THE SAVAGE ORIGIN OF TATTOOING. 801 



dren, and color their warriors with Isatis tinctoria (woad) to ren- 

 der them more terrible on the field of battle." 



I do not believe there is a single savage people that does not 

 tattoo more or less. The Payaguns painted their faces in blue on 

 feast days, in triangles and arabesques. The various negro tribes 

 distinguished themselves from one another, especially the tribes 

 of Bambaras, by horizontal or vertical lines traced on the face, 

 the chest, and arms. Kafir warriors have the privilege of deco- 

 rating their legs with a long azure line, which they are able to 

 make indelible. 



In Tahiti the women tattoo only the feet and hands or the ear, 

 tracing collars or bracelets ; the men, the whole body, on the hairy 

 skin, on the nose, and the gums ; and they often produce inflam- 

 mations and gangrene, especially on the fingers and the gums. 

 On the Marquesas Islands tattooing is a custom as well as a sacra- 

 ment. Beginning at the age of fifteen or sixteen years, they put a 

 girdle upon the young people and tattoo their fingers and legs, but 

 always in a sacred place. Women, even princesses, have no right 

 to tattoo anything but their hands and feet ; grand personages 

 cover their whole body ; and while the designs on the lower part 

 are delicate, those on the face lend it a grotesque and horrible 

 aspect, so that enemies may be struck with fear. At Nukahiva, 

 noble ladies are permitted to wear more numerous tattoo marks 

 than the women of the people. 



In Samoa, widows, it seems, tattoo the tongue; men paint 

 the body from the girdle to the knees. The bald heads of old 

 men in the Marquesas Islands may be seen covered with tattoo 

 marks. 



The fashionable ladies of Bagdad stained their temples and 

 lips with azure, drew circles and rays of the same color on their 

 legs, painted a blue girdle round their waists, and surrounded 

 each of their breasts with a crown of blue flowers. 



Tattooing is practiced in Polynesia at the age of from eleven 

 to thirteen years ; and is to these natives what the toga pretexta 

 was to young Romans. In the Marquesas Islands it serves as a 

 kind of clothing to the men ; they might be mistakenly supposed 

 to be covered with armor. Their face is hidden under the 

 marks. The women here are generally but little tattooed, but 

 coquettes wear the marks on their feet, hands, arms, legs, and 

 forearms designs so delicate that they might be taken for stock- 

 ings and gloves in the daytime. 



In order to please the women and to be able to find a wife, 

 writes D^lisle, the Laotian should be tattooed from the navel to 

 below the calf, all round the thigh; while among the Dyacks 

 the women submit to the operation in order to get husbands. 

 Laotian tattooing is very animated, and represents fantastic ani- 



TOL XLvni, 58 



