Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/41

Rh Returning to the dated fragments, we find that they can be roughly classified as follows:

In going over these MSS., I have been greatly helped by Mr. Josiah Gumede, a Natal Zulu, who has explained many difficult points.

The notes on Unkulunkulu, as already stated, do not appear to add much to what is already in prin; but the name Qamata does not occur anywhere in the Religious System. Mr. Gumede tells me it is a name which is used by the Amaxosa, but not known to the Zulus proper. Bishop Callaway's informants quote traditional sayings which show that it was used as the name of a Being regarded as Preserver and Provider, if not Creator. One expressly states that it is equivalent to Umdali="Creator"; this man says that his own tribe, the Amanqika, recognised three names: Umdali, Utixo and Qamata. The second of these was borrowed from the Amalau (Hottentots), who pronounced it Utiqwa. This is confirmed by other informants, who say that the Bantu tribes only adopted this name after they had "become mixed up with the Amalau," and that the latter say Utixo when referring to Qamata. It may be remembered that Ulangeni expressly repudiated this view: "Utixo is not a Hottentot word. … We have learnt nothing of them." Callaway's note points out that this man's belief was mistaken and probably inspired by contempt for the "Amalau."

Equally mistaken, it seems to me, is the derivation from Deus or Dio—I do not know who originally suggested it, but I heard it from Mr. Alfred Mangena, who belongs to one of the Pondo tribes. The word (in the form "Thukwa," "Thik-qua " or "Tiqva") is vouched for by Valentijn