Chap. XIX. LOVE OF ORNAMENTS. 339 



"the cliica necessary to paint himself recl."^^ The 

 ancient barbarians of Europe during the Reindeer period 

 brought to their caves any brilliant or singular objects 

 which they happened to find. Savages at the present 

 day everywhere deck themselves with plumes, neck- 

 laces, armlets, earrings, &c. They paint themselves in 

 the most diversified manner. " If painted nations," as 

 Humboldt observes, " had been examined with the same 

 '' attention as clothed nations, it would have been per- 

 " ceived that the most fertile ima2:ination and the most 

 " mutable caprice have created the fashions of painting, 

 " as well as those of garments." 



In one part of Africa the eyelids are coloured black ; 

 in another the nails are coloured yellow or purple. In 

 many places the hair is dyed of various tints. In dif- 

 ferent countries the teeth are stained black, red, blue, 

 &c., and in the Malay Archipelago it is thought shame- 

 ful to have white teeth like those of a dog. Not one 

 great country can be named, from the Polar regions in 

 the north to New Zealand in the south, in which the 

 aborigines do not tattoo themselves. This practice was 

 followed by the Jews of old and by the ancient Britons. 

 In Africa some of the natives tattoo themselves, but it 

 is much more common to raise protuberances by rubbing 

 salt into incisions made in various parts of the body ; 

 and these are considered by the inhabitants of Kordofan 

 and Darfur " to be great personal attractions." In the 

 Arab countries no beauty can be perfect until the cheeks 

 *'or temples have been gashed." ^^ In South America, 

 as Humboldt remarks, " a mother would be accused of 



^^ Humboldt, 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. translat. vol. iv. p. 515; 

 on the imagination shewn in painting the body, p. 522 ; on modifying 

 the form of the calf of the leg. p. 4G6. 



38 ' Tiie Nile Tributaries,' 1867 ; ' The Albert N'yanza,' 1866, vol. i. 

 p. 218. 



z 2 



