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A manuscript containing a 'Translation of Dr Hahn's Damara-German Dictionary Presented to his Excellency Sir Bartle Frere... by the Translator Major Erskine... 19th January 1880'. Karl Hugo Hahn was a Baltic German missionary and linguist who worked in South Africa and South-West Africa for most of his life. This translation was undertaken whilst Erskine was Resident Magistrate in Walvis Bay, Damaraland (Namibia). Damara is one of the Khoisan languages of Southern Africa.

The manuscript is handwritten with many alterations. It is bound in a card and leather cover which shows considerable wear. One section of the manuscript has become detached from the spine.

An English translation of "Entwurf einer Grammatik der Herero Sprache", the work by Karl Hugo Hahn, that was supposed to be undertaken with the linguist Wilhelm Bleek. As this was not possible, due to circumstances, Hahn delivered his own version of the book to Riga in 1854. It is the first grammar of the Herero language spoken by the Herero people in Southern Africa.

The manuscript of 208 pages is heavily corrected and the translator is not identified. There is a note on a torn piece of paper which states "Presented ... Sir Bartle Frere K.G.C.B., C.S.I. by the Translator, Cape Town, January 19th 1880.