SOUTHERN AFRICA. 239 
Chinese were originally the same people, and the arguments 
are certainly strong in favor of the supposition, notwithstand- 
ing the many learned and ingenious objections stated by tlie 
philosopher of Berlin, there would be no difficulty in con- 
ceiving some of the numerous tribes of people who inhabited 
the vicinity of the Nile to have found their way to the utmost 
limit of the same continent. Indeed, from all the ancient ac- 
counts that have been preserved of the Egyptians and Ethio- 
pians, it would appear that the real Hottentots, or Bosjes- 
mans, were the people intended to be described. In their 
general physical character they bear a strong resemblance to 
the Pigmies and Troglodytes, two tribes who are said to have 
dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Nile. The character drawn 
by Diodorus Siculus of some of the Ethiopian nations, agrees 
exactly with that of the Bosjesmans. A gross brutality is 
stated by him to have prevailed in all their manners and cus- 
toms ; their voices were shriil, dissonant, and scarcely human ; 
their language almost inarticulate ; and they wore no sort of 
clothing. The Ethiopian soldiers, when called upon to defend 
themselves, or to face an enemy, stuck their poisoned arrows 
within a fillet bound round the head, which, projecting like so 
many rays, formed a kind of crown. The Bosjesmans do ex- 
actly the same thing; and they place them in this manner for the 
double purpose of expeditious shooting, and of striking terror 
into the minds of their enemies. The annexed print is an ac- 
curate likeness of a Bosjesman Hottentot, but at the same 
time may be considered as the representation of one whose 
features are more favored than they are usually met w^ith. 
The whole of the Hottentot country, comprehending 
all the different tribes of this people, is limited to the 
1 
