Note 1 — Chapter I

I am not aware whether anyone has previously remarked that the Kabyles click. In a paper published by the Society of Arts, March 4, 1881, on the Languages of Africa, by Robert N. Cust, I was amused to learn that clicking is common to many languages. Speaking of the Hottentots, Mr. Cust says: ‘The great feature of the language is the existence of four clicks, formed by a different position of the tongue; the dental click is almost identical with the sound of indignation, not unfrequently uttered by Europeans; the lateral click is the sound with which horses are stimulated to action; the guttural click is not unlike the popping of a champagne cork; and the palatal click is compared to the cracking of a whip.’ He says that the Bushman, in addition to the four clicks of the Hottentot language, has a fifth, sixth, and sometimes a seventh and eighth. According to Bleek and Lepsius, two authorities, Hottentot is, curiously, entirely distinct from other languages spoken by black races, and is connected with the Hamitic languages of white races of North Africa.