198 Annals of the South African Museum. 



Macartney, then Governor of the Cape, to obtain de visil information 

 as to this race, the depredations of which against the Colonists and 

 their flocks were a constant subject of complaint, did at last succeed, 

 in 1797, in coming across a clan of these people, and this is what he 

 writes about certain of their physical characters : — 



"Their bellies are uncommonly protuberant and their backs 

 hollow, but their limbs seem to be in general well turned and pro- 

 portioned. Their activity is incredibly great. . . . And as the means 

 of increasing their speed in the chase, or when pursued by an enemy, 

 the men have adopted a custom which was sufficiently remarkable — 

 of pushing the testicles to the upper part of the root of the penis, 

 where they seemed to remain as firmly fixed and as conveniently 

 placed as if nature had stationed them there. It is highly pro- 

 bable that such an operation, in order to be effectual, must be 

 performed at an early period of life. Some were said to have 

 one up and one down, which may have given rise to the Hotten- 

 tots being characterised, in the Systema Naturce of Linnaeus, as 

 Monorchides." 



" Curious as this custom seemed to be, it was less a subject of 

 remark than an extraordinary character that distinguished the other 

 sex from the women of most nations. The w^ell-known story of the 

 Hottentot women possessing an unusual appendage to those parts 

 that are seldom exposed to view, which belonged not to the sex in 

 general, ridiculous as it may appear, is perfectly true with regard to 

 the Bosjemans. The horde we met with possessed it in every subject, 

 whether young or old ; and, without the least offence to modesty, 

 there was no difficulty in satisfying our curiosity on this point. It 

 appeared on examination to be an elongation, or more correctly 

 speaking a protrusion of the nymphae or interior labia, which were 

 more or less extended according to the age or habit of the person. 

 That there is in this race of human beings a predisposition to this 

 anomalous formation of the parts was obvious from its evident 

 appearance in infants and from its length being in general propor- 

 tionate to the age of the female. The longest that was measured 

 somewhat exceeded five inches, and this w^as a subject of middle 

 age. Many were said to have them much longer. These protruded 

 nymphffi, collapsed and pendent, leave the spectator in doubt as to 

 what sex they belong to. Their colour is that of livid blue, inclining 

 to a reddish tint, not unlike the excrescence on the beak of a turkey, 

 which indeed may serve to convey a tolerably good idea of the whole 

 appearance both as to colour, shape, and size. . . . 



" The great curvature of the spine inwards and the remarkably 



