* AFRICA. Ill 
man would be difgufted with the fight of a 
plateful of thofe fnails found on vuies, or of 
frogs, however well cooked — whilft a French- 
man can make a hearty meal on thefe viands, 
which are far from being delicate — does it 
follow that the difguft of a Batavian ought 
to be confidered as a religious abftinence en- 
joined by the confiftory ? 
Before I announce as aa eflential rite of 
the Hottentots the ceremony of cutting off a 
joint either of a finger or a toe, and before 
I afcribe to the fame motive their femi-caf- 
tration, it is reafonable to eftabllfh the truth 
of thefe two cuftoms. Kolben heard them 
mentioned in the fame manner as many other 
things, but he never procured certain infor- 
mation refpedting them. This he fufficiently 
proves, when he afcribes them to all the 
Hottentots indifcriminately ; which is equally 
falfe as the other afiertions of that author. 
Dr. Sparmann falls alfo into a very ftrange 
error^ when he maintains, in oppofition to 
Kolben, that femi-caftration is no where 
pra<9:ifed. Thefe two ceremonies are a£lu- 
ally pradifed among two hordes fituated to 
the north of the Cape, under the twenty- 
eighth degree of fouth latitude, viz. the 
CeiJJiquas 
