jESTHETIG evolution in man. 345 



natural defects, by borrowed plumes. So the earliest evidence of de- 

 rivative testhetic feeling Avliich we possess is that of the personal orna- 

 ments worn by palaeolithic men. Perforated shells, apparently used 

 for necklaces ; teeth of deer and other animals ; pebbles of rose-quartz 

 and other ornamental stones ; wrought pieces of bone or mammoth- 

 ivory all of them obviously intended for personal decoration are 

 found in the earliest cave-dwellings and rock-shelters. Feathers and 

 flowers we can not of course expect to find in such situations ; but we 

 can hardly doubt, from the analogy of almost all modern savages, that 

 palaeolithic men must have used them as much as they used those other 

 decorative objects. Now, the fact that any such shells or plumes are 

 sought as ornaments proves of course that they were first admired ; 

 but the vague admiration originally bestowed upon them would natu- 

 rally be much quickened and increased by their employment for the 

 decoration of the person. From being vague and indefinite it would 

 become vivid and purposive. Our own children and modern savages 

 take comparatively little interest in flowers in the abstract, flowers as 

 they grow upon the bush or in the field : but they begin to admire 

 them when they pick them by handfuls, and still more when they are 

 woven into a wreath, arranged in a bouquet, or stuck into the hair. 

 Nay, is not this ultimate decorative intent one of the chief raisons 

 cFetre for many of our European conservatories and florists' shops? 

 Is not a cafnellia largely admired because it looks so well in a ball-dress, 

 and a stephanotis because it fits so easily in a button-hole ? And is it 

 not a fact that many of our ladies and most of our seiwants admire ar- 

 tificial flowers, with all their stiffness and vulgarity, far moi'e genuinely 

 than they admire living roses or lilies-of-the-valley ? We have all 

 known women whose most real jfisthetic feelings were obviously aroused 

 by a bonnet or a head-dress. 



Flowers are very favorite decorations with the South-Sea Islanders, 

 and those who have read Miss Bird's and Mrs. Brassey's pleasant ac- 

 counts of their stay among the Polynesians must have noticed the 

 air of refinement, the vague aesthetic atmosphere thrown over the whole 

 story by their profuse employment of tropical blossoms upon all occa- 

 sions. Feathers, symmetrically arranged, were the ordinary head-dress 

 of the North American Indians ; and they were woven into splendid 

 cloaks by the Hawaiians. Corals, pebbles, precious stones, gold and 

 silver jewelry, cowries, wampum beads, furs, silks, and so forth, follow 

 in due order. Ochre and woad, for dyeing or staining the body, are 

 emj^wyed from a very early period. Henna, indigo, and other cosmet- 

 ics come a little latei'. Among many existing lowest races, the only 

 sign of aesthetic feeling, beyond the sense of personal beauty and the 

 very rudest songs or dances, is shown in the employment of dyes or 

 ornaments for the person. Such are many of the Indian Hill tribes, 

 the Andamanese, the Digger Indians of California, and the Botocudos 

 of Brazil. The Bushmen, and to a less extent the Australians, gen- 



