344 SEXUAL selection: man. PartIL 



tlieir vanity. Borcliell*^ gives an amusing account of 

 a Bush-woman, who used so much grease, red ochre, 

 and shining powder, " as would liave ruined any but a 

 very rich husband." She displayed also "much vanity 

 and too evident a consciousness of her superiority." 

 I^Ir. Winwood Eeade informs me that the negroes of 

 the West Coast often discuss the beauty of their women. 

 Some competent observers have attributed the fearfully 

 common practice of infanticide partly to the desire felt 

 by the women to retain their good looks.'*^ In several 

 regions the women wear cliarms and love-philters to 

 gain the affections of the men ; and Mr. Brown enume- 

 rates four plants used for this purpose by the women of 

 Korth- Western Anierica.^^ 



Hearne,^° who lived many years with the American 

 Indians, and who was an excellent observer, says, in 

 speaking of the women, " Ask a Northern Indian what 

 '' is beauty, and he will answer, a broad flat face, small 

 '• eyes, high cheek-bones, three or four broad black lines 

 " across eadi cheek, a low forehead, a large broad chin, 

 " a clumsy hook nose, a tawny hide, and breasts hanging 

 " down to the belt,"' Palhis, who visited the northern 

 parts of the Chinese empire, says ''those women are 

 " preferred who have the Mandschii form ; that is to say, 

 a broad face, high cheek-bones, very broad noses, and 

 enormous ears ;" ^^ and Vogt remarks that the obliquity 

 of the eye, which is proper to the Chinese and Japanese, 





-»' • Travels in S. Africa,' 1824, vol. i. p. 414. 



■•^ See, for references, 'Gerland iiber das Aussterben der Naturvulker,' 

 1868, s. 51, 53, 55 ; also Azara, ' Voyages,' &c. torn. ii. p. 116. 



*^ On the vegetable productions used by the North- Western Ameri- 

 can Indians, ' Pharmaceutical Journ;iI,' vol. x. 



50 ' A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort,' 8vo. edit. 1796, p. 89. 



5^ Quoted by Prichard, ' Phys. Hist, of Mankind,' 3rd edit. vol. iv. 

 1844, p. 519 ; Vogt, ' Lectures on Man,' Eng. translat. p. 129. On the 

 opinion of the Chinese on the Cingalese, E. Tennent, ' Ceylon,' vol. ii. 

 1859, p. 107. 



