The language of the Hottentots is perhaps one of the most extraordinary forms of speech in use among human beings. Its principal peculiarity is, a strong clacking of the tongue, in uttering every monosyllable, and every leading syllable of larger words. This sound is formed by sudden ly retracting the tongue from the teeth or palate, according to the signification of the word to be uttered, and in some measure answering the part of inflexions, &c. The sound of the dental clack is said to be exactly the same as that which is sometimes used to express impatience ; and that of the palatial stroke is more full and sonorous, not unlike the clucking of a lien to her chickens. These sounds are thrown out at the same moment with the syllable, so that they cannot be said to predede or follow, but rather to ac company it. Though the difficulty of uttering and appro priating these sounds appear to Europeans extreme, yet it is not insurmountable ; and most of the Dutch colonists are able to speak the Hottentot language with great fluency. Many vocables in the language seem to have been original ly exact imitations of nature, and many of the names of ani mals, especially, are obviously suggested by their distin guishing cry ; such as, kraak, a frog ; mnoo, an ox.; meau, a cat ; hahre, a horse ; hurroo, the sea ; kaboo, a gun. This last word particularly is so pronounced as to imitate the report of a musket. The syllable ka is thrown out with a strong palatial stroke of the tongue, expressing the stroke of the flint ; while the last syllable boo is uttered with a full mouth, outstretched lips, and prolonged sound, descriptive of the report. We add a few of the common vocables ; and a Hottentot version of the Lord's prayer, as a slight specimen of the language.
Few ancient usages are retained among the scattered tribes of the Hottentots ; and all traces even of their reli gion, if they ever had any knowledge or observances on the subject, are now lost. No particular ceremonies are ob. served either at ',heir marriages or funerals ; and they arc more like a people who have never been formed into any kind of communities, than the remains of a tribe or nation who had once possessed any laws or customs common to them all. The truest specimens of the unmixed Hottentot people and practices are probably to be found among the Bosjes mans, (see BOSJESMANS ;) but, whether that wretched race existed in their present condition before the dispersion of the Hottentots, or in consequence of that event, must re main a subject of mere conjecture. A few cus toms and practices of the Hottentots may be briefly stated. One of the customs still generally prevalent is, to shave the heads of young girls as soon as the first symptoms of matu rity appear, to remove all their ornaments, and wash the whole body thoroughly ; and to restrict them to a milk diet, and seclude them from the company of men during the continuance of the periodical symptoms. Though they inter their dead without any ceremony, it is a common prac tice to pile a heap of stones over the grave ; and it is firm ly believed among them, that some misfortune would soon befal the individual who should pass the place without add ing a stone to the heap. This customis supposed to have originated in a wish to secure the bodies of the deceased from being dug up and devoured by wild beasts. The Hottentots, in drinking from a pool or stream, throw the water in their mouths with their right hand in a very ex pert and expeditious manner, seldom bringing the hand nearer the mouth than the distance of a foot. They gene rally wash their poisoned wounds with a mixture of urine and gun-powder, besides frequently using the actual caute ry ; and, for the most part recover easily, unless wounded severely. They kill their cattle, by thrusting a sharp-pointed instrument into the spinal marrow immediately behind the horns ; and the animal being thus instantaneously depriv ed of life, the throat is cut to let out the blood. Among the Hottentots who reside at the mouth of the Orange ri ver, a superstitious practice prevails, similar to what has been observed among the South Sea islanders, of cutting off the first joint of their little finger, as a remedy for a particular disease, to which they are subject when young.
The most prominent point in the habits and dispositions of the Hottentots is their extreme indolence, which even the urgent calls of hunger are scarcely able to overcome. Provided they are allowed to sleep, they would willingly fast the whole day, rather than undergo the trouble of dig ging the ground for roots, or procuring food by the chace ; and Mr Barrow particularly relates, that in the course of his journies, the Hottentot servants frequently passed the day without a morsel of food, rather than walk half a mile for a sheep. They are habituated from their infancy to a life of sloth ; and having obtained what is barely sufficient to support nature, contentedly spend the day as well as night in sleeping under a bush upon their sheep-skin. Even in the service of the Dutch colonists, they are rather confirm ed in their laziness, than cured of it ; as, in every farm-house there is so great a multitude of servants, that little tvork falls to the share of each individual. It is not uncommon to see twenty or thirty, where there is not employment for more than four or five ; so that one of the domestics, dur ing the space of a whole day, may have only to bring his master's whip from the next apartment ; another to fetch his mistress's fire-box and place it under her feet ; and a third to supply some of the family, three or four times in the day, with lighted wood, to kindle their tobacco pipes.
They are by no means, however, a stupid people. They are uncommonly expert in finding out a passage over a de sert uninhabited country. They arc remarkably quick sighted, and can discover the game in the chace at a very great distance. They will follow with the eye the flight even of a bee to an incredible distance, watching its mo tions, and tracing out its nest. They are able to distin guish the prints of the feet of whatever animal they chance to pursue, if they be at all acquainted with it ; and would single out among a thousand foot-marks those of their com panions. They learn the Dutch language with great fa cility ; and though seldom employed as domestic servants by the colonists at the Cape, they can be taught to do every kind of work with as much propriety as Europeans. They are a mild, quiet, and rather timid people ; but endure pain with extraordinary patience, and when led on by superiors, will encounter danger with sufficient alacrity. They are )lonest and faithful, and have little of that cunning which savages generally possess ; but are ready to divulge the truth, when charged with crimes of which they have been guilty. They seldom quarrel among themselves, or make use of provoking language ; but are kind and affectionate to one another, and ready to share the last morsel with their companions. Though extremely phlegmatic, they are not incapable of strong attachments, and are particularly sen sible to any act of kindness. These are sensations, how ever, which they have, unhappily, few opportunities of in dulging. In the state of hard bondage and cruel oppres sion under which they spend their miserable existence, the muscles of their countenance are rarely seen to relax into a smile, but are constantly overspread with the deep est melancholy. It has been sufficiently proved, that un der humane treatment they are capable of being rendered active, industrious, and useful members of society. About 500 of them had been embodied by the Dutch in a corps called the Cape Regiment ; and, though unsupported, had acted with considerable spiri:in opposing the British troops at the capture of the colony in 1795. General Sir James Craig found it expedient to take them into the British ser vice, and to increase their numbers. They became excel lent soldiers, orderly, tractable, and faithful, ready on all occasions to obey the commands of their officers with cheer fulness and alacrity. " Never," says the above-mentioned officer, " were people more contented, or more grateful for the treatment they now receive. It is with the oppor tunity of knowing them well, that I venture to pronounce them an intelligent race of men. All who bear arms ex ercise well, and understand immediately and perfectly what ever they are taught to perform. Many of them speak English tolerably well. We are told, that so great was their propensity to drunkenness, we should never be able to reduce them to order or discipline ; and that the habit of roving was so rooted in their disposition, we must expect the whole corps would desert the moment they had receiv -cd their clothing. With respect to the first, I do not find they are more given to the vice of drinking than our own people ; and as to their pretended propensity to roving, that charge is fully confuted by the circumstance of only one man having left us since I first adopted the measure of as sembling them, and he was urged to this step bon, hav ing accidentally lost his firelock."—" Of all the qualities, it will little be expected I should expatiate upon their clean liness ; and yet it is certain, that at this moment our Hot tentot parade would not suffer in a comparison with that of some of our regular regiments. Their clothing may perhaps have suffered more than it ought to have done in the time since it was issued to them, from their ignorance of the means of preserving it ; but those articles which are capable of being kept clean by washing, together with their arms and accoutrements, which they have been taught to keep bright, are always in good order. They are now likewise cleanly in their persons ; the practice of smear ing themselves with grease being entirely left off. 1 have frequently observed them washing themselves in a rivulet, where they could have in view no other object but cleanli ness." These men shewed themselves highly deserving of this favourable testimony, during three years service in the distant district of Graaff Reynet, where they were re quired, by an unfortunate train of events, to act against their own countrymen and comrades ; yet, during all that time, according to the testimony of Mr Barrow, they never shrunk from their duty, and only one man deserted in the whole corps. They became so attached to the British go vernment, that, after the evacuation of the colony, they re fused to enter again into the service of the Dutch ; and most of them, upon being disbanded, fled into the interior to join their oppressed countrymen.