My dear Sir George,
In inscribing to you this little book, I do no more than offer that
which is your due, as its appearance is mainly owing to you. It was by
your desire that I wrote, in 1861, to different Missionaries in South
Africa, requesting them to make collections of Native Literature,
similar in nature to those which, through your instrumentality, had
been so abundantly rescued from oblivion in New Zealand. I then wrote,
among others, to the Rev. G. Krönlein, Rhenish Missionary at Beerseba,
Great Namaqualand; but it was not till after you had left us, on a new
mission of honour and duty, that I received from him (at five different
periods) the original manuscripts from which most of the Fables given
here are translated. He sent us, altogether, twenty-four Fables, Tales,
and Legends, besides twelve Songs of Praise, thirty-two Proverbs, and
twelve Riddles; all in Hottentot (as taken down by him from the mouth
of the Natives) and German, partly accompanied by explanatory notes,
including fragments of the ǀNūsa [1] Bushman language. Mr. Krönlein’s
manuscripts fill sixty-five pages, mostly in quarto, with double
columns.
You are aware that the existence of Fables among the Hottentots was
already known to us through Sir James Alexander’s “Expedition of
Discovery into the Interior of Africa” (8vo., two vols., London, 1838),
and that some interesting specimens of their literature had been given
by him in that work; but that Fables form so extensive a mass of
traditionary Native literature amongst the Namaqua, has first been
brought to light by Mr. Krönlein’s communications. The fact of such a
literary capacity existing among a nation whose mental qualifications
it has been usual to estimate at the lowest standard, is of the
greatest importance; and that their literary activity (in
contradistinction to the general character of Native literature among
Negro nations) has been employed almost in the same direction as that
which had been taken by our own earliest literature, is in itself of
great significance.
Some questions of no trifling importance and interest are raised by the
appearance of such an unlooked-for mine of literary lore, particularly
as to the originality of these Fables. Whether they are indeed the real
offspring of the desert, and can be considered as truly indigenous
Native literature, or whether they have been either purloined from the
superior white race, or at least brought into existence by the stimulus
which contact with the latter gave to the Native mind (like that
resulting in the invention of the Tshiroki and Vei alphabets) may be
matters of dispute for some time to come, and it may require as much
research as was expended upon the solving of the riddle of the
originality of the Ossianic poems.
But whatever may be the ultimate result of such inquiries, whether it
will confirm our idea of the originality and antiquity of the main
portion of these Hottentot Fables, and consequently stamp them with the
character of the oldest and most primitive literary remains of the old
mother tongue of the Sexdenoting nations, or whether they have only
sprung up recently among the Hottentots from foreign seed—in either
case the disposition of the Hottentots to the enjoyment of such Fables,
and their easy growth on this arid soil, be it their native or adopted
one—shows a much greater congeniality between the Hottentot and
European mind than we find between the latter and any of the black
races of Africa.
This similarity in the disposition of nations can in itself indeed
hardly be considered as a valid proof of common ancestry; but if there
be other grounds to make us believe that the nations in question, or at
least their languages, are of common origin, it may render us more
inclined to assume that such a similarity in their literary taste is
derived also from the same source.
The great ethnological difference between the Hottentots and the black
nations of South Africa has been a marked fact from almost the earliest
acquaintance of Europeans with these parts, and occasional stray
guesses (for example, in R. Moffat’s “Missionary Labours and Scenes in
Southern Africa,” 1842, p. 6), have already for some time pointed to a
North African origin for the Hottentots.
It is, however, only within the last dozen years that this has been
established as a proved, and, I believe to most observers, an, at
first, astonishing fact. I well remember still the feeling of most
curious interest with which I regarded Knudsen’s translation of Luke’s
Gospel (vol. i., No. 15 of your Library), when, in April 1850, it was
sent me by the then Inspector of the Rhenish Mission House, the Rev J.
C. Wallmann, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the language was
in any way akin to those of the surrounding black nations, and whether,
on that account, an already acquired acquaintance with any of the
Hottentot dialects would render it easier for a Missionary to master
one of the Negro or Kafir tongues. [2]
I had, however, at that time not the least idea of the results to which
a knowledge of this language would lead me; and being then mostly
occupied with the study of the Setshuâna and kindred languages—which
seemed to me of paramount interest for comparative philology—I did not
at first give undivided attention to the perusal of this curious
volume. I remarked very soon, however, a striking similarity between
the Hottentot signs of gender and those of the Coptic language; but for
some time I considered it as purely accidental, which may be seen from
a letter of mine regarding this subject, published by Mr. Wallmann, in
“Berichten der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft” (Reports of the
Rhenish Missionary Society, 1850, No. 24, if I am not mistaken in the
number).
Soon, however, what were at first mere isolated facts, became links, in
a chain of evidence, showing that all those Sexdenoting Languages which
were then known to us in Africa, Asia, and Europe, are members of one
large family, of which the primitive type has, in most respects, been
best preserved to us in the Hottentot language.
It was even as early as the end of 1850 that I could write to Mr.
Wallmann—“This language (the Hottentot) is to me at this moment of
greater interest than any other. The facts, of which once before I have
given you some account, have now so increased upon me, and offer such
strong analogies, that there is no further doubt in my own mind that
not only the Coptic but also the Semitic, and all other languages of
Africa (as Berber, the Galla dialect, &c., &c.) in which the
distinction of the masculine and feminine gender pervades the whole
grammar, are of common origin.”
Part of the result of these researches was then published in my
dissertation, “De Nominum Generibus Linguarum Africæ, Australis,
Copticæ, Semiticarum aliarumque Sexualium” (8vo., Bonn, 6th August,
1851, vol. i., No. 1 of your Library).
I was at that time not aware—nor has it come to my knowledge till
within the last few weeks—that on the 10th June, 1851, Dr. J. C.
Adamson, in communicating to the Syro-Egyptian Society some
observations on the analysis of languages, with a special reference to
those of South Africa, had stated “That the signs of gender were almost
identical in the Namaqua and the Egyptian, and the feminine affix might
be considered as being the same in all three” [3] (Namaqua, Galla, and
Old Egyptian).
Another curious agreement on this point, by an apparently independent
observer (Mr. J. R. Logan), [4] was pointed out to me by your
Excellency. You also suggested this name of “Sexdenoting Languages.”
But it is superfluous for me to say any thing of what you have done for
the advancement of African, as well as Australian and Polynesian,
philology.
It has been justly remarked by our learned friend, Mr. Justice
Watermeyer, that the natural propensities of animals in all parts of
the world being so much alike, Fables intended to portray them must
also be expected to resemble each other greatly, even to their very
details.
But we may well ask why it is that, so far as we know, the Kafir
imagination seems not at all inclined to the formation of this class of
fictitious tales, though they have otherwise a prolific Native
literature of a more or less historic and legendary character. This
contrast to what we find among the Hottentots appears not to be
accidental, but merely a natural consequence of that difference of
structure which distinguishes these two classes of languages, embracing
respectively the dialects of the Hottentots on the one hand, and those
of the Kafirs and their kindred nations on the other; in the former
(the Hottentot), as in all other really Sexdenoting Languages, the
grammatical divisions of the nouns into genders, which do not tally
exactly with any distinction observed in nature, has been brought into
a certain reference to the difference of sex; and on that account this
distinction of sex seems in some way to extend even to inanimate
beings, whereby a tendency to the personification of impersonal objects
is produced, which in itself is likely to lead the mind towards
ascribing reason and other human attributes to irrational beings. This
is the real origin of almost all those poetical conceptions which we
call Fables and Myths. Both are based on the personification of
impersonal beings—the former by ascribing speech and reason to the
lower animals, whilst the latter substitute human-like agencies in
explanation of celestial and other elementary phenomena in place of
their real cause.
Mythology is, in its origin, most generally either a mere figure of
speech or a poetical explanation suggested by the grammatical form or
etymological meaning of words, indicating certain striking natural
phenomena. In the primary stage of their production, Myths may be
supposed to have been always understood in their true original
character; and it is only when in the course of generations their real
origin has been obscured, and they have become merely the petrified
excrescences of a traditionary creed, that their apparent absurdity
makes them at first sight almost inexplicable, particularly when found
among nations of a high intelligence.
The humbler sisters of the Myths, the Fables based on the natural
propensities of animals, are not obscured in their real character so
easily as the former, and have, on that account, more generally
retained their simple usefulness as moral teachers; so, though they may
have preceded even Myths as to the date of their first conception, they
yet outlive them as real and salutary elements of the best national
literatures: not that Myths had not their own beneficial sphere in the
education of mankind, as leading them on to higher abstract ideas, and
even deeper religious thoughts, but their very power of exerting a much
deeper influence on the destinies of our race, made it essential that
they should have a more transitory existence in the civilizing process
of the Sexdenoting nations—who have to give up mythologies so soon as
through them they have gained higher religious ideas—while Fables,
which never claim so high a place among the elements of furthering the
eliminating process of our species, remain always welcome to most
classes of readers at certain periods of their intellectual
development.
Children, and also simple-minded grown-up people, whose taste has not
been spoiled by the poison of over-exciting reading, will always be
amused by the quaintly expressed moral lessons which they receive
through every good Fable; and the more thorough student of literature
will also regard with pleasure these first innocent plays of awakening
human imagination. To all these the Hottentot Fables offered here may
not be unwelcome as a fresh store of original compositions, or even as
old acquaintances who gain a new interest in different clothing and
scenery.
To make these Hottentot Fables readable for the general public, a few
slight omissions and alterations of what would otherwise have been too
naked for the English eye were necessary, but they do not in any
essential way affect the spirit of the Fables. Otherwise, the
translation is faithful to the original, though not exactly literal.
It would of course be presumptuous to believe that we could here
discuss fully the originality or date of composition of these Fables,
and all the many questions involved therein.
The modern origin of some of the Fables, as, for instance, that of The
Cock (12), Fish-Stealing (8), The Judgment of the Baboon (17), and The
Curse of the Horse (30), is very evident; others, e.g., The White Man
and the Snake (5 & 6), indicate clearly a European origin. Others,
however, have strong claims to be regarded not merely as genuine
products of the Hottentot mind, but even as portions of a traditionary
Native literature, anterior in its origin to the advent of Europeans.
That the latter is a true view of the subject becomes perhaps the more
conclusive by the intimate relations in which, among the Hottentots,
Myths still stand to Fables; in fact, a true mythology can hardly be
said to exist among them; for Myths (as that of The Origin of Death)
are in reality as much Fables as Myths; but we may consider these as
analogous to the first germs whence sprung those splendid mythologies
which have filled with deep devotional feelings the hearts of many
millions among the most intelligent races of the earth.
This higher flight of the imaginative faculty which the Sexdenoting
nations possess (through the stimulus of this personification of
impersonal things, consequent upon the grammatical structure of their
languages), and what it had been to them, becomes the more evident if
we compare their literature with that of the Kafirs and other black
tribes of South Africa.
As the grammatical structure of languages spoken by the latter does not
in itself suggest personification, these nations are almost, as a
matter of course, destitute of Myths as well as Fables. Their literary
efforts are, as a general rule, restricted to narrating the doings of
men in a more or less historical manner—whence we have a number of
household tales, and portions of a fabulous history of these tribes and
nations; or their ancestor worship and belief in the supernatural give
rise to horrible ghost stories and tales of witchcraft, which would be
exciting if they were not generally told in such a long-winded, prosy
manner, as must make the best story lose its interest.
Of course for the comparative philologist, and for any one who takes an
interest in observing the working of the human mind in its most
primitive stages, these pieces of Kafir and Negro native literature
will also have their own interest; it is therefore to be hoped that
time and circumstances may soon allow us to publish also the other
portions of South African native literature extant in manuscript in
your library.
Among these we have principally to mention, as new contributions
(received after your departure), twenty-three pieces in o Tyi-hereró,
or the Damara language, as written down by natives themselves, copied
by the Rev. J. Rath (Rhenish Missionary, formerly in Damara Land, now
at Sarepta Knils River), and accompanied with a German translation by
him. [5]
Among these pieces there are seven ghost stories, four accounts of
transformation of men or animals, eleven other household tales, one
legend, and one fable. This last piece (No. 11, pp. 27, 29) is probably
of Hottentot origin. I have therefore thought it best to give it a
place in this little book (No. 14), where it precedes that Hottentot
Fable, to which its concluding portions bear such a striking
resemblance. It is not unlikely that the beginning of this Hottentot
Fable of The Giraffe and the Tortoise is missing. It may have been
similar to the beginning of the corresponding one in Damara. As far as
it goes the Hottentot Fable is however evidently more original than the
o Tyi-hereró text. As a specimen of o Tyi-hereró household tales, I
have given Rath’s fifteenth piece, the story of The Unreasonable Child
to whom the Dog gave its Deserts.
You will also approve of my having added the Zulu legend of the Origin
of Death, which in its mixture of Fable and Myth, and even in several
details of its composition, shows a great analogy to the Hottentot
treatment of the same subject, of which I am able to give here four
different versions.
A second version of two or three other fables, and of one legend, has
also been given from one of the two important manuscripts in German,
regarding the Hottentots and their language, prepared for you by Mr.
Knudsen. [6] The same manuscript supplied also a legend of The Origin
of Difference in Modes of Life between Hottentots and Bushmen, which we
do not yet possess in the Hottentot language.
To make our available stock of Nama Hottentot literature quite
complete, three fables and four tales have been taken from Sir James
Alexander’s “Expedition,” &c., and inserted here, with only few
insignificant verbal alterations.
The “Songs of Praise,” given as notes to some of the Fables in this
volume, are merely intended as specimens of Hottentot poetry. They can
hardly be expected to amuse or interest the general reader—at least,
not in the form in which they appear here, though a Longfellow might be
able to render some of them in a way that would make them attractive.
In the same manner the materials contained in these Hottentot Fables
might be worked out similarly to Goethe’s “Reinecke Fuchs;” and we
should hereby probably gain an epical composition, which, though not
ranking so high as the latter poem, would yet, as regards the interest
of its subject-matter, far exceed Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” in adaptation
to the general taste.
How much Native productions gain when represented skilfully and
properly, your admirable work on “Polynesian Mythology” has shown. But
you had sterner and more important work on hand, and so I have had to
do this without you. That it does not appear in a still more imperfect
form, I owe mainly to the help of one who naturally takes the greatest
interest in all my pursuits.
In writing the last lines of this Preface, the interest which I feel
for these Hottentot Fables is almost fading away before those rich
treasures of your library which have just arrived from England; and as
all our present efforts are of course given to the proper settling of
these jewels of our library, I can merely send, with grateful
acknowledgments, our most fervent wishes for your well-doing, and our
sincere hope of seeing you, at no distant day, again in the midst of
us.
Believe me,
My dear Sir George,
Yours most faithfully,
W. H. I. BLEEK.
Capetown, April, 1863.