GHEYSSSIQUAS, a nation of Hottentots which inhabits a district of South Africa bordering on the country of Caffraria. M. Vaillant visited a horde of this people at no great distance from Orange river, as he was returning from his last African excursion to the Cape, and was shewn by them a chain of mountains to the east, which extending to a distance was lost in the north, and which, inhabited by their principal tribes, separated them from the Caffres, or at least from the
Briquas and Bremas, whom they consider as tribes of Caffres.
With respect to such characteristics as are not original and derived from nature, as the form of their dress, weapons, instruments of music, fondness for hunting and dancing, and the like, the Gheyssequas do not differ from the surrounding nations, except in having adopted a particular colour for their ornaments. All the ornaments of the Gheyssequas are white, and composed of the bones of a sheep's leg or foot, to which they give a dazzling whiteness by processes peculiar to themselves. Thus, as they fabricate their own necklaces and other articles of luxury, and have no occasion to purchase the materials, they have no dependence on the colonies with respect to trade, except for a few necessary articles, which they want in common with other savages. Accordingly this nation is less known and less visited than any other.
The women are well made, lively, and always ready to laugh or dance: yet, with all the gaiety of their disposition, they have the reservedness of manners to which polished nations give the names of modesty and decorum, and which, in so warm a climate and with such ardent constitutions, appears to be a virtue of no easy attainment.
Our author says that he no where met with a nation so truly generous. Though he had nothing to give in exchange, yet during two days that he staid with them, he had bowls of milk brought to him as presents, night and morning, from every hut. The chief even obliged him to accept a lamb; and though our traveller's attendants were not destitute of provisions, he would give them also several sheep with which to regale themselves; a degree of generosity of which a proper estimate can be formed only by those who know something of savage manners and savage penury.
The practice of semi-castration prevails among the Gheyssequas, and among them only of all the Hottentot tribes; and it prevails in all their hordes without exception. Our author convinced himself of this fact by his own eyes; for the men were so complaisant, that, if he had chosen, he might have inspected the whole horde. Many travellers have written upon the subject of this whimsical operation; but they do not agree either as to its origin, the motives that lead to its invention, or the nations by whom it is practiced. Kolben, who says that it commonly consists in the extraction of the left testicle, represents it as a religious ceremony, a general and sacred law, with all the Hottentots indiscriminately; but this is unquestionably false. (See HOTTENTOTS, Encycl.) Others attribute it to the desire of the Gheyssequas to render themselves more fleet in running, an effect which it surely is not calculated to produce; and some have said that its intention is to prevent the too abundant propagation of the species. Yet Kolben, though he seems inclined to this last opinion, affirms that twins are not the less common on account of the operation. According to those whom M. Vaillant questioned on the subject, it is merely a mark of distinction, which their ancestors, being at war with the neighbouring nations, invented for the purpose of knowing one another; but, as he himself admits, this is a very improbable account of the matter, as they would surely have adopted, like the Loangoes, Pomboes, and Cormantins, marks of distinction
tion more easily discerned. Be this as it may, the operation among the Gheyssequas is performed by the father, commonly at the birth of the child, though sometimes not till he has completed his third year.