SO that they can turn them under or over the shoulder, and 

 suckle their infants on their backs. This practice, and that 

 of long-continued suckling, probably tend to increase the 

 elongation. 



In speaking of the Shangallas, Bruce says that "after a 

 few days, when the child has gathered strength, the mother 

 carries it in the same cloth upon her back, and gives it suck 

 with her breast, which she throws over her shoulder ; this 

 part being of such a length, as in some to reach almost to 

 the knees */' 



Captain TucKEvf noticed the "pendent flaccidity of 

 bosom" which belongs to the African women, and which is 

 thought ornamental by the girls of the Zaire, or rather pro- 

 moted by them as a token of womanhood J." 



Dr. SoMERViLLE § says that the breasts of the Hottentot 

 women, at the time of puberty, " become long, round, and 

 firm ; the nipple scarcely projecting from the areola, which 

 is more extensive than in other females. Soon after this 

 period, and particularly during utero-gestation, the nipples 

 increase, and do not again entirely shrink. After one or two 

 births, the breasts are flaccid, wrinkled, and pendulous, 

 hanging down sometimes to the groins, like bags suspended 

 from the neck." 



When the Hottentot Venus was stripped naked, " the 

 breasts, which she used to raise and confine by her dress, 

 shewed their large pendent masses, terminated by black 

 areolae of more than four inches in breadth, and marked by 

 radiated wrinkles Ij." 



Mr. Barrow, in speaking of the Namaaqua Hotten- 

 tots, says that " the breasts are disgustingly large and 

 pendent: the usual way of giving suck, w^hen the child is 



* Travels to the source of the Nile; 2d ed. v. iv. p. 35. 



+ Expedition to explore, &c. pp. 18, 124. 



•^ '* Au Senegal les jeunes filles font leurs efforts pour falre tomber leur 

 gorge afin qu'on les croye femmes, et qu'on les respecte d'avantage." Lami- 

 RAL, VJfrique, p. 45. 



^ Medico-Chirurgical Transactions^ s. vii. p, 157. 



j] CuviEU, in 3Icmoires du Museum d' Hist. Nat. t. ill. p. 265. 



