’775- farm, and their yearly wages, befides their victuals and tobacco, were faid to confift of a ewe or two with lamb, or a heifer with calf, or elfe the value of them in money. They are accuftomed, however, chiefly to take cattle for their wages; but when they have got a little before-hand in the world, they go to houfe-keeping, and are too much at their eafe to undertake any kind of fervice whatfoéver. This, perhaps, is the bell; opportunity I can take to give a foméwhat more accurate defcription of this race of men; namely, the original inhabitants of the fouthernmoft part of Africa, who are known by the name of Hottentots. With regard to their perfons, they are as tall as moil: Europeans; and as for their being in general more flender, this proceeds from their being more Hinted and curtailed in their food, and likewife from their not ufing themfelves to hard labour. But that they have fmall hands and feet compared with the other parts of their bodies, has been remarked by no one before, and may, perhaps, be lookedt upon as a charadteriftic mark of this nation. The root of the nofe is moftly very low, by which' means the diftance of the eyes from each other is greater than in Europeans. In like manner, the- tip of the nofe is pretty flat. The iris is icarcely ever-of a light colour,- but has generally a dark brown caft, fometimes approaching tp black. Tfleir fkin is of a yellowiih brown hue, which fome- trhing refembles that of an European who has the jaundice in a high degree; at the lame time, however, this colour is not in the leaft obfervable in the whites of the eyeg. One does not find fuch thick lips among the Hottentots as among their neighbours the Negroes, the y Cafres, Caffres, and the Mozambìquès. ' In fine, their mouths are A’775- of a middling fize, and almoft always furnifhed with a fet O-yvJ of the fineft teeth that can be ieen ; and taken together with the reft of their features, as well as their lhape, carriage, and every motion ; in fhort, their tout enfemble indicates health and delight, or at leaft an air of fans fouci. This carelefs mien, however, difcovers marks at the fame time both of alacrity and refolution; qualities which the Hottentots, in fadt, can ihow upon occafion. The head would appear to be covered with a black, though not very clofe, frizzled kind o f wool, if the natural harfhnefs of it did not ihow, that it was hair, if poffible, more woolly than that of the negroes. If in other refpedts there fhould, by great chance, be obferved any traces of a beard, or of hair in any other parts of the body, fuch as are feen on the Europeans, they are, however, very trifling, and’ generally o f the fame kind as that on the head. Notwithftanding the refpedt I bear to thè more delicate part of my readers, the notoriety o f the fadt prevents me from pafling over in this place thofe parts of the body, which our more fcrupulous, but lefs natural manners forbid me to defcribe any other ways than by the means of circumlocution, Latin terms, or other uncouth, and to moft readers, unintelligible denominations and expedients. But thofe who affedt this kind of referve muft pardon me* if I cannot wrap up matters with the nicety their modefty requires ; as my duty obliges me to fhow how much the world has been milled, and the Hottentot nation been mifre- prefented ; inafmuch as the Hottentot women have been de- fcribed, and believed to be, in refpedt to their fexual parts, monfters by nature ; and that the men were made fuch by a bar
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