SOUTHERN AFRICA. 157 
The perfon of a Hottentot while young is by no means void 
of fymmetry. They are clean-limbed, well-proportioned, and 
ere£t. Their joints, hands, and feet are remarkably fmall. No 
protuberance of mufcle to indicate ftrength ; but a body deli- 
cately formed as that of a woman marks the inadive and effe- 
minate mind of a Hottentot. The face is in general extremely 
ugly ; but this differs very materially in different families, par- 
ticularly in the nofe, fome of which are remarkably flat and 
others confiderably raifed. The color of the eye is a deep 
chefnut : they are very long and narrow, removed to a great 
diftance from each other ; and the eyelids at the extremity next 
the nofe, inftead of forming an angle, as in Europeans, are 
rounded into each other exadly like thofe of the Chinefe, to 
whom indeed in many other points they bear a phyfical refem- 
blance that is fufficiently ftriking. The cheek-bones are high 
and prominent, and with the narrow-pointed chin form nearly 
a triangle. Their teeth are beautifully white. The color of 
the fkin is that of a yellowifh brown or a faded leaf, but very 
different from the fickly hue of a perfon in the jaundice, which 
it has been defcribed to refemble. The hair is of a very fmgu- 
lar nature : it does not cover the whole furface of the fcalp, but 
grows in fmall tufts at certain diftances from each other, and, 
when kept fhort, has the appearance and feel of a hard fhoe- 
brufh, with this difference, that it is curled and twifled into fmall 
round lumps about the fize of a marrowfat-pea. When fuffered 
to grow, it hangs in the neck in hard twifted taifels like fringe. 
Some of the women when young, and previous to child- 
bearing, might ferve as models of perfedion in the human 
2 figure. 
