310 SEXUAL selection: man. PartIL 



*' culpable indifference towards her children, if she did 

 " not employ artificial means to shape the calf of the leg 

 *' after the fashion of the country." In the Old and New 

 World the shape of the skull was formerly modified 

 durino^ infancy in tlie most extraordinary manner, as is 

 still the case in many places, and such deformities are 

 considered ornamental. For instance, the sayaires of 

 Colombia ^^ deem a much flattened head "an essential 

 *' point of beauty." 



The hair is treated with especial care in yarious 

 countries ; it is allowed to grow to full length, so as to 

 reach to the ground, or is combed into "a compact 

 " frizzled mop, which is the Papuan's pride and glory."*" 

 In Northern Africa " a man requires a period of from 

 " eight to ten years to perfect his coiffure." With other 

 nations the head is shaved, and in parts of South Ame- 

 rica and Africa even the eyebrows are eradicated. The 

 natives of the Upper Nile knock out the four front 

 teeth, saying that they do not wish to resemble brutes. 

 Further south, the Batokas knock out the two upper 

 incisors, which, as Livingstone *^ remarks, gives the face 

 a hideous appearance, owing to the growth of the lower 

 jaw ; but these people think the presence of the incisors 

 most unsightly, and on beholding some Europeans, cried 

 out, " Look at the great teeth ! " The great chief Sebi- 

 tuani tried in vain to alter tliis fashion. In various parts 

 of Africa and in the Malay Archipelago the natives file 

 the incisor teeth into points like those of a saw, or pierce 

 them with holes, into which they insert studs. 



39 Quoted by Pricliard, ' Phys. Hist, of Mankind,' 4tli edit. vol. i. 

 LS51, p. 321. 



^° On the Papuans, Wallace, ' The Malay Archipelago,' vol, ii. p. 

 445. On the coifture of the Africans, Sir S. Baker, 'The Albert 

 N'yanza,' vol. 1. p. 210. 



*i ' Travels, p. 538. 



