172 
TRAVELS IN 
Not the least vestige of a written character is to be traced 
among them ; but their language appears to be the remains 
of something far beyond that of a savage nation. In the 
enunciation it is soft, fluent, and harmonious; it has neither 
the monotonous mouthing of the savage, nor the nasal nor 
guttural sounds that prevail in almost all the European 
tongues. It is as different from that of the Hottentots 
as the latter is from the English. In a very few words, 
and these are generally proper names, they have adopted the 
palatial clacking of the tongue used by the Hottentots. 
The mountains and rivers in the country, for instance, still 
retain their Hottentot names ; a circumstance which affords 
at least a presumptive proof that the Kaffers were intruders 
upon this nation. It is singular enough that both the one 
and the other should have obtained a name that never be- 
longed to them. The word liaffer could not be pronounced 
by one of this nation, having no sound of the letter R in his 
language. A Koffray, among the Indians, is an infidel, a 
pagan, and was a general name applied by the early voyagers 
to those people, in whom they did not perceive any features 
of a particular religion ; but the origin of the name of Hot- 
tentot seems not yet to have been ascertained. The Kaffers 
call themselves Koussie, which word is pronounced by the 
Hottentots with a strong palatial stroke of the tongue on 
the first syllable. I am ignorant if the Kaffer language bears 
an analogy to any dialect of the Arabic; but their word 
eliang for the sun, and some others, appeared to have an 
oriental derivation. The following brief specimen of the 
Kaffer language, with the synonimous words in that of 
1 
