DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0121
66
A. W. Hoernle
perhaps, one of the largest tribes, is probably the one most satisfactory to study, for these
people have been marooned for two or three centuries among the sand dunes which form
their present home, attracted thither by the famous Inaras melon which provides them
with food for many months in the year. I travelled in the country five years after the
end of the German-Hottentot wars, during which great numbers of the older people
perished, and the whole tribal system of the Hottentots received its death blow.
The Hottentots are now a passing people, who have practically given up the struggle
of keeping alive their own traditions. What vitality is left is spent in the absorption of
the ways of the incoming Europeans. One has, therefore, to be content with what
remnants of their former customs and beliefs one can still gather from them. It
was only by reviving long forgotten memories among the oldest of the men and women
that I could gather up many of the customs of the past. One of my best informers, a
woman, reproached me bitterly for encouraging her to think of things she had spent half
her life in trying to forget: “You have made me live the old life once more; soon you
will be .going, and what shall I do then? ”
1 ■ The four transition rites which I shall describe are, however, practised even now
among the people I visited, though sometimes in a simplified form owing to the great
poverty which prevails. Though I have obtained details from many informants, the main
contribution is that of four persons, two men and two women. It is to one of the women
that I am most indebted. Hannah3 lAmatis was, before she married among the #Aunin,
a member of the //Khau-#G6an tribe, where she learnt all she knew from her grandfather.
The latter was headman of his tribe, and as she was his favorite, and a very clever girl,
he told her all the old lore of his tribe. She became my closest friend among the Hotten-
tots, and to her I owe the framework of my information. She is now a woman well over
60 years of age. Louisa IKabes is a somewhat younger woman, less intelligent, but
very inquisitive. As a girl she used to hide where old and important people were talking,
thinking that such as she were far away. She married into the family of the old Captain
Piet //Eibib of Walfish Bay, who was long subsidized by the Cape Government, and who
was a most intelligent old man. He died some eight years before I came among the
people, well over eighty years of age. Gottlief //Amib was the oldest of my informers,
and both he and his brothers had been throughout their lives, not only because of their
family connections, but because of their intelligence, the headmen of the captain of the
Topnaars. Gottlief was a splendid informer and an admirable character, but he was
becoming frail, and his memory was no longer at its best. He often said he was no use,
and wished I might have clearer information on what were for him exceedingly weighty
3 Most Hottentots have now a “Christian” name as well as a native one.
A. W. Hoernle
perhaps, one of the largest tribes, is probably the one most satisfactory to study, for these
people have been marooned for two or three centuries among the sand dunes which form
their present home, attracted thither by the famous Inaras melon which provides them
with food for many months in the year. I travelled in the country five years after the
end of the German-Hottentot wars, during which great numbers of the older people
perished, and the whole tribal system of the Hottentots received its death blow.
The Hottentots are now a passing people, who have practically given up the struggle
of keeping alive their own traditions. What vitality is left is spent in the absorption of
the ways of the incoming Europeans. One has, therefore, to be content with what
remnants of their former customs and beliefs one can still gather from them. It
was only by reviving long forgotten memories among the oldest of the men and women
that I could gather up many of the customs of the past. One of my best informers, a
woman, reproached me bitterly for encouraging her to think of things she had spent half
her life in trying to forget: “You have made me live the old life once more; soon you
will be .going, and what shall I do then? ”
1 ■ The four transition rites which I shall describe are, however, practised even now
among the people I visited, though sometimes in a simplified form owing to the great
poverty which prevails. Though I have obtained details from many informants, the main
contribution is that of four persons, two men and two women. It is to one of the women
that I am most indebted. Hannah3 lAmatis was, before she married among the #Aunin,
a member of the //Khau-#G6an tribe, where she learnt all she knew from her grandfather.
The latter was headman of his tribe, and as she was his favorite, and a very clever girl,
he told her all the old lore of his tribe. She became my closest friend among the Hotten-
tots, and to her I owe the framework of my information. She is now a woman well over
60 years of age. Louisa IKabes is a somewhat younger woman, less intelligent, but
very inquisitive. As a girl she used to hide where old and important people were talking,
thinking that such as she were far away. She married into the family of the old Captain
Piet //Eibib of Walfish Bay, who was long subsidized by the Cape Government, and who
was a most intelligent old man. He died some eight years before I came among the
people, well over eighty years of age. Gottlief //Amib was the oldest of my informers,
and both he and his brothers had been throughout their lives, not only because of their
family connections, but because of their intelligence, the headmen of the captain of the
Topnaars. Gottlief was a splendid informer and an admirable character, but he was
becoming frail, and his memory was no longer at its best. He often said he was no use,
and wished I might have clearer information on what were for him exceedingly weighty
3 Most Hottentots have now a “Christian” name as well as a native one.