ija TRAVELS IN 
merely for ornament ; and that the dud 
and the dirt mixing with their greafy oint- 
ment, and the fweat of their bodies, ad- 
here to the Ikin, and continually cor- 
rode it, &c." — ^and when Doftor Spaf- 
mann afterwards confefles that he never faw 
thefe favages wipe themfelves, or clean their 
Ikin — I find his manner of reafoning very 
weak, and his logic equally falfe: for if I 
fhould, in my turn, atteft that I never faw 
cow dung ufed by the Hottentots as an or- 
nament ^ that I never obferved their fkin 
corroded by fweat, ointments, and filth — this 
negative afiertion would neither perfuade any 
one, nor elucidate the queftion. 
It cannot be denied that all thefe favages, 
without exception, men, women, and chil- 
dren, are excellent fwimmers, and perhaps 
the befl divers in the world. What conclu- 
fion ought we to draw from what I have re* 
lated refpedling the women, whom I fur- 
prifed while bathing and diving like fifhes ; 
but that praftice, which they ufe feveral 
times a day, necefl!arily leads them to a fpe- 
cies of cleanlinefs, which leaves little power 
to ointments, or even to duft, to fpoil and 
corrode the fkin ? 
The 
