714 ABORIGINAL PLACE NAMES. 



may come across this paper and be in a position to help. Perhaps 

 I may be permitted to acknowledge here the prompt help given 

 by tne kev. R. Godfrey, M.A., of Somerville Mission, m 

 response to my appeal m tne i solo Place-names paper, to which 

 reference has already been made, and to express tne hope that 

 others may show similar interest. 



Another interesting point which is, I think, established by a 

 review of the facts before us, is the divergence m the methods 

 of naming places as between the white and the black races. Thus 

 it is that we delight to honour our great men by giving their 

 names to specific places, and in this way some of Scotland's and 

 England's greatest names have come to be associated with 

 Mission Stations on the lonely veld, and in other cases we have 

 sought to honour one and another outstanding pioneer figure.- 

 or, again, religious sentiment has operated to transfer Biblical 

 place-names, or the names of sundry saints, to some primitive 

 sanctuary in the heart of Kaftirland. I sometimes wonder how 

 much the memories of our noble dead are honoured by this 

 custom, for, to the vast mass of the native peoples, the place is 

 known only by the native name, and any stranger not knowing 

 the road, travelling to such a mission, would be in danger of 

 seriously prolonging his travels unless he used the nathe name 

 in his enquiries. 



Equally — nay, more- — ridiculous is it to have all the public 

 notices and stationery of the Post Offices and Railways blazoned 

 in English and Dutch, and not in the one language understood 

 of all natives and read by not a few. But that is another story. 

 and not to be enlarged upon here ! 



In contradistinction to this practice of ours we find, then, 

 that the natives do not generally name places after their great 

 departed leaders, or if they do so, it is the exception rather than 

 the rule. They prefer to lay hold of some natural feature, or 

 special characteristic, or circumstance, for the jiurposes of place- 

 naming; and when we do find places named after individuals, I 

 am inclined to think that this is due not so much to the natives 

 as to the Europeans who associated the individual with a locality. 

 Examples illustrating this point are to be found in Gaika's Kop, 

 in the Ciskei ; Matiwane's Range, Sigonyela's Location, as well 

 as many others whiph will be given later. 



For purposes of convenience, however, the residence of a 

 chief or other important man may be designated by the use of a 

 locative form of his name, and since every member of the tribe 

 knows the name all are aware of the place intended, and in con- 

 sequence a place-name crystallises, lingers for a time, and gives 

 place to that of his successor, unless in the meanwhile official 

 documents, and map-makers, and recorders of all kir,ds, have 

 stereotyped the name for all time, quite regardless of the fact 

 that the natives themselves have long since passed on to another 

 name, thus elevating the living celebrity to a transient fame, and 

 assisting the honoured dead to a speedy oblivion. A number of 



