336 IIOTTEXTOT PLACE-]N^\MES. 



IKara-Kliois (Hot. I Kara, separ.ate, peculiar; Khois, a 

 woman), wliicli tlie Dutcli have made Bijzondermeid. To the 

 latter belong such place-names as: Gobahis {XKoah, elephant; 

 liguh, a tooth), a place in Damaraland, so named because a 

 large quantity of ivory was once found there sunk in the mud. 

 Kams (Hot. I Katii, to fight), a place on the road from Lelie- 

 fontein to Pella, Little Namaqualand, said to have been the 

 scene of a tribal battle. Troe-troc (Hot. toro, to make war). 

 Tradition «ays that in the neiglibourhood of the river thus 

 named (on which the township of Van Rhyn's Dorj) now 

 stands), a big- fight took place between two Hottentot tribes, 

 over some Hottentot Helen. To Prieska (beris, a she-goat; 

 ga, to be dead, to be lost) reference will be made later on. 



A careful examination of a good map like Home's " Map 

 of the Cape of Good Hope and Adjoining Territories," 1895, 

 reveals the fact that beside: (I.) place-names, that may be 

 described as being pure or real Hottentot names, there are: 

 (II.) Hottentot place-names that have been corrupted, (a) on 

 the western side of the sub-continent, by the intrusion of 

 Europeans from the south, (b) on the south-eastern side, by 

 the intrusion of Kaffirs from the north, and others at a later 

 period by the intrusion of Europeans from the south. (III.) 

 Hottentot place-names that have been translated into Dutch or 

 English equivalents. (IV.) Hottentot place-names that have 

 been displaced and superseded by European place-names of an 

 entirelv different meaning*. 



I. — ^Trite Hottentot Place-names. 



A few Hottentot place-names in their unadulterated form 

 have already been mentioned ; a glance at a few others will 

 indicate how exactly the salient feature or features of the places 

 named are depicted in the designations given to them. The 

 Koranna Hottentot name of the place near the Asbestos Moun- 

 tains, known to Europeans as Rietfontein, where Messrs. 

 Anderson and Kramer established a mission in 1801, is given 

 by Lichtenstein (II., p. 239, 1815) as Aa ^t Kaap (Hot. la, 

 a vlei ; 'ah, a reed), the European name being practicallv the 

 same in meaning as the Hottentot. Ahahis, in Namaqualand, 

 is from Hot. «?>«.■*, a calabash, and is so named, Prof. Hahn 

 says (" Tsuni IIGoam,'' p. 108, 1881), " on account of cala- 

 bashes growing there in great abundance." Da ir eras is the 

 name of a place in Great Namaqualand situated between 

 Bethanien and Berseba ; it owes its name to the Tamarix 

 articulata, known to the Namaquas as daweh; this word, in 

 its anglicised form, dahhy or dvhhce, is of frequent occurrence 

 in IN^ainaqualand ]jlace-nanies. (rouhus (Hot. %aouh, a wooden 

 water-trough) is the name of a small place at the foot of the 

 Kamiesberg, Little JSTamaqualand, concerning which Thomp- 

 son (" Travels," p. 298, 1827) says: — 



" Here witli difficulty we procured water, by digging in some old 

 pits, between the masses of the rock, wbich form a soi't of basin or 



