ORGANS OF GENERATION. 3G1 



pean only in colour, in the Kaffers, the Booshuanas, at 

 least not in a conspicuous degree, or in the Hottentots gene- 

 rally ; but it belongs to that particular tribe of Hottentots 

 who are called Bosjesmen, or Boschismen. 



This name, which is equivalent to Bushmen, was given 

 by the Dutch to a diminutive race, strongly resembling the 

 Hottentots in general formation. They are wild and fugi- 

 tive beings, frequently engaged in rapine and plunder, and 

 retiring for security into deserts and thickets 5 whence their 

 name seems to have been derived *. Perpetual warfare 

 subsisted between these Bushmen and the Dutch, who 

 hunted and destroyed them with as little ceremony as the 

 other wild game of the country. That they remained in the 

 most savage state, and were very rarely seen in the Dutch 

 colony, is easily understood from these circumstances. 



On the authority of Le VAiLLANxf, and of drawings 

 communicated to him by Sir Jos. Banks, Blumenbach J 

 describes the peculiarity to consist in an elongation of the 

 labia, and represents it as produced by artificial means. 

 More careful and accurate examinations, both in Africa and 

 Europe, have proved most clearly that it resides in the 

 nymphae, which acquire a length of some inches, and that 

 the formation is natural. 



Sonnerat had already represented the matter nearly cor- 

 rectly. " Le tablier fabuleux qu'on pr^te a leurs femmes, 

 et qu'on dit leur avoir ete donn^ par la nature, n'a point de 

 reality ; il est vrai qu'on apergoit dans certaines une ex- 

 might be drawn naked. On this occasion, the most remarkable peculiarity 

 of lier formation was not observed : she kept her ' tablier' carefully con- 

 cealed, cither between her thighs, or still more deeply 5 and it was not 

 known, till after her death, that she possessed it." Cuvier, Memoires du 

 Museum I p. 264 — 5. 



* Cuvier says they .were called Bushmen " parce qu'ils ont coutume de se 

 faire des esp^ces de nids dans des toufles de brousaillcs." Where lie heard 

 of these human nests I cannot conjecture. Mr. Barrow simply states " that 

 they are known in the colony by the name of Bosjesmans, or men of the 

 bushes, from the concealed manner in which they make their approaches to 

 kill and to plunder." Travels in South Africa^ v. i. p. 234. 



+ Voyege dans V Intcrieur d'Jfnque^ p. 371. 



X De G. H. Vai. Nat. sect. iii. ^ 68. 



