l62 
TRAVELS IN 
enunciation of founds is liable to undergo many alterations in 
pafling from one generation to another, even among nations 
that have the means of catching the nice inflexions of voice, 
and of handing them down, in a vifible form, to pofterity. 
The genius of a language is generally difcoverable in the 
application of new words to new ideas. The Hottentots who 
had never feen nor heard the report of a gun before their unfor- 
tunate conne<5lion with Europeans, had a new word to invent 
in order to exprefs it. They called it kahoo^ and pronounced 
the word in fo emphatic a manner that it was fcarcely polfible 
t« miftake their meaning. The ka is thrown out with a jftrong 
palatial ftroke of the tongue, in imitation of the found given by 
the ftroke of the flint againft the cover of the pan j and with 
outftretched lips, a full mouth, and prolonged found, the boo 
fends forth the report. This language at firft appears to be of 
fuch a nature as to make it impoflible for an European ever to 
acquire ; the diflSculty, however, which is chiefly occafioned by 
the adion of the tongue, is foon got over. Mofl: of the Dutch 
peafantry in the diftant diftrids fpeak it ; and many of them 
are fo very much accuftomed to the ufe of it, that they intro- 
duce into their ov/n language a motion of the organ of fpeech 
fuflSciently diftindl to (hew from whence they procured it. 
Notwithftanding the inhuman treatment that the Hottentots 
experience from the Dutch farmers, the latter could very ill 
want the aflTiftance of the former ; and, were they fenfible of 
their own intereft, and the intereft of their pofterity, inftead of 
opprefliing, they would ofi'er them every encouragement. To 
guard 
