FASHION IN DEFORMITY. 723 



entertained by many ethnologists, that community of custom is evi- 

 dence of community of origin or of race. 



Notwithstanding the painful and laborious nature of the process, 

 when conducted with no better implements than flint knives, or pieces 

 of splintered bone or shell, the custom of keeping the head closely 

 shaved prevails extensively among savage nations. This, doubtless, 

 tends to cleanliness, and perhaps comfort, in hot countries ; but the 

 fact that it is in many tribes practiced only by the women and children 

 shows that these considerations are not those primarily engaged in its 

 perpetuation. In some cases, as among the Feejeeans, while the heads 

 of the women are commonly cropped or closely shaved, the men culti- 

 vate, at great expense of time and attention, a luxuriant and elaborately 

 arranged mass of hair, exactly reversing the conditions met with in 

 the most highly civilized nations. 



In some regions of Africa it is considered necessary to female 

 beauty carefully to eradicate the eyebrows, special pincers for the 

 purpose forming part of the appliances of the toilet ; while the va- 

 rious methods of shaving and cutting; the beard amonsj men of all 

 nations are too well known to require more than a passing notice. 

 The treatment of finger-nails, both as to color and form, has also been 

 subject to fashion ; but the practical inconveniences attending the 

 inordinate length to which these are permitted to grow in some parts 

 of the east of Asia appear to have restricted the custom to a few 

 localities. 



If time allowed, the exceedingly widespread custom of tattooing 

 the skin might be here considered, as a result of the same propensity 

 as that which produces the other more serious deformations, now to 

 be spoken of ; but it will be as well to pass at once to these. 



The nose, the lips, and the ears have, in almost all races, offered 

 great temptations to be used as foundations for the display of orna- 

 ment, some process of boring, cutting, or alteration of form being 

 necessary to render them fit for the purpose. When Captain Cook, 

 exactly one hundred years ago, was describing the naked savages of 

 the east coast of Australia,* he said : " Their principal ornament is the 

 bone which they thrust through the cartilage which divides the nos- 

 trils from each other. What perversion of taste could make them 

 think this a decoration, or what could prompt them, before they had 

 worn it or seen it worn, to suffer the pain and inconvenience that must 

 of necessity attend it, is perhaps beyond the power of human sagacity 

 to determine. As this bone is as thick as a man's finger, and between 

 five and six inches long, it reaches quite across the face, and so effect- 

 ually stops up both the nostrils that they are forced to keep their 

 mouths wide open for breath, and snuffle so when they attempt to 

 speak that they are scarcely intelligible even to each other. Our sea- 

 men, with some humor, called it their spritsail-yard ; and, indeed, it 



* " First Voyage," vol. ii., p. 633. 



