236 TRAVELS IN 
posed Nature to have formed them, they may at least have 
the advantage of serving as a protection against violence 
from the other sex. 
Nature, in the whole formation of this pigmy race, seems 
to have made it disgusting ; though the ingenuity of a P'rench 
traveller has exculpated Nature on this point, in assigning 
the above-mentioned conformation as the effect of art. The 
testinionj^ of the people themselves, who have no other idea 
than that of the whole human race being so formed, is alone 
sufficient to contradict such a supposition ; but many other 
proofs might be adduced to shew that the assertion is with- 
out the least foundation in truth. Numbers of Bosjesmans^ 
women are now in the colony, who, being taken from their 
mothers when infants, have been brought up by the farmers, 
and who, from the day of their captivity, have never had any 
intercourse whatsoever with their countrymen, nor know, ex- 
cept from report, to what tribe or nation they belong ; yet 
all these have the same conformation of the parts naturally, 
and without any forced means. The story of their append- 
ing pieces of stone in order to draw down the interior labia, 
however absurd, is still prevalent in Bruyntjes Hoogte, 
where the author above alluded to received it. It was here 
that he spent a great part of his time with his Narina ; for at 
that period a tribe of Ghonaquas resided on a plain bordering 
on the Great-Fish river. The visit of this gentleman is still 
very well remembered there, though he takes care to suppress 
any mention of the country being inhabited by colonists, 
which, he supposed, would have diminished the interest of 
his narrative. It may be observed that the people of Bruynt- 
1 
