the Egyptian, and the feminine affix might be considered the same in the Namaqua, Galla, and Old Egyptian.”[1] This was not known to Dr. Bleek, however, before he made the same discovery and others of a similar nature that placed beyond question the fact that the little group of Hottentots living on the western and southern shores of South Africa must have descended from men who once resided on or near the other extremity of the continent, though now the whole space between is filled by people the structure of whose speech is entirely different.
The question then arose how could the Hottentots, who differ almost as much from the present black inhabitants of Central Africa as they do from Europeans, have found their way to the south? Various answers were suggested, but as every one who attempted to solve this question regarded the black race as having occupied the whole of Central Africa from remote times, through whom migration would have been impossible, none were conclusive or satisfactory.[2] The mystery remained unsolved, like that which veils from our knowledge the cause and the manner of the early migrations of our own race.
A satisfactory answer has now, however, been given at least to part of what is implied in the question. Mr. George
- ↑ The reverend James Adamson, D.D., first clergyman of the presbyterian church in Capetown, and for many years professor of mathematics in the South African college, was a man of great ability and of high education. Among the subjects to which he devoted much attention was philology, though he published nothing upon that subject except his addresses at the meetings of literary associations. After a residence of twenty-two years in Capetown, he removed to the United States in 1850, but ten years later returned to South Africa, and remained here until his death on the 16th of July 1875, at the age of seventy-nine years.
- ↑ For instance, among the theories put forward in sober earnest to account for their origin is one that a party of light-coloured men may have been left behind on the South African coast by an ancient circumnavigating expedition; but in that case how did the horned cattle and sheep get here?
