot or Khoi-Khoin has been greatly changed by their forced migrations, and their gradual adoption of the habits of civilized life. The best information as to their original manners and customs is therefore to be obtained from the descriptions given of them by the older writers. The observations of Kolben, who was a resident at the Cape in the early part of last century, are by far the most complete; and, although doubts have been thrown upon some of his statements, yet travellers and missionaries who have resided among the tribes in Great Namaqualand confirm and endorse the greater part of them.

All authorities agree in representing the natural disposition of the Hottentots as mild, placable, and ingenuous. Mutual affection was the greatest of their virtues. They held in contempt the man who could eat, drink, or smoke alone. They were hospitable to strangers; indeed, their munificence often left them scarcely anything for themselves. Another characteristic was indolence. While not deficient in talents or capacity, they seemed to lack the energy to call them into action. They did not, however, disdain to look after their cattle. Hunting they pursued for pleasure as well as sustenance, and when once aroused they were nimble and active, as well as bold and ardent. In personal appearance they were of a medium height, the females rather smaller than the men. Their bodies were slender but well proportioned, with small hands and feet. Their skin was of a leathery brown colour; their face oval, with prominent projecting cheekbones; eyes dark chestnut or black and wide apart; nose broad and thick and flat at the root; chin pointed, and mouth large, with thick turned-up lips. Their woolly hair grew in short thick curly tufts on their head, and the beard very scanty. The women, especially as they advanced in years, had flabby breasts hanging down low; abnormal developments of fat were somewhat common among them; and cases occurred of extraordinary elongation of the labia minora and of the praeputium clitoridis.

The dress of the men was very simple. A cloak or kaross, varying according to the fashion of the tribe, was usually thrown across the shoulders and a smaller one across the loins. Those of the chiefs or captains were usually of tiger or wild-cat skins, those of the commonalty of sheep skins. They wore the cloaks all the year round, turning the hairy side inward in winter and outward in summer; they slept in them at night, and when they died they were interred in them. They had suspended around their necks little bags or pouches, containing their knives, their pipes and tobacco or daccha (Cannabis, or hemp), and an amulet of burnt wood. On their arms were rings of ivory. When they drove their herds to pasture they wore sandals on their feet, and some of them carried a jackal’s tail fastened on a stick to wipe their face with when heated and drive away the flies. The women also wore karosses, a lesser under a greater, fashioned much like those of the men, but with the addition of a little apron, to which were appended their ornaments. In a leather bag suspended round their neck they carried daily, whether at home or abroad, some victuals, together with their daccha, tobacco, and pipe. They also wore an ornamented skin cap on their heads, armlets of iron or copper on their arms, strings of beads round their wrists, and round their legs thongs of ox-hide sometimes covering half the leg or more.

They loved to besmear their bodies and their dress with greasy substances. The wealthy Hottentots were very lavish in the matter of butter and fat, the use of which was the grand distinction between rich and poor. They also perfumed themselves with the powdered leaves of a shrub called by them bucchu (Diosma crenata). An ointment formed of soot and grease and the powder of bucchu was held in very high estimation.

The sites of their villages or kraals were usually on green meadow grounds. They never entirely exhausted the grass or herbage, but kept moving at intervals from one spot to another. The huts or tents, which they could strike, carry, or pitch where they chose, were ranged in circles, the area of which varied with the pastoral wealth of the community. The small cattle were placed inside the circle, and the larger cattle outside. In the centre of the huts a hole served for a fire-place, around which the members of the family were fond of squatting upon their haunches while they passed the tobacco pipe from one to another. On each side of the hearth small excavations an inch or two deep were made in the ground, and thereon mats were spread upon which the men, women, and children rolled up in their karosses lay down and slept. Their household effects consisted only of some earthen vessels for cookery, tortoise shells for spoons and dishes, and calabashes, bamboos, and skins for holding milk and butter. The weapons for hunting or warfare—the assegai, the bow and poisoned arrows, the shield, and the kerrie (a stick with a large knob at one end)—were also part of the furniture. Women were held in high repute: the most sacred oath a Khoi-Khoi could take was to swear by his sister or mother; yet the females ate apart from the men, and did all the work of the kraal. Their usual food consisted of milk, the flesh of the buffalo, hippopotamus, antelope, or other game, and edible roots and bulbs or wild fruits. Cows’ milk was commonly drunk by both sexes, but ewes’ milk only by the women, and when cows’ milk was scarce the women were obliged to keep to ewes’ milk or water. Meats were eaten either roasted or boiled, but for the most part half raw, without salt, spices, or bread. Some meats they carefully abstained from, such as swine’s flesh. Hares and rabbits were forbidden to the men, but not to the women; while the pure blood of beasts and the flesh of the mole were forbidden to the women, but not to the men.

Their social pleasures consisted in feasting, smoking, dancing, and singing. Every signal event of life, and every change of abode and condition was celebrated with a feast. On the formation of a new kraal an arbour was constructed in the centre, and the women and children adorned and perfumed it with flowers and branches of trees and odoriferous herbs. The fattened ox was killed and cooked, and the men partook of it in the arbour, while the women sitting apart regaled themselves with broth. Upon such occasions they indulged in no other intoxication than what arose from their smoking tobacco or daccha.

Circumcision, which is common to the Kaffre tribes, was unknown to them, but when a youth entered upon manhood a particular ceremony was performed. One of the elders or officiating priests, using a knife of sharp quartz, made incisions on the young man’s body, and afterwards besprinkled the same with urine. When a man for the first time distinguished himself by killing an elephant, hippopotamus, or rhinoceros, similar marks were made on his body, and were regarded as insignia of honour. There was no purchase of wives, but in every case of marriage the consent of the parents had to be first obtained. If his proposals were accepted, the suitor accompanied by all his kindred drove two or three fat oxen to the house from which he was to take his destined bride. There her assembled relations received them with kindly greetings and caresses; the oxen were then immediately slain, and every one participated in the bridal feast. The nuptial ceremony was concluded by the priest besprinkling the happy pair. Among the colonial Hottentots these ancient usages have long been set aside; but they are still continued among some of the surviving tribes north of the Orange river. Polygamy was practised, but not to any great extent. Divorce was much more common. Family names were perpetuated in a peculiar manner—the sons took the family name of the mother, while the daughters took that of the father. Thus if the father’s and mother’s names were respectively Hagub and Daimüs, the sons would be called, according to their age, Daimüb geib (big one), Daimüb! naga mab (of lower standing), and Daimüb ↑ Kham (younger); and the daughters, Hagu-geis (eldest), Hagu! nagamas (second), and Hagu ∣ Khams (younger). The children were very respectful to their parents, by whom they were kindly and affectionately treated. Yet the superannuated or aged father or mother was sometimes exposed and left to die. Namaquas say this was done by very poor people if they had no food for their parents. But even when there was food enough, aged persons, especially women, who were believed to be possessed of the evil spirit or devil were placed in an enclosure of bushes with some meat and water, intended to be their last nourishment,

The Hottentots had neither warlike nor pastoral songs, and their musical instruments were but few and simple. One named the “gorah” was formed by stretching a piece of the twisted entrails of a sheep along a thin hollow stick about three feet in length in the manner of a bow and string. At one end there was a piece of quill fixed into the stick, to which the mouth was applied, and the tones were produced by inspiration and respiration. Another, the “ramkee,” was constructed on the same principle as a guitar, with three or four strings stretched over a piece of hollow wood. The “rommel·pot” was a kind of drum. Reeds several feet long were likewise made use of as flutes.

The system of government was patriarchal. Each tribe had its hereditary “khu-khoi” or “gao-ao”or chief, and each kraal or encampment its captain. These met in council whenever any great matters affecting the privileges of the people had to be decided. They had no salary, but their persons were held in great reverence, and they were installed in office with solemnities and feasting. In certain tribes the hind part of every bullock which was slaughtered was sent to the chief, and this he distributed among the males of the village. He also collected sufficient milk at the door of his hut to deal out amongst the poor. A part of every animal taken in hunting was exacted by the chief, even though it was in a state of putrefaction when brought to him.

The captains assisted by the men of each kraal attended to the settlement of disputes regarding property and to the trial of criminals. A murderer was beaten or stoned to death; but if one escaped and was at large for a whole year, he was allowed to go unpunished. Adultery seldom occurred; if any one found parties in the act and killed them he was no murderer, but on the contrary received praise for his deed. Women found offend ing were burnt. Theft, especially cattle-stealing, was severely punished.

The religious ideas of the Hottentots were very obscure. Vaillant says they had “neither priests nor temples, nor idols, nor ceremonials, nor any traces of the notion of a deity.” Kolben, Tachart, and others, however, assure us that they believed in an invisible deity or “Great Captain,” whom they named Tik-guoa (7'sιι-goab), a good man who did them no harm, and of whom therefore they need not be afraid. They also spoke of other captains of less power, and of a black captain named Gauna, who was the spirit of evil. The moon was a secondary divinity, supposed to have the disposal of the weather; and on each occasion of the appearance of the crescent moon in the sky they assembled from night till morning, dancing, clapping hands, and singing their hymns. Schmidt, the first missionary to the Hottentots, says they also celebrated the anniversary of the appearance of the Pleiades above the eastern horizon. Hahn states that at the present day the Topnaars of Sandwich Harbour and of the! Khomab mountains worship a being whom they name Tusib, the rain god. He also reports that he heard an old Namaqua saying, “The stars are the souls of the deceased,” and mentions a form of imprecation, “Thou happy one, may misfortune fall on thee from the star of my grandfather.”

Their notion of the supreme being and their relations to a life hereafter also took the form of ancestor-worship. The deified hero was named Heitsi-Eibib ; and of him endless stories are told. The one most generally accepted is that he was a notable warrior of great physical strength, who once ruled the Khoi-Khoin, and that in a desperate struggle with one of his enemies, whom he finally overcame, he received a wound in the knee, from which event he got the name of “the wounded knee.” He was held in high repute for extraordinary powers during life, and after death he continued to be invoked as one who could still relieve and protect. According to the tradition still preserved among the Namaquas, Heitsi-Eibib came from the east. Therefore they make the doors of their huts towards the east, and those who possess waggons and carts put their vehicles alongside the mat-house with the front turned towards the east. All the graves are in true west-easterly direction, so that the face of the deceased looks towards the east. The spirit of Heitsi-Eibib is supposed to exist in the old burial places, and, whenever a heathen Hottentot passes them, he throws stones on the spot as an offering, at the same time invoking the spirit’s blessing and protection. Hahn asserts that there are many proofs which justify the conclusion that, to the minds of the Khoi-Khoin, Heitsi-Eibib and Tsu-goab (the supreme being) were identical. Both were higher powers who took great care of men. Both were believed to have died and risen again. They killed the bad beings and restored peace on earth; they promised men immortality, understood the secrets of nature, and could foretell the future. The Heitsi-Eibega are to be found all over South Africa.

Various ceremonies were practised to ward off the evil influence of ghosts and spectres, and charms were freely employed. There was also a belief that in every fountain there was a snake, and that as long as the snake remained there water would continue to flow, but that if the snake was killed or left the fountain it would cease. Offerings were sometimes made to the spirit of the fountain. Like all people sunk in barbarism, the Hottentots had great faith in witch-doctors, or sorcerers. When called to a sickbed, these ordered the patient to lie on his back, and then pinched, cuffed, and beat him all over until they expelled the illness. After that they produced a bone, small snake, frog, or other object which they pretended to have extracted from the patient’s body. If the treatment did not prove efficacious, the person was declared bewitched beyond the power of any one to cure him. Sometimes a joint of a finger was cut off from the idea that the disease would thereby pass away. If death occurred, the corpse was interred on the day of decease. It was wrapt in skins, and placed in the ground in the same position it cnce occupied in the mother’s womb. Death was generally regarded in a very stoical manner.

The Hottentot language was regarded by the early travellers and colonists as an uncouth and barbarous tongue. The Portuguese called the native manner of speaking stammering; and the Dutch compared it to the “gobbling of a turkey-cock.” These phonetic characteristics arose from the common use of “clicks,”—sounds produced by applying the tongue to the teeth or to various parts of the gums or roof of the mouth, and suddenly jerking it back. Three-fourths of the syllabic elements of the language begin with these clicks, and combined with them are several hard and deep gutturals and nasal accompaniments. The difficulty a European has in acquiring an accurate pronunciation is not so much in producing the clicking sound singly as in following it immediately with another letter or syllable. The four recognized clicks, with the symbols generally adopted to denote them, are as follows :— Dental = ∣; palatal = ⅛; lateral = ∣∣; cerebral = !. According to Tindall, one of the best grammarians of the language, the dental click (similar to a sound of surprise or indignation) is produced by pressing the top of the tongue against the upper front teeth, and then suddenly and forcibly withdrawing it. The palatal click (like the crack of a whip) is produced by pressing the tongue with as flat a surface as possible against the termination of the palate at the gums, so that the top of the tongue touches the upper front teeth and the back of the tongue lies towards the palate, and then forcibly withdrawing the tongue. The cerebral click (compared to the popping of the cork of a bottle of champagne) is produced by curling up the tip of the tongue against the roof of the palate, and withdrawing it suddenly and forcibly. The lateral click (similar to the sound used in stimulating a horse to action) is articulated by covering with the tongue the whole of the palate and producing the sound as far back as possible; European learners imitate it by placing the tongue against the side teeth and then withdrawing it. The easiest Hottentot clicks, the dental and cerebral, have been adopted by the Kaffres; and it is a striking circumstance, in evidence of the past Hottentot influence upon the Kaffre languages, that the clicking decreases amongst these tribes almost in proportion to their distance from the former Hottentot domain.

The language in its grammatical structure is beautiful and regular. Dr Bleek describes it as having the distinctive features of the suffix-pronominal order or higher form of languages, in which the pronouns are...