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 HOUBIGANT

498

HOXJBIGANT

or yellow race took to themselves women of Bushman blood, and thus gave origin to the people whom Europeans term Hottentots." This suggestion merely puts this question among the insoluble prob- lems.

For the description of the pure Hottentot we are dependent on ancient writers like Kolben; because the pure Hottentot cannot be said to exist to-day. He was slightly below the average European, the upi^er limbs undeveloped and the lower muscular, high cheek bones, thick lips, nose flat, eyes wide apart, hair black and crisp in tufts, colour yellowish brown. To-day the so-called Hottentots are of every colour, size, and character, through mixture with other races. Even the language which they principally speak is a patois of the Dutch dialect of the Cape.

The language of the Hottentots is monosyllabic; having four known dialects — the Namaqua, which is still spoken by some of the natives; the Kora and Cape Hottentot, which are practically extinct ; and the Eastern Hottentot, which exists only in a few meagre vocabularies, and has been extinct for some time.

The most striking characteristic of the Hottentot language for the European lies in the "clicks". Something similar is thought to be found in the Galla language of Abyssinia, in the Circassian tongue, and in the ancient speech of Guatemala. But three- fourths of ti'.e words in the Hottentot dialects begin with a click. Clicks are of four kinds, and are diffi- cult to describe to those who have not heard them. The drawing of a cork, and the gurgling sound of water in the narrow neck of a bottle, the sound made in urging a horse to trot or run, and other sounds have been used to illustrate their nature; but at least one of them, the palatal click, defies description.

The grammatical system of the Hottentots is built almost exclusively on sex-denoting suffixes, and it is the most complete of this small group of languages. The liquid L is entirely wanting, and it has a small variety of clear nasal consonants. The only native literature that exists in these dialects consists of folk-lore tales, such as mark the beginning of all European literature. Translations of parts of the Scriptures have been made by missionanes in Nama- qualand.

The religion of the Hottentots is a congeries of superstitious observances, of which travellers and folklorists have never been able to obtain a full explanation from the natives. They appear to be- lieve in a superior being whom they call Tsuikwap; but the antiquity and the meaning of this word are open to some doubt. The most elaborate ceremonies of the Hottentots are in honour of the moon, and they pay great reverence to cairns of stones and wood, where they believe a mythical personage named Heitsi-Eibib to reside.

The Hottentots called themselves Ivhoikhoin — men of men. The most curious of their customs is that on attaining manhood the Hottentot makes himself a monorchls. Polygamy was not general, but per- mitted to the wealthy. They never seem to have made boats of any kind, and abhor the oil of fish, although fond of smearing their skin with oil. Witch- craft was common among them. Their government was carried on by chiefs, who administered a well- defined native law. The doctors were in high esteem, and next to them the priests, who combined the duties of masters of ceremonies and surgeons in the monorchist rites.

Hottentots are now found chiefly in German South- west .\frica and in Cape Colony. For the former ter- ritory there are no official figures as to their number; but they do not exceed thirty thousand. During the recent rebellion against the Germans, the Hottentots gave more trouble than all the other races together.

In the time of the first Dutch governor (van Rie- beeck) the Hottentots at the Cape were estimated at

150,000. But the smallpox epidemic in 1713 reduced their numbers enormously. In 1904 the census put them at 85,892. Their destiny seems to be absorp- tion into the more virile native races.

Missionary work among the Hottentots and allied tribes has been undertaken by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in Cape Colony, and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in German South-west Africa. The Orange River Vicariate is composed chiefly of a species of Hottentot called Griquas or Bastards. In German territory, in the Prefecture Apostolic of Lower Cimbebasia, Catholic missionary work among the native tribes is in its infancy.

Theal. History of South Africa (London. 1903): Brown, The Portuguese in South Africa (iMndon, 1S96): Bleek. Compara- tive Grammar of South African Languages (Cape Town, 1999): Cape Monthly Magazine (January and Februao'. 1858 and 1862): TonRE^D, Comparative Grammar of Souih African Bantu Languages, introd. (Columbus, 1950): Kolben, The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope (London, 1871): Leibbrandt, Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town, 1900), passim: Tind.4LL, Two Lectures on Great Namaqualand and its inhabitants (Cape Town, 1856). The Grey Collection of the South .African Public Librar>' contains many useful books and pamphlets in the Hottentot dialects.

Sidney R. Welch.

Houbigant, Charles-Fran pois; b. in Paris, 1686; d. there 31 October, 1783. He entered the Congre- gation of the Oratory in 1704 and, after his studies, taught successively the classics at Juilly, rhetoric at Marseilles, and philosophy at Soissons. Returning to Paris, he was in 1722 at the head of the Conference of Church Antiquities and Discipline of St-Magloire. 0\'erwork brought upon him a severe sickness, from which he lost in a very jieculiar way the sense of hear- ing: while unable to hear the noise of the cannon of the Bastille, he could hear the scratching of his pen on the paper. In consequence of this infirmity he availed himself of the scholarship founded by L. de Carrieres to promote Biblical studies in the Oratory and thence- forth devoted his talents to mastering Oriental lan- guages.

His first work, issued in 1732 (Paris), was a vocabu- lary of Hebrew roots, "Racines luHiraiques sans point s-voyelles", compiled after the manner of Lance- lot's long famous " Jardin des racines grecques". In 1746 he published his "Prolegomena in Scripturam Sacram" (2 vols., 4to) and a Latin translation of the Psalms, " Psalmorum versio vulgata et versio nova ad hebraicamveritatem facta" (16mo), followed two years later (1748) by a critical edition of the Hebrew Psal- ter, " Psalmi hebraici mendis quam plurimis expurgati " (Leyden, 16mo). These volumes were but the fore- runners of his great work, " Biblia hebraica cum notis criticis et versione latina ad notas critieas facta; ac- cedunt libri gra-ci qui deutero-canonici vocantur in tres classes distributi" (4 vols., folio, Paris, 1753-54). This important publication, to the preparation of which he had devoted twenty years of labour, in itself a masterpiece of typography, was based on the text of Van der Hooght (edit, of 1705), which it reproduced without vocal signs and with many corrections sug- gested either in the margin or in tables at the end of each volume. The Latin translation was also pub- lished separately in eight octavo volumes under the title, "Veteris Testamenti versio nova ad hebraicam veritatem facta" (Paris, 1753). From Houbigant's versatile pen later on proceeded French translations of some English books, as Forbes's "Thoughts", Sher- lock's "Sermons" (176SI, and Lesley's "Method against Deists and Jews" (1770). Other works pub- lished during the same period, as the " Examen du Psautier fran^ais des RR. PP. Capucins" (The Hague, 1764), the "Conference entre un Juif, un protestant et un docteur de Sorbonne" (Leyden, 1770), the "Notae critics in universos Veteris Testamenti libros turn hebraice tum grace scriptos, cum integris Prolego- menis ad exemplar Parisiense denuo recensa'" (2 vols., 4to, Frankfort, 1777), are evidence that Houbigant