feet of the family. Since I was a guest, she uncovered, washed and dried my feet first. As she went on to attend to her mistress, I reached out and placed my hand on her backside.
—You have a gold mine here, Hendrick. You should profit from it. Steatopygia is a fascinating topic to Europeans. It is perfumed by sex, deformity, monstrosity and prostitution. Whatever is forbidden. And like yellow journalism, whatever is forbidden is big news. The exhibition of
lusus naturae
draws a healthy interest in London. Unusual and unnatural beings are in great vogue. The stranger the creature, the stronger the draw. After such a voluptuous end to such a fine supper, I can only compliment the lady of the house . . .
I rose then and in my bare feet padded over to Alya Caesar, kissed her hand and clicked my heels together. Since my feet were bare, this had the most hilarious effect. Everyone laughed. I endeared myself to Alya Caesar and Saartjie forgave me for touching her posterior.
Hendrick and I stayed smoking on the veranda after Alya, the children and her mother, who was visiting, retired for the night. The steward stayed to tend to our needs but I noticed Saartjie lingering in the salon to eavesdrop on our conversation. I obliged her.
—As I was saying, from 1800 to 1804 I took part in my first expedition of discovery, which was sponsored by the Paris Academy of Sciences. That’s what started me collecting specimens during my travels. The new-style anatomists and doctors wanted real cadavers, skulls, body parts. They were tired of stealing them from cemeteries. One of my first assignments on our arrival at the Cape was to look for exact information on the so-called Hottentot apron. The singularity of this organ of generation was too piquant not to have excited the curiosity of most of the individuals attached to the
état-major
of my ship. I was assistant ship’s surgeon and my friend L’Haridon, the ship’s doctor, performed some very particular observations on the kind of orgasm that part could be susceptible to. The head of the expedition was Dr. Péron. In 1805, after making a sensation in London, he lectured on the subject at the Institute of France. Many drawings were made during that expedition, by Lesueur, Petit, Lebrun, Thibault, many of which have since disappeared. Imagine setting up another sitting for other observers to draw the fabulous Hottentot. The Academy would pay a pretty penny for that privilege. As I’ve said again and again, no female of that race has ever set foot on English soil . . .
—There has always been a rumor, I continued, that the Hottentots were hermaphrodites, but it was founded only on conjecture. Several gentlemen I know took it upon themselves to resolve the problem. They discovered that the women have a supergenital membrane that falls down beyond the lips of the vulva, nothing more. I shrugged.
—But one can see how this rumor started if the female Hottentot has an appendix outside the organs of generation and the men have eliminated one testicle . . . Between the two deformities, a mythological creature was bound to be born . . .
—Then they have this strange language that sounds terrible and no nation on earth can imitate. Thank goodness they are capable of learning Dutch and English. They have no laws and no religion—they worship the moon. They don’t build or plant, and have no fixed place to live, transporting their tents and fixing them wherever they find grazing land for their cattle. They eat anything—roots, berries, entrails, raw meat, whether beast or human. If a woman has twins, one is eliminated so that the other profits from the breast, and when male children reach the age of twelve, one testicle is removed so that they can run better.
—Saartjie does have a strange language, which seems impossible to speak, said Hendrick.
—It
is
comprehensible, I said. It is one of the most complex languages in the world. Strange that it should be spoken by simpletons . .
—You have a gold mine here, Hendrick. You should profit from it. Steatopygia is a fascinating topic to Europeans. It is perfumed by sex, deformity, monstrosity and prostitution. Whatever is forbidden. And like yellow journalism, whatever is forbidden is big news. The exhibition of
lusus naturae
draws a healthy interest in London. Unusual and unnatural beings are in great vogue. The stranger the creature, the stronger the draw. After such a voluptuous end to such a fine supper, I can only compliment the lady of the house . . .
I rose then and in my bare feet padded over to Alya Caesar, kissed her hand and clicked my heels together. Since my feet were bare, this had the most hilarious effect. Everyone laughed. I endeared myself to Alya Caesar and Saartjie forgave me for touching her posterior.
Hendrick and I stayed smoking on the veranda after Alya, the children and her mother, who was visiting, retired for the night. The steward stayed to tend to our needs but I noticed Saartjie lingering in the salon to eavesdrop on our conversation. I obliged her.
—As I was saying, from 1800 to 1804 I took part in my first expedition of discovery, which was sponsored by the Paris Academy of Sciences. That’s what started me collecting specimens during my travels. The new-style anatomists and doctors wanted real cadavers, skulls, body parts. They were tired of stealing them from cemeteries. One of my first assignments on our arrival at the Cape was to look for exact information on the so-called Hottentot apron. The singularity of this organ of generation was too piquant not to have excited the curiosity of most of the individuals attached to the
état-major
of my ship. I was assistant ship’s surgeon and my friend L’Haridon, the ship’s doctor, performed some very particular observations on the kind of orgasm that part could be susceptible to. The head of the expedition was Dr. Péron. In 1805, after making a sensation in London, he lectured on the subject at the Institute of France. Many drawings were made during that expedition, by Lesueur, Petit, Lebrun, Thibault, many of which have since disappeared. Imagine setting up another sitting for other observers to draw the fabulous Hottentot. The Academy would pay a pretty penny for that privilege. As I’ve said again and again, no female of that race has ever set foot on English soil . . .
—There has always been a rumor, I continued, that the Hottentots were hermaphrodites, but it was founded only on conjecture. Several gentlemen I know took it upon themselves to resolve the problem. They discovered that the women have a supergenital membrane that falls down beyond the lips of the vulva, nothing more. I shrugged.
—But one can see how this rumor started if the female Hottentot has an appendix outside the organs of generation and the men have eliminated one testicle . . . Between the two deformities, a mythological creature was bound to be born . . .
—Then they have this strange language that sounds terrible and no nation on earth can imitate. Thank goodness they are capable of learning Dutch and English. They have no laws and no religion—they worship the moon. They don’t build or plant, and have no fixed place to live, transporting their tents and fixing them wherever they find grazing land for their cattle. They eat anything—roots, berries, entrails, raw meat, whether beast or human. If a woman has twins, one is eliminated so that the other profits from the breast, and when male children reach the age of twelve, one testicle is removed so that they can run better.
—Saartjie does have a strange language, which seems impossible to speak, said Hendrick.
—It
is
comprehensible, I said. It is one of the most complex languages in the world. Strange that it should be spoken by simpletons . .
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