a72 



HOTTENTOT PLACE NAMES.— 11. 



BY 



Eev. Charles Pettman. 

 QacenstoicH , C.F . 



Head Jahj 10, 1922. 



As was pointed out in my previous paper* on the above 

 interesting subject, there are a great many Hottentot Place Names 

 that have disappeared from the maps, which have nevertheless 

 been preserved for us in the records which explorers and travellers 

 have left us of their various journeys In not a few cases the 

 forms which are given to these place names by the writers would 

 be exceedingly puzzling, so much so as almost to defy the possi- 

 bility of either identification or elucidation. Fortunately, however, 

 for us, they have furnished us, in a good number of instances, 

 with the meanings of the names in either Dutch or English, with 

 the result that if we cannot actually reconstruct many of them, 

 we can refer them to the Hottentot words irom which the place 

 names were derived. 



In pursuit of this line of study, a recent careful reading of 

 the records left us of a few of the most important of the early 

 journeys, of sub -continental exploration, have produced very 

 encouraging results. To mention one or two, the journals of 

 Ensign Beutler's journej^ up the south-east coast to beyond the 

 (ireat Kei in 1752, Governor Joachim Plettenberg's journey to 

 the Great Fish Kiver in 1778 (both of which are given in the 

 original Dutch in Theal's "Belangrijke Historische Dolcumenten, " 

 Nos. 1 and 2 of which were pviblished in 1896), and Sir James 

 Alexander's " Expedition of Discovery into the Countries of the 

 Great Namaquas, Boschmans, and Hill Damaras," published in 

 1836. Beside these valuable documents. Home's " Map of the 

 Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and neighbouring Territories," 

 1895 (which gives 109 pure Hottentot place names in that part 

 of Great Namaqualand which it embraces, and many more in 

 Little Namaqualand), and Kronlein's " Wortschatz der Khoi- 

 Khoin " are well worth the closest study. 



In Beutler's Jnumaal at least thirty Hottentot place names 

 are given, of which more than half are translated. In Pletten- 

 berg's " Dagverhaal," there are over twenty such names, of 

 which eight are translated ; in Alexander's two volumes no less 

 than one hundred and twenty Hottentot place names are recorded, 

 nearly all of which are either translated or explained. 



My purpose in this paper is to deal with a selection of these 

 names, and with a few others that have some special interest. 



* This Journal, vol. xvii, pp. 334—352 (1920). 



