SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
281 
In the hajlaard it ceafes to appear ; a proof that a conneflion 
with different nations counteracts the predifpofition to fuch a 
conformation. 
It is not, however, to the fouthern angle of Africa alone that 
the fame predifpofition for the elongation of the nymphis is 
confined. The phyfical caufes that tend to the produ£lion of 
fo extraordinary an effe<ft operated in parts of Egypt, fituated 
under the fame and oppofite parallels of latitude as the Hotten- 
tot country. It was here, however, confidered as a difeafe, an 
appearance fo deformed and difgufting, that thofe who were 
troubled with it were glad to undergo the violent pain of the 
adual cautery in order to get rid of it. 
The great curvature of the fpine inwards, and extended 
pofteriors, are charadleriftic of the whole Hottentot race ; but 
in fome of the fmall Bosjefmans they are carried to a mod 
extravagant degree. If the letter S be confidered as one ex- 
preffion of the line of beauty to which degrees of approxima- 
tion are admiffible, thefe women are entitled to the firft rank 
in point of form. A fedlion of the body, from the breaft to 
the knee, forms really the fhape of the above letter. The pro- 
jedlion of the pofterior part of the body, in one fubjedl, mea- 
fured five inches and a half from a line touching the fpine. 
This protuberance confided of fat, and, when the woman 
walked, had the mofl ridiculous appearance imaginable, every 
ftep being accompanied with a quivering and tremulous mo- 
tion as if two maffes of jelly were attached behind. 
o o 
When 
