AFRICAN NATIONS KAFFRES AND HOTTENTOTS. 1009 



Kaffre and the most degraded Negro every possible gradation of physical 

 and psychical characters is presented to us, as we pass northwards and 

 westwards from Kaffraria towards the Guinea Coast; and we meet with a 

 similar transition, although not carried to so great an extent, as we pass up 

 the eastern coast. The languages of the Kaffres and other allied tribes are 

 distinguished by a set of remarkable characters, which have been considered 

 as isolating them from other African tongues. According to Dr. Latham, 

 however, these peculiarities are not so far without precedent elsewhere as to 

 establish the very decided line of demarcation which some have attempted 

 to draw ; and may be regarded, in fact, as resulting from the fuller develop- 

 ment of tendencies which manifest themselves in other African languages. 



854. The Hottentot race differs from all other South African nations, both 

 in language and in physical conformation. Its language cannot be shown 

 to possess distinct affinities with any other stock; 1 but in bodily structure 

 there is a remarkable admixture of the characters of the Mongolian with 

 those of the Negro. Thus the face presents the very wide and high cheek- 

 bones, with the oblique eyes and flat nose of the Northern Asiatics; at the same 

 time that, in the somewhat prominent muzzle and thick lips, it resembles the 

 countenance of the Negro. The complexion is of a tawny buff or fawn 

 color, like the black of the Negroes diluted with the olive of the Mongols. 

 The hair is woolly, like that of the Negroes, but it grows in small tufts scat- 

 tered over the surface of the scalp (like a scrubbing-brush), instead of cov- 

 ering it uniformly : thus resembling in its comparative scantiness that of 

 the Northern Asiatics. It is most interesting to observe this remarkable re- 

 semblance in physical characters, between the Hottentots and the Mongolian 

 races, in connection with the similarity that exists between the circumstances 

 under which they respectively live ; and it is not a little curious that the 

 Hottentot, as the Mongol, should be distinguished by the extraordinary 

 acuteness of his vision ( 854). No two countries can be more similar than 

 the vast steppes of Central Asia and the karoos of Southern Africa ; and 

 the proper inhabitants of each are nomadic races, wandering through deserts 

 remarkable for the wide expansion of their surface, their scanty herbage, 

 and the dryness of their atmosphere, and feeding upon the milk and flesh of 

 their horses and cattle. Of the original pastoral Hottentots, however, com- 

 paratively few now remain. A large proportion of them have been gradu- 

 ally driven, by the encroachments of the Kaffres and of European colonists, 

 and by internal wars with each other, to seek refuge among the inaccessible 

 rocks and deserts of the interior ; and have thus been converted from a mild, 

 unenterprising race of shepherds, into wandering hordes of fierce, suspicious, 

 and vindictive savages, treated as wild beasts by their fellow-men, until they 

 become really assimilated to wild beasts in their habits and dispositions. 

 Hence have arisen the tribes of Bmhmen or Boyesmen, which are generally 

 regarded as presenting the most degraded and miserable condition of which 

 the. Human race is capable, and have been supposed (but erroneously) to 



i It is considered by some, that the Hottentot language is a degraded Kuffre, as the 

 Bushman language is" a degraded Hottentot ; but the Author is informed by Mr. N<>r- 

 ris that he sees no valid ground for this assumption ; the affinities of the Hottentot 

 language being rather, in" his opinion, with the languages of High Asia, although 

 the connecting links are extremely slight Such as they are, however, they tend to 

 confirm an idea suggested to the Author some years since by the marked reproduction 

 of so many Mongolian characters in the Hottentot race. that is the remnant of a 

 migration from Asia, earlier than that in which the great hulk of the African nations 

 have their origin ; and that it has been driven down to the remotest corner of the 

 continent, just as the aboriginal (Mongolian) population of Southwestern Europe 

 seems to have been driven back by the Indo-European immigration (g 847). 



