AFRICA. 145 
been the principal obje£t of the very fevere 
education I received. 
The Hottentot language has no refemblance^ 
as feveral ancient authors pretend^ to the 
gabbling of turkeys when they hght, to 
the cry of the magpye, or the fcreaming 
*^ of an owl much lefs do its founds imi- 
tate the cry of the bat, according to Pliny 
and Herodotus : to judge that it cannot re- 
femble all thefe things at the fame time, we 
need only compare with one another all its 
different affimilations. It is equally falfe, 
that, to hear Hottentots converfing together^ 
one would take them for a company of ftam- 
merers. From all thefe affertions, which 
arc abfolutely contradiftory and deftroy each 
other, we are naturally led to think that no 
traveller, who has fpoken of the Hottentot 
language, has fo carefully ftudied it as to 
give a clear and precife idea of it ; and con- 
fequently, without enquiring into the caufes 
of their profound ignorance, I may aflert 
that they have been as really deceived them- 
selves as they have deceived others. 
This language, notwithftanding its fingu- 
larity, and the difficulty of pronouncing it^ 
Vol . IT. L is 
