332 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



same type as those I have seen in other parts of 

 South Africa, both in the Waterberg district of the 

 Transvaal to the south of the Limpopo and also in 

 the desert country not far to the west of the 

 Dwarsberg. 



I believe that the researches of the late Dr. 

 Bleek, the well-known philologist, tended to show 

 that there was little or no affinity between the lan- 

 guages spoken by the Bushmen inhabiting the 

 south-western districts of the Cape Colony and 

 the Hottentot tribes living in the same part of the 

 country. On the other hand, the well-known mis- 

 sionary, the late Dr. Robert Moffat, wrote: "Genuine 

 Hottentots, Koranas, and Namaquas meeting for 

 the first time from their respective and distant 

 tribes could converse with scarcely any difficulty." 

 The Bushmen, however, Dr. Moffat said, "speak 

 a variety of languages, even when nothing but a 

 range of hills or a river intervenes between the 

 tribes, and none of these dialects is understood by 

 the Hottentots." As bearing upon the subject of 

 the affinity or otherwise of the language spoken by 

 the Koranas living in Griqualand and along the 

 Orange river with that of the Bushmen of the 

 interior of South Africa, I must now make an ex- 

 tract from a book written by myself and published 

 in 1893 {Travel and Adventiire in South- East 

 Africa) relating to this question. 



Although I cannot but consider that the facts 

 which I then brought forward were really of some 

 value, I do not think that they have ever been 

 noticed by any one interested in the study of the 

 origin and affinities of the various native races in 

 South Africa, and I am anxious, therefore, to put 

 them on record once more. 



The passage I refer to reads as follows : — " In 

 1 87 1 a Korana boy named John entered my ser- 

 vice, and went to the interior with me the following 



