The well-known veneration which the Hottentots bestow on an insect (a red-and-green grasshopper), as also on any person on whom it may have alighted, is striking. According to analogy with other peoples who have the same custom, they recognize in this winged chirping insect the embodi ment of the soul of some ancestor, who returns as a guardian spirit ; it converts the person on whom it alights into a prophet and saint, and lie, in order to become again an ordinary mortal, must release himself by offerings. But the souls also go about as hostile demons, as we have already seen, and the Hottentots have the greatest fear of them, espe cially of the ghosts of children, because these are believed to be the most malicious and dangerous. These souls enter into human bodies, some times attracted by magic, and cause diseases.
Sit6erstitions.—The Koi-Koin have innumerable superstitions, as is proved by their ejaculations at sneezing, by their amulets which they consult before undertaking anything important, and by other customs. It is also remarkable that they have a complete taboo law, such as we have found in Polynesia (p. zoo) and indeed almost everywhere.. To this belongs the distinction made between men and women, and the law that whoever touches anything sacred or conies in contact with a corpse, etc. must be purified.
Their manner of sacrifice offers nothing of interest; they pray much with short invocations, and especially do honor to the gods by dances and songs. They have neither idols nor temples, unless the Heitsi-Eibib graves be considered such; but they regard the mountain-summits as sacred, and pray there or at places where they have experienced some favor, have been saved from some danger, etc.
They use other remedies besides magic in case of sickness; they prac tise cupping by means of smoothly-cut cows' horns, also bleeding, and have a number of medicines, mostly derived from plants, which they apply internally and externally. They have a remedy for the bites of poisonous snakes, and the feats of their poison-doctors, who themselves manage to escape being bitten by the snakes, are said to be astonishing. When they are in good health, music and dancing constitute their prin cipal pleasures.
Musical musical instruments consist of a kind of kettledrum and the remarkable gorak (gom-gom), which is a wooden bow strung with a thick gut string; they blow upon the latter through a feather quill at the end of the bow. To make the sound stronger they fasten under the string a cocoanut-shell, the cavity of which serves as a sounding-board. Their singing is plain, but correct, and they have a good
musical car and memory.
Dances, dances, which they mostly accompany with songs and the clapping of hands, are of different kinds; generally they dance singly or in couples, taking turns, but always within a circle of squatting and singing spectators. Originally all the dances probably had a religions meaning. The drawings of the Bushmen which they put on rocks in white, red, or black colors generally represent animals, and are in correct proportions and easily recognized. Furthermore, the Koi-Koin are given to narration, and while their lyric effusions are insignificant, their fables and fairy-tales, many of which they have adopted from foreign nations, are not poor, although they contain much that is fantastic.
have now sketched a picture of these peoples, and we must confess that not even the Bushmen occupy so low a position as is generally supposed. On the contrary, we must believe them to be a highly-gifted and well-developed race, who have proved themselves able to adopt European culture where it has been seriously presented; nay, they are superior to many of the immigrants.
Character.—Neither is their character bad. They are indeed lazy, especially the men, and very averse to steady work. Their long habit of not working is not the only cause of this; they also consider work a dis grace and a species of slavery, and have often told the Europeans this in sophistically shrewd reasoning. However, their laziness has been exag gerated. That they had no desire to be industrious for the benefit of the Europeans is easily understood from the manner in which the latter often deceived them or maltreated them. Still, the diligence of the Hot tentot servants of many missions and the excellence of the men as soldiers show that their indolence can be overcome by reasonable treat ment. In their own free life both Hottentots and Bushmen are zealous in work, as in housebuilding, attending to animals, hunting, etc.
At present they are much addicted to liquor, and they always have had a great liking for stimulants (dacha). But they are perfectly honest—or at least were so—and even when goods had been paid for beforehand no fraud was practised on their side. They are hospitable and good-natured, live peacefully together, and are decent, truthful, and trusting. The Hot tentots have an earnest, sedate disposition, often changed, however, into indolence and indifference.