Chap. XX.] ABSENCE OF HAIR. 361 



know that this is the case with the plumes of some birds, 

 and with the horns of some stags. 



The females of certain anthropoid apes, as stated in a 

 former chapter, are somewhat less hairy on the under sur- 

 face than are the males ; and here we have what might 

 have afforded a commencement for the process of denu- 

 dation. With respect to the completion of the process 

 through sexual selection, it is well to bear in mind the 

 New-Zealand proverb, " There is no woman for a hairy 

 man." All who have seen photographs of the Siamese 

 hairy family will admit how ludicrously hideous is the 

 opposite extreme of excessive hairiness. Hence the King 

 of Siam had to bribe a man to marry the first hairy wom- 

 an in the family, who transmitted this character to her 

 young offspring of both sexes. 20 



Some races are much more hairy than others, espe- 

 cially on the male side ; but it must not be assumed that 

 the more hairy races, for instance Europeans, have re- 

 tained a primordial condition more completely than have 

 the naked races, such as the Calmucks or Americans. It 

 is a more probable view that the hairiness of the former 

 is due to partial reversion, for characters which have long 

 been inherited are always apt to return. It does not ap- 

 pear that a cold climate has been influential in leading to 

 this kind of reversion; excepting perhaps with the ne- 

 groes, who have been reared during several generations, 

 in the United States, 21 and possibly with the Ainos, who 



20 ' The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. 

 1S68, p. 327. 



21 ' Investigations into Military and Anthropological Statistics of 

 American Soldiers,' by B. A. Gould, 1869; p. 568: Observations were 

 carefully made on the pilosity of 2,129 black and colored soldiers, while 

 they were bathing ; and, by looking to the published table, " it is mani- 

 fest at a glance that there is but little, if any, difference between the 

 white and the black races in this respect." It is, however, certain that 

 negroes in their native and much hotter land of Africa, have remarkably 



35 



