PREFACE.

My dear Sir George,

In inscribing to you this little book, I do no more than offer that which is your due, as its appearance is mainly owing to you. It was by your desire that I wrote, in 1861, to different Missionaries in South Africa, requesting them to make collections of Native Literature, similar in nature to those which, through your instrumentality, had been so abundantly rescued from oblivion in New Zealand. I then wrote, among others, to the Rev. G. Krönlein, Rhenish Missionary at Beerseba, Great Namaqualand; but it was not till after you had left us, on a new mission of honour and duty, that I received from him (at five different periods) the original manuscripts from which most of the Fables given here are translated. He sent us, altogether, twenty-four [[12]]Fables, Tales, and Legends, besides twelve Songs of Praise, thirty-two Proverbs, and twelve Riddles; all in Hottentot (as taken down by him from the mouth of the Natives) and German, partly accompanied by explanatory notes, including fragments of the ǀNūsa[1] Bushman language. Mr. Krönlein’s manuscripts fill sixty-five pages, mostly in quarto, with double columns.

You are aware that the existence of Fables among the Hottentots was already known to us through Sir James Alexander’s “Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa” (8vo., two vols., London, 1838), and that some interesting specimens of their literature had been given by him in that work; but that Fables form so extensive a mass of traditionary Native literature amongst the Namaqua, has first been brought to light by Mr. Krönlein’s communications. The fact of such a literary capacity existing among a nation whose mental qualifications it has been usual to estimate at the lowest standard, is of the greatest importance; and that their literary activity (in contradistinction to the general character [[13]]of Native literature among Negro nations) has been employed almost in the same direction as that which had been taken by our own earliest literature, is in itself of great significance.

Some questions of no trifling importance and interest are raised by the appearance of such an unlooked-for mine of literary lore, particularly as to the originality of these Fables. Whether they are indeed the real offspring of the desert, and can be considered as truly indigenous Native literature, or whether they have been either purloined from the superior white race, or at least brought into existence by the stimulus which contact with the latter gave to the Native mind (like that resulting in the invention of the Tshiroki and Vei alphabets) may be matters of dispute for some time to come, and it may require as much research as was expended upon the solving of the riddle of the originality of the Ossianic poems.

But whatever may be the ultimate result of such inquiries, whether it will confirm our idea of the originality and antiquity of the main portion of these Hottentot Fables, and consequently stamp them with the character of the oldest and most primitive literary remains of the old mother tongue of the Sexdenoting [[14]]nations, or whether they have only sprung up recently among the Hottentots from foreign seed—in either case the disposition of the Hottentots to the enjoyment of such Fables, and their easy growth on this arid soil, be it their native or adopted one—shows a much greater congeniality between the Hottentot and European mind than we find between the latter and any of the black races of Africa.

This similarity in the disposition of nations can in itself indeed hardly be considered as a valid proof of common ancestry; but if there be other grounds to make us believe that the nations in question, or at least their languages, are of common origin, it may render us more inclined to assume that such a similarity in their literary taste is derived also from the same source.

The great ethnological difference between the Hottentots and the black nations of South Africa has been a marked fact from almost the earliest acquaintance of Europeans with these parts, and occasional stray guesses (for example, in R. Moffat’s “Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa,” 1842, p. 6), have already for some time pointed to a North African origin for the Hottentots.

It is, however, only within the last dozen years [[15]]that this has been established as a proved, and, I believe to most observers, an, at first, astonishing fact. I well remember still the feeling of most curious interest with which I regarded Knudsen’s translation of Luke’s Gospel (vol. i., No. 15 of your Library), when, in April 1850, it was sent me by the then Inspector of the Rhenish Mission House, the Rev J. C. Wallmann, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the language was in any way akin to those of the surrounding black nations, and whether, on that account, an already acquired acquaintance with any of the Hottentot dialects would render it easier for a Missionary to master one of the Negro or Kafir tongues.[2] [[16]]

I had, however, at that time not the least idea of the results to which a knowledge of this language [[17]]would lead me; and being then mostly occupied with the study of the Setshuâna and kindred languages—which seemed to me of paramount interest for comparative philology—I did not at first give undivided attention to the perusal of this curious volume. I remarked very soon, however, a striking similarity between the Hottentot signs of gender and those of the Coptic language; but for some time I considered it as purely accidental, which may be seen from a letter of mine regarding this subject, published by Mr. Wallmann, in “Berichten der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft” [[18]](Reports of the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1850, No. 24, if I am not mistaken in the number).

Soon, however, what were at first mere isolated facts, became links, in a chain of evidence, showing that all those Sexdenoting Languages which were then known to us in Africa, Asia, and Europe, are members of one large family, of which the primitive type has, in most respects, been best preserved to us in the Hottentot language.

It was even as early as the end of 1850 that I could write to Mr. Wallmann—“This language (the Hottentot) is to me at this moment of greater interest than any other. The facts, of which once before I have given you some account, have now so increased upon me, and offer such strong analogies, that there is no further doubt in my own mind that not only the Coptic but also the Semitic, and all other languages of Africa (as Berber, the Galla dialect, &c., &c.) in which the distinction of the masculine and feminine gender pervades the whole grammar, are of common origin.”

Part of the result of these researches was then published in my dissertation, “De Nominum Generibus Linguarum Africæ, Australis, Copticæ, Semiticarum [[19]]aliarumque Sexualium” (8vo., Bonn, 6th August, 1851, vol. i., No. 1 of your Library).

I was at that time not aware—nor has it come to my knowledge till within the last few weeks—that on the 10th June, 1851, Dr. J. C. Adamson, in communicating to the Syro-Egyptian Society some observations on the analysis of languages, with a special reference to those of South Africa, had stated “That the signs of gender were almost identical in the Namaqua and the Egyptian, and the feminine affix might be considered as being the same in all three”[3] (Namaqua, Galla, and Old Egyptian).

Another curious agreement on this point, by an apparently independent observer (Mr. J. R. Logan),[4] [[20]]was pointed out to me by your Excellency. You also suggested this name of “Sexdenoting Languages.” But it is superfluous for me to say any thing of what you have done for the advancement of African, as well as Australian and Polynesian, philology.

It has been justly remarked by our learned friend, Mr. Justice Watermeyer, that the natural propensities of animals in all parts of the world being so much alike, Fables intended to portray them must also be expected to resemble each other greatly, even to their very details.

But we may well ask why it is that, so far as we know, the Kafir imagination seems not at all inclined to the formation of this class of fictitious tales, though they have otherwise a prolific Native literature of a more or less historic and legendary character. This contrast to what we find among the Hottentots appears not to be accidental, but merely a natural consequence of that difference of structure which distinguishes these two classes of languages, embracing respectively the dialects of the Hottentots on the one [[21]]hand, and those of the Kafirs and their kindred nations on the other; in the former (the Hottentot), as in all other really Sexdenoting Languages, the grammatical divisions of the nouns into genders, which do not tally exactly with any distinction observed in nature, has been brought into a certain reference to the difference of sex; and on that account this distinction of sex seems in some way to extend even to inanimate beings, whereby a tendency to the personification of impersonal objects is produced, which in itself is likely to lead the mind towards ascribing reason and other human attributes to irrational beings. This is the real origin of almost all those poetical conceptions which we call Fables and Myths. Both are based on the personification of impersonal beings—the former by ascribing speech and reason to the lower animals, whilst the latter substitute human-like agencies in explanation of celestial and other elementary phenomena in place of their real cause.

Mythology is, in its origin, most generally either a mere figure of speech or a poetical explanation suggested by the grammatical form or etymological meaning of words, indicating certain striking natural phenomena. In the primary stage of their production, [[22]]Myths may be supposed to have been always understood in their true original character; and it is only when in the course of generations their real origin has been obscured, and they have become merely the petrified excrescences of a traditionary creed, that their apparent absurdity makes them at first sight almost inexplicable, particularly when found among nations of a high intelligence.

The humbler sisters of the Myths, the Fables based on the natural propensities of animals, are not obscured in their real character so easily as the former, and have, on that account, more generally retained their simple usefulness as moral teachers; so, though they may have preceded even Myths as to the date of their first conception, they yet outlive them as real and salutary elements of the best national literatures: not that Myths had not their own beneficial sphere in the education of mankind, as leading them on to higher abstract ideas, and even deeper religious thoughts, but their very power of exerting a much deeper influence on the destinies of our race, made it essential that they should have a more transitory existence in the civilizing process of the Sexdenoting nations—who have to give up mythologies so soon as through them they have gained higher religious ideas—while [[23]]Fables, which never claim so high a place among the elements of furthering the eliminating process of our species, remain always welcome to most classes of readers at certain periods of their intellectual development.

Children, and also simple-minded grown-up people, whose taste has not been spoiled by the poison of over-exciting reading, will always be amused by the quaintly expressed moral lessons which they receive through every good Fable; and the more thorough student of literature will also regard with pleasure these first innocent plays of awakening human imagination. To all these the Hottentot Fables offered here may not be unwelcome as a fresh store of original compositions, or even as old acquaintances who gain a new interest in different clothing and scenery.

To make these Hottentot Fables readable for the general public, a few slight omissions and alterations of what would otherwise have been too naked for the English eye were necessary, but they do not in any essential way affect the spirit of the Fables. Otherwise, the translation is faithful to the original, though not exactly literal.

It would of course be presumptuous to believe that [[24]]we could here discuss fully the originality or date of composition of these Fables, and all the many questions involved therein.

The modern origin of some of the Fables, as, for instance, that of The Cock (12), Fish-Stealing (8), The Judgment of the Baboon (17), and The Curse of the Horse (30), is very evident; others, e.g., The White Man and the Snake (5 & 6), indicate clearly a European origin. Others, however, have strong claims to be regarded not merely as genuine products of the Hottentot mind, but even as portions of a traditionary Native literature, anterior in its origin to the advent of Europeans.

That the latter is a true view of the subject becomes perhaps the more conclusive by the intimate relations in which, among the Hottentots, Myths still stand to Fables; in fact, a true mythology can hardly be said to exist among them; for Myths (as that of The Origin of Death) are in reality as much Fables as Myths; but we may consider these as analogous to the first germs whence sprung those splendid mythologies which have filled with deep devotional feelings the hearts of many millions among the most intelligent races of the earth. [[25]]

This higher flight of the imaginative faculty which the Sexdenoting nations possess (through the stimulus of this personification of impersonal things, consequent upon the grammatical structure of their languages), and what it had been to them, becomes the more evident if we compare their literature with that of the Kafirs and other black tribes of South Africa.

As the grammatical structure of languages spoken by the latter does not in itself suggest personification, these nations are almost, as a matter of course, destitute of Myths as well as Fables. Their literary efforts are, as a general rule, restricted to narrating the doings of men in a more or less historical manner—whence we have a number of household tales, and portions of a fabulous history of these tribes and nations; or their ancestor worship and belief in the supernatural give rise to horrible ghost stories and tales of witchcraft, which would be exciting if they were not generally told in such a long-winded, prosy manner, as must make the best story lose its interest.

Of course for the comparative philologist, and for any one who takes an interest in observing the working of the human mind in its most primitive stages, [[26]]these pieces of Kafir and Negro native literature will also have their own interest; it is therefore to be hoped that time and circumstances may soon allow us to publish also the other portions of South African native literature extant in manuscript in your library.

Among these we have principally to mention, as new contributions (received after your departure), twenty-three pieces in o Tyi-hereró, or the Damara language, as written down by natives themselves, copied by the Rev. J. Rath (Rhenish Missionary, formerly in Damara Land, now at Sarepta Knils River), and accompanied with a German translation by him.[5] [[27]]

Among these pieces there are seven ghost stories, four accounts of transformation of men or animals, eleven other household tales, one legend, and one fable. This last piece (No. 11, pp. 27, 29) is probably of Hottentot origin. I have therefore thought it best to give it a place in this little book (No. 14), where it precedes that Hottentot Fable, to which its concluding [[28]]portions bear such a striking resemblance. It is not unlikely that the beginning of this Hottentot Fable of The Giraffe and the Tortoise is missing. It may have been similar to the beginning of the corresponding one in Damara. As far as it goes the Hottentot Fable is however evidently more original than the o Tyi-hereró text. As a specimen of o Tyi-hereró household tales, I have given Rath’s fifteenth piece, the story of The Unreasonable Child to whom the Dog gave its Deserts.

You will also approve of my having added the Zulu legend of the Origin of Death, which in its mixture of Fable and Myth, and even in several details of its composition, shows a great analogy to the Hottentot treatment of the same subject, of which I am able to give here four different versions.

A second version of two or three other fables, and of one legend, has also been given from one of the two important manuscripts in German, regarding the Hottentots and their language, prepared for you by Mr. Knudsen.[6] The same manuscript [[29]]supplied also a legend of The Origin of Difference in Modes of Life between Hottentots and Bushmen, which we do not yet possess in the Hottentot language.

To make our available stock of Nama Hottentot literature quite complete, three fables and four tales [[30]]have been taken from Sir James Alexander’s “Expedition,” &c., and inserted here, with only few insignificant verbal alterations.

The “Songs of Praise,” given as notes to some of the Fables in this volume, are merely intended as specimens of Hottentot poetry. They can hardly be expected to amuse or interest the general reader—at least, not in the form in which they appear here, though a Longfellow might be able to render some of them in a way that would make them attractive.

In the same manner the materials contained in these Hottentot Fables might be worked out similarly to Goethe’s “Reinecke Fuchs;” and we should hereby probably gain an epical composition, which, though not ranking so high as the latter poem, would yet, as regards the interest of its subject-matter, far exceed Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” in adaptation to the general taste.

How much Native productions gain when represented skilfully and properly, your admirable work on “Polynesian Mythology” has shown. But you had sterner and more important work on hand, and so I have had to do this without you. That it does not appear in a still more imperfect form, I owe [[31]]mainly to the help of one who naturally takes the greatest interest in all my pursuits.

In writing the last lines of this Preface, the interest which I feel for these Hottentot Fables is almost fading away before those rich treasures of your library which have just arrived from England; and as all our present efforts are of course given to the proper settling of these jewels of our library, I can merely send, with grateful acknowledgments, our most fervent wishes for your well-doing, and our sincere hope of seeing you, at no distant day, again in the midst of us.

Believe me,
My dear Sir George,
Yours most faithfully,
W. H. I. BLEEK.

Capetown, April, 1863. [[33]]

[1] Cisgariepian, from the Nama point of view, i.e., to the North of the Orange River. [↑]

[2] I give here some extracts from Mr. Wallmann’s letter, dated Barmen, 13th April, 1850, which was the only help of a grammatical or lexical nature then available for me in my study of this Nama translation of Luke’s Gospel:—

“I transmit hereby Luke’s Gospel in Namaqua, … which I can lend you, however, only for four weeks, as I have already previously promised it to some one else.

“Should your labours permit it, I wish to request you to make a little trial whether the Namaqua is somewhat related to the South African family of Languages. For the present a mere negative decision on this point is all that is wanted, and I should like to have very soon the opinion of some good philologist regarding it. Moffat [[16]]states that when he gave specimens of Namaqua to a Syrian who came from Egypt, he was told that he (the Syrian) had seen slaves in the market of Cairo who were of lighter colour than other Africans, and whose language resembled that of the Namaqua. Moffat also says that some ancient authors have mentioned a nation in the interior of Africa who were very similar to the Hottentots. Moffat seems himself, however, to ascribe little value to these accounts, for his guesses fall at once upon the Chinese. According to communications from our Missionary Knudsen, the Namaqua language seems well formed. He mentions as personal pronouns:—

Tita I saaz thou (sāts) χyb he (ǁẽip) sada we sako you χyku they (ǁĕiku)

but to show the modifications which the pronouns undergo according to the gender, and whether the person (spoken to) is included or excluded (in the first person plural), the following examples of inclusive or exclusive forms are given:—

“We are captains.”

(incl.) Sake ke kauauke mascul.
(excl.) Sike ke kauauke
(incl.) Sase ke kautase fem.
(excl.) Sise ke kautase
(incl.) Sada ke tana-khoida com.
(excl.) Sida ke tana-khoida
(incl.) Sakhom ke kauaukhoma dual. mascul.
(excl.) Sikhom ke kauaukhoma[[17]]
(incl.) Saam he kautama dual. fem.
(excl.) Siim ke kautama
(incl.) Saam ke tana-khoima dual. com.
(excl.) Siim ke tana-khoima

“The second person of the plural is said to have not more than half as many distinctions; and the third person plural has only the following:—

“You will therefore oblige me by looking into the Namaqua Luke, and by having the kindness to write me your opinion regarding it.” [↑]

[3] Report of the Correspondence and Paper read at the General Meeting of the Syro-Egyptian Society, Session of 1851 and 1852. Read at the Anniversary Meeting, held April 20th, 1852, 8vo. pp. 6, 8. [↑]

[4] “Ethnology of the Indo-Pacific Islands.” By J. R. Logan, Esq., Hon. Fellow of the Ethnological Society. Language, Part ii. “The Races and Languages of S.E. Asia, considered in relation to those of the Indo-Pacific Islands,” Chapter v., sections i. to vi. [From the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, June and December, 1853, to December, 1854.] Singapore: Printed by Jakob Baptist, 8vo., pp. 229, 294, sec. 6. The Semitico-African [[20]]Languages, viz.:—1. General Characters, p. 229; 2. Egyptian, p. 248; 3. Hottentot, p. 248; 4. Shemo-Hamitic, or Assyro-Berber, p. 259. [↑]

[5] Mr. Rath’s Manuscript consists of sixty-one pages, with double columns, foolscap folio. It contains the following pieces:—

[6] The title of Mr. Knudsen’s first Manuscript is, “Südafrica: Das Hottentot-Volk; Notizzen (Manuscript) H. C. Knudsen.” 4to., p. 12. Its contents are, Bushman Land, [[29]]p. 3; the different kinds of Rain, p. 3; Bethany (in Great Namaqualand), p. 3; the Damara, p. 4; the Grassy Plain, p. 4; the Diseases, pp. 4, 5; Birdsnests, p. 5; Marriage and Wedding among the Namaqua, p. 5; Extent of Authority among the Namaqua, p. 5; Similarity with the Jewish manner of Thinking, Counting, Eating, Drinking, Praying, Mode of Speech, and manner of Reckoning Relationship, p. 6; Heitsi Eibip or Kabip, p. 7; Origin of the Modes of Life of the Namaqua and Bushmen, pp. 7, 8; Coming of Age among the Hottentots, p. 8; Names of Hottentot Tribes and their probable Etymology, pp. 8, 9; Are the Hottentots of Egyptian or Phœnician Origin? p. 9; Are the Hottentots of Jewish or Moabitic Origin? pp. 9, 10; Appendix, pp. 11, 12.

Mr. Knudsen’s second Manuscript has the following title, “Stoff zu einer Grammatik in der Namaquasprache (Manuscript), H. C. Knudsen.” 4to. pp. 29. After a few general introductory remarks, and a short explanation of the Hottentot Alphabet, Mr. Knudsen treats of the different Parts of Speech:—I. Nouns, pp. 3, 4; II. Adjectives, pp. 4, 5; III. Pronouns, pp. 5, 10; IV. Numerals, p. 11; V. Verbs, pp. 12, 24; Interrogative Sentences, pp. 25, 26; Concluding Remarks, pp. 26, 29. [↑]

[[Contents]]

I.

JACKAL FABLES.

[[Contents]]