1811. THEIR CHARACTER, CUSTOMS, AND LANGUAGE. 345 
reason for mirth, in viewing themselves : nor was there, I believe, 
much more appearance of gravity in my own countenance than in 
theirs. This amusing scene would have lasted the whole of the day, 
for the men were coming back again, had I not closed the box con- 
taining the glass, and thus put an end to the exhibition. 
The people usually called Kot'dnas, are a numerous, and distinct, 
tribe of the Hottentot race. In features they possess the common 
character, but in stature are larger than the Bushmen, and equal to 
the Hottentots, properly so called : by which term I would be under- 
stood to mean the aborigines of the Colony. In customs and man- 
ners, the Kordnas are several degrees more civilized than the Bush- 
men, and possess much cattle ; but their dress and arms are the same in 
kind, though better in quality. They are considered rather as a peace- 
able and friendly people : their mode of life is purely pastoral, and, 
consequently, their places of abode unsettled. Their language is a 
dialect of the Hottentot, but differing from it so much, that at first 
my men could not, without difficulty, catch the sound of any words so 
clearly as to recognise them. This difficulty wore off with practice ; 
yet, from all I could afterwards learn, it appears that the Kara lan- 
guage possesses a great number of words peculiar to itself It seemed 
to require a much less frequent use of the clap of the tongue than 
the Bushman dialect ; but, at the same time, a little more than that 
of the Cape Hottentots. The name by which they themselves call 
their nation, is Kara, or Koraqua. The adjunct qua, signifying man 
or men in most of the Hottentot dialects, is, in some cases, as in 
this, used or omitted indifferently. The word Koraqua means a 
man x<Dearing shoes, as distinguished from sandals, whicli have no 
upper leather and are in more general use among the other nations 
and tribes. This word, like many others, has been Dutchified by 
the colonists ; who, following the forms Hollander, Afrikaander, have 
changed it into Koraander, now softened by writers into Kordna. 
The word Kora, is, notwithstanding, in frequent use. This nation 
is found dispersed widely over the country on the northern side 
of the Gariep, but not at all on the southern. They are spread 
as far northward as Litakun ; and to the eastward have a large and 
