336 TRAVELS IN 
agree either as to Its origin, the motives that 
led to its invention, or the nations that prac- 
tife It. Kolben, who never agrees with any 
other author, and often not very well with 
himfelf, reprefents It as a religious ceremony, 
a general and facred law with all the Hotten- 
tots indifcriminately. 
According to him, a prieft Is charged with 
the performance. No one Is remembered 
ever to have violated It ; and woe to him 
•* who fhould endeavour to fhun the ceremony, 
*' as he would thereby certainly forfeit his life!'* 
** The prejudices that prevail with refpedt to 
this duty are even fuch," he adds, " that a 
" woman would not fubmit to the embraces of 
** a man who had not undergone the opera- 
" tion. The girls, when they marry, are very 
" rigorous In exading proof of it; and as their 
" natural modefty does not allow them to fa- 
" tlsfy themfelves, this office is left to the ma- 
Irons of the family." 
Eveiy word of what I have juft recited from 
Kolben is fabulous. Yet if we were to believe 
him, he has often been prefent at the opera- 
tion ; which, he tells us, commonly eonfifts In 
the extradion of the left tefticle ^ and he even 
defcribes 
