HOTTENTOTS (Khoi-Khoin, Men of Men). A dwarf race in Namaland, South Africa (census of 1891, 50,388). Their domain is said to extend from Orange River to Walfish Bay and far into the Damara upland. A study of their somatology shows them to have the follow ing characteristics: Cranial capacity, 1290; ceph alic index, 74.3. Their skin is yellow, brown, or gray, not black; the hair is long and woolly: the check-bones are prominent ; eyes are dark chest nut or black, wide apart ; the nose is very broad and flat, nostrils thick; the mouth is large, with heavy, upturning lips, and enormous prognath ism, chin pointed, and receding jaw. They have little beard, and no hair on the body. The ears are large, without lobules. (See Colored Plate of AFRICA, DARE RACES OF.) Steatopygia is com mon. There are three divisions of them. the Hot tentots proper, the mongrel Griquas of Griqualand \Vest, and the Koranas on the Orange, Vaal, and Modder rivers. They, or the Bushmen, their kindred, and not the negroes of the family of Bantu, are doubtless the aborigines of the coun try, but between the persecutions of the spread ing Bantu tribes and later the occupation of the lowlands by Dutch and English settlers, most of them have been driven into the mountains and waste places, and they are slowly dying out. They live in low, oval, dome-shaped huts, made by set ting rough poles in the ground, bending them down and tying them together. Over all is a thatch or layer of mats woven by the women. In the cen tre of each hut is the fire-pit where meat is roasted, and around the sides are holes in which they sleep. They wear little costume beyond a cloak of skin, but smear their bodies lavishly with fat and soot. At the time of the advent of the Europeans their wealth consisted largely in cat tle. Their chief weapons were bows and poisoned arrows. In their villages the huts were arranged in a circle, forming what is known as a kraal. A portion of the Hottentots shared the fortunes and stood the oppressions of the settlers, and their descendants form a mixed race, many of whom are prosperous in flocks and herds.
Hottentot men do little work besides helping to tend cattle and occasionally hunting and fishing. Some pursue the trades of smith or armorer, tailor or tanner. The women make cords, mats, and pottery, cook, tend cattle, and perform most of the labor.
Trade is carried on by barter in cattle, and oxen are used for bearing burdens. Little beef is eaten, and meat is procured by hunting, milk being the chief food; from their environment the Hottentots secure many roots and fruits, which supply the vegetable element in their diet. Cook ing of meat is by roasting or seething in a skin bag by means of hot stones. They make an intoxicating mead and chew a narcotic root.
Puberty, marriage, and funeral feasts are held. Their amusements are mock fights, games accom panied with music, drinking, and smoking. Fam ily affection seems strong, and they are friendly, liberal, and hospitable among themselves.
Their yellow skin has been an enigma to an thropologists, and the discovery of similarities in grammar, together with the existence of words representing abstractions of a high order, strengthened the theory that the Bushmen Hot tentots had separated from the Caucasian kin dred in the north in prehistoric times, settling the southern portion of the continent, where they were pressed upon later by the black Bantu tribes. More probably they are a-n isolated race, like the Australians. The theory that they are lost Hamites is weakened by the fact that their language has elements resembling those of other races. The clicks in the vocal sounds, resem bling the smacking of the mouth in clucking, etc., are made by pressing the tongue against the teeth, the palate, the sides of the upper jaw. or doubling it backward and then producing an ex plosive noise. These clicks usually occur at the beginning of words, and while each one is not difficult to imitate, the European is quite unable to follow them up with the vocal sounds that make up the word. The name Hottentot is an effort of the Dutch to imitate the dental clicks pronounced like the expression of surprise, tut! tut! with an inhalation.