AFRICA, 155 
From what I have faid of the manners and 
fimplicity of this nation, one may be eafiiy 
convinced that their language is poor, and 
that before the arrival of the Europeans it 
muft have been ftill poorer. The latter in- 
troduced new objedts, to which it was necef- 
fary to give names ; and on this account the 
Hottentots of the colonies have expreffions 
neither ufed nor underftood by the favage 
Hottentots, to whom the greater part of 
thefe objefts are unknown. 
However this may be, there is always in 
this language a great affinity between the 
thing and the word by which it is diflin- 
guifhed. For example, they call a fufee 
A-ka-booup ; and, by the manner in which 
it ought to be pronounced, the clapping of 
the tongue, and the firft fyllable A-ia, imitate 
the noife of the cock when it falls, and that 
of the opening pf the pan ; in fhort, the 
word 5ooup conveys, in a ftriking manner, an 
idea of the explolion or report. In general 
the Hottentot language is very expreffive ; 
and as thefe people, when they fpeak, always 
gefticulate,and reprefent in pantomime whatr 
pyer they fay, a fuperficial knowledge of 
theif 
