35^ TRAVELS IN 
ftroy this opinion ; but I cannot omit one 
-which muft inftantly occur to the mind, and 
which the reader no doubt has made as well 
as 1. Since the heat of the climate, an in- 
a£tive life, and the ufe of greafe, influence 
almoft in the fame degree all thofe people 
■who inhabit the fouthern extremity of Afri- 
ca, why fliould a few particular hordes only 
be fubjedl to this infirmity ? It Is well 
known at the Cape, and In the colonies, that 
nothing of the kind happens among the Hot- 
tentot women, whatever may be their con- 
duft, however they may live, and to what- 
ever dangers they may be expofed. But let 
us not rack our Imaginations with this An- 
gularity, which, as It Is uncommon, has no- 
thing extraordinary In It ; and let us not 
feek to explain, as a phenomenon, what is 
only the efFedl of fafliion and caprice. Yes, 
reader, this celebrated apron is only a fafhion, 
an affair of tafte, I will not fay depraved, 
for figns of modefty can never conftitute 
the eflence of it ; but original, extrava- 
gant, perhaps abfurd, and fuch, that the 
fight of it only is fufficient to banifh from 
the mind of the moft diffipated libertine 
every idea of amorous enjoyment, and de- 
ceiving. 
