Note 47 — A JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA IN 1497-99.

Castanheda, in his first edition (1551), adopted this statement, but subsequently suppressed it. D. Jeronymo Osorio, Bishop of Silves, in De rebus Emanuelsis, has “pudenta ligneis vaginis includunt.—Kopke.

The use of such a sheath is universal among the Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, but seems now to be more honoured in the breach than the observance among the Hottentots, here spoken of. John of Empoli, who went to India with Afonso de Albuquerque (Ramusio, i), observed such a sheath made of leather with the hair on, among the Hottentots of the Bay of S. Blas. Leguat (Hakluyt Society’s edition, 1891, p. 288) found it still in use in 1698.