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to be able to walk, but to bend under his own weight, 
the parents exhibit him to the admiration of the horde ; 
who, from that period, conceive more or lefs efteem and 
confideration for the family, according as the monfter has 
acquired more or lefs rotundity. Such was the account 
given me by Klaas Barter; and, though it appeared to 
me altogether improbable, yet the narrator related fo 
many particulars of which he pretended to have been an 
e.ye-witnefs; he had fo little intereft in impofing upon 
me; and the human mind, in uncultivated and ignorant 
nations, appears fometimes capable of fuch fenfelefs cuf- 
toms and prejudices-; that, notwithftanding my reluctance, 
I could not avoid believing it. Soon, however, I was un¬ 
deceived. Wherever I alked any queftions on the fubjeCt, 
I faw that the people to whom I addreffed myfelf were 
ready to laugh in my face. Still, as it appeared rtrange to 
me, that a man fliould talk of what he had feen, when he 
had in reality feen nothing ; as it was portible that the 
fable might have fome foundation, without being true 
in all its particulars ; I was willing to convince inylelf 
what could have given rife to it; and every time I vifited 
a horde I took care, under different pretences, to examine, 
one after another, all the huts of the kraal, and to alk 
which was the eldeft child of the family : but I no-where 
faw any thing that indicated either this pretended coop, 
or this pretended cramming. It is probable that fuch a 
tale may have originated among the planters refiding on 
the Namero, and in the neighbourhood of the country of 
the Nitniquas ; that it was a pleafantry of fome wit of the 
place on the leannefs of thefe people, which indeed is 
extreme; and that Klaas Barter, the fon of a Hottentot 
and a planter, having had it inftilled into him in his in¬ 
fancy, at length, like other romancers, afferted that he 
had feen what he had only been told. 
“ In fize, the Greater Nimiquas are taller than the 
other Hottentot tribes. They appear even to exceed in 
height the Gonaquas, though perhaps they do not in 
reality. Their (lender bones, delicate air, thin fhape, and 
fmall legs, every-thing, in fliort, even to their cloaks, 
which reach from their (boulders to the ground, contri¬ 
buted to the illufion. On feeing the bodies of thefe men 
as (lender as the ftern of a tree, you would alntoft fuppofe 
them to have parted through the inftrument of a wire- 
drawer. Lefs deep in colour than the Caffres, they have, 
at the fame time, more pleafing features than the other 
Hottentots, becaufe their nofe is lefs flattened, and their 
cheeks lefs prominent. But their cold and unmeaning 
countenances, their phlegmatic and immoveable 'air, give 
them a particular character by which they are diftin- 
guirtied. But the women do not (hare this tranquil apa¬ 
thy. Gay,lively, fportive, and loving much to laugh, you 
would fuppofe them to be formed of different materials. 
It is eafy enough to conceive, that a man and wife may 
live peaceably together, notwithftanding fuch difference 
of difpofition; but it is not eafy to underftand or explain 
how fuch melancholy fathers can beget daughters fo gay, 
or fuch fprightly w-omen bear fons lb dull. 
“ The kroj's differs not at all in drape from the Hotten¬ 
tot cloak; only it is longer. Many of them ufe the (kins 
of the hyaena, the jackal, or the ifatis, when they are 
lucky enough to procure a fufficiency to make a krofs. 
They ornament them with glafs beads, and plates of cop¬ 
per, which they obtain from the Hottentots of the colony. 
I found among them a particular fort of thefe beads, con¬ 
fiding of little long tubes of different colours, and tranf- 
parent. Thefe being unknown at the Cape, I widied to 
know whence thefavages procured them. They informed 
me that they got them by barter with other neighbouring 
nations, who had them only at the fecond-hand ; and that 
they came originally from the blacks who dwelt on the 
coaft of the Indian fea, to the eaft of Africa, by whom 
they were fabricated. If the beads of which I am fpeak- 
ing were Hones or gems coloured by nature, it might be 
believed that the blacks of the weft, after having reduced 
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them to little pieces, might know how to (hape and per¬ 
forate them, as the favages of Guiana do with the Ama¬ 
zonian ftone. I have found coloured fubftances in feve- 
ral rocks on the weft of Africa, and there may be the fame 
on the eaft. But thefe in queftion are enamels; that is 
to fay, glafs made by fufion and formed by blowing. Now, 
as fuch an operation requires, not only for the melting, 
but alfo for the compoiition of colours, confiderable (kill, 
implements, chemical knowledge, &c. I think it may be 
affirmed,without any great raftinefs, that the negroes of 
the eaft were never mailers of fuch an art; and that the 
enamels they fell to their neighbours probably come 
from the Portuguefe colonies of Mofambique. I have in 
my cabinet one of thefe girdles of glafs beads; and I 
can affert that it is neither of French nor Dutch manu¬ 
facture. Befides the kind of decoration which I have 
juft defcribed, the Greater Nimiquas ufe another; that of 
daubing their hair with a thick layer of greafe, mingled 
with the powder of different odoriferous woods. Many 
of them tattoo their faces, arms, and even bodies; but 
the latter cuftom is not fo prevalent among them as 
among other people more to the north. 
“ As to religion, divine worship, priefts, temples, and 
the idea of an immortal foul, they are all non-entities to 
them. Of thefe fubjefts, like all the reft of the favages 
their neighbours, they have not the (lighted notion. 
Nature has told them fufliciently plain, not to do to ano¬ 
ther what they would not another (hould do to them; 
and their little affociations, which are a commencement 
of civilization, lead them in this relpeCl farther than many 
cultivated people, by enjoining them to do to others as 
they would be done by. 
“ After what I have faid of the phlegmatic temper of 
the Nimiquas, it will be fuppofed that they are by no 
means warlike-. Yet, like the furrounding nations, they 
have their affagays and poifoned arrows ; and, like them, 
can handle thefe arms udrh dexterity. They portefs alfo 
thofe war-oxen, fo formidable in battle, and fo favourable 
to the cowardice or inactivity of the combatants. They 
have even a peculiar implement of war which their neigh¬ 
bours have not: this is a large buckler, of the height 
of the perfon who bears it, behind which the Nimiqua can 
completely conceal himfelf. But, befides that his natural 
apathy prevents him from giving or taking offence, he is in 
reality pufillanimous and cowardly from the coldnefs of 
his difpofition. To utter only the name of Ilouzouana 
before him is fufRcient to make him tremble. This name 
is that of a neighbouring nation, born brave and warlike, 
and diftinguifhed from other African nations by peculiar 
features. 
“ Their mufical inftruments are the fame as thofe of 
the other Hottentots ; but their dancing is very different, 
and refembles the temper of the nation. If the coun¬ 
tenance have received from nature features that can 
exprefs our paftions, the body has alfo its attitudes and 
movements that paint our temper and feelings. > The 
dance of the Nimiqua is frigid like himfelf; and fo de¬ 
void of grace and hilarity, that, were it not for the ex¬ 
treme gaiety of the women, it might be called the dance 
of the dead. Thefe tortoifes, to whom dancing is a fa¬ 
tigue, (how little eagernefs for any thing but wagers, 
games of calculation and chance, and all the fedentary 
amulements which require patience and reflection, of 
which they are more capable than they are of motion.” 
Second Journey into the Interior of Africa. 
NIMIQUI'PAR, a town of New Mexico, in the pro¬ 
vince of Hiaqui: 156 miles eaft of Riochico. 
NIM'MER, f A thief, a pilferer.—Blank fchemes to 
difcover trimmers. Hudibras. 
NIM'MIZSCH, or Nimptsciien, a town of Saxony, 
in the circle of Leipfic: two miles north-north-eaft of 
Grimma. 
NIMRHAs'UM, in ancient geography, Kerche, a town 
of theTauric Cherfonefus, having, according to Strabo, 
1 a good 
