LANGUAGE JIYTHOLOGY. 439 



the forbidden fruit, and we have got sin from him. These 

 men say that they have sinned ; and what is sin in them is 

 sin in us, because we come from one stock, and their hearts 

 and ours are one thing. Ye Makare have heard these words, 

 and you say they are Ues. If these words do not conquer, 

 the fault will lie with you. You say you will not believc! 

 what you do not understand. Look at an egg ! If a man 

 break it, there comes only a watery and yellow substance out 

 of it ; but if it be placed under the wing of a fowl, a living- 

 thing comes from it. Who can understand this '? "Who ever 

 knew how the heat of the hen produced the chicken in the 

 egg? This is incomprehensible to us, yet we do not deny 

 the fact. Let us do like the hen. Let us place these truths 

 in our hearts as the hen does the eggs under her wings ; let 

 us sit upon them, and take the same pains, and something- 

 new will come of them." 



The language of the Bechuanas (the plural of Mochuana, 

 a single individual) is called Sichuana, an adjective imply- 

 ing any thing belonging to the nation. It is exceedingly soft 

 and mellifluous, owing to there being few syllables that end 

 wdth a consonant. The only exceptions are " nouns in the 

 ablative case, plural verbs, verbs definite, and the interroga- 

 tives ichy, hoiv, and what, all of which end with the ringing n." 



The first acquaintance of Europeans with the Bechuanas 

 dates from an early period of the history of the Cape Colony. 

 There is reason to believe that this nation once extended as 

 far as the Orange River, but at the present day none of 

 the tribes are found beyond the 28th parallel of south lati- 

 tude. 



The Bechuanas (as already mentioned in the history of 

 the Damaras) believe that they originally sprang from a cave, 

 said to exist in the Bakone country, where the footmarks of 

 the first man may still be seen in the rock. 



If we are to credit the testimony of some missionaries, the 

 Bechuanas have no notion of a Superior Being. It is a 



