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 connexion 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 poflible 
to miftake their meaning. The ka is thrown out with a ftrong 
palatial ftroke of the tongue, in imitation of the found given by 
the ftroke of the flint againft the cover of the pan ; 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 impofTible for an European ever to 
acquire ; the difficulty, however, which is chiefly occafioned by 
the action of the tongue, is foon got over. Moft 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 
fufficiently diftin£t to fhew from whence they procured it. 
Notwithftanding the inhuman treatment that the Hottentots 
experience from the Dutch farmers, the latter could very ill 
want the afliftance of the former ; and, were they fenfible of 
their own intereft, and the intereft of their pofterity, inftead of 
opprefTmg, they would offer them every encouragement. To 
guard 
