362 VARIETIES OF FIGURE 



crolssance des nymphes qui quelquefois pend de six pouces 

 mais c'est une phenomene particulier, dont on ne peut pas, 

 faire une ret^le generale *." 



" Tlie well-known story, " says Mr. Barrow, " 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, is perfectly true with regard to the 

 Bosjcsmans. The horde we had met with possessed it to 

 a woman ; and, without the least offence to modesty, there 

 was no difficulty in satisfying curiosity. It appeared, on ex- 

 amination, to be an elongation of the nymphae or interior 

 labia, more or less extended according to the age or habit of 

 the person. In infancy it is just apparent, and in general 

 may be said to increase in length, with age. The longest 

 that was measured somewhat exceeded five inches, which 

 was in a subject of a middle age. Many were said to 

 have them much longer. These protruded nymphee, col- 

 lapsed and pendent, appear at first view to belong to the 

 other sex. 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 interior lips or nymphae in European subjects, 

 which are corrugated or plaited, lose entirely that part of 

 their character, when brought out in the Hottentot, and 

 become perfectly smooth. Though in the latter state they 

 may possess none of those stimulating qualities, for which 

 some anatomists have supposed nature to have formed them, 

 tliey have at least the advantage of serving as a protection 

 against violence from the other sex ; it seeming next to 

 impossible for a man to cohabit with one of these women 

 without her consent, or even assistance f." 



Mr. Barrow adds, that " the elongated nymphae are 

 found in all Hottentot women ; only they are shorter in 

 those of the colony, seldom exceeding three inches, and, in 



* Voyage dans les Indes Orient ales ^ t. ii, p. 93. 



+ Travels into the Interior of Southern Jfrica, v. i. {}. 21S — 9. 



