SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
157 
The perfon of a Hottentot while young is by no means void 
of fymmetry. They are clean-limbed, well-proportioned, and 
eredt. 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 inactive 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 exa£lly 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 fingu- 
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 (hoe- 
brufli, with this difference, that it is curled and twifted into fmall 
round lumps about the fize of a marrowfat-pea. When fuffered 
to grow, it hangs in the neck in hard twifted taffels like fringe. 
Some of the women when young, and previous to child- 
bearing, might ferve as models of perfedion in the human 
2 figure. 
