Folklore; Manners and customs; Mythology; Religion
connects Tsui Goab with the Red Dawn is far indeed from being cogent.
Tsui Goab is thought by the Hottentots themselves to be a dead man,
and it is admitted that among the Hottentots dead men are adored.
'Cairns are still objects of worship,'[190] and Tsui Goab lies beneath
several cairns. Again, soothsayers are believed in (p. 24), and Tsui
Goab is regarded as a deceased soothsayer. As early as 1655, a witness
quoted by Hahn saw women worshipping at one of the cairns of Heitsi
Eibib, another supposed ancestral being. Kolb, the old Dutch
traveller, found that the Hottentots, like the Bushmen, revered the
mantis insect. This creature they called Gaunab. They also had some
moon myths, practised adoration of the moon, and danced at dawn.
Thunberg (1792) saw the cairn-worship, and, on asking its meaning, was
told that a Hottentot lay buried there.[191] Thunberg also heard of
the worship of the mantis, or grey grasshopper. In 1803 Liechtenstein
noted the cairn-worship, and was told that a renowned Hottentot
doctor of old times rested under the cairn. Appleyard's account of
'the name God in Khoi Khoi, or Hottentot,' deserves quoting in full:--
Hottentot: Tsoei'koap.
Namaqua: Tsoei'koap.
Koranna: Tshu'koab, and the author adds: 'This is the word
from which the Kafirs have probably derived their u-Tixo, a
term which they have universally applied, like the
Hottentots, to designate the Divine Being, since the
introduction of Christianity. Its derivation is curious. It
consists of two words, which together mean the "wounded
knee." It is said to have been originally applied to a doctor
or sorcerer of considerable notoriety and skill amongst the
Hottentots or Namaquas some generations back, in consequence
of his having received some injury in his knee. Having been
held in high repute for extraordinary powers during life, he
appeared to be invoked even after death, as one who could
still relieve and protect; and hence, in process of time, he
became nearest in idea to their first conceptions of God.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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