(H. Bt.)
HOSPITIUM(Gr.ξενία, προξενία), “hospitality,” among the Greeks and Romans, was of a twofold character: (1) private; (2) public.
(1) In Homeric times all strangers without exception were regarded as being under the protection of Zeus Xenios, the god of strangers and suppliants. It is doubtful whether, as is commonly assumed, they were considered asipso factoenemies; they were rather guests. Immediately on his arrival, the stranger was clothed and entertained, and no inquiry was made as to his name or antecedents until the duties of hospitality had been fulfilled. When the guest parted from his host he was often presented with gifts (ξένια), and sometimes a die (ἀστράγαλος) was broken between them. Each then took a part, a family connexion was established, and the broken die served as a symbol of recognition; thus the members of each family found in the other hosts and protectors in case of need. Violation of the duties of hospitality was likely to provoke the wrath of the gods; but it does not appear that anything beyond this religious sanction existed to guard the rights of a traveller. Similar customs seem to have existed among the Italian races. Amongst the Romans, private hospitality, which had existed from the earliest times, was more accurately and legally defined than amongst the Greeks, the tie between host and guest being almost as strong as that between patron and client. It was of the nature of a contract, entered into by mutual promise, the clasping of hands, and exchange of an agreement in writing (tabula hospitalis) or of a token (tesseraorsymbolum), and was rendered hereditary by the division of the tessera. The advantages thus obtained by the guest were, the right of hospitality when travelling and, above all, the protection of his host (representing him as his patron) in a court of law. The contract was sacred and inviolable, undertaken in the name of Jupiter Hospitalis, and could only be dissolved by a formal act.
(2) This private connexion developed into a custom according to which a state appointed one of the citizens of a foreign state as its representative (πρόξενος) to protect any of its citizens travelling or resident in his country. Sometimes an individual came forward voluntarily to perform these duties on behalf of another state (ἐθελοπρόξενος). The proxenus is generally compared to the modern consul or minister resident. His duties were to afford hospitality to strangers from the state whose proxenus he was, to introduce its ambassadors, to procure them admission to the assembly and seats in the theatre, and in general to look after the commercial and political interests of the state by which he had been appointed to his office. Many cases occur where such an office was hereditary; thus the family of Callias at Athens were proxeni of the Spartans. We find the office mentioned in a Corcyraean inscription dating probably from the 7th centuryB.C., and it continued to grow more important and frequent throughout Greek history. There is no proof that any direct emolument was ever attached to the office, while the expense and trouble entailed by it must often have been very great. Probably the honours which it brought with it were sufficient recompense. These consisted partly in the general respect and esteem paid to a proxenus, and partly in many more substantial honours conferred by special decree of the state whose representative he was, such as freedom from taxation and public burdens, the right of acquiring property in Attica, admission to the senate and popular assemblies, and perhaps even full citizenship. Public hospitium seems also to have existed among the Italian races; but the circumstances of their history prevented it from becoming so important as in Greece. Cases, however, occur of the establishment of public hospitality between two cities (Rome and Caere, Livy v. 50), and of towns entering into a position of clientship to some distinguished Roman, who then became patronus of such a town. Foreigners were frequently granted the right of public hospitality by the senate down to the end of the republic. The public hospes had a right to entertainment at the public expense, admission to sacrifices and games, the right of buying and selling on his own account, and of bringing an action at law without the intervention of a Roman patron.
A full bibliography of the subject will be found in the article in Daremberg and Saglio,Dictionnaire des antiquités, to which may be added R. von Jhering,Die Gastfreundschaft im Altertum(1887); see also Smith’sDictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities(3rd ed., 1890).
A full bibliography of the subject will be found in the article in Daremberg and Saglio,Dictionnaire des antiquités, to which may be added R. von Jhering,Die Gastfreundschaft im Altertum(1887); see also Smith’sDictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities(3rd ed., 1890).
HOSPODAR,a term of Slavonic origin, meaning “lord” (Russ.gospodar). It is a derivative ofgospod, “lord,” and is akin togosudar, which primarily means “sovereign,” and is now also used in Russia as a polite form of address, equivalent to “sir.” The pronunciation ashospodarof a word writtengospodarin all but one of the Slavonic languages which retain the Cyrillic alphabet is not, as is sometimes alleged, due to the influence of Little Russian, but to that of Church Slavonic. In both of thesegis frequently pronouncedh. In Little Russian the titlehospodaris specially applied to the master of a house or the head of a family. The rulers of Walachia and Moldavia were styledhospodarsfrom the 15th century to 1866. At the end of this period, as the title had been held by many vassals of Turkey, its retention was considered inconsistent with the growth of Rumanian independence. It was therefore discarded in favour ofdomn(dominus, “lord”), which continued to be the official princely title up to the proclamation of a Rumanian kingdom in 1881.
HOST.(1) (Through the O. Fr.osteorhoste, modernhôte, from Lat.hospes, a guest or host;hospesbeing probably from an originalhostipes, one who feeds a stranger or enemy, fromhostisand the root ofpascere), one who receives another into his house and provides him with lodging and entertainment, especially one who does this in return for payment. The word is thus transferred, in biology, to an animal or plant upon which a parasite lives. (2) (From Lat.hostis, a stranger or enemy; in Med. Latin a military expedition), a very large gathering of men, armed for war, an army, and so used generally of any multitude. In biblical use the word is applied to the company of angels in heaven; or to the sun, moon and stars, the “hosts of heaven,” and also to translate “Jehovah Sabaoth,” the Lord God of hosts, the lord of the armies of Israel or of the hosts of heaven. (3) (From Lat.hostia, a victim or sacrifice), the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist, more particularly the consecrated wafer used in the service of the mass in the Roman Church (seeEucharist).
HOSTAGE(through Fr.ostage, modernotage, from Late Lat.obsidaticum, the state of being an obses or hostage; Med. Lat.ostaticum,ostagium), a person handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war. The practice of taking hostages is very ancient, and has been used constantly in negotiations with conquered nations, and in cases such as surrenders, armistices and the like, where the two belligerents depended for its proper carrying out on each other’s good faith. The Romans were accustomed to take the sons of tributary princes and educate them at Rome, thus holding a security for the continued loyalty of the conquered nation and also instilling a possible future ruler with ideas of Roman civilization. This practice was also adopted in the early period of the British occupation of India, and by France in her relations with the Arab tribes in North Africa.1The position of a hostage was that of a prisoner of war,to be retained till the negotiations or treaty obligations were carried out, and liable to punishment (in ancient times), and even to death, in case of treachery or refusal to fulfil the promises made. The practice of taking hostages as security for the carrying out of a treaty between civilized states is now obsolete. The last occasion was at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, when two British peers, Henry Bowes Howard, 11th earl of Suffolk, and Charles, 9th Baron Cathcart, were sent to France as hostages for the restitution of Cape Breton to France.
In modern times the practice may be said to be confined to two occasions: (1) to secure the payment of enforced contributions or requisitions in an occupied territory and the obedience to regulations the occupying army may think fit to issue; (2) as a precautionary measure, to prevent illegitimate acts of war or violence by persons not members of the recognized military forces of the enemy. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the Germans took as hostages the prominent people or officials from towns or districts when making requisitions and also when foraging, and it was a general practice for the mayor andadjointof a town which failed to pay a fine imposed upon it to be seized as “hostages” and retained till the money was paid. The last case where “hostages” have been taken in modern warfare has been the subject of much discussion. In 1870 the Germans found it necessary to take special measures to put a stop to train-wrecking by parties in occupied territory not belonging to the recognized armed forces of the enemy, an illegitimate act of war. Prominent citizens were placed on the engine of the train “so that it might be understood that in every accident caused by the hostility of the inhabitants their compatriots will be the first to suffer.” The measure seems to have been effective. In 1900 during the Boer War, by a proclamation issued at Pretoria (June 19th), Lord Roberts adopted the plan for a similar reason, but shortly afterwards (July 29) it was abandoned (seeThe Times’ History of the War in S. Africa, iv. 402). The Germans also, between the surrender of a town and its final occupation, took “hostages” as security against outbreaks of violence by the inhabitants. Most writers on international law have regarded this method of preventing such acts of hostility as unjustifiable, on the ground that the persons taken as hostages are not the persons responsible for the act;2that, as by the usage of war hostages are to be treated strictly as prisoners of war, such an exposure to danger is transgressing the rights of a belligerent; and as useless, for the mere temporary removal of important citizens till the end of a war cannot be a deterrent unless their mere removal deprives the combatants of persons necessary to the continuance of the acts aimed at (see W. E. Hall,International Law, 1904, pp. 418, 475). On the other hand it has been urged (L. Oppenheim,International Law, 1905, vol. ii., “War and Neutrality,” pp. 271-273) that the acts, the prevention of which is aimed at, are not legitimate acts on the part of the armed forces of the enemy, but illegitimate acts by private persons, who, if caught, could be quite lawfully punished, and that a precautionary and preventive measure is more reasonable than “reprisals.” It may be noticed, however, that the hostages would suffer should the acts aimed at be performed by the authorized belligerent forces of the enemy.
In France, after the revolution of Prairial (June 18, 1799), the so-called “law of hostages” was passed, to meet the insurrection in La Vendée. Relatives ofémigréswere taken from disturbed districts and imprisoned, and were liable to execution at any attempt to escape. Sequestration of their property and deportation from France followed on the murder of a republican, four to every such murder, with heavy fines on the whole body of hostages. The law only resulted in an increase in the insurrection. Napoleon in 1796 had used similar measures to deal with the insurrection in Lombardy (Correspondance de Napoléon I.i. 323, 327, quoted in Hall,International Law).
In May 1871, at the close of the Paris Commune, took place the massacre of the so-called hostages. Strictly they were not “hostages,” for they had not been handed over or seized as security for the performance of any undertaking or as a preventive measure, but merely in retaliation for the death of their leaders E. V. Duval and Gustave Flourens. It was an act of maniacal despair, on the defeat at Mont Valérien on the 4th of April and the entry of the army into Paris on the 21st of May. Among the many victims who were shot in batches the most noticeable were Monsignor Darboy, archbishop of Paris, the Abbé Deguery, curé of the Madeleine, and the president of the Court of Cassation, Louis Bernard Bonjean.
1The sultan of Bagiemi, in Central Africa, in 1906 sent his nephew to undergo military training with a squadron of Spahis, and at the same time to serve as a guarantee of his fidelity to the French (Bulletin du Comité de l’Afrique française, Oct. 1906).2Article 50 of the Hague War Regulations lays it down that “no general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, can be inflicted on the population on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible.” The regulations, however, do not allude to the practice of taking hostage.
1The sultan of Bagiemi, in Central Africa, in 1906 sent his nephew to undergo military training with a squadron of Spahis, and at the same time to serve as a guarantee of his fidelity to the French (Bulletin du Comité de l’Afrique française, Oct. 1906).
2Article 50 of the Hague War Regulations lays it down that “no general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, can be inflicted on the population on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible.” The regulations, however, do not allude to the practice of taking hostage.
HOSTE, SIR WILLIAM(1780-1828), British naval captain, was the son of Dixon Hoste, rector of Godwick and Tittleshill in Norfolk. He was born on the 26th of August 1780 at Ingoldsthorpe, and entered the navy in April 1793, under the special care of Nelson, who had a lively affection for him. He became lieutenant in 1798, and was appointed commander of the “Mutine” brig after the battle of the Nile, at which he was present as lieutenant of the “Theseus.” In 1802 he was promoted post captain by Lord St Vincent. During all his active career, he was employed in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. From 1808 to 1814 he held the command of a detached force of frigates, and was engaged in operations against the French who held Dalmatia at the time, and in watching, or, when they came out, fighting, the ships of the squadron formed at Venice by Napoleon’s orders. The work was admirably done, and was also lucrative; and Hoste, although he occasionally complained that his exertions did not put much money in his pocket, made a fortune of at least £60,000 by the capture of Italian and Dalmatian merchant ships. He also made many successful attacks on the French military posts on shore. His most brilliant feat was performed on the 13th of March 1811. A Franco-Venetian squadron of six frigates and five small vessels, under the command of a French officer named Dubourdieu, assailed Hoste’s small force of four frigates near the island of Lissa. The French officer imitated Nelson’s attack at Trafalgar by sailing down on the English line from windward with his ships in two lines. But the rapid manœuvring and gunnery of Hoste’s squadron proved how little virtue there is in any formation in itself. Dubourdieu was killed, one of the French frigates was driven on shore, and two of the Venetians were taken. After the action, which attracted a great deal of attention, Hoste returned to England, but in 1812 he was back on his station, where he remained till the end of the war. During the peace he did not again go to sea, and he died on the 6th of December 1828. He married Lady Harriet Walpole in April 1817, and left three sons and three daughters.
In 1833 his widow published hisMemoirs and Letters. See also Marshall,Roy. Nav. Biog.vol. iii., and James,Naval History.
In 1833 his widow published hisMemoirs and Letters. See also Marshall,Roy. Nav. Biog.vol. iii., and James,Naval History.
HOSTEL,the old name for an inn (seeHospital, ad init.); also employed at Oxford and Cambridge to designate the lodgings which were in ancient times occupied by students of the university and to a certain extent regulated by the authorities. In some English public schools what is known as the “hostel” system provides for an organization of the lodging accommodation under separate masterships.
HOSTIUS,Roman epic poet, probably flourished in the 2nd centuryB.C.He was the author of aBellum Histricumin at least seven books, of which only a few fragments remain. The poem is probably intended to celebrate the victory gained in 129 by Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus (consul and himself an annalist) over the Illyrian Iapydes (Appian,Illyrica, 10; Livy,epit.59). Hostius is supposed by some to be the “doctus avus” alluded to in Propertius (iv. 20. 8), the real name of Propertius’s Cynthia, according to Apuleius (Apologiax.) and the scholiast on Juvenal (vi. 7), being Hostia (perhaps Roscia).
Fragments in E. Bährens,Fragmenta poetarum Romanorum(1884); A. Weichert,Poetarum Latinorum reliquiae(1830).
Fragments in E. Bährens,Fragmenta poetarum Romanorum(1884); A. Weichert,Poetarum Latinorum reliquiae(1830).
HOSUR,a town of British India, in the Salem district of Madras, 24 m. E. of Bangalore. Pop. (1901) 6695. It contains an old fort, frequently mentioned in the history of the Mysore wars, and a fine castellated mansion built by a former collector.Close by is the remount depôt, established in 1828, where Australian horses are acclimatized and trained for artillery and cavalry use in southern India.
HOTCH-POT,orHotch-potch(from Fr.hocher, to shake; used as early as 1292 as a law term, and from the 15th century in cookery for a sort of broth with many ingredients, and so used figuratively for any heterogeneous mixture), in English law, the name given to a rule of equity whereby a person, interested along with others in a common fund, and having already received something in the same interest, is required to surrender what has been so acquired into the common fund, on pain of being excluded from the distribution. “It seemeth,” says Littleton, “that this wordhotch-potis in English a pudding; for in a pudding is not commonly put one thing alone, but one thing with other things together.” The following is an old example given in Coke on Littleton: “If a man seized of 30 acres of land in fee hath issue only two daughters, and he gives with one of them 10 acres in marriage to the man that marries her, and dies seized of the other 20; now she that is thus married, to gain her share of the rest of the land, must put her part given in marriage into hotch-pot;i.e.she must refuse to take the profits thereof, and cause her land to be so mingled with the other that an equal division of the whole may be made between her and her sister, as if none had been given to her; and thus for her 10 acres she shall have 15, or otherwise the sister will have the 20.” In the common law this seems to have been the only instance in which the rule was applied, and the reason assigned for it is that, inasmuch as daughters succeeding to lands take together as coparceners and not by primogeniture, the policy of the law is that the land in such cases should be equally divided. The law of hotch-pot applies only to lands descending in fee-simple. The same principle is noticed by Blackstone as applying in the customs of York and London to personal property. It is also expressly enacted in the Statute of Distributions (§ 5) that no child of the intestate, except his heir-at-law, who shall have any estate in land by the settlement of the intestate, or who shall be advanced by the intestate in his lifetime by pecuniary portion equal to the distributive shares of the other children, shall participate with them in the surplus; but if the estate so given to such child by way of advancement be not equivalent to their shares, then such part of the surplus as will make it equal shall be allotted to him. It has been decided that this provision applies only to advancements byfathers, on the ground that the rule was founded on the custom of London, which never affected a widow’s personal estate. The heir-at-law is not required to bring any land which he has by descent or otherwise from the deceased into hotch-pot, but advancements made to him out of the personal property must be brought in. The same principle is to be found in thecollatio bonorumof the Roman law: emancipated children, in order to share the inheritance of their father with the children unemancipated, were required to bring their property into the common fund. It is also found in the law of Scotland.
HÔTEL-DE-VILLE,the town hall of every French municipality. The most ancient example still in perfect preservation is that at St-Antonin (Tarn-et-Garonne) dating from the middle of the 12th century. Other fine town halls are those of Compiègne, Orléans, Saumur, Beaugency and St Quentin. The Hôtel de Ville in Paris built in the 16th century was burnt by the Commune in 1871 and has since been rebuilt on an extended site, the central portion of the main front being a reproduction of the old design. There is only one town hall in a French town, those erected for the mayors of the different arrondissements in Paris being calledmairies.
HÔTEL-DIEU,the name given to the principal hospital in any French town. The Hôtel-Dieu in Paris was founded in the yearA.D.660, has been extended at various times, and was entirely rebuilt between 1868-1878. One of the most ancient in France is at Angers, dating from 1153. The Hôtel-Dieu of Beaune (Côte-d’Or), founded 1443, is one of the most interesting, as it retains the picturesque disposition of its courtyard, with covered galleries on two storeys and large dormer windows; and the great hall of the Hôtel-Dieu at Tonnerre, Yonne (1338), nearly 60 ft. wide and over 300 ft. long, is still preserved as part of the chief hospital of the town.
HOTHAM, SIR JOHN(d. 1645), English parliamentarian, belonged to a Yorkshire family, and fought on the continent of Europe during the early part of the Thirty Years’ War. In 1622 he was made a baronet, and he was member of parliament for Beverley in the five parliaments between 1625 and 1640, being sheriff of Yorkshire in 1635. In 1639 he was deprived by the king of his office of governor of Hull, and joining the parliamentary party refused to pay ship-money. In January 1642 Hotham was ordered by the parliament to seize Hull, where there was a large store of munitions of war; this was at once carried out by his son John. Hotham took command of Hull and in April 1642 refused to admit Charles I. to the town. Later he promised his prisoner, Lord Digby, that he would surrender it to the king, but when Charles appeared again he refused a second time and drove away the besiegers. Meanwhile the younger Hotham was taking an active part in the Civil War in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, but was soon at variance with other parliamentary leaders, especially with the Fairfaxes, and complaints about his conduct and that of his troops were made by Cromwell and by Colonel Hutchinson. Soon both the Hothams were corresponding with the earl of Newcastle, and the younger one was probably ready to betray Hull; these proceedings became known to the parliament, and in June 1643 father and son were captured and taken to London. After a long delay they were tried by court-martial, were found guilty and were sentenced to death. The younger Hotham was beheaded on the 2nd of January 1645, and in spite of efforts made by the House of Lords and the Presbyterians to save him, the elder suffered the same fate on the following day. Sir John Hotham had two other sons who were persons of some note: Charles Hotham (1615-c.1672), rector of Wigan, a Cambridge scholar and author ofAd philosophiam Teutonicam Manuductio(1648); and Durant Hotham (1617-1691), who wrote aLife of Jacob Boehme(1654).
HOTHAM, WILLIAM HOTHAM,1st Baron (1736-1813), British Admiral, son of Sir Beaumont Hotham (d. 1771), a lineal descendant of the above Sir John Hotham, was educated at Westminster School and at the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth. He entered the navy in 1751, and spent most of his midshipman’s time in American waters. In 1755 he became lieutenant in Sir Edward Hawke’s flagship the “St George,” and he soon received a small command, which led gradually to higher posts. In the “Syren” (20) he fought a sharp action with the French “Télémaque” of superior force, and in the “Fortune” sloop he carried, by boarding, a 26-gun privateer. For this service he was rewarded with a more powerful ship, and from 1757 onwards commanded various frigates. In 1759 his ship the “Melampe,” with H.M.S. “Southampton,” fought a spirited action with two hostile frigates of similar force, one of which became their prize. The “Melampe” was attached to Keppel’s squadron in 1761, but was in the main employed in detached duty and made many captures. In 1776, as a commodore, Hotham served in North American waters, and he had a great share in the brilliant action in the Cul de Sac of St Lucia (Dec. 15th, 1778). Here he continued till the spring of 1781, when he was sent home in charge of a large convoy of merchantmen. Off Scilly Hotham fell in with a powerful French squadron, against which he could effect nothing, and many of the merchantmen went to France as prizes. In 1782 Commodore Hotham was with Howe at the relief of Gibraltar, and at the time of the Spanish armament of 1790 he flew his flag as rear-admiral of the red. Some time later he was made vice-admiral. As Hood’s second-in-command in the Mediterranean he was engaged against the French Revolutionary navy, and when his chief retired to England the command devolved upon him. On March 12th, 1794 he fought an indecisive fleet action, in which the brunt of the fighting was borne by Captain Horatio Nelson, and some months later, now a full admiral, he again engaged, this time under conditions which might have permitted a decisive victory;of this affair Nelson wrote home that it was a “miserable action.” A little later he returned to England, and in 1797 he was made a peer of Ireland under the title of Baron Hotham of South Dalton, near Hull. He died in 1813. Hotham lacked the fiery energy and genius of a Nelson or a Jervis, but in subordinate positions he was a brave and capable officer.
As Hotham died unmarried his barony passed to his brother, Sir Beaumont Hotham (1737-1814), who became 2nd Baron Hotham in May 1813. Beaumont, who was a baron of the exchequer for thirty years, died on the 4th of March 1814, and was succeeded as 3rd baron by his grandson Beaumont Hotham (1794-1870), who was present at the battle of Waterloo, being afterwards a member of parliament for forty-eight years. He died unmarried in December 1870 and was succeeded by his nephew, Charles (1836-1872), and then by another nephew, John (1838-1907). In 1907 his cousin Frederick William (b. 1863) became the 6th baron.
Other distinguished members of this family were the 2nd baron’s son, Sir Henry Hotham (1777-1833), a vice-admiral, who saw a great deal of service during the Napoleonic wars; and Sir William Hotham (1772-1848), a nephew of the 1st baron, who served with Duncan in 1797 off Camperdown and elsewhere.
See Charnock,Biographia navalis, vi. 236.
See Charnock,Biographia navalis, vi. 236.
HOTHO, HEINRICH GUSTAV(1802-1873), German historian of art, was born at Berlin in 1802, and died in his native city on Christmas day 1873. During boyhood he was affected for two years with blindness consequent on an attack of measles. But recovering his sight he studied so hard as to take his degree at Berlin in 1826. A year of travel spent in visiting Paris, London and the Low Countries determined his vocation. He came home delighted with the treasures which he had seen, worked laboriously for a higher examination and passed as “docent” in aesthetics and art history. In 1829 he was made professor at the university of Berlin. In 1833 G. F. Waagen accepted him as assistant in the museum of the Prussian capital; and in 1858 he was promoted to the directorship of the print-room. During a long and busy life, in which his time was divided between literature and official duties, Hotho’s ambition had always been to master the history of the schools of Germany and the Netherlands. Accordingly what he published was generally confined to those countries. In 1842-1843 he gave to the world his account of German and Flemish painting. From 1853 to 1858 he revised and published anew a part of this work, which he called “The school of Hubert van Eyck, with his German precursors and contemporaries.” His attempt later on to write a history of Christian painting overtasked his strength, and remained unfinished. Hotho is important in the history of aesthetics as having developed Hegel’s theories; but he was deficient in knowledge of Italian painting.
HOTI-MARDAN,orMardan, a frontier cantonment of British India in the Peshawar district of the North-West Frontier Province, situated 15 m. N. of Nowshera. Pop. (1901) 3572. It is notable as the permanent headquarters of the famous corps of Guides, and also contains a cavalry brigade belonging to the 1st division of the northern army.
HOTMAN, FRANÇOIS(1524-1590), French publicist, eldest son of Pierre Hotman, was born on the 23rd of August 1524, at Paris, his family being of Silesian origin. His name is latinized by himself Hotomanus, by others Hotomannus and Hottomannus. His father, a zealous Catholic, and a counsellor of the parlement of Paris, destined him for the law, and sent him at the age of fifteen to the university of Orleans. He obtained his doctorate in three years, and became a pleader at Paris. The arts of the barrister were not to his taste; he turned to the study of jurisprudence and literature, and in 1546 was appointed lecturer in Roman Law at the university of Paris. The fortitude of Anne Dubourg under torture gained his adhesion to the cause of Reform. Giving up a career on which he had entered with high repute, he went in 1547 to Lyons, and thence to Geneva and to Lausanne, where, on the recommendation of Calvin, he was appointed professor of belles-lettres and history, and married Claudine Aubelin, a refugee from Orleans. On the invitation of the magistracy, he lectured at Strassburg on law in 1555, and became professor in 1556, superseding François Baudouin, who had been his colleague in Paris. His fame was such that overtures were made to him by the courts of Prussia and Hesse, and by Elizabeth of England. Twice he visited Germany, in 1556 accompanying Calvin to the Diet at Frankfort. He was entrusted with confidential missions from the Huguenot leaders to German potentates, carrying at one time credentials from Catherine de Medici. In 1560 he was one of the principal instigators of the conspiracy of Amboise; in September of that year he was with Antoine of Navarre at Nérac. In 1562 he attached himself to Condé. In 1564 he became professor of civil law at Valence, retrieving by his success the reputation of its university. In 1567 he succeeded Cujas in the chair of jurisprudence at Bourges. Five months later his house and library were wrecked by a Catholic mob; he fled by Orleans to Paris, where L’Hôpital made him historiographer to the king. As agent for the Huguenots, he was sent to Blois to negotiate the peace of 1568. He returned to Bourges, only to be again driven away by the outbreak of hostilities. At Sancerre, during its siege, he composed hisConsolatio(published in 1593). The peace of 1570 restored him to Bourges, whence a third time he fled, in consequence of the St Bartholomew massacre (1572). In 1573, after publishing hisFranco-Gallia, he left France for ever with his family, and became professor of Roman law at Geneva. On the approach of the duke of Savoy he removed to Basel in 1579. In 1580 he was appointed councillor of state to Henry of Navarre. The plague sent him in 1582 to Montbéliard; here he lost his wife. Returning to Geneva in 1584 he developed a kind of scientific turn, dabbling in alchemy and the research for the philosopher’s stone. In 1589 he made his final retirement to Basel, where he died on the 12th of February 1590, leaving two sons and four daughters; he was buried in the cathedral.
Hotman was a man of pure life, real piety (as hisConsolatioshows) and warm domestic virtues. His constant removals were inspired less by fear for himself than by care for his family, and by a temperament averse to the conditions of warfare, and a constitutional desire for peace. He did much for 16th-century jurisprudence, having a critical knowledge of Roman sources, and a fine Latin style. He broached the idea of a national code of French law. His works were very numerous, beginning with hisDe gradibus cognationis(1546), and including a treatise on the Eucharist (1566); a treatise (Anti-Tribonien, 1567) to show that French law could not be based on Justinian; a life of Coligny (1575); a polemic (Brutum fulmen, 1585) directed against a bull of Sixtus V., with many other works on law, history, politics and classical learning. His most important work, theFranco-Gallia(1573), was in advance of his age, and found favour neither with Catholics nor with Huguenots in its day; yet its vogue has been compared to that obtained later by Rousseau’sContrat Social. It presented an ideal of Protestant statesmanship, pleading for a representative government and an elective monarchy. It served the purpose of the Jesuits in their pamphlet war against Henry IV.
See Bayle, Dictionnaire; R. Dareste,Essai sur F. Hotman(1850); E. Grégoire, inNouvelle Biog. générale(1858).
See Bayle, Dictionnaire; R. Dareste,Essai sur F. Hotman(1850); E. Grégoire, inNouvelle Biog. générale(1858).
(A. Go.*)
HOT SPRINGS,a city of Arkansas, U.S.A., the county-seat of Garland county, at the easterly base of the Ozark mountains, 55 m. by rail W.S.W. of Little Rock. Pop. (1880) 3554; (1890) 8086; (1900) 9973, of whom 3102 were of negro descent and 561 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 14,434. The transient population numbers more than 100,000 annually. Hot Springs is served by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Little Rock & Hot Springs Western, and the St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern railways. The city lies partly in several mountain ravines and partly on a plateau. A creek, flowing through the valley but walled over, empties into the Ouachita river several miles from Hot Springs. The elevation of the surrounding hills is about 1200 ft. above the sea and 600 above the surrounding country. The scenery is beautiful, and there is a remarkable view from a steel tower observatory, 150 ft. high, on the top of Hot Springs mountain. The climate is delightful. Theaverage rainfall for the year is about 55 in. The springs are about forty-four in number, rising within an area of 3 acres on the slope of Hot Springs mountain. They are all included within a reservation held by the United States government, which (since 1903) exercises complete jurisdiction. The daily flow from the springs used is more than 800,000 gallons. Their temperature varies from 95° to 147° F. The waters are tasteless and inodorous, and contain calcium and magnesium bicarbonates, combinations of hydrogen and silicon, and of iodides, bromides and lithium. The national government maintains at Hot Springs an army and navy hospital, and a bath-house open gratuitously to indigent bathers. The business of Hot Springs consists mainly in caring for its visitors. Fruit-raising and small gardening characterize its environs. There are sulphur, lithia and other springs near the city, and an ostrich farm and an alligator farm in the suburbs. The finest of the novaculite rocks of central Arkansas are quarried near the city. The total value of its factory product in 1905 was $597,029, an increase of 213.1% since 1900.
The Springs were first used by the itinerant trappers. They were visited about 1800 by French hunters; and by members of the Lewis and Clark party in 1804 under instructions from President Thomas Jefferson. The permanent occupation of the town site dates only from 1828, though as early as 1807 a temporary settlement was made. In 1876 Hot Springs was incorporated as a town, and in 1879 it was chartered as a city. In 1832 Congress created a reservation, but the right of the government as against private claimants was definitely settled only in 1876, by a decision of the United States Supreme Court. The city was almost destroyed by fire in 1878, and was greatly improved in the rebuilding.
HOT SPRINGS,a hamlet and health-resort in Cedar Creek District, Bath county, Virginia, U.S.A., 25 m. by rail (a branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio railway) N. by E. of Covington and near the N.W. border of the state. It lies in a narrow valley, about 2200-2500 ft. above the sea, with rugged mountains on either side. Pop. of the district (1900) 1761; (1910) 2472. The mean summer temperature is only 69° F., and the summer nights are always cool. There is a good golf-course. Mineral waters (with magnesia, soda-lithia and alum) issue from several springs, some at a temperature as high as 106° F., and are used both for drinking and for bathing. The Warm Sulphur Springs (about 98° F.) are 5 m. N.; Healing Springs (85° F.) are 2½ m. S. of Hot Springs; and a few miles to the S.E., in Rockbridge county, are Rockbridge and Jordan Alum Springs.
HOTTENTOTS,an African people of western Cape Colony and the adjoining German territory, formerly widely spread throughout South Africa. The name is that given them by the early Dutch settlers at the Cape, being a Dutch word of an onomatopoeic kind to express stammering, in reference to the staccato pronunciation and clicks of the native language. Some early writers termed them Hodmadods or Hodmandods, and others Hot-nots and Ottentots—all corruptions of the same word. Their name for themselves was Khoi-Khoin (men of men), or Quae Quae, Kwekhena, t’Kuhkeub, the forms varying according to the several dialects. Early authorities believed them to be totally distinct from all other African races. The researches of Gustav Fritsch, Dr E. T. Hamy, F. Shrubsall and others have demonstrated, however, that they are not so much a distinct or independent variety of mankind as the result of a very old cross between two other varieties—the Bantu Negro (containing a distinct Hamitic element) and the Bushman. Hamy calls them simply “Bushman-Bantu half-breeds,” the Bushman element being seen in the leathery colour, compared to that of the “sere and yellow leaf”; in the remarkably prominent cheekbones and pointed chin, giving the face a peculiarly triangular shape; and lastly, in such highly specialized characters as thetablierand thesteatopygiaof the women. The cranial capacity is also nearly the same (1331 c.c. in the Bushman, 1365 c.c. in the Hottentot), and on these anatomical grounds Shrubsall concludes that the two are essentially one race, allowing for the undeniable strain of Bantu blood in the Hottentot. This view is further strengthened by the vast range in prehistoric times of the Hottentot variety, which, since the time of Martin H. K. Lichtenstein (1800-1804), was known to have comprised the whole of Africa south of the Zambezi, and has since been extended as far north as the equatorial lake region.
Fritsch divides the Hottentots into three bodies; the Cape Hottentots, from the Cape peninsula eastward to Kaffraria, the Koranna, chiefly on the right bank of the Orange river, but also found on the Harts and the Vaal, and the Namaqua in the western portion of South Africa. Of these all save the last mentioned have ceased to exist in any racial purity. The name which the Namaqua give to themselves isKhoi-Khoin, and this name must be distinguished from that of the Berg-Damara orHau-Khoin, since the latter are physically of Bantu origin though they have borrowed their speech from the Hottentots. While the Namaqua preserve the racial type and speech, the other so-called Hottentots are more or less Hottentot-Dutch or Hottentot-Bantu half-breeds, mainly of debased Dutch speech, although the Koranna still here and there speak a moribund Hottentot jargon flooded with Dutch and English words and expressions. When the Cape Colony became a part of the British empire the protection given to the natives arrested the process of extermination with which the Hottentots were then threatened, but it did not promote racial purity. Sir John Barrow, describing the condition of the Hottentots in 1798, estimated their number at about 15,000 souls. In 1806 the official return gave a Hottentot population of 9784 males and 10,642 females. In 1824 they had increased to 31,000. At the census of 1865 they numbered 81,589, but by this time the official classification “Hottentot” signified little more than a half-breed. The returns for 1904 showed a “Hottentot” population of 85,892. Very few of these were pure-bred Hottentots, while the official estimate of those in which Hottentot blood was strongly marked was 56,000.
Customs and Culture.—The primitive character of the race having greatly changed, the best information as to their original manners and customs is therefore to be found in the older writers. All these agree in describing the Hottentots as a gentle and friendly people. They held in contempt the man who could eat, drink or smoke alone. They were hospitable to strangers, even to the point of impoverishing themselves. Although mentally and physically indolent, they were active in the care of their cattle and, within certain limits, clever hunters. They were of a medium height, the females rather smaller than the men, slender but well proportioned, with small hands and feet. Their skin was of a leathery brown colour; their face oval, with prominent cheekbones; eyes dark brown or black and wide apart; nose broad and thick and flat at the root; chin pointed and mouth large, with thick turned-out lips. Their woolly hair grew in short thick curly tufts and the beard was very scanty. Amongst the women abnormal developments of fat were somewhat common; and cases occurred of extraordinary elongation of thelabia minoraand of thepraeputium clitoridis.1Their dress was a skin cloak (kaross) worn across the shoulders and a smaller one across the loins. They wore these cloaks all the year round, turning the hairy side inward in winter and outward in summer; they slept in them at night, and when they died they were buried in them. They had suspended around their necks little bags or pouches, containing their knives, their pipes and tobacco or dakka (Cannabis, or hemp), and an amulet of burnt wood. On their arms were rings of ivory. Sometimes they wore sandals and carried a jackal’s tail fastened on a stick, which served as handkerchief and fan. The women wore, besides the kaross, a little apron to which were hung their ornaments; and underneath this one or two fringed girdles; and a skin cap. Both sexes smeared themselves and even their dress with an ointment made of soot, butter or fat, and the powdered leaves of a shrub called by thembucchu(Diosma crenata).Their villages were usually on meadow grounds. They never entirely exhausted the grass but kept moving from one pasture to another. The huts were in circles, the area of which varied with the pastoral wealth of the community. In the centre of the huts a hole served for a fire-place, and at each side of this small excavations an inch or two deep were made in the ground in which both sexes, rolled up in their karosses, slept. A few earthen vessels, well-made bowls of wood, tortoise shells for spoons and dishes, calabashes, bamboos and skins for holding milk and butter, and mats of rushes interwoven with bast, were all their furniture. Their weapons were primarily bows and arrows, but they also possessed assegais,and knob-kerries. To women much respect was shown; the most sacred oath a Hottentot could take was to swear by his sister or mother; yet the females ate apart from the men and did all the work of the kraal with the exception of the tending of cattle and of the curing of the hides; the men, however, assisted in the erection of the framework of the huts. The usual food of the Hottentots was milk, the flesh of the buffalo, hippopotamus, antelope or other game, and edible roots and bulbs or wild fruits. On the coast fish captured by hooks and lines or spears were also eaten. Cows’ milk was commonly drunk by both sexes, but ewes’ milk only by the women, and when cows’ milk was scarce the women were obliged to keep to ewes’ milk or water. Milk was drunk fresh, and not allowed to turn sour as among the Bantu. Meats were eaten either roasted or boiled, but for the most part half raw, without salt, spices or bread. From some meats they carefully abstained, such as swine’s flesh. Hares and rabbits were forbidden to the men, but not to the women; the pure blood of beasts and the flesh of the mole were forbidden to the women, but not to the men.In occupation they were essentially cattle-breeders, and showed great skill in this pursuit, especially the Namaqua, who were capable of training the horns of their cattle so that they grew in spirals. Their social pleasures consisted in feasting, smoking, dancing and singing. Dances were held every first quarter of the moon and lasted all night, often for eight days in succession. Every signal event of life, and every change of abode and condition was celebrated with a feast. On the formation of a new kraal an arbour was constructed in the centre, and the women and children adorned and perfumed it with flowers and branches of trees and odoriferous herbs. The fattened ox was killed and cooked, and the men ate of it in the arbour, while the women sitting apart regaled themselves with broth. Upon such occasions the only intoxicant was tobacco or dakka.Circumcision, which is common to the Kaffir tribes, was unknown to the Hottentots, but when a youth entered upon manhood a ceremony was performed. One of the elders, using a knife of quartz, made incisions in the young man’s body, afterwards besprinkling them with urine. When a man killed his first elephant, hippopotamus or rhinoceros, similar marks were made on his body, and were regarded as insignia of honour. Finger mutilation was common, especially among women; this consisted in the removal of one or two joints of the little finger, and, sometimes, the first joint of the next. The reason for this is doubtful; it may have been a sign of mourning, or, especially in the case of children, it may have been regarded as magically protective. Marriages were by arrangement between the man and the girl’s parents, the consent of the girl herself being a matter of little consideration. If accepted, the suitor, accompanied by all his kindred, drove two or three fat oxen to the house of his bride. There her relations welcomed the visitors; the oxen were slain, and the bridal feast took place. The nuptial ceremony was concluded by an elder besprinkling the happy pair. Among the southern Hottentots these ancient usages have ceased; but they are continued among some tribes north of the Orange river. Polygamy was allowed: divorce was common. Family names were perpetuated in a peculiar manner—the sons took the family name of the mother, the daughters that of the father. The children were very respectful to their parents, by whom they were kindly and affectionately treated. Yet the aged father or mother was sometimes put in the bush and left to die. Namaqua says this was done by very poor people if they had no food for their parents. But even when there was food enough, aged persons, especially women, who were believed to be possessed of the evil spirit, were so treated.The Hottentots had few musical instruments. One named the “gorah” was formed by stretching a piece of the twisted entrails of a sheep from end to end of a thin hollow stick about 3 ft. in length in the manner of a bow and string. At one end there was a piece of quill fixed into the stick, to which the mouth of the player was applied. The “rommel-pot” was a kind of drum shaped like a bowl and containing water to keep the membrane moist. Reeds several feet long were used as flutes.Government and Laws.—The system of government was patriarchal. Each tribe had its hereditary “khu-khoi” or “gao-ao” or chief, and each kraal its captain. These met in council whenever any great matters had to be decided. The post was honorary, and the councillors were held in great reverence, and were installed in office with solemnities and feasting. In certain tribes the hind part of every bullock slaughtered was sent to the chief, and this he distributed among the males of the village. He also collected sufficient milk at the door of his hut to deal out amongst the poor. A part of every animal taken in hunting was exacted by the chief, even though it was in a state of putrefaction when brought to him. The captains, assisted by the men of each kraal, settled disputes regarding property and tried criminals. A murderer was beaten or stoned to death; but if one escaped and was at large for a whole year, he was allowed to go unpunished. Adultery seldom occurred; if any one found parties in the act and killed them he was no murderer, but on the contrary received praise for his deed. Women found offending were burnt. Theft, especially cattle-stealing, was severely punished. The thief was bound hand and foot, and left on the ground without food for a long time; then, if his offence was slight, he received some blows with a stick, but if the case was an aggravated one, he was severely beaten, and then unloosed and banished from the kraal. The family of even the worst criminal suffered nothing on his account in reputation, privilege or property. The duel was an institution. If any one was insulted he challenged his enemy by offering him a handful of earth. If the latter seized the hand and the dust fell to the ground, the challenge was accepted. If it was not accepted, the challenger threw the dust in his foe’s face. The duel took place by kicking, with clubs, or with the spear and shield.Religious Ideas.—The religious ideas of the Hottentots were very obscure. François le Vaillant says they had “neither priests nor temples, nor idols, nor ceremonials, nor any traces of the notion of a deity.” Other authorities state that they believed in a benevolent deity or “Great Captain,” whom they named Tik-guoa (Tsu-goab). There were other “captains” of less power, and a black captain named Gauna, the spirit of evil. The moon was a secondary divinity, supposed to govern the weather; and its appearance each month was hailed with dancing and singing.2George Schmidt, the first missionary to the Hottentots, says they also celebrated the annual appearance of the Pleiades above the eastern horizon. As soon as the constellation appeared, all the mothers ascended the nearest hill, carrying their babies, whom they taught to stretch their arms towards the friendly stars. Some of the tribes are said to worship a being whom they name Tusib, the rain god. An old Namaqua was once heard to say “The stars are the souls of the deceased,” and a Hottentot form of imprecation is “Thou happy one, may misfortune fall on thee from the star of my grandfather.”Such as it was, the Hottentot religion was largely ancestor-worship. Their deified hero was namedHeitsi-Eibib; and of him endless stories are told. The one most generally accepted is that he was a notable warrior of great physical strength, who once ruled the Khoi-Khoin, and that in a desperate struggle with one of his enemies, whom he finally overcame, he received a wound in the knee, from which event he got the name of “Wounded knee.” He had extraordinary powers during life, and after death he continued to be invoked as one who could still relieve and protect. According to the tradition preserved among the Namaqua, Heitsi-Eibib came from the east. Therefore they make the doors of their huts towards the east, and those who possess waggons and carts put their vehicles alongside the mat-house with the front turned towards the east. All the graves are in true west-easterly direction, so that the face of the deceased looks towards the east. The spirit of Heitsi-Eibib is supposed to exist in the old burial places, and, whenever a heathen Hottentot passes them, he throws stones on the spot as an offering, at the same time invoking the spirit’s blessing and protection. Johann Georg von Hahn asserts that there are many proofs which justify the conclusion that Heitsi-Eibib and Tsu-goab (the supreme being) were identical. Both were benevolent. Both were believed to have died and risen again. They killed the bad beings and restored peace on earth; they promised men immortality, understood the secrets of nature, and could foretell the future.3Various ceremonies were practised to ward off the evil influence of ghosts and spectres, and charms were freely employed. If a Khoi-Khoi went out hunting his wife kindled a fire, and assiduously watched by it to keep it alive; if the fire should be extinguished her husband would not be lucky. If she did not make a fire, she went to the water and kept on throwing it about on the ground, believing that thereby her husband would be successful in getting game. Charms, consisting of bones, burnt wood, and roots of particular shrubs cut into small pieces, were generally worn round the neck. There was also a belief that in every fountain there was a snake, and that as long as the snake remained there water would continue to flow, but that if the snake was killed or left the fountain it would cease. Offerings were sometimes made to the spirit of the fountain. In common with the Bushmen, the Hottentots venerated themantis fausta, a local variety of the insect known as “the praying mantis” (mantis religiosa). P. Kolbe saw sacrifices made in its honour when it appeared inside a kraal; to kill it was strictly forbidden. The Hottentots had great faith in witch-doctors, or sorcerers. When called to a sick-bed these ordered the patient to lie on his back, and then pinched, cuffed, and beat him all over until they expelled the illness. After that they produced a bone, small snake, frog or other object which they pretended to have extracted from the patient’s body. If the treatment did not succeed, the person was declared incurably bewitched. If death occurred, the corpse was interred on the day of decease. It was wrapt in skins, and placed in the ground in the same position it once occupied in the mother’s womb. Death was generally regarded in a very stoical manner.Language.—The existence of a fundamental connexion between the language of the Hottentot and that of the Bushman wassuggested by Dr Bleek and is supported by further evidence advanced by Bertin.The Hottentot language was regarded by the early travellers and colonists as an uncouth and barbarous tongue. The Portuguese called the native manner of speaking stammering; and the Dutch compared it to the “gobbling of a turkey-cock.” These phonetic characteristics arose from the common use of “clicks,”—sounds produced by applying the tongue to the teeth or to various parts of the gums or roof of the mouth, and suddenly jerking it back. Three-fourths of the syllabic elements of the language begin with these clicks, and combined with them are several hard and deep gutturals and nasal accompaniments. The difficulty a European has in acquiring an accurate pronunciation is not so much in producing the clicking sound singly as in following it immediately with another letter or syllable. The four recognized clicks, with the symbols generally adopted to denote them, are as follows: dental = |; palatal = ♯; lateral = ||; cerebral = !. According to Tindall, one of the best grammarians of the language, the dental click (similar to a sound of surprise or indignation) is produced by pressing the top of the tongue against the upper front teeth, and then suddenly and forcibly withdrawing it. The palatal click (like the crack of a whip) is produced by pressing the tongue with as flat a surface as possible against the termination of the palate at the gums, so that the top of the tongue touches the upper front teeth and the back of the tongue lies towards the palate, and then forcibly withdrawing the tongue. The cerebral click (compared to the popping of the cork of a bottle of champagne) is produced by curling up the tip of the tongue against the roof of the palate, and withdrawing it suddenly and forcibly. The lateral click (similar to the sound used in stimulating a horse to action) is articulated by covering with the tongue the whole of the palate and producing the sound as far back as possible; Europeans imitate it by placing the tongue against the side teeth and then withdrawing it. The easiest Hottentot clicks, the dental and cerebral, have been adopted by the Kaffirs; and it is a striking circumstance, in evidence of the past Hottentot influence upon the Kaffir languages, that the clicking decreases amongst these tribes almost in proportion to their distance from the former Hottentot domain.The language in its grammatical structure is beautiful and regular. Dr Bleek describes it as having the distinctive features of the suffix-pronominal order or higher form of languages, in which the pronouns are identical with and borrowed from the derivative suffixes of the nouns. The words are mostly monosyllables, always ending, with two exceptions, in a vowel or nasal sound. Among the consonants neitherl, norfnorvis found. There are twog’s,ghard andgguttural, and a deeper gutturalkh. Diphthongs abound. There is no article, but the definite or indefinite sense of a noun is determined by the gender. In the fullest known dialect (that spoken by the Namaqua) nouns are formed with eight different suffixes, which in nouns designating persons distinguish masc. sing. (-b), masc. plur. (-ku), masc. dual (kha), fem. sing, (-s), fem. plur. (-ti), com. sing. (-i), com. plur. (-u), com. dual (-ra). The adjective is either prefixed to a noun or referred to it by a suffixed pronoun. This grammatical division of the nouns according to gender led to the classification of the language as “sex-denoting,” thus suggesting its relationship, in original structure, with the Galla and others.There are four dialectical varieties of the language, each with well-marked characteristics: the Nama dialect, spoken by the Namaqua as well as by the Hau-Khoin or Hill Damara; the Kora dialect, spoken by the Koranna, or Koraqua, dwelling about the middle and upper part of the Orange, Vaal and Modder rivers; the Eastern dialect, spoken by the Gona or Gonaqua on the borders of Kaffirland; and the Cape dialect, now no longer spoken but preserved in the records of early voyagers and settlers. Of the Nama dialect there are three grammars: Wallmann’s (1857) and Hahn’s in German, and Tindall’s (1871) in English, the last being the best; and the four Gospels, with a large amount of missionary literature, have been published in it.The vocabulary is not limited merely to the expression of the rude conceptions that are characteristic of primitive races. It possesses such words askoi, human being;khoi-si, kindly or friendly;koi-si-b, philanthropist;khoi-si-s, humanity; ♯ei, to think; ♯ei-s, thought;amo, eternal;amo-si-b, eternity;tsa, to feel;tsa-b, feeling, sentiment;tsa-kha, to condole;ama, true;ama-b, the truth;anu, sacred;anu-si-b, holiness;esa, pretty;anu-xa, full of beauty.Literature and History.—Much traditionary literature—fables, myths and legends—existed amongst the Hottentots,—a fact first made known by Sir James Alexander, who in his journeyings through Great Namaqualand in 1835 jotted down the stories told him around the camp fire by his Hottentot followers. These Hottentot tales generally have much of the character of fables; some are in many points identical with northern nursery tales, and suggestive of European origin or of contact with the white man; but the majority bear evidence of being true native products. Bleek’sReynard the Fox in South Africa(1864) contains a translation of a legend written down from the lips of the Namaqua by the Rev. G. Krönlein, which is regarded as an excellent specimen of the national style. Another legend relating to the moon and the hare conveys the idea of an early conception of the hope of immortality. It is found in various versions, and, like many other stories, occurs in Bushman as well as in Hottentot mythology.The earliest accounts of the Hottentots occur in the narratives of Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India round the Cape in 1497-1498. In 1510 the Portuguese viceroy, Francisco d’Almeida, count of Abrantes, met his death in a dispute with the natives. Till the 17th century they were believed to be cannibals, but with the occupation of the Cape by the Dutch, in 1652, more accurate knowledge was obtained. A century of Dutch rule resulted in the Hottentots becoming a nation of slaves and in serious danger of extermination, and thus the arrival of the English in 1795 was welcomed by them. In 1828 an ordinance was passed declaring “all Hottentots and other free persons of colour” entitled to all and every right to which any other British subjects were entitled. (SeeCape Colony:History; andSouth Africa.)Bibliography.—A. de Quatrefages,Les Pygmées(1887); G. W. Stow,The Native Races of South Africa(1905); E. T. Hamy, “Les Races nègres,” inL’Anthropologie(1897), pp. 257 et sqq.; F. Shrubsall, “Crania of African Bush Races,” inJour. Anthrop. Inst.(November 1897); W. H. J. Bleek,A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages(1862); and “Die Hottentotten Stämme,” inPetermanns Mit.(1858), pp. 49 et sqq.; G. Fritsch,Die Eingebornen Süd-Afrikas(1872), and “Schilderungen der Hottentotten,” inGlobus(1875), pp. 374 et sqq.; G. Bertin, “The Bushmen and their Language,” inJour. R. Asiat. Soc.xviii., part i., and reprint; P. Kolbe or Kolben,Present State of the Cape of Good Hope; Sir John Barrow,Travels in South Africa(1801-1804).
Customs and Culture.—The primitive character of the race having greatly changed, the best information as to their original manners and customs is therefore to be found in the older writers. All these agree in describing the Hottentots as a gentle and friendly people. They held in contempt the man who could eat, drink or smoke alone. They were hospitable to strangers, even to the point of impoverishing themselves. Although mentally and physically indolent, they were active in the care of their cattle and, within certain limits, clever hunters. They were of a medium height, the females rather smaller than the men, slender but well proportioned, with small hands and feet. Their skin was of a leathery brown colour; their face oval, with prominent cheekbones; eyes dark brown or black and wide apart; nose broad and thick and flat at the root; chin pointed and mouth large, with thick turned-out lips. Their woolly hair grew in short thick curly tufts and the beard was very scanty. Amongst the women abnormal developments of fat were somewhat common; and cases occurred of extraordinary elongation of thelabia minoraand of thepraeputium clitoridis.1
Their dress was a skin cloak (kaross) worn across the shoulders and a smaller one across the loins. They wore these cloaks all the year round, turning the hairy side inward in winter and outward in summer; they slept in them at night, and when they died they were buried in them. They had suspended around their necks little bags or pouches, containing their knives, their pipes and tobacco or dakka (Cannabis, or hemp), and an amulet of burnt wood. On their arms were rings of ivory. Sometimes they wore sandals and carried a jackal’s tail fastened on a stick, which served as handkerchief and fan. The women wore, besides the kaross, a little apron to which were hung their ornaments; and underneath this one or two fringed girdles; and a skin cap. Both sexes smeared themselves and even their dress with an ointment made of soot, butter or fat, and the powdered leaves of a shrub called by thembucchu(Diosma crenata).
Their villages were usually on meadow grounds. They never entirely exhausted the grass but kept moving from one pasture to another. The huts were in circles, the area of which varied with the pastoral wealth of the community. In the centre of the huts a hole served for a fire-place, and at each side of this small excavations an inch or two deep were made in the ground in which both sexes, rolled up in their karosses, slept. A few earthen vessels, well-made bowls of wood, tortoise shells for spoons and dishes, calabashes, bamboos and skins for holding milk and butter, and mats of rushes interwoven with bast, were all their furniture. Their weapons were primarily bows and arrows, but they also possessed assegais,and knob-kerries. To women much respect was shown; the most sacred oath a Hottentot could take was to swear by his sister or mother; yet the females ate apart from the men and did all the work of the kraal with the exception of the tending of cattle and of the curing of the hides; the men, however, assisted in the erection of the framework of the huts. The usual food of the Hottentots was milk, the flesh of the buffalo, hippopotamus, antelope or other game, and edible roots and bulbs or wild fruits. On the coast fish captured by hooks and lines or spears were also eaten. Cows’ milk was commonly drunk by both sexes, but ewes’ milk only by the women, and when cows’ milk was scarce the women were obliged to keep to ewes’ milk or water. Milk was drunk fresh, and not allowed to turn sour as among the Bantu. Meats were eaten either roasted or boiled, but for the most part half raw, without salt, spices or bread. From some meats they carefully abstained, such as swine’s flesh. Hares and rabbits were forbidden to the men, but not to the women; the pure blood of beasts and the flesh of the mole were forbidden to the women, but not to the men.
In occupation they were essentially cattle-breeders, and showed great skill in this pursuit, especially the Namaqua, who were capable of training the horns of their cattle so that they grew in spirals. Their social pleasures consisted in feasting, smoking, dancing and singing. Dances were held every first quarter of the moon and lasted all night, often for eight days in succession. Every signal event of life, and every change of abode and condition was celebrated with a feast. On the formation of a new kraal an arbour was constructed in the centre, and the women and children adorned and perfumed it with flowers and branches of trees and odoriferous herbs. The fattened ox was killed and cooked, and the men ate of it in the arbour, while the women sitting apart regaled themselves with broth. Upon such occasions the only intoxicant was tobacco or dakka.
Circumcision, which is common to the Kaffir tribes, was unknown to the Hottentots, but when a youth entered upon manhood a ceremony was performed. One of the elders, using a knife of quartz, made incisions in the young man’s body, afterwards besprinkling them with urine. When a man killed his first elephant, hippopotamus or rhinoceros, similar marks were made on his body, and were regarded as insignia of honour. Finger mutilation was common, especially among women; this consisted in the removal of one or two joints of the little finger, and, sometimes, the first joint of the next. The reason for this is doubtful; it may have been a sign of mourning, or, especially in the case of children, it may have been regarded as magically protective. Marriages were by arrangement between the man and the girl’s parents, the consent of the girl herself being a matter of little consideration. If accepted, the suitor, accompanied by all his kindred, drove two or three fat oxen to the house of his bride. There her relations welcomed the visitors; the oxen were slain, and the bridal feast took place. The nuptial ceremony was concluded by an elder besprinkling the happy pair. Among the southern Hottentots these ancient usages have ceased; but they are continued among some tribes north of the Orange river. Polygamy was allowed: divorce was common. Family names were perpetuated in a peculiar manner—the sons took the family name of the mother, the daughters that of the father. The children were very respectful to their parents, by whom they were kindly and affectionately treated. Yet the aged father or mother was sometimes put in the bush and left to die. Namaqua says this was done by very poor people if they had no food for their parents. But even when there was food enough, aged persons, especially women, who were believed to be possessed of the evil spirit, were so treated.
The Hottentots had few musical instruments. One named the “gorah” was formed by stretching a piece of the twisted entrails of a sheep from end to end of a thin hollow stick about 3 ft. in length in the manner of a bow and string. At one end there was a piece of quill fixed into the stick, to which the mouth of the player was applied. The “rommel-pot” was a kind of drum shaped like a bowl and containing water to keep the membrane moist. Reeds several feet long were used as flutes.
Government and Laws.—The system of government was patriarchal. Each tribe had its hereditary “khu-khoi” or “gao-ao” or chief, and each kraal its captain. These met in council whenever any great matters had to be decided. The post was honorary, and the councillors were held in great reverence, and were installed in office with solemnities and feasting. In certain tribes the hind part of every bullock slaughtered was sent to the chief, and this he distributed among the males of the village. He also collected sufficient milk at the door of his hut to deal out amongst the poor. A part of every animal taken in hunting was exacted by the chief, even though it was in a state of putrefaction when brought to him. The captains, assisted by the men of each kraal, settled disputes regarding property and tried criminals. A murderer was beaten or stoned to death; but if one escaped and was at large for a whole year, he was allowed to go unpunished. Adultery seldom occurred; if any one found parties in the act and killed them he was no murderer, but on the contrary received praise for his deed. Women found offending were burnt. Theft, especially cattle-stealing, was severely punished. The thief was bound hand and foot, and left on the ground without food for a long time; then, if his offence was slight, he received some blows with a stick, but if the case was an aggravated one, he was severely beaten, and then unloosed and banished from the kraal. The family of even the worst criminal suffered nothing on his account in reputation, privilege or property. The duel was an institution. If any one was insulted he challenged his enemy by offering him a handful of earth. If the latter seized the hand and the dust fell to the ground, the challenge was accepted. If it was not accepted, the challenger threw the dust in his foe’s face. The duel took place by kicking, with clubs, or with the spear and shield.
Religious Ideas.—The religious ideas of the Hottentots were very obscure. François le Vaillant says they had “neither priests nor temples, nor idols, nor ceremonials, nor any traces of the notion of a deity.” Other authorities state that they believed in a benevolent deity or “Great Captain,” whom they named Tik-guoa (Tsu-goab). There were other “captains” of less power, and a black captain named Gauna, the spirit of evil. The moon was a secondary divinity, supposed to govern the weather; and its appearance each month was hailed with dancing and singing.2George Schmidt, the first missionary to the Hottentots, says they also celebrated the annual appearance of the Pleiades above the eastern horizon. As soon as the constellation appeared, all the mothers ascended the nearest hill, carrying their babies, whom they taught to stretch their arms towards the friendly stars. Some of the tribes are said to worship a being whom they name Tusib, the rain god. An old Namaqua was once heard to say “The stars are the souls of the deceased,” and a Hottentot form of imprecation is “Thou happy one, may misfortune fall on thee from the star of my grandfather.”
Such as it was, the Hottentot religion was largely ancestor-worship. Their deified hero was namedHeitsi-Eibib; and of him endless stories are told. The one most generally accepted is that he was a notable warrior of great physical strength, who once ruled the Khoi-Khoin, and that in a desperate struggle with one of his enemies, whom he finally overcame, he received a wound in the knee, from which event he got the name of “Wounded knee.” He had extraordinary powers during life, and after death he continued to be invoked as one who could still relieve and protect. According to the tradition preserved among the Namaqua, Heitsi-Eibib came from the east. Therefore they make the doors of their huts towards the east, and those who possess waggons and carts put their vehicles alongside the mat-house with the front turned towards the east. All the graves are in true west-easterly direction, so that the face of the deceased looks towards the east. The spirit of Heitsi-Eibib is supposed to exist in the old burial places, and, whenever a heathen Hottentot passes them, he throws stones on the spot as an offering, at the same time invoking the spirit’s blessing and protection. Johann Georg von Hahn asserts that there are many proofs which justify the conclusion that Heitsi-Eibib and Tsu-goab (the supreme being) were identical. Both were benevolent. Both were believed to have died and risen again. They killed the bad beings and restored peace on earth; they promised men immortality, understood the secrets of nature, and could foretell the future.3
Various ceremonies were practised to ward off the evil influence of ghosts and spectres, and charms were freely employed. If a Khoi-Khoi went out hunting his wife kindled a fire, and assiduously watched by it to keep it alive; if the fire should be extinguished her husband would not be lucky. If she did not make a fire, she went to the water and kept on throwing it about on the ground, believing that thereby her husband would be successful in getting game. Charms, consisting of bones, burnt wood, and roots of particular shrubs cut into small pieces, were generally worn round the neck. There was also a belief that in every fountain there was a snake, and that as long as the snake remained there water would continue to flow, but that if the snake was killed or left the fountain it would cease. Offerings were sometimes made to the spirit of the fountain. In common with the Bushmen, the Hottentots venerated themantis fausta, a local variety of the insect known as “the praying mantis” (mantis religiosa). P. Kolbe saw sacrifices made in its honour when it appeared inside a kraal; to kill it was strictly forbidden. The Hottentots had great faith in witch-doctors, or sorcerers. When called to a sick-bed these ordered the patient to lie on his back, and then pinched, cuffed, and beat him all over until they expelled the illness. After that they produced a bone, small snake, frog or other object which they pretended to have extracted from the patient’s body. If the treatment did not succeed, the person was declared incurably bewitched. If death occurred, the corpse was interred on the day of decease. It was wrapt in skins, and placed in the ground in the same position it once occupied in the mother’s womb. Death was generally regarded in a very stoical manner.
Language.—The existence of a fundamental connexion between the language of the Hottentot and that of the Bushman wassuggested by Dr Bleek and is supported by further evidence advanced by Bertin.
The Hottentot language was regarded by the early travellers and colonists as an uncouth and barbarous tongue. The Portuguese called the native manner of speaking stammering; and the Dutch compared it to the “gobbling of a turkey-cock.” These phonetic characteristics arose from the common use of “clicks,”—sounds produced by applying the tongue to the teeth or to various parts of the gums or roof of the mouth, and suddenly jerking it back. Three-fourths of the syllabic elements of the language begin with these clicks, and combined with them are several hard and deep gutturals and nasal accompaniments. The difficulty a European has in acquiring an accurate pronunciation is not so much in producing the clicking sound singly as in following it immediately with another letter or syllable. The four recognized clicks, with the symbols generally adopted to denote them, are as follows: dental = |; palatal = ♯; lateral = ||; cerebral = !. According to Tindall, one of the best grammarians of the language, the dental click (similar to a sound of surprise or indignation) is produced by pressing the top of the tongue against the upper front teeth, and then suddenly and forcibly withdrawing it. The palatal click (like the crack of a whip) is produced by pressing the tongue with as flat a surface as possible against the termination of the palate at the gums, so that the top of the tongue touches the upper front teeth and the back of the tongue lies towards the palate, and then forcibly withdrawing the tongue. The cerebral click (compared to the popping of the cork of a bottle of champagne) is produced by curling up the tip of the tongue against the roof of the palate, and withdrawing it suddenly and forcibly. The lateral click (similar to the sound used in stimulating a horse to action) is articulated by covering with the tongue the whole of the palate and producing the sound as far back as possible; Europeans imitate it by placing the tongue against the side teeth and then withdrawing it. The easiest Hottentot clicks, the dental and cerebral, have been adopted by the Kaffirs; and it is a striking circumstance, in evidence of the past Hottentot influence upon the Kaffir languages, that the clicking decreases amongst these tribes almost in proportion to their distance from the former Hottentot domain.
The language in its grammatical structure is beautiful and regular. Dr Bleek describes it as having the distinctive features of the suffix-pronominal order or higher form of languages, in which the pronouns are identical with and borrowed from the derivative suffixes of the nouns. The words are mostly monosyllables, always ending, with two exceptions, in a vowel or nasal sound. Among the consonants neitherl, norfnorvis found. There are twog’s,ghard andgguttural, and a deeper gutturalkh. Diphthongs abound. There is no article, but the definite or indefinite sense of a noun is determined by the gender. In the fullest known dialect (that spoken by the Namaqua) nouns are formed with eight different suffixes, which in nouns designating persons distinguish masc. sing. (-b), masc. plur. (-ku), masc. dual (kha), fem. sing, (-s), fem. plur. (-ti), com. sing. (-i), com. plur. (-u), com. dual (-ra). The adjective is either prefixed to a noun or referred to it by a suffixed pronoun. This grammatical division of the nouns according to gender led to the classification of the language as “sex-denoting,” thus suggesting its relationship, in original structure, with the Galla and others.
There are four dialectical varieties of the language, each with well-marked characteristics: the Nama dialect, spoken by the Namaqua as well as by the Hau-Khoin or Hill Damara; the Kora dialect, spoken by the Koranna, or Koraqua, dwelling about the middle and upper part of the Orange, Vaal and Modder rivers; the Eastern dialect, spoken by the Gona or Gonaqua on the borders of Kaffirland; and the Cape dialect, now no longer spoken but preserved in the records of early voyagers and settlers. Of the Nama dialect there are three grammars: Wallmann’s (1857) and Hahn’s in German, and Tindall’s (1871) in English, the last being the best; and the four Gospels, with a large amount of missionary literature, have been published in it.
The vocabulary is not limited merely to the expression of the rude conceptions that are characteristic of primitive races. It possesses such words askoi, human being;khoi-si, kindly or friendly;koi-si-b, philanthropist;khoi-si-s, humanity; ♯ei, to think; ♯ei-s, thought;amo, eternal;amo-si-b, eternity;tsa, to feel;tsa-b, feeling, sentiment;tsa-kha, to condole;ama, true;ama-b, the truth;anu, sacred;anu-si-b, holiness;esa, pretty;anu-xa, full of beauty.
Literature and History.—Much traditionary literature—fables, myths and legends—existed amongst the Hottentots,—a fact first made known by Sir James Alexander, who in his journeyings through Great Namaqualand in 1835 jotted down the stories told him around the camp fire by his Hottentot followers. These Hottentot tales generally have much of the character of fables; some are in many points identical with northern nursery tales, and suggestive of European origin or of contact with the white man; but the majority bear evidence of being true native products. Bleek’sReynard the Fox in South Africa(1864) contains a translation of a legend written down from the lips of the Namaqua by the Rev. G. Krönlein, which is regarded as an excellent specimen of the national style. Another legend relating to the moon and the hare conveys the idea of an early conception of the hope of immortality. It is found in various versions, and, like many other stories, occurs in Bushman as well as in Hottentot mythology.
The earliest accounts of the Hottentots occur in the narratives of Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India round the Cape in 1497-1498. In 1510 the Portuguese viceroy, Francisco d’Almeida, count of Abrantes, met his death in a dispute with the natives. Till the 17th century they were believed to be cannibals, but with the occupation of the Cape by the Dutch, in 1652, more accurate knowledge was obtained. A century of Dutch rule resulted in the Hottentots becoming a nation of slaves and in serious danger of extermination, and thus the arrival of the English in 1795 was welcomed by them. In 1828 an ordinance was passed declaring “all Hottentots and other free persons of colour” entitled to all and every right to which any other British subjects were entitled. (SeeCape Colony:History; andSouth Africa.)
Bibliography.—A. de Quatrefages,Les Pygmées(1887); G. W. Stow,The Native Races of South Africa(1905); E. T. Hamy, “Les Races nègres,” inL’Anthropologie(1897), pp. 257 et sqq.; F. Shrubsall, “Crania of African Bush Races,” inJour. Anthrop. Inst.(November 1897); W. H. J. Bleek,A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages(1862); and “Die Hottentotten Stämme,” inPetermanns Mit.(1858), pp. 49 et sqq.; G. Fritsch,Die Eingebornen Süd-Afrikas(1872), and “Schilderungen der Hottentotten,” inGlobus(1875), pp. 374 et sqq.; G. Bertin, “The Bushmen and their Language,” inJour. R. Asiat. Soc.xviii., part i., and reprint; P. Kolbe or Kolben,Present State of the Cape of Good Hope; Sir John Barrow,Travels in South Africa(1801-1804).