1. In remarking on the history of the Kafir language, it may be right to observe at the outset, that the term Kafir is a word of Arabic extraction, with the generally received signification of infidel. It appears to have been originally applied by the Arabians, as well as by the Portuguese, their immediate successors in African conquest, to all the black population of South Africa indiscriminately. Since their time, however, the use of the term has become more and more limited in its range, according as geographical and ethnographical knowledge has increased. In the present day, its largest application is usually confined to the tribes dwelling beyond the Eastern frontier of the Cape colony. As might be expected, the name of Kafir is neither used nor understood by the natives; unless it be, that some who live on the immediate border, have an indefinite idea of its being one of reproach. Amongst themselves, they are all distinguished by their own respective epithets, according to their several nations, tribes, and families. In most parts of the Colony, as well as in many recent works of travel, the term Kafir is frequently restricted to one of the above mentioned tribes, namely, the Amaxosa; the remaining tribes, so far as they are known, being distinguished by their own national names, or rather by corruptions of them:

Thus, the Abatembu are called Tambookie Kafirs, or simply Tambookies; the Amampondo, Pondos; the Amazulu, Zulus; and the Amafengu, Fingoes.1 In relation to language, the word Kafir may be used as a general term, whereby to designate the different dialects spoken by these and their sister tribes, in a corresponding manner to the native word Sechuana, as applied to the various dialects which are spoken by the Bechuanas.2

2. The Kafir language, although at present spoken by a race of people only just emerging from a state of complete barbarism, bears strong internal evidence of having been used, at one time, by those who must have constituted a much more cultivated order of society. Time has probably effected a deterioration in some of its parts, considering in whose possession we find it; yet even now it does not seem to be the legitimate property of an uncivilized people. On comparing it with other languages, whilst it is distinguished by all of their more general properties and usages, it is found, at the same time, to possess one peculiar and striking characteristic, which draws a line of demarcation between it, or rather the class to which it belongs, and every other family of known dialects. This characteristic is the principle denominated the Euphonic concord, which plainly marks out a new and distinctive class. To this class belong nearly all the dialects which are spoken south of the Equator, and north of the Cape colony. In the present state of our information, it is impossible to determine which

1 In the northern parts of the Colony, the Bechuana tribes are generally called Kafirs, whilst the proper Kafir tribes are termed, the Kaal or Bloot Kafirs, that is, the Bare or Naked Kafirs.

2 There are said to be two Arabic words from which the term Kafir might have been derived. The one is Cafara, to lie; and the other, Kafr, a waste. Hence probably the different modes in which this epithet has been written, some having used Caffre, or Caffer; and others Kafir, Kaffir, or Kaffer. It would serve no useful purpose to argue as to which

of these several derivatives has the strongest claims to be considered the best representative of the primitive, but it is doubtless desirable that uniformity should prevail in the use of one, rather than variety in the use of many. That which is employed throughout this work, seems to have the best sanction, and is the nearest derivative of the second of the above Arabic words, which, whether the true original or not, is the less offensive term of the two, and perhaps more expressive of the uncivilized and heathenish condition of the people.

is the parent of these several dialects, or which is the country where it might be found. That they all descend from one common original, is sufficiently evident from the same roots being in general use; though their identity as in the case of all other cognate dialects, is often concealed through consonantal and other changes. The discovery of one common source is rendered the more difficult from the circumstance, that the languages which are spoken north of the Equator, as far, at least, as observation and research have hitherto extended, appear to be altogether of a different construction, both verbally and grammatically. Vocabularies of several of these languages have been published, in one form or another, but none of them present any tangible proof of immediate relationship to the Kafir, or any similar dialect. This will be seen from a comparison of the two following tabular views of a few words, in different African dialects, compiled from two articles in the "Classical Museum" on Ethnology and Philology, in which the writer principally treats upon African languages. Amongst these words will be found some of most of the leading dialects of both Western and Eastern Africa, and whilst it is sufficiently plain, that many of the dialects to which they severally belong, can be identified as members of the same family, yet it does not appear so clear, that such a close affinity subsists between the whole, as would seem to be contended for in the above mentioned articles. When compared with the Kafir, perhaps no greater resemblance is discernible, than what might be inferred to exist between that language and the English, from a cursory glance at a few words, in which there happens to be a similarity of form or sound. For example :