Page:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 2).djvu/32

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MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION.

old travellers of Khoi-Khoi religion raust now be compiled from the work of Dr. Hahn.

In 1655 Corporal Müller found adoration paid to great stones on the side of the paths. The worshippers pointed upwards, and said Hette hie, probably "Heitsi Eibib," the name of a Khoi-Khoi extra-natural being. It appears (p. 37) that Heitsi Eibib "has changed names" in parts of South Africa, and what was his worship is now offered "to | Garubeb, or Tsui i Goab."

In 1671 Dapper found that the Khoi-Khoi "believe there is one who sends rain on earth; . . . they also believe that they themselves can make rain and prevent the wind from blowing." Worship of the moon and of "erected stones" is also noticed. In 1691 Nicolas Witsen heard that the Khoi-Khoi adored a god which Dr. Hahn (p. 91) supposes to have been "a peculiar-shaped stone-fetish," such as the Basutos worship and spit at. Witsen found that the "god" was daubed with red earth, like the Dionysi in Greece. About 1705 Valentyn gathered that the people believed in "a great chief who dwells on high," and a devil; "but in carefully examining this, it is nothing else but their somsomas and spectres" (p. 38). The worship of a "great chief" is mentioned again in 1868. In 1719 Peter Kolb, the German Magister, published his account of the Hottentots, which has been done into English.[1] Kolb gives Gounja Gounja, or Gounja Ticqvoa, as the divine name; "they say he is a good man, who does nobody any hurt, . . . and that he dwells far above the moon."[2] Kolb also

  1. Second edition, London, 1738.
  2. Engl. transl., i. 95.