Hotel
a superior house of public entertainment for travelers or temporary sojourners; an inn. In France, the palace or town house of a nobleman, or person of rank or wealth. In another sense it is applied to buildings set apart for the reception of sick and infirm paupers; as, the "Hôtel-Dieu," "Hôtel des Invalides."
HÔTEL DE VILLE, in France, a city or town hall.
HOT SPRINGS, a city and countyseat of Garland co., Ark.; on Hot Springs creek, and on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, the Memphis, Dallas and Gulf, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroads; 55 miles S. W. of Little Rock. The name was acquired from the presence in and near the town HOUDON of thermal springs numbering over 70, that flow from the side of a hill and contain valuable medicinal qualities. These springs constitute a much frequented resort for invalids, the temperature of the water often reaching 150°. The city contains a United States Army and Navy Hospital, the Convent of Our Lady of the Springs, and a National bank, and a large farming trade; and mines of lead, silver, and gold near the city.
Pop. (1910) 14,434; (1920) 11,695.
HOTTENTOTS (hot'en-tots), the people who were in possession of the greater part of what is now Cape Colony when it was first visited and colonized by Europeans. The Hottentots were so called by the earliest Dutch settlers. It is popularly used to include the two distinct families distinguished by their native names: The Khoikhoi, the so-called Hottentot proper, and the San (Sa) or Bushmen. Again, among the Khoikhoi proper, the terms Hottentots, Hottentots proper, or Cape Hottentots are often applied to the remnants of the tribes who formerly lived around Cape Town; while the inhabitants of Griqualand West, of the South Kalihari, and of Great Namaqualand are distinguished by their tribal names as Griquas, Namaquas, Koras or Koramas, though they are as much Hottentots as the Khoikhoi of Cape Colony. The Bushmen are hunters; the Khoikhoi, nomads and sheep-farmers.
At the present time the so-called Hottentots proper may number about 17,000; and the half-breeds, mostly employed in the Cape Colony, may number probably 100,000. The majority of the former and almost all the latter class are now semi-civilized, and copy the habits, customs, dress, and vices of the European colonists. In general they are of medium height, not very robust in build, and have small hands and feet. Their skin is a pale brown color; their hair woolly, growing in curly knots; their cheekbones very prominent; and their chin pointed. The men were herdsmen, and not fond of war, though they liked to hunt. Their dwellings were huts of wood and mats, or tents, disposed in circles, and easily transportable. Their manner of living was entire patriarchal: each tribe or division of a tribe had its own chief. Their method of perpetuating family names was that the sons took their mother's family name, while the daughters took their father's.