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PAGE 186.
MYTHOLOGY AMONG THE HOTTENTOTS.
In a book just published under the title of Tsuni-IIgoum, the Supreme Being of the Khoi-khoi, Dr. Theophilus Hahn has collected the most curious fragments of the religion and mythology of the Hottentot tribes, and made for the first time a bold attempt at supplying a truly scientific explanation of the myths and legends of savage races.
The name Hottentot, or Hüttentüt, was given by the Dutch to the yellowish race of men with whom they became first acquainted near the Cape of Good Hope. Dapper, in 1670, writes that the name was given by the Dutch to the natives on account of the curious clicks and harsh sounds in their language, and that the same word is applied in Dutch to one who stammers and stutters. In the Idioticon Hamburgense (1755) Hüttentüth is given as a term of reproach for a physician, our quack. These so-called Hottentots, however, call themselves by a much grander name, Khoi-khoi, i.e. men of men; and they draw a sharp line between themselves and the Bushmen (Busjesmen), whom they call Sa-n, and reckon as lower almost than dogs. Nevertheless Dr. Hahn is convinced that the Khoi-khoi and the Sâ were originally one race, and spoke originally one language, but while the former led a pastoral and agricultural life, the latter always remained hunters. Such is the iufluence of life on language, that while all the Khoi-khoi tribes can, to a certain extent, converse together, the dialects of the Så
