They were a stalwart people, versed in agriculture and working in metal. They had a strict government and a well-defined system of law. They were a people of mixed ancestry, doubtless; some individuals displaying all the physical features and mental peculiarities of the negro, others showing marked Asiatic features and the quick mental powers of a superior race. The Bantu tribes were healthy and vigorous, but they were rarely at peace.
The three classes of people who occupied South Africa before its settlement by the white man "enjoyed the lives they were leading quite as much as Europeans enjoy their lives, though their pleasures were of a lower kind. Given freedom from disease and a slain antelope, and there could be no merrier creature than a Bushman. He was absolutely devoid of harassing cares.
"A Hottentot kraal, in the clear moonlight of Africa, with men, women, and children dancing to the music of reeds, was a scene of the highest hilarity.
"The Bantu woman, tending her garden by day and preparing food in the evening, which she may not partake of herself until her husband and his friends have eaten, is regarded as an unhappy drudge by her European sister. In her own opinion her lot is far more enviable than that of the white woman, whom she regards as being always in a state of anxiety."
As with most of the tribes of Africa, the chief element of disturbance in their lives was war. The hand of the Bushman was usually against every man, and every man's hand was against him. The Hottentot tribes were constantly robbing one another of cattle, and on their eastern border were struggling in vain against the advancing Bantu. Most of the time every Bantu clan was at war with its nearest neighbors, whoever these might be.
Various reasons have been given for the origin of the term Hottentot. One writer declares, and doubtless he is correct, that the name arose from the peculiarity of the language spoken by this people. It is "much broken, full of monosyllables, uttered with strong aspirations from the chest, and a guttural articulation which it is difficult to acquire."
In conclusion he says, "It is as if one heard nothing from them but hot and tot." A peculiar sound, called the "click," is made in pronouncing words. This is done by pressing the tongue up against the palate and suddenly removing it.
All early records of the Dutch settlers praise the good traits of the Hottentots. The tribes were all distinguished by the title "good men." One writer states that during the first fifty years of the colony not a single instance of theft from the colonists was known.
Later, a waistcoat decorated with silver buttons was stolen. This was hard to conceal, and was soon discovered in the possession of a Hottentot who belonged on a kraal a short distance from Cape Town.
The thief was no sooner discovered by his fellows than he was taken by them to town and delivered into the hands of the magistrates. So great a disgrace did they deem his offense, that they demanded that he be punished in order to wipe out the stain of his evil deed. Nor was their sense of justice satisfied even when he had received a severe flogging, for they banished him from his clan as unworthy to associate with it.