HOTTENTOT PLACE-NAMES. 343 



May I venture to submit that there is very little diiference here 

 alsoy when the locative s is dropped, between the sound and 

 the meaning of this place-name and that of the Ciskeian 

 i Qumra (Ivomgha), which means finely powdered red clay. 

 Xropf says (" ivaffir Dictionary," in loc.) that this place 

 took its name from the reel clay mines in the neigdi- 

 bourhood." 



We are eomi^elled to recognise, I think, that the ha of 

 Frieska is not of necessity the ka of Gamka, nor is the ga of 

 Coega in any way related to the ga of Quagga, as will appear 

 later ; nor are either of the two latter found to have any connec- 

 tion with either of the two former; while the ga of Coega, the 

 ra of I Qumra, and the gha of Komgha are really the same, 

 and are three of the several forms which the Hottentot adjec- 

 tival particle -,ra, signifying multitude, plenty, abundance, 

 has assumed. 



(b) A great deal of earnest, persistent research on the 

 part of adequately equipped scholars will be needed before the 

 corruptions of Hottentot place-names, due to the intrusion 

 of the Kaifir element into territory previously occupied by 

 Hottentots, are likely to be elucidated, and Kingon's contri- 

 bution is heartily Avelcomed as a distinct advance in that 

 direction. He will not, we feel sure, object to any queries, 

 suggestions, or criticisms that may be helpful to that end. 

 One is bound to say at once that what Kingon appears to regard 

 as a quite recent discoverv, viz., that Ivay's statement 

 (" Travels and Researches in Caffraria," p. 268, 1833) that 

 '■ the names of different rivers to the eastward of this point 

 (Butterworth) are purely Kaffer " needs to be corrected, was 

 more than suggested seventy years ago by Appleyard (" The 

 Kafir Language," p. lOn., 185()h in the following passage: — 



" Most of the rivers west of the Kei, and some even beyond that 

 river, still retain their Hottentot names, except that the Kafirs 

 have conformed them to the Ipws of their own language "; 



and a few years later Dr. Bleek (" Researches into the Rela- 

 tions between the Hottentots and Kafirs," " Cape Monthly 

 Magazine," I., p. 203, 1857), says: — 



'' Other evidence, in which that of the names of localities is 

 principally to be mentioned, must lead to the conviction that the 

 Hottentots extended formerly far more to the north-east than we 

 have any historical record of. Several lnindre<l, perhaps a thousand 

 or more years ago, they occupied probably the Avhole of the present 

 Kafirland, most likely as far f.s Natal." 



That these statements are in accordance with fact has been 

 generally conceded by students of the subject from Appleyard's 

 day on, and evidence of their correctness is gradually but 

 constantly accumulating as the place-names in the territory 

 concerned are more closely examined. 



What has already been adduced goes to prove that it is 

 a result to be expected that many of the place-names of the 

 earlier occupants of a territory would be corrupted by an 

 intruding people of different speech, while others would be 

 entirely superseded ; but it also goes to prove that distinct traces 



