200 Annals of the Soutli African Museuni. 



another physical character, known under the term " longinymph," 

 and of which I can find no indication in the representations of the 

 aurignacian figurines of Brassempouy or Grimaldi, in the " Venus 

 impudique " of Laugerie Basse, or others. (See Fig. 211 of 

 PL XXVIII.)- 



But it cannot be said that this enormous, although variable 

 elongation of the "labia minora" is restricted altogether to the 

 Bush- Hottentot race; and the stories one hears of the " tablier- 

 egyptien " seem to point to the great similarity of the latter to the 

 " tablier hottentot." 



Kolben, in his account of this peculiarity of the Hottentot woman, 

 quotes Thevenot to prove that it is found also among the Negro and 

 Egyptian women. 



Frederick Cuvier, in his " Histoire des Mammiferes," expresses 

 himself as follows in his account of the once-famous " Venus 

 hottentote " : " It is known that the development of the nymphse is 

 very variable, and that Negro and Abyssinian women are so much 

 incommodated by it that it is found necessary to remove these 

 excrescences by the use of the knife or by cauterisation. All the 

 young girls have to undergo the operation. The Portuguese Jesuits 

 who, in the sixteenth century, converted to Catholicism the King of 

 Abyssinia and part of his subjects, deemed themselves compelled to 

 proscribe the practice, which they considered to be a survival of the 

 former paganism of the nation. The result was that Catholic 

 maidens could find no lovers or husbands. 



" The Propaganda College sent a surgeon to verify the allegations 

 of the missionaries, and on his report and advice the return to 

 ancient custom was authorised by Papal decision." 



It is very difficult to obtain reliable information as to the presence 

 or absence of these appendages among the Xosa, Basuto, Zulu, or 

 other tribes of Kaffirs ; but I am assured in the most explicit manner 

 that in the Transvaal, among the Ba-Klangwe — one of the various 

 Thonga clans living on the East Coast — not only are the women 

 longinymph, but that an intomhi, or maid, not possessing these 

 appendages would be repudiated as wife, and the lobola or purchase- 

 money returned. At the time of the initiation rites the maidens, 



* I am now satisded that this growth is not artificial, but develops gradually with 

 age. Nor is the steatopygia developed during or after pregnancy. The appendages 

 of Fig. 211 are those of a woman who never bore children, and the steatopygia is 

 much more developed in her than in Fig. 208. The longinymph character seems, 

 however, to be sometimes lacking, even where steatopygia prevails. . . . Among the 

 Masarwa women who are also longinymph (we have two casts in the collection) 

 the steatopygia is greatly reduced, if even much noticeable. 



