Strange Customs or the Hottentots. 245 
With fuch force and exaftnefs as repeatedly to hit a dollar at 
the didance of a hundred paces. As a defence againil thefe 
free-booters, the other Indians train up bulls, fvhich they 
place round their towns in the night, and which, upon the 
approach of either man or bead, will alTemble and oppOfe 
them, till they hear the voice of their mailers encouraging 
them to fight, or calling them off, which they obey with 
the fame docility as a dog. 
Some nations have the art of melting and preparing copper, 
which is found among them, probably native ; and of this 
they make broad plates, which they wear as ornaments upon 
their foreheads. Some of them alfo know how to harden bits 
of iron, which they procure from the Dutch, and form into 
knives, fo as to give them a temper fuperior to that of any 
they can buy. 
The Chiefs, many of whom are pofleffors of very nume- 
rous herds of cattle, are generally clad in the fkins of lions, 
tygers, or zebras, to which they add fringes, and other or- 
naments in a very good talle. Both fexes frequently anoint 
the body with greafe, but never ufe any that is rancid or foe- 
tid, if frelh can be had. Mutton fuet and butter are generally 
ufed for this purpofe ; butter is preferred, which they make 
by fhaking the milk in a bag made of the Ikin of feme bead. 
We were told that the pried certainly gives the nuptial be- 
nediction by fprinkling the bride and bridegroom with his 
urine. But the Dutch univerfally declared that the women 
never wrapped the entrails of fheep round their legs, as they 
have been laid to do, and afterwards make them part of their 
food. Semicadration was alfo abfolutely denied to be gene- 
ral ; but it was acknowledged that fome among the particular 
nation which knew how to melt copper had fuffered that ope- 
ration, who were faid to be the bed warriors, and particu- 
larly to excel in the art of throwing dones. 
We were very dedrous to detejmine the great quedion 
among natural hidorians,* whether the women of this country 
have or have not that defhy flap or apron which has been cal- 
led the Sinus pudoris, and what we learnt I fhall relate. Jv^a- 
ny of the Dutch and Malays, who faid they had received fa- 
vours from Hottentots women, pofitively denied its exidence; 
but a phyfician of the place declared that he had cured many 
hundred of venereal complaints, and never faw one without 
two defhy, or rather fkinny appendages, proceeding from the 
upper part of the Labia , in appearance fomewhat refembling 
the teats of a cow, but flat; they hung down, he faid, before 
the Pudendum, and were in different fubjeits of different 
lengths, in fome not more than half an inch, in others three 
or four inches : thefe he imagined .to be what fome writers 
have exaggerated into a flap, or apron, hanging down from 
X 3 the 
