177& THE PACIFIC OCEAN. #77 



always narrow, but the hair of the head is in great 

 abundance, very coarse and strong, and without a 

 single exception, black, straight, and lank, or hanging 

 down over the shoulders ; the neck is short ; the arms 

 and body have no particular mark of beauty or ele- 

 gance in their formation, but are rather clumsy ; and 

 the limbs in all are very small in proportion to the 

 other parts, and crooked or ill made, with large feet 



Nootka? Nor is Captain Cook singular in his report. What he 

 saw on the sea-coast, Captain Carver also met with among the Ame- 

 rican Indians far up in the country. His words are as follow : 

 " From minute inquiries and a curious inspection, I am able to 

 " declare (however respectable I may hold the authority of these 

 " historians in other points), that their assertions are erroneous, 

 u and proceeding from a want of a thorough knowledge of the 

 ii customs of the Indians. After the age of puberty, their bodies, 

 *' in their natural state, are covered in the same manner as those of 

 " the Europeans. The men, indeed, esteem a beard very unbe- 

 *' coming, and take great pains to get rid of it ; nor is there any 

 u ever to be perceived on their faces, except when they grow old, 

 *' and become inattentive to appearances. The Naudowesses, and 

 " the remote nations, pluck them out with bent pieces of hard 

 " wood formed into a kind of nippers ; whilst those who have 

 " communication with Europeans, procure from them wire, which 

 " they twist into a screw or worm ; applying this to the part, they 

 " press the rings together, and with a sudden twitch, draw out all 

 " the hairs that are inclosed in them." Carver s Travels, p. 224, 

 225. The remark made by Mr.Marsden, who also quotes Carver, 

 is worth attending to, that the vizor or mask of Montezuma's ar- 

 mour, preserved at Brussels, has remarkably large whiskers ; and 

 that those Americans could not have imitated this ornament, unless 

 nature had presented them with the model. From Captain Cook's 

 observation on the west coast of North America, combined with 

 Carver's in the inland parts of that continent, and confirmed by 

 the Mexican vizor as above, there seems abundant reason to agree 

 with M. Marsden, who thus modestly expresses himself: "Were 

 " it not for the numerous and very respectable authorities, from 

 '* which we are assured that the natives of America are naturally 

 " beardless, I should think that the common opinion on that sub- 

 " ject had been hastily adopted ; and that their appearing thus at a 

 " mature age, was only the consequence of an early practice, simi- 

 " lar to that observed among the Sumatrans. Even now, I must 

 " confess, that it would remove some small degree of doubt from 

 " my mind, could it be ascertained that no such custom prevails." 

 Marsden s History of Sumatra, p. 39, 40. 



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