nomad cattle and sheep farmers, are on a much higher level of culture than the Bushmen, who are hunters.[1] The language of the two peoples leave "no mere doubt as to their primitive relationship" (p. 7). The wealth of the Khoi-Khoi was considerable and unequally distributed, a respectable proof of nascent civilisation. The rich man was called gou aob, that is, "fat." In the same way the early Greeks called the wealthy ἄνδρες τῶν παχέων."[2] As the rich man could afford many wives (which gives him a kind of "commendation" over men to whom he allots his daughters), he "gradually rose to the station of a chief."[3] In domestic relations, Khoi-Khoi society is "matriarchal" (pp. 19–21).[4] All the sons are called after the mother, the daughters after the father. Among the arts, pottery and mat-making, metallurgy, and tool-making are of ancient date. A past stone age is indicated by the use of quartz knives in sacrifice and circumcision. In Khoi-Khoi society seers and prophets were "the greatest and most respected old men of the clan" (p. 24). The Khoi-Khoi of to-day have adopted a number of Indo-European beliefs and customs, and "the Christian ideas introduced by missionaries have amalgamated . . . with the national religious ideas and mythologies," for which reasons Dr. Hahn omits many legends which, though possibly genuine, might seem imported (pp. 30-31).
A brief historical abstract of what was known to
