The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-12-17
TWO AFRICAN RACES,
NAMED GARlEPINE FAMILY
AND BANTU FAMILY.
characteristics of Both - The Yellow
People are Akin to North Asia and
q Their Daughters Arc the Milkmaids-
Z Proofs of Their Language.

- - :
Speaking of South African native
races and guided by comparative phil
ology we find that there are only two
distinct families of people in the whole
country, says the Rev. John Mackenzie
In Good Words. There are very many
subdivisions or clans, but only two dis
tlnct races. ; These have been named
Dy comparative philologists the Carrie
pine family and the Bantu family. The
Garleplne are yellow, light-complex-
Toned people, with oblique eyes, strong
~ resembling Chinese or Mongohans
In all matters Of personal appearance
except the hair, which merely dots the
mead like bushes in a barren country,
ana is curly. The old tribe names are
Welln1gh dlsused now in public returns
IN the colony.
On the mothers side these colored
people are chiefly Gariepine, but they
probably know no language now except
Dutch and English. This is certainly
true OF the young people. Found by
tne nrst Europeans in possession of the
southwest portion Of the continent,
tney were pastoral people and loved
the banks of rivers for the focks and
nerds. Like some of the tribes of
north Asia (whom they otherwise re-
semble physically, these yellow South
Africans made their huts with mats
which they spread over slender bent
poles. When as graziers they wished
to move their herds they folded up
their mats, collected and tied up the
slender poles of their huts, secured all
on the backs of pack oxen and pro-
ceeded to their next grazing grounds,
much in the same way as Tartars and
Mongolians are doing today.
Beyond the woolly hair which these
two families of Africans have in COM
mon, they are in all other respects
widely different from one another. In
common with Europeans, the yellow
people speak varieties of "sufhx" Ian
guage; while in common with the is
landers OF the South seas the Bantu
or dark people speak dialects of a
prefix" language. The yellow people
are akin to north Asia and to Europe
not only as speaking sufix languages,
but also in some of their ancient Gus
toms. There is, for instance, the in
teresting fact that among Asiaties as
We'll as Europeans, and from the earli-
est times, the daughter" has been the
"milkmaid'' of the family, as indeed
the derivation of our word daughter
itself conveys to us.
The ancient custom is the same
among"the Gariepine people in South
Africa. have seen the girls Of those
yellow people go forward Of an evening
to meet the homecoming cows. and,
deity throwing a rein or cord over
their horns, lead them quietly to the
neighboring tree OF pole and proceed
to milk them. Now in the same neigh
borhood, in village of the Bantu peo-
pie, no woman might enter the kraal
or cattle pen, or mingle with the cat
tie; it was forbidden" according to
their old customs; in short; it was ''un-
canny.
Again, it is well known to Chinese
scholars that there are tones" in Chi
nese-that is, that the height or low
ness of the tone in which a word is
will decide what is the mean
ing of the word. For instance, I am
informed that in Chinese a certain
word, in the first tone, means to fly,
in the second tone to subsist, in the
third tone to swim and in the fourth
tone to issue. How necessary to pitch
ones words Alright in China! But.
strange to say, it is equally necessary
in South Africa, if one is speaking the
old Hottentot or Koranna language.
Thus in the latter language DR.. Bleek
tells us that a, certain, word, if pro-
nounced in loud key, means hand
kerchief; the same word, three notes
down, means the spot, and four notes
lower still it stands for the adjective
dark. Beyond the lozenge- shaped ewes
Of the yellow people, their milkmaids.
their suffix language, it would seem
that the ''tones" Of their old language
the proof Of their former con-
aection with north Asia.