But though the general figure of the Bosjesmans is remarkably distorted, yet their limbs are well turned and proportioned, and their activity is truly astonish ing. They leap from rock to rock with the velocity of the antelope, and horsemen cannot overtake them on rough ground, or along the sides of mountains. In order to give them additional speed, they push the testicles to the upper part of the root of the penis, where they remain as firmly and securely as if it had been their natural position.
The Bosjesman women possess another peculiarity 'of a very singular nature. The nymphs' are in all of them elongated, and in some of them, examined by Mr Barrow, the elongation exceeds five inches, though in others is said to be much longer. These projecting labia collapse and hang down, and appear, at first Bight, to be a masculine organ. Their colour is livid blue inclining to red, not unlike the excrescence on the beak of a turkey. This deformity is said by some travellers to be produced artificially, by sus pending pieces of stone from the internal labia ; but there are numerous instances of its being possessed by Bosjesman women, who have been taken from their mothers when infants, and brought up with the Dutch farmers. This elongation of the nym phs' is found in all Hottentots, seldom exceeding three, inches, and only like a projecting orifice, or elliptical tube an inch long. In the chil dren of a European and a Hottentot this deformity ceases to appear.
Though the Bosjesmans are completely Hottentots yet, in the bent and energy of their minds, they dif widely from those .who live in the colony. Live ly, cheerful, and active, they hate to be idle, and,are alwiys employed in some active occupation or amuse ment. During the day they are generally confined to their huts, lest they should be surprised by the Dutch colonists; and they often dance by moon-light from the setting to the rising of the sun. They hail the approach of the first thunder-storm, at the end of winter, as the harbinger of summer, and, 'animated with joy, they tear in pieces their skin coverings, and dance for several nights in succession. .
There are few savage tribes whose physical condi tion is more unfavourable to this natural cheerfulness of mind, than that of the Bosjesmans. They neither breed cattle, nor cultivate the ground, and they have few vegetable ', e productions that can be used as food.
The bulbs of the iris, and a few gramineous roots of a bitter taste, which are found by scratching the sur face of the plains, are the only vegetables which they can obtain. The larva: of ants, and those of locusts, are the animal productions on which_they subsist. They exhibit great ingenuity in taking them, but all their dexterity is often insufficient to ensure success.
At some particular seasons, these precarious sour ces of subsistence completely fail them, and they ire compelled, by the strongest principle of their na ture, to undertake a hazardous expedition into the colony for plunder; and in these excursions they ex hibit a ferocity of character which does not naturally belong to them, but which has been created and in flamed by the barbarous treatment which they have received from the Dutch. " Should they seize a Hottentot," says Mr Barrow, " guarding his mas ter's cattle, not contented with putting him to imme diate death, they torture him by every means of cru elty that their invention can frame ; as drawing out his bowels, tearing off his nails, scalping, and other acts equally savage.' Even the poor animals
they steal are treated in a most barbarous and un feeling manner : driven up the steep sides of moun tains, they remain there without any food or water, tilL they are either killed for use, or drop for want of The means of supporting nature.
When a horde is surrounded by. the farmers, and little chance is perceived by them of effecting an es cape, they will fight it out most furiously so long as a man shall be left alive. It frequently happens on such occasions, that a party will volunteer the for lorn hope, by throwing themselves in the midst of the colonists, in order to create confusion, and to give to their countrymen, concealed among the rocks or.in the long grass, at the expense of their own lives, an opportunity of exercising more effectually their mor tal weapons upon their enemies, and at the same time to facilitate the escape of their wives a- d children..
Their plundering expeditions are conducted not without system. If in carrying off their booty they should chance to be pursued, they always divide ; one party to drive away the cattle, while the other continues to harass the_ pursuers ; and when the pea-. santry prove too many for them, they stab and maim, with poisoned weapons, the whole herd. On all such plundering expeditions, they carry, in addition to their bows and arrows, lances that resemble the Kaf fer's hassagai, but of a much smaller size, and. al ways dipt in poison. Their bows are remarkably small ; and, in the hands of any one but of a Bbsjes man, would be entirely useless. From their earliest infancy they accustom themselves to the use of bow : all the little boys who came to us at the Kraal, carried their bows and small quivers of ar rows. A complete quiver contains about 70 or 80,. made like those of the Hottentots ; and, in addition' to these, a few small brushes to lay on the poison ; pieces of iron, red ochre, leg bones of ostriches cut in lengths and rounded, and two little sticks of hard wood to produce fire : This is done by placing one horizontally on a piece of withered grass, and whirl ing the other vertically between the hands, with the point acting in a hollow place, made in the surface of the former. In a few seconds of time, the velocity and friction set the grass in a blaze." When the Bosjesmans succeed in capturing a herd; of cattle, they are slain in such numbers, that tures are attracted by the putrefying mass-which sur rounds their kraals ; and these birds of prey are thus frequently the means of pointing out to the colonists the haunts of the plunderers..
The Bosjesmans have a singular remedy for diseases . of every kind. From the belief that the disease is carried off by the effusion of blood, they take off the extreme joints of the fingers, commencing with the little finger of the left hand, as the least useful. They bury their dead, and load the grave with heaps -of stones.
The language of the Bosjesmans is the same as that -of the Hottentots, though they differ extremely in their mode of speaking it. The Hottentots gene rally pronounce one syllable of every word by the action of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, or the teeth ; while the Bosjesmans pronounce every syllable in the same manner, but with a more forcible utterance. See Barrow's Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa, 4to. p. 84, 23-1., 275, &c.; and Sparrman's •Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. (Q)