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.