Folklore; Manners and customs; Mythology; Religion
So far Dr. Hahn has given us facts which entirely fit in with our theory
that an ancestor-worshipping people, believing in metamorphosis and
sorcery, adores a god who is supposed to be a deceased ancestral sorcerer
with the power of magic and metamorphosis. But now Dr. Hahn offers his
own explanation. According to the philological method, he will 'study
the names of the persons, until we arrive at the naked root and original
meanings of the words.' Starting then with Tsui Goab, whom all evidence
declares to be a dead lame conjurer and warrior, Dr. Hahn avers that
'Tsui Goab, originally Tsuni Goam, was the name by which the Red Men
called the Infinite.' As the Frenchman said of the derivation of jour
from _dies_, we may hint that the Infinite thus transformed into a lame
Hottentot 'bush-doctor' is diablement change en route. To a dead lame
sorcerer from the Infinite is a fall indeed. The process of the decline
is thus described. Tsui Goab is composed of two roots, tsu and goa. Goa
means 'to go on,' 'to come on.' In Khoi Khoi goa-b means 'the coming on
one,' the dawn, and goa-b also means 'the knee.' Dr. Hahn next writes
(making a logical leap of extraordinary width), 'it is now obvious that,
//goab in Tsui Goab cannot be translated with knee,'--why not?--'but we
have to adopt the other metaphorical meaning, the _approaching_ day, i.e.
the dawn.' Where is the necessity? In ordinary philology, we should
here demand a number of attested examples of goab, in the sense of dawn,
but in Khoi Khoi we cannot expect such evidence, as there are probably no
texts. Next, after arbitrarily deciding that all Khoi Khois
misunderstand their own tongue (for that is what the rendering here of
goab by 'dawn' comes to), Dr. Hahn examines tsu, in Tsui. Tsu means
'sore,' 'wounded,' 'painful,' as in 'wounded knee'--Tsui Goab. This does
not help Dr Hahn, for 'wounded dawn' means nothing. But he reflects that
a wound is red, tsu means wounded: therefore tsu means red, therefore
Tsui Goab is the Red Dawn. Q.E.D.
This kind of reasoning is obviously fallacious. Dr. Hahn's point could
only be made by bringing forward examples in which tsu is employed to
mean red in Khoi Khoi. Of this use of the word tsu he does not give one
single instance, though on this point his argument depends. His
etymology is not strengthened by the fact that Tsui Goab has once been
said to live in the red sky. A red house is not necessarily tenanted by
a red man. Still less is the theory supported by the hymn which says
Tsui Goab paints himself with red ochre. Most idols, from those of the
Samoyeds to the Greek images of Dionysus, are and have been daubed with
red. By such reasoning is Tsui Goab proved to be the Red Dawn, while his
gifts of prophecy (which he shares with all soothsayers) are accounted
for as attributes of dawn, of the Vedic Saranyu.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account