THE MASARWAS AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 221 



herds. They are given charge of the herds by the chiefs, and 

 take them to the cattle posts, and are responsible for the cattle. 

 They are permitted to take the milk of the cows, and have some- 

 times a few goats given them for their hire. Naturally, stealing 

 from their masters is not infrequent. They are said to make 

 good herdsmen, and on the whole prove faithful to their charge. 

 Formerly they were treated with great cruelty by the Bechuanas, 

 and were hunted and shot down mercilessly. Commandoes were 

 regularly sent against them. On one occasion twenty were shot 

 down at a trader's wagon, and, he dare not interpose to save 

 them, and this was a common occurrence, as the early mission- 

 aries and traders testify. Since the conversion of a large por- 

 tion of the Bechuana to Christianity more humane methods have 

 been adopted. Nevertheless, in many cases it must be admitted 

 that the treatment to-day is very far from satisfactory, and that 

 they are practically slaves. Their masters pay the hut-tax for 

 such as they employ, though there are exceptions to this custom. 



II. Their Language. 

 The language of the Masarwas is related on the one hand 

 to the other Bushman dialects round about it, and on the other 

 to the Korana and Namaqua languages. It seems to stand 

 about midway between the \\aikz^'c and Tsankzcc dialects as 

 given by Passarge, at least as far as the individual words are 

 concerned. It is only remotely related to Namaqua. In the 

 grammar there is a resemblance, for example, in the regularity 

 of the formation of the plural in the verbal forms and in some of 

 the individual words. Out of fifty of the most common words 

 in Sesarwa, only six bore any resemblance to the corresponding 

 words in Namaqua ; thus it can confidently be said that the two 

 languages are no nearer than English and German. Mr. F. C. 

 Selous, in his " Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa," 

 p. io6, has the following paragraph : — 



" In 1873, when hunting in the Linquasi district to the west of Mata- 

 bililand, we saw a great many Masarwas (Bushmen), and noticing that 

 their language, full of clicks and clucks, and curious intonations of the 

 voice, was similar in character to that I had lieard spoken by the 

 Koranas en the banks of the Orange River in iSjr, I asked Tohn if he 

 could understand them, but he only laughed and said, ' No, sir.' During 

 the next two years, however. John had a lot to do with the Masarwas. 

 and one day towards the end of 1S74," as we were returning from the 

 Zambesi to Matabililand. \ heard liim conversing quite familiarlv with 

 some of these oeople. ' Hullo. John,' T said, ' I tliought you told me 

 you couldn't understand tlic Bushmen?' 'Well, sir,' lie answered, 'At first 

 I thought I couldn't, but gradually I found that I could understand them, 

 and that they understood me ; in fact, I can say that with a few slisrht 

 dififerences, these Bushmen speak the same language as my people (the 

 Koranas) on the Orange River.' " 



Again, he says : — 

 "A Griqua family, too, the Neros, wlio liavc for many years been 

 living in Matabililand, all speak Sesarwa (the language of the Masarwas) 

 with perfect fluenc}-, and they have all assured me that they had no 



difficulty in learning it, as it was only a dialect of the Korana 



Altogether I am inclined to think that the Masarwas were originally a 

 people allied in race to the Koranas and Hottentots, but that from con- 



