in.] S1CIIUANA LANGUAGE. 123 



Both he and Dr Livingstone speak admiringly of the 

 extraordinary copiousness of this language. The latter says 

 on this point, u Some idea may be formed of the comparative 

 capacities of expression of Greek, Sechuana, and English, 

 from the fact that the Septuagint version of the Pentateuch 

 contains about 140,000 words, the Sechuana 156,000, and 

 the English about 182,000 words. One word in Sechuana 

 often expresses seven or eight in English 1 ." 



Although possessing great ductility, and a prodigious 

 number of flexions and combinations, this language has a 

 great redundancy of words for expressing ideas on many 

 topics — at least twenty for designating different ways of 

 walking — many for various stages of eating, as also for a 

 fool. In reference to the affections, as centered in the heart, 

 there is literally a cloud of expressions — from these the 

 following are selected : 



pelti e cueu, a white heart = satisfied, well-pleased, 

 pelu e encu, a black heart = dark, designing. 

 pelu e segoe, a noosed heart = ensnaring, swindling. 

 pelu peri, two hearts = double-hearted, two-faced. 

 pelu tsari, a she heart = tender-hearted, kind. 

 go na le pelu, to be with heart, to have a heart = to be gene- 

 rous 2 , &c. 



With all this flexibility and copiousness, this language 

 was found by missionaries to have a deficiency which pain- 

 fully smites the soul of the true child of God. Let our 

 traveller himself make the startling statement : " The ideas 

 of holiness, salvation &c, were not in the language till 

 introduced by missionaries. In droughts everything looks 

 shrivelled and wretched; but after a fine fall of rain the 

 earth is refreshed, the cattle are clean, the sun glances 

 gloriously on the young green leaves, and everything looks 

 gladsome. This change is indicated by the term tsepho, and 



1 Analysis, p. 6, note, 2 Ibid. p. 5. 



