OCR Rendition - approximate

Relations between Civilized and Savage Life. 323 hospitable, indolent, unenergetic. Their description of the personal appearance of the Hottentots is : body slender, well proportioned, small hands and feet, skin leathery brown, faces oval, projecting cheekbones ; eyes dark, wide apart, deep set; nose broad, thick, flat ; chin pointed, mouth large, thick upturned lips ; hair in woolly tufts ; beard scanty. The women are described as held in high esteem among all the tribes of Hottentots, but they were made to do the hard work of the family-an oath by mother or sister was considered the most binding of any. Polygamy was sometimes allowed, but was not common. The early travellers could discover no traces of religion. The Hottentots were great believers in witchcraft, had a superstitious reverence for some insects and animals, for the moon and other heavenly bodies, and for the spirits of their ancestors, but their notions of a supreme being were very vague and contradictory, and they had no fixed belief in existence after death. The Berg Damaras are apparently of Bantu origin, and in their physique hardly to be distinguished from the I)amaras proper, But they have been conquered and enslaved by tribes of Namaqua origin and now speak a dialect of Namaqua, a very interesting instance of a change of language of which I know no other instance in South Africa. The first question in this, as in other cases, relates to the continued existence of these races in the presence of civilization, I have been frequently assured by educated men in South Africa who had paid some attention to such subjects " that it was impossible nowadays to meet with a single man of pure Hottentot race." But I soon found on enquiring further that this was true only if it were meant that the man must be, not only of pure Hottentot race, but that he was unbaptized, and able to speak his own Hottentot language. I found that whereever there were many of the class popularly known as " Hottentots " or " Bastards," it was not difficult to find many individuals who, as far as could be learnt by personal examination, were of pure Hottentot parentage ; but all who were baptized, and many who were not, had adopted Christian names, and generally Dutch surnames, also, and were known as "off coloured boys" or " Darkies," regarding the name of Hottentot as a term of reproach ; this is especially apt to be the case where a man has prospered, and acquired money, as many have ; the language, moreover, rapidly falling into disuse, and now useful only among the Hottentots themselves, who almost always understand Cape Dutch. The conclusion I came to at last was-that it was doubtful whether there were not, at this moment, more people of pure or VOL. XII. Z