Observations on the Origin of the Bushmen. 179 



hearing amazingly acute, and capable of furnishing a degree 

 of assistance quite unknown to the inhabitants of quiet and 

 civilized countries. In situations where the eye is unavail- 

 able, it is wonderful with what certainty and readiness the ear 

 directs to an object ; and again where distance renders sound 

 inaudible, the eye often operates with a precision and force, 

 which a person who has never witnessed the like, would 

 scarcely be disposed to credit. By the latter alone, they will 

 often discern with distinctness what others require a telescope 

 to distinguish, and discover the nature and appearances of 

 particular objects, when persons less versed in observation 

 would scarcely be able to perceive the figures themselves. 



The language spoken by the Bushmen, is decidedly a dialect 

 or dialects of that in use amongst the Hottentots elsewhere ; 

 but in most situations is so altered and modified, as that its 

 origin and dependence can scarcely be traced. Some express 

 themselves almost exactly in the same manner as the Namaquas ; 

 others by the same words, only, with a peculiar pronounciation, 

 and a third division, in a style partly varied by the mode of 

 utterance, and partly by the introduction of new words or 

 expressions either resorted to for the purpose of communicating 

 newly acquired ideas, or with the design of confusing their 

 tongue and rendering it only intelligible to the members^ of 

 their own communities. Of the three, the latter modification 

 is by far the most general, and forms what is known amongst 

 the colonists by the appellation "Cnese tal." From the plan 

 just adverted to being frequently adopted, and considered as of 

 advantage in carrying on their dangerous and unlawful 

 exploits, very considerable modifications are even current 

 amongst families or associates themselves ; all of which, 

 however, are more or less perfectly understood by the popula- 

 tion at large, though very incompletely by strangers, who are 

 well versed in the more regular language upon which such 

 rude and slang jargon is ingrafted. That clapping noise 

 occasioned by various motions of the tongue, and which is truly 

 characteristic of the Hottentot language, is particularly con- 

 spicuous amongst the Bushmen, and by many is so incessantly 

 employed, as to make it appear that they gave utterance to no 

 articulate sounds, but only an uninterrupted succession of claps 

 apparently unfitted for conveying any meaning, and yet 

 completely recognised and understood by those to whom they 

 are directed. Least the foregoing observations, setting forth 

 the dialects of the latter as in a grgat measure unintelligible 

 to the former, may yet as has already been the case be urged in 

 proof of their existence as a distinct race, it may be observed, 

 that the modifications in use amongst other tribes would not 

 be understood by the different inhabitants, were it not for the 

 occasional intercourse and association of persons of different 



