264 
SOUTHERN AFRICA* 
cattle; their pastoral habits of life; the purchase 
of the wife by dowry; the character of their 
ornaments, armlets, anklets, frontlets and the 
girdle (which latter they always tighten when 
preparing to run,) ; the faint traces of religion 
already named ; and, added to these, their strict 
observance, to the present day, of the u feast of 
first fruits;" their use of a " heap of stones" 
piled in front of the door of their hut, when 
they are about to leave home for a time, and 
which is thus placed, as a " pillar of witness" to 
their "inkose" that they do not intend to desert 
him, but are only absenting themselves on an 
errand (resembling the Mizpah or Ebenezer of 
Genesis xxvii, 16 — 22 ; xxxi, 43 — 55 ; xxxv, 
7 — 14.); all these combine to give them a 
place in patriarchial days, amidst the Eastern 
nations of Scripture. The great chief of the 
Tambookies is "Moshesh" (Moses) a name re- 
verenced among them as very great. "Dushani" 
the red chief, seems to have the Hebrew root 
•QtP shani, scarlet or crimson; (Isaiah i, 18.) 
and again the name of " ikoboka" or slave, will 
bear a Scriptural root and derivation. And 
when we find them still, from tradition, not only 
reverencing, but actually observing many of the 
rites of the Mosaic law, then this presumptive 
evidence strengthens into almost certainty, as 
to their origin being from Ishmael. 
