198 SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



ago, and exhibited here under the name of the Hot- 

 tentot Venus. She was afterwards taken to Paris, 

 and died there in 1815, and as the Baron Cuvier 

 had the opportunity of examining her both before 

 and after her death, and has published the results in 

 the great work of his brother and M. Geoffrey St. 

 Hilaire on the Mammalia, we shall extract from 

 that work without pursuing the details there given. 



But before we enter upon the physical traits, 

 which as they distinguished the above-mentioned 

 individual may be well presumed to be proper to 

 the whole race, it may be useful to refer to their 

 moral condition as displayed in their appearance 

 and modes of life. 



In a state of nature these people are said to be 

 filthy beyond conception, having at all times a thick 

 coat of grease and dirt covering their meagre limbs 

 like a rind, which perfectly hides the skin except 

 in a few particular parts where heat and exudation 

 may have melted away this covering and exposed a 

 small part of their swarthy body to observation. 

 Their woolly hair, smeared and matted together with 

 grease and dirt, is tied in knots for convenience 

 which hanor round their face and head. Their 



O 



clothing consists in general, of a sheep or antelope's 

 skin, worn over the shoulders with the woolly side 

 inwards, and tied round the neck with a leather 

 thong: round the middle of the body they tie 

 another skin : and their feet are partly protected by 

 leathern sandals. They wear also a greasy leathern 

 cap, which, together with their necks and wrists 



