HOTTENTOTS (hot'en-tots), the peo ple who were in possession of the greater part of what is now Cape Colony when it was first visited and colonized by Eu ropeans. The Hottentots were so called by the earliest Dutch settlers. It is popularly used to include the two distinct families distinguished by their native names: The Khoikhoi, the so-called Hot tentot proper, and the San (Sa) or Bush men. Again, among the Khoikhoi proper, the terms Hottentots, Hottentots proper, or Cape Hottentots are often applied to the remnants of the tribes who formerly lived around Cape Town; while the inhabitants of Griqualand West, of the South Kalihari, and of Great Nama qualand are distinguished by their tribal names as Griquas, Namaquas, Koras or Koramas, though they are as much Hot tentots as the Khoikhoi of Cape Colony. The Bushmen are hunters; the Khoikhoi, nomads and sheep-farmers.
At the present time the so-called Hot tentots proper may number about 17,000; and the half-breeds, mostly employed in the Cape Colony, may number probably 100,000. The majority of the former
and almost all the latter class are now semi-civilized, and copy the habits, cus toms, dress, and vices of the European colonists. In general they are of medium height, not very robust in build, and have small hands and feet. Their skin is a pale brown coldr; their hair woolly, growing in curly knots; their cheek bones very prominent; and their chin pointed. The men were herdsmen, and not fond of war, though they liked to hunt. Their dwellings were huts of wood and mats, or tents, disposed in circles, and easily transportable. Their manner of living was entire patriarchal: each tribe or division of a tribe had its own chief. Their method of perpetuat ing family names was that the sons took their mother's family name, while the daughters took their father's.