The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies Part 5

Again--the _Tembu_ is related to the vocabulary of a language called _Kouri_, which the _Tambu_ is _not_.

ENGLISH. TEMBU. KOURI.

_Sun_ wis nosi.

_Man_ ibalu abalu.

_Woman_ alo alu.

_One_ kuddum kotum.

_Two_ noalee nalee.

_Three_ nodoso natisu.

Thirdly, the _Tjemba_ of Balbi's "Atlas Ethnologique" is called _Ka.s.senti_.

Lastly, the _Gha_, as far as very short comparison goes, is neither _Tambu_ nor _Tembu_: nor yet _Kouri_--though it has a few resemblances to all.

The author of the paper alluded to above is the Rev. Mr. Hanson--himself a Gha by birth. It was laid before the British a.s.sociation in 1849. Two points characterize the theory that it exhibits; but as the publication of the paper _in extenso_, is contemplated, I merely state what they are.

1. A remarkable number of customs common to the _Jews_ and the _Gha_.

2. The probable origin of the latter population in some part of the interior of Africa, north of their present locality, and, perhaps, in the parts about Timbuktu.

_The Quaquas._--I am not sure that this name is the best that can be given to the cla.s.s in question. Hence, it is merely provisional. The language that is spoken by them is called the _Avekvom_. They const.i.tute the chief population of the _Ivory_--just as the Krumen do that of the _Grain_ and the Fantis that of the _Gold_--Coast. _Apollonia_ is the English dependency where we find members of the _Quaqua_ stock.

The Avekvom dialects of the Quaqua tribes seem to belong to a different tongue from that of the Krumen and Fantis; and I imagine that the three are mutually unintelligible. Still, it is difficult to predicate this from the mere inspection of vocabularies; the more so, as no language of the western coast of Africa is less known than the Avekvom--the only specimen of any length being one in the last number of the "Journal of the American Oriental Society." With numerous miscellaneous affinities, it is more Fanti and Grebo than aught else; and, perhaps, is transitional in character to those two languages.

At any rate it is no isolated tongue, as may be seen from the following table, where _Yebu_ means the language of the Yarriba country, at the back of Dahomey, and _Efik_ that of Old Calabar:--

ENGLISH. AVEKVOM. OTHER IBO-ASHANTI LANGUAGES.

_Arm_ ebo ubok, _Efik_.

_Blood_ evie eyip, _Efik_; eye, _Yebu_.

_Bone_ ewi beu, _Fanti_.

_Box_ ebru branh, _Grebo_.

_Canoe_ edie tonh, _Grebo_.

_Chair_ fata bada, _Grebo_.

_Dark_ es.h.i.+m esum, _Fanti_; ekim, _Efik_.

_Dog_ etye aja, ayga, _Yebu_.

_Door_ es.h.i.+navi usuny, _Efik_.

_Ear_ es.h.i.+be esoa, _Fanti_.

_Fire_ eya ija, _Fanti_.

_Fish_ etsi eja, eya, _Fanti_.

_Fowl_ esu suseo, _Mandingo_; edia, _Yebu_.

_Ground-nut_ ngeti nkatye, _Fanti_.

_Hair_ emu ihwi, _Fanti_.

_Honey_ ajo ewo, _Fanti_; oyi, _Yebu_.

_House_ eva ifi, _Fanti_; ufog, _Efik_.

_Moon_ efe habo, _Grebo_; ofiong, _Efik_.

_Mosquito_ efo obong, _Fanti_.

_Oil_ inyu ingo, _Fanti_.

_Rain_ efuzumo-sohn sanjio, _Mandingo_.

_Rainy season_ es.h.i.+ ojo, _rain_, _Yebu_.

_Salt_ etsa ta, _Grebo_.

_Sand_ esian-na utan, _Efik_.

_Sea_ etyu idu, _Grebo_.

_Stone_ desi sia, s.h.i.+a, _Grebo_.

_Thread_ jesi gise, _Grebo_.

_Tooth_ enena nyeng, _Mandingo_; gne, _Grebo_.

_Water_ esonh nsu, _Fanti_.

_Wife_ emise muso, _Mandingo_; mbesia, _Fanti_.

_Cry_ yaru isu, _Fanti_.

_Give_ nae nye, _Grebo_; no, _Efik_.

_Go_ le olo, _Yebu_.

_Kill_ bai fa, _Mandingo_; pa, _Yebu_.

There has been war and displacement here as well as in the Gha country.

In the seventeenth century the parts about Cape Apollonia were contended for by two tribes called the Issini (or Os.h.i.+n) and the Ghiomo. The former gave way to the latter, and having retreated to the country of the Veteres, were joined by that tribe against the Esiep.

A Quaqua prayer is given in the "Mithridates." It is uttered every morning by the tribes on the Issini, after a previous ablution in that river--_Anghiume mame maro, mame orie, mame s.h.i.+kke e okkori, mame akaka, mame frembi, mame anguan e awnsan_--_O Anghiume! give rice, give yams, give gold, give aigris, give slaves, give riches, give (to be) strong and swift._

What is here written about the ethnology of Apollonia is written doubtfully; since here, as at Acra, the simple ethnology of the pure and proper Fantis becomes complicated.

_The Cape of Good Hope._--The aboriginal population of the Cape is divided between two great families:--

1. The Hottentot.

2. The Kaffre.

1. _The Hottentots._--Of the two families this is the most western; it is the one which the colonists came first in contact with, and it is the one which has been most displaced by Europeans. The names of fourteen extinct tribes of Hottentots are known; of which it is only necessary to mention the Gunyeman and Sussaqua the nearest the Cape, and the Heykom, so far eastwards and northwards as Port Natal. The displacement of these last has not been effected by Europeans. African subdued African; and it was the Kaffres who did the work of conquest here.

Of the extant Hottentots, within the limits of the colony of the Cape, the most remote are the _Gonaqua_, on the head-waters of the Great Fish River; or rather on the water-shed between it and the Orange River. They are fast becoming either extinct, or amalgamated with the Kaffres; inasmuch as they are the Hottentots of the Amakosa frontier, and suffer, at least, as much from the Kaffres as from their white neighbours.

The _Namaquas_ occupy the _lower_ part of the Orange River, the Great and Little Namaqualand.

_The Koranas._--This branch of the Hottentots has its locality on the middle part of the Gariep, with the Griquas to the north, the Bechuana Kaffres to the east, and the Saabs in the middle of them. Their number is, perhaps, 10,000. Their exact relation to the other Hottentots is uncertain. They are a better formed people than the Gonaqua and Namaqua, but whether they be the best samples of the Hottentot stock altogether is uncertain. Probably a tribe far up in the north-western parts of South Africa, and beyond Namaqualand, may dispute the honour with them.

These are the Dammaras--themselves disputed Hottentots. Their country lies beyond the British colony, but it must be noticed for the sake of taking in all the branches of the stock in question. It is the tract between Benguela and Namaqualand, marked in the maps as _sterile country_; in the northern parts of which we sometimes find notices of a fierce nation called _Jagas_. Walvisch Bay lies in the middle of it. Now some writers make the Dammaras of this country Hottentot; others Kaffre; and that both rightly and wrongly. They are both--partly one, partly the other; since Dammara is a geographical term, and some of the tribes to which it applies are Kaffre, some Hottentot. The Dammaras of the plains, or the Cattle Dammaras are the former; the Dammaras[19] of the hills, the latter. Between the Dammara and the Korana a much nearer approach to Kaffre type is made than is usually supposed.

A branch of the Koranas--those of the valley of the Hartebeest River--deserves particular attention. They caution us against overvaluing differences; and Dr. Prichard has quoted the evidence of Mr.

Thompson with this especial object. They are Koranas who have suffered in war, lost their cattle, and been partially expatriated by the more powerful sections of their stock. Hence, want and poverty have acted upon them; and the effect has been that they have become hunters instead of shepherds, have been reduced to a precarious subsistence, and as the consequence of altered circ.u.mstances, have receded from the level of the other Koranas, and approached that of the--

_Saabs or Bushmen._--These belong to the parts between the Roggeveld and Orange River; parts which rival the _sterile country_ of the map in barrenness. As is the country so are the inhabitants; starved, miserable hunters--hunters rather than shepherds or herdsmen.

The Lap is not more strongly contrasted with the Finlander, than the Korana with the Saab; and the deadly enmity between these two populations is as marked as the differences in their physical appearances. I think, however, that undue inferences have been drawn from the difference; in other words, that the distance between the Korana and the Saab has been exaggerated. The languages are unequivocally allied.

I think, too, that a similarly undue inference has been drawn from the extent to which the Kaffre and the Korana are _alike_; inasmuch as an infusion of Kaffre has been a.s.sumed for the sake of accounting for it.

Of this, however, no proof exists.

The Saabs are described as having const.i.tutions "so much enfeebled by the dissolute life they lead, and the constant smoking of _dacha_, that nearly all, including the young people, look old and wrinkled; nevertheless, they are remarkable for vanity, and decorate their ears, legs, and arms with beads, and iron, copper, or bra.s.s rings. The women likewise stain their faces red, or paint them, either wholly or in part.

Their clothing consists of a few sheepskins, which hang about their bodies, and thus form the mantle or covering, commonly called a _kaross_. This is their only clothing by day or night. The men wear old hats, which they obtain from the farmers, or else caps of their own manufacture. The women wear caps of skins, which they stiffen and finish with a high peak, and adorn with beads and metal rings. The dwelling of the Bushman is either a low wretched hut, or a circular cavity, on the open plain, into which, at night, he creeps with his wife and children, and which, though it shelters him from the wind, leaves him exposed to the rain. In this neighbourhood, in which rocks abound, they had formerly their habitations in them, as is proved by the many rude figures of oxen, horses, serpents, &c. still existing. It is not a little interesting to see these poor degraded people, who formerly were considered and treated as little better than wild beasts in their rocky retreats. Many of those who have forsaken us live in such cavities not far from our settlement, and we have thus an opportunity of observing them in their natural condition. Several who, when they came to us from the farmers, were decently clothed and possessed a flock of sheep, which they had earned, in a short time returned to their fastnesses in a state of nakedness and indigence, rejoicing that they had got free from the farmers, and could live as they pleased in the indulgence of their sensual appet.i.tes. Such fugitives from civilised life, I have never seen otherwise occupied than with their bows and arrows. The bows are small, but made of good elastic wood; the arrows are formed of small reeds, the points furnished with a well-wrought piece of bone, and a double barb, which is steeped in a potent poison of a resiny appearance. This poison is distilled from the leaves of an indigenous tree. Many prefer these arrows to fire-arms, under the idea that they can kill more game by means of a weapon that makes no report. On their return from the chase, they feast till they are tired and drowsy, and hunger alone rouses them to renewed exertion. In seasons of scarcity they devour all kinds of wild roots, ants, ants' eggs, locusts, snakes, and even roasted skins.

Three women of this singular tribe were not long since met with, several days' journey from this place, who had forsaken their husbands, and lived very contentedly on wild honey and locusts. As enemies, the Bushmen are not to be despised. They are adepts in stealing cattle and sheep; and the wounds they inflict when pursued, are ordinarily fatal if the wounded part is not immediately cut out. The animals they are unable to carry off, they kill or mutilate.