| Description |
Set in a lush landscape near the Cape of Good Hope, the illustration features a group of Khoikoin, also known (pejoratively)
as the Hottentots. Engraving accompanies a passage in which Ogilby offers a detailed description of their clothing and weapons.
"Their Clothing is very sordid, and vile, most of the Men wearing onely a Sheeps Pelt, or Badgers Skin, in manner of a Mantle
about their Shoulders, with the hairy side commonly within, and ty'd under their Chin. Such a Mantle consists of three Pieces,
neatly sew'd together with Sinews of Beasts in stead of Threed. When they go abroad, or upon a Journey, they throw another
Sheeps-skin, with the Wool on the out-side, over the undermost. Upon their Heads they wear a Cap of Lamb-skin, with the Woolly
side inward, and a Button on the top. Their shoes are made of a Rhincerot's Skin, and consists of a whole flat Piece, before
and behind of a like heighth, with a Cross of two Leather-bands fasten'd to their Feet. Before their Privacies hangs a little
piece of a wild Wood-Cat, or ring-streaked Tyger, or Jack-alls Skin, ty'd behind with two Thongs. The Habit of the Women differs
little from the former, being a Sheep-skin Mantle on the upper part of their Bodies, with the Wool inwards; but somewhat longer
than the Men; also another Skin hanging behind to cover their back-parts, and a square Piece before their Privacies. On their
Heads they wear a high Cap of a Sheeps, or Badgers Skin, bound to their Heads with a broad Fillet: In all the rest following
the Mens Garb. . . . Many of them wear as an Ornament, the Guts of Beasts, fresh and stinking, drawn two or three times one
through another, about their Necks, and the like about their Legs . . . . When they go abroad they have usually an Ostrich
Feather, or a Staff, with a wild Cats Tail ty'd to it, in one Hand, in stead of a Handkerchief to wipe their Eyes and Noses,
and beat away the Dust, Sand, and Flies, and in the other Hand a sleight Javelin. The Women never go abroad without a Leather
Sack at their backs, having at each end a Tuft or Taffel, fill'd with one trifle or another. Their Weapons, or Arms, are Bowes
and Arrows, and small Darts, three, four, or five Foot long, having at one end a broad sharp Iron fixed, which they handle
and throw very dexterously." (p. 590-91)
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| Notes |
Double-page plate in John Ogilby's Africa: Being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid:
the Land of Negroes, Guinee, and Aethiopia, and Abyssines, with all the Adjacent Islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick,
Southern, or Oriental Sea, Belonging Thereunto (London: Printed by Tho. Johnson, for the author, and are to be had at his
house in White Fryers, M.DC.LXX [1670]), p. 590.
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