9S TRAVELS IN 
mifreprefented, or adopted without fufficlent^ 
examination. 
He has been vaguely told, that there are 
fome tribes among whom circumcifion is 
ufual, and that there are others who deprive 
their males of one tefticle. On this authority 
he affirms, that all the different Hottentot 
hordes are circumcifed ; and he defcribes, in 
the moft minute manner, and as an eye-wit- 
nefs, their manner of femi-caftration, though 
he never went beyond the boundaries of the 
Cape. 
It is natural that a father fhould difpofe of 
his children, and that he fliould himfelf 
perform the ceremony of their marriage, if 
the cuftom of the country admits of a cere- 
mony. With Kolben this fimple pradice is 
converted into a branch of religion, a facrifice, 
a fuperflitious dance, an objed: of forcery, &c. 
There is a high prieft, who, being entrufted 
with the bufmefs of circumcifion, of femi-caC- 
tration, and all the religious cuftoms, alfo gives 
his benedidlion to marriage ; and who, always 
inafter of an evacuation which unqueftionably 
is lefs fuhjed to our will than fovereign over 
it, 
