A KAFFIR’S LIFE, CONTINUED -- ADOLESCENCE -- BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE KAFFIRS, AND REASONS FOR IT -- LIVING STATUES -- BENJAMIN WEST AND THE APOLLO -- SHOULDERS OF THE KAFFIRS -- SPEED OF FOOT CONSIDERED HONORABLE -- A KAFFIR MESSENGER AND HIS MODE OF CARRYING A LETTER -- HIS EQUIPMENT FOR THE JOURNEY -- LIGHT MARCHING-ORDER -- HOW THE ADDRESS IS GIVEN TO HIM -- CELERITY OF HIS TASK, AND SMALLNESS OF HIS PAY -- HIS FEET AND THEIR NATURE -- THICKNESS OF THE SOLE, AND ITS SUPERIORITY OVER THE SHOE -- ANECDOTE OF A SICK BOY AND HIS PHYSICIAN -- FORM OF THE FOOT -- HEALTHY STATE OF A KAFFIR’S BODY -- ANECDOTE OF WOUNDED GIRL -- RAPIDITY WITH WHICH INJURIES ARE HEALED -- YOUNG WOMEN, AND THEIR BEAUTY OF FORM -- PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS -- DIFFICULTY OF PHOTOGRAPHING A KAFFIR -- THE LOCALITY, GREASE, NERVOUSNESS -- SHORT TENURE OF BEAUTY -- FEATURES OF KAFFIR GIRLS -- OLD KAFFIR WOMEN AND THEIR LOOKS. When the youths and maidens are in the full bloom of youth, they afford as fine specimens of humanity as can be seen anywhere. Their limbs have never been subject to the distorting influences of clothing, nor their forms to the absurd compression which was, until recently, destructive of all real beauty in this and neighboring countries. Each muscle and sinew has had fair play, the lungs have breathed fresh air, and the active habits have given to the form that rounded perfection which is never seen except in those who have enjoyed similar advantages. We all admire the almost superhuman majesty of the human form as seen in ancient sculpture, and we need only to travel to Southern Africa to see similar forms, yet breathing and moving, not motionless images of marble, but living statues of bronze. This classic beauty of form is not peculiar to Southern Africa, but is found in many parts of the world where the inhabitants lead a free, active, and temperate life. My readers will probably remember the well-known anecdote of West the painter surprising the critical Italians with his remarks. Bred in a Quaker family, he had no acquaintance with ancient art; and when he first visited Rome, he was taken by a large assembly of art-critics to see the Apollo Belvedere. As soon as the doors were thrown open, he exclaimed that the statue represented a young Mohawk warrior, much to the indignation of the critics, who foolishly took his exclamation as derogatory to the statue, rather than the highest and most genuine praise. The fact was, that the models from whom the sculptor had composed his statue, and the young Mohawk warriors so familiar to West, had received a similar physical education, and had attained a similar physical beauty. “I have seen them often,” said West, “standing in the very attitude of this Apollo, and pursuing with an intent eye the arrow which they had just discharged from the bow.”