158 ' TRAVELS IN 
figure. Every joint and limb is rounded and well turned, and 
their whole body is without an angle or difproportionate pro- 
tuberance. Their breafts are round, firm, and diftant ; but the 
nipple is unufually large and furrounded by an areola that is 
much elevated above the general furface of the breaft. Their 
hands and feet are remarkably fmall and delicately turned ; and 
in their gait they are not altogether devoid of grace. Theii^ 
charms, however, are very fleeting. At an early period of life, 
and immediately after the firfl: child, their breafts begin to grow 
loofe and flaccid, and, as old age approaches, become diftended 
to an enormous fize ; the belly protrudes ; and the pofteriors, 
fwelling out to incredible dimenfions, give to the fpine a degree 
of curvature inwards that makes it appear as if the os coccygisy 
or bone at the lower extremity of the fpine, was elongated and 
bent outwards, which is not the cafe. The mafs that covers 
the pofteriors has been found to be pure fat. Some other ftrik- 
ing peculiarities in the conformation of Hottentot women will 
be noticed when fpeaking of the Bosjefmans, who feem to be 
the true aborigines of the country, unmixed with any other 
tribes of people. 
It does not appear that the Hottentots are fubjed to any par- 
ticular difeafes. Life, if not taken away by accident or vio- 
lence, is generally terminated by a gradual decay and exhaufted 
nature, which generally happens at an earlier period of exift- 
ence here than in moft countries of an equal temperature of 
climate. It is rare to fee a Hottentot with fixty years upon 
his head ; but it is alfo equally rare to fee a cripple or de- 
formed perfon among them. There are none who profefl^edly 
pradife the healing art ; every one is his own phyfician. The 
colonifts, 
