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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



had so ludicrous an appearance that, till we were used to it, we found 

 it difficult to refrain from laughter." 



Eight years later, on his visit to the northwest coast of America, 

 Captain Cook found precisely the same custom prevailing among the 

 natives of Prince William's Sound, whose mode of life was in most 

 other respects quite dissimilar to that of the Australians, and who be- 

 long ethnologically to a totally different branch of the human race. 



In 1G81 Dampier* thus describes a custom which he found exist- 

 ing among the natives of the Corn Islands, off the Mosquito coast, in 

 Central America : " They have a Fashion to cut Holes in the Lips of 

 the Boys when they are young, close to their Chin, which they keep 

 open with little Pegs till they are fourteen or fifteen 

 years old ; then they wear Beards in them, made of 

 Turtle or Tortoise-shell, in the Form you see in the 

 Margin. The little Knotch at the upper end they 

 put in through the Lip, where it remains between the 

 Teeth and the Lip ; the under Part hangs down over 

 their Chin. This they commonly wear all day, and 

 when they sleep they take it out. They have like- 

 wise Holes bored in their Ears, both Men and Women, 

 when young, and by continual stretching them with 

 great Pegs, they grow to be as big as a mill'd Five- 

 shilling Piece. Herein they wear Pieces of Wood, 

 cut very round and smooth, so that their Ear seems 

 to be all Wood, with a little Skin about it." 



It is a remarkable thing that an almost exactly similar custom still 

 prevails among a tribe of Indians inhabiting the southern part of Bra- 

 zilthe Botocudos, so called from a Portuguese word meaning a plug 

 or stopper. Among these people the lip-ornament consists of a conical 

 piece of hard and polished wood, frequently weighs a quarter of a 

 pound, and drags down, elongates, and everts the lower lip, so as to 

 expose the gums and teeth, in a manner which to our taste is hideous, 

 but with them is considered an essential adjunct to an attractive and 

 correct appearance. 



In the extreme north of America, the Esquimaux " pierce the lower 

 lip under one to both corners of the mouth, and insert in each aper- 

 ture a double-headed sleeve-button or dumb-bell -shaped labret, of bone, 

 ivory, shell, stone, glass, or wood. The incision when first made is 

 about the size of a quill, but, as the aspirant for improved beauty grows 

 older, the size of the orifice is enlarged until it reaches the width of 

 half to three quarters of an inch." f These operations appear to be 

 practised only on the men, and are supposed to possess some signifi- 

 cance other than that of mere ornament. The first piercing of the lip, 



* "Voyage Round the World," edition 1717, vol. i., p. 32. 



f- II. II. Bancroft, " Native Races of the Pacific States of North America," vol. 

 i., 1S75. 



Fig. 2. 



