"Far more important to a student of South African history than information upon either the Bushmen or the Hottentots is knowledge of the people termed by us the Bantu, because the former are nearly extinct, while the latter to-day outnumber by more than threefold all the other inhabitants of the country put together, and are still increasing at a marvelous rate. The Bantu tribes of Africa south of the Zambesi vary so greatly in appearance, in speech, in customs, and in intellect, that it is evident they do not form one homogeneous race, still the manner of construction of the various dialects in use by them being the same, and one ruling tenet in the religion of them all being identical, they can be classed as a family group by themselves."