BOSJESMANS. 



769 



Eosjcs- 

 mans. 



able, every step being accompanied with a quivering 

 and tremulous modon, as if two masses of jelly were 

 attached behind." It is a woman of exactly this de- 

 scription, that has been for some time exhibiting in 

 London under the name of the African or Hottentot 

 Venus. 



But though the general figure of the Bosjesmans is 

 remarkably distorted, yet their limbs are well turned 

 and proportioned, and their activity is truly astonish- 

 ing. They leap from rock to rock with the velocity of 

 the antelope, and horsemen cannot overtake them on 

 rough ground, or along the sides of mountains. In 

 order to give them additional speed, they push the 

 testicles to the upper part of the root of the pesis, 

 where they remain as firmly and securely as if it had 

 been their natural position. 



The Eosjesman women possess another peculiarity 

 of a very singular nature. The nymphae are in all of 

 them elongated, and in some of them, examined by Mr 

 Barrow, the elongation exceeds five inches, though in 

 others is said to be much longer. These projecting 

 labia collapse and hang down, and appear, at first 

 sight, to be a masculine organ. Their colour is livid 

 blue inclining to red, not unlike the excrescence on 

 the beak of a turkey. This deformity is said by 

 some travellers to be produced artificially, by sus- 

 pending pieces of stone from the internal labia ; but 

 there are numerous instances of its being possessed 

 by Bosjesman women, who have been taken from 

 their mothers when infants, and brought up with 

 the Dutch farmers. This elongation of the nym- 

 phae is found in all Hottentots, seldom exceeding 

 three inches, and appearing only like a projecting 

 orifice, or elliptical tube an inch long. In the chil- 

 dren of a European and a Hottentot this deformity 

 ceases to appear. 



Though the Bosjesmans are completely Hottentots, 

 yet, in the bent and energy of their minds, they dif- 

 fer widely from those .who live in the colony. Live- 

 ly, cheerful, and active, they hate to be idle, and are 

 always employed in some active occupation or amuse- 

 ment. During the day they are generally confined 

 to their huts, Test they should be surprised by the 

 Dutch colonists; and they often dance by moon-light 

 from the setting to the rising of the sun. They hail 

 the approach of the first thunder-storm, at the end of 

 winter, as the harbinger of summer, and, animated 

 with joy, they tear in pieces their skin coverings, and 

 dance for several nights in succession. 



There are few savage tribes whose physical condi- 

 tion is more unfavourable to this natural cheerfulness 

 of mind, than that of the Bosjesmans. They neither 

 breed cattle, nor cultivate the ground, and they have 

 few vegetable productions that can be used as food. 

 The bulbs of the iris, and a few gramineous roots of a 

 bitter taste, which are found by scratching the sur- 

 face of the plains, are the only vegetables which they 

 can obtain. The larva: of ants, and those of locusts, 

 are the animal productions on whichjhey subsist. 

 They exhibit great ingenuity in taking them, but all 

 their dexterity is often insufficient to ensure success. 



At some particular seasons, these precarious sour- 

 ces of subsistence completely fail them, and they 

 are compelled, by the strongest principle of their na- 



VOL. HI. PART IV. 



ture, to undertake a hazardous expedition into the 

 colony for plunder; and in these excursions they ex- 

 hibit a ferocity of character which does not naturally 

 belong to them, but which has been created and in- 

 flamed by the barbarous treatment which they have 

 received from the Dutch. " Should they seize a 

 Hottentot," says Mr Barrow, " guarding his mas- 

 ter's cattle, not contented with putting him to imme- 

 diate death, they torture him by every means of cru- 

 elty that their invention can frame ; as drawing 

 out his bowels, tearing off his nails, scalping, and 

 other acts equally savage. Even the poor animals 

 they steal are treated in a most barbarous and un- 

 feeling manner : driven up the steep sides of moun- 

 tains, they remain there without any food or water till 

 they are either killed for use, or drop for want of the 

 means of supporting nature. 



When a horde is surrounded by the farmers, and 

 little chance is perceived by them of effecting an es- 

 cape, they will fight it out most furiously so long as 

 a man shall be left alive. It frequently happens on 

 such occasions, that a party will volunteer the for- 

 lorn hope, by throwing themselves in the midst of 

 the colonists, in order to create confusion, and to give 

 to their countrymen, concealed among the rocks or-in 

 the long grass, at the expence of their own lives, an 

 opportunity of exercising more effectually their mor- 

 tal weapons upon their enemies, and at the same time 

 to facilitate the escape of their wives a d children. 



Their plundering expeditions are conducted not 

 without system. If in carrying off their booty they 

 should chance to be pursued, they always divide ; 

 one party to drive away the cattle, while the other 

 continues to harass the pursuers ; and when the pea- 

 santry prove too many for them, they stab and maim, 

 with poisoned weapons, the whole herd. On all such 

 plundering expeditions, they carry, in addition to 

 their bows and arrows, lances that resemble the Kaf- 

 fer's hassagai, but of a much smaller size, and al- 

 ways dipt in poison. Their bows are remarkably 

 small ; and, in the hands of any one but of a Bosjes- 

 man, would be entirely useless. From their earliest 

 infancy they accustom themselves to the use of the 

 bow : all the little boys who came to us at the 

 Kraal, carried their bows and small quivers of ar- 

 rows. A complete quiver contains about 70 or 80, 

 made like those of the Hottentots ; and, in addition' 

 to these, a few small brushes to lay on the poison ; 

 pieces of iron, red ochre, leg bones of ostriches cut 

 in lengths and rounded, and two little sticks of hard 

 wood to produce fire : This is done by placing one 

 horizontally on a piece of withered grass, and whirl- 

 ing the other vertically between the hands, with the 

 point acting in a hollow place, made in the surface of 

 the former. In a few seconds of time, the velocity 

 and friction set the grass in a blaze." 



When the Bosjesmans succeed in capturing a herd 

 of cattle, they are slain in such numbers, that vul- 

 tures are attracted by the putrefying mass which sur- 

 rounds their kraals ; and these birds of prey are 

 thus frequently the means of pointing out to the 

 colonists the haunts of the plunderers. 



The Bosjesmans have a singular remedy for diseases 

 of every kind. From the belief that the disease is 

 5d 



Bosjes- 

 mans. 



