“The young girls drink whole cups of liquid fat, and for a good reason, the object being to attain a very rotund body by a fattening process, in order that Hymen may claim them as soon as possible.  They do not grow sentimental and sick from love and jealousy, nor do they die from the anguish and woes of love, as our women do, nor engage in love-intrigues, but they look at the whole matter in a very materialistic and sober way. Their sole love-affair is the fattening process, on the result of which, as with a pig, depends the girl’s value and the demand for her.”

In this last sentence, which I have taken the liberty to italicize, lies the philosophy of African “love” in general, and I am glad to be able to declare it on such unquestionable authority.  What a Hottentot “regards” in a woman is Fat; Sentiment is out of the question.  When Hottentots are together, says Kolben,

“you never see them give tender kisses or cast loving glances at each other.  Day and night, on every occasion, they are so cold and so indifferent to each other that you would not believe that they love each other or are married.  If in a hut there were twenty Hottentots with their wives, it would be impossible to tell, either from their words or actions, which of them belonged together.”

SOUTH AFRICAN LOVE-POEMS

As intimated on a preceding page, there are, among Dr. Jakobowski’s examples of Hottentot lyrics[139] a few which may be vaguely included in the category of love-poems.  “Where did you hear that I love you while you are unloving toward me?” complained one Hottentot; while another warned his friend:  “That is the misfortune pursuing you that you love where you ought not to!” A third declared.  “I shall not cease to love however much they (i.e., the parents or guardians) may oppose me,” A fourth addresses this song to a young girl: 

     My lioness! 
     Are you afraid that I may bewitch you? 
     You milk the cow with fleshy hand. 
     Bite me! 
     Pour out (the milk) for me! 
     My lioness! 
     Daughter of a great man!

It is needless to say that in the first three of these aboriginal “lyrics” there is not the slightest indication that the “love” expressed rises above mere covetous desire of the senses; and as for the fourth, what is there in it besides reference to the girl’s fatness (fleshy hand), her utility in milking and serving the milk and her carnal bites?  Yet in this frank avowal of masculine selfishness and sensuality Hahn finds “a certain refinement of sentiment”!

A HOTTENTOT FLIRT

Though a Hottentot belle’s value in the marriage market is determined chiefly by the degree of her corpulence, girls of the higher families are not, it seems, devoid of other means of attracting the attention of men.  At least I infer so from the following passage in Dalton’s book (T.S.A., 104) relating to a certain chief: