When Addressed With Any Degree Of Scorn,
They Reply, "We Are Bachuana, Or Equals - We Are Not Inferior
To Any
Of our nation," in exactly the same sense as Irishmen or Scotchmen,
in the same circumstances, would reply, "We are
Britons,"
or "We are Englishmen." Most other tribes are known by the terms
applied to them by strangers only, as the Caffres, Hottentots, and Bushmen.
The Bechuanas alone use the term to themselves as a generic one
for the whole nation. They have managed, also, to give a comprehensive name
to the whites, viz., Makoa, though they can not explain the derivation of it
any more than of their own. It seems to mean "handsome",
from the manner in which they use it to indicate beauty;
but there is a word so very like it meaning "infirm", or "weak",
that Burchell's conjecture is probably the right one.
"The different Hottentot tribes were known by names terminating in `kua',
which means `man', and the Bechuanas simply added the prefix Ma,
denoting a nation." They themselves were first known as Briquas,
or "goat-men". The language of the Bechuanas is termed Sichuana;
that of the whites (or Makoa) is called Sekoa.
The Makololo, or Basuto, have carried their powers of generalization
still farther, and arranged the other parts of the same great family
of South Africans into three divisions: 1st. The Matebele, or Makonkobi -
the Caffre family living on the eastern side of the country;
2d. The Bakoni, or Basuto; and, 3d. The Bakalahari, or Bechuanas,
living in the central parts, which includes all those tribes
living in or adjacent to the great Kalahari Desert.
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