more of aftronomy than that in about thirty days the moon
will have gone through all its different phafes; and that in
about twelve moons the fame feafons will return. Their only
chronology is kept by the moon, and is regiftered by notches
in pieces of wood. It feldom extends beyond one generation
till the old feries is cancelled, and fome great event, as the death
of a favorite chief, or the gaining of a victory, ferves for a new
sera.
Not the fmalleft veftige of a written character is to be traced
among them ; but their language appears to be the remains of
fomething far beyond that of any favage nation. In the enunciation
it is foft, fluent, and harmonious ; has neither the monotonous
mouthing o f the favage, nor the nafal nor guttural
founds that prevail in almoft all the European tongues. It is
as different from that of the Hottentots as the latter is from the
Engliih. In a very few words, and thefe are generally proper
names, they have adopted the palatial clacking of the tongue
ufed by the Hottentots. The mountains and rivers in the
country, for inftance, ftill retain their Hottentot names 5 a pre-
fumptive proof that the Kaffers were intruders upon this
nation. It is Angular enough that the Kaffers, as well as the
Hottentots, ihould have obtained a name that never belonged
to them. The word Kaffer could not be pronounced by one
o f that nation. They have no found of the letter R in their
language. A Koffray, among the Indians, is an infidel, a pagan,
and was a general name applied by the early voyagers to
thofe people, in whom they did not perceive any traits of a
religious nature ; but the origin o f the name o f Hottentot
feems
feems not yet to have been afcertained. The Kaffers call them-
felves Koujfie, which word is pronounced by the Hottentots
with a ftrong palatial ftroke of the tongue on the flrft fyllable.
I know not if the Kaffer language bears any analogy to the
Arabic; but their word cliang for the fun has an oriental found
for exprefling the fame idea. The following brief fpecimen of
the Kaffer language, with the fynonimous words in that of the
Hottentots’, may ferve to fhew how little refemblance they
bear to each other. The hyphen, in the latter, exprefles the
dental, and the circumflex the palatial, a ¿lion of the tongue on
thofe fyllables over which they are placed.
k a f f e r . HOTTENTOT.
The fun, Eliang, Surrie.
The moon, Inyango, ka.
The ftars, Imquemqueis, Koro.
The earth, Umclabo, Koo.
Air or light, . Amaphoo, Kom.
Fire, Leaw, Ei.
Water, Amaanzee, Kam.
Thunder, ' Ezoolo, hoorioo.
Lightning, Leaw Ezoolo, ho5noo-ei.
Wind, Oomoi, qua.
Rain, Imphoola, Tookai.
The Sea, Ooloanje, hurroo.
A Man, Abaantoo, Quaina.
A Woman, Omfaas, Quaiiha.
An Ox, Incabai, Mnoo.
A Dog, Eenja, Toona.
F F 2 To-day,