SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
the equator from the pole. The Hottentot young women had 
much the advantage, however, of the KafFers in point of figure. 
The latter were moftly of low ftature, very ftrong-limbed, and 
particularly mufcular in the leg ; but the good humor that con- 
ftantly beamed upon their countenances made ample amends for 
any defed: in their perfons. 
The men, on the contrary, were the fineft figures I ever 
beheld : they were tall, robuft, and mufcular ; their habits of 
life had induced a firmnefs of carriage, and an open, manly man- 
ner, which, added to the good nature that overfpread their fea- 
tures, fhewed them at once to be equally unconfcious of fear, 
fufpicion, and treachery. A young man about twenty, of fix 
feet ten inches high, was one of the fineft figures that perhaps 
was ever created. He was a perfect Hercules ; and a caft from 
his body would not have difgraced the pedeftal of that deity in 
the Farnefe palace. Many of them had indeed very much the 
appearance of bronze figures. Their Ikins, which were nearly 
black, and their fhort curling hair, were rubbed over with a 
folution of red ochre, and the tint it produced on the dark 
ground was very far from having any difagreeable efFed. Some 
few were covered with fl^in-cloaks, but the greater part were 
entirely naked. The women wore long cloaks that extended 
below the calf of the leg ; and their heads were covered with 
leather-caps ornamented with beads, with fhells, and with 
pieces of poliflied copper and iron, that were difpofed in a 
variety of forms j but the fafhion of the cap was nearly the 
fame in all. 
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