574 The Descent of Man. Pabt III. 



a passion for ornament is notorious ; and an English philosopher 

 goes so far as to maintain, that clothes were first made for 

 ornament and not for warmth. As Professor Waitz remarks, 

 " however poor and miserable man is, he finds a pleasure in 

 " adorning himself." The extravagance of the naked Indians of 

 South America in decorating themselves is shewn " by a man of 

 " large stature gaining villi difficulty enough by the labour of a 

 " fortnight to procure in exchange the chica necessary to paint 

 " himself red." 43 The ancient barbarians of Europe during the 

 Keindeer 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, necklaces, armlets, 

 ear-rings, &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 perceived that the most fertile imagination 

 " 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 different countries the teeth are 

 stained black, red, blue, &c, and in the Malay Archipelago it is 

 thought shameful 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 a much more common 

 practice 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." 44 In South 

 America, as Humboldt remarks, " a mother would be accused of 

 " 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 Worlds the 



'Lectures on Physio ogy,' 1822. 43 Humboldt, ' Personal Narrative,' 



Since this chapter was written Sir Eng. Translat. vol. iv. p. 515 ; on 



J. Lubbock has published his ' Origin the imagination shewn in painting 



of Civilisation,' 1870, in which there the body, p. 522 ; on modifying the 



is an interesting chapter on the form of the calf of the leg, p. 466. 



present subject, and from which (pp. 4 * ' The Nile Tributaries,' 1867 ; 



4-2, 48) I have taken some facts 'The Albert N'yanza,' 1866, vol. i 



about savages dyeing their teeth p. 218. 

 imi hair, and piercing their teeth. 



