5/6 The Descent of Man. Part III. 



The wife of the chief of Latooka told Sir S. Baker 48 that Lady 

 Baker " would be much improved if she would extract her four 

 " front teeth from the lower jaw, and wear the long pointed 

 '' polished crystal in her under lip." Further south with the 

 Makalolo, the upper lip is perforated, and a large metal and 

 bamboo ring, called a pelele, is worn in the hole. " This caused 

 " the lip in one case to project two inches beyond the tip of the 

 " nose ; and when the lady smiled the contraction of the muscles 

 " elevated it over the eyes. ' Why do the women wear these 

 " ' things ? ' the venerable chief, Chinsurdi, was asked. Evidently 

 " surprised at such a stupid question, he replied, ' For beauty ! 

 " ' They are the only beautiful things women have ; men have 

 " ' beards, women have none. What kind of a person would she 

 " ' be without the pelele ? She would not be a woman at all 

 " ' with a mouth like a man, but no beard. 5 "* 9 



Hardly any part of the body, which c.in be unnaturally 

 modified, has escaped. The amount of suffering thus caused 

 must have been extreme, for many of the operations require 

 several years for their completion, so that the idea of their 

 necessity must be imperative. The motives are various; the 

 men paint their bodies to make themselves appear terrible in 

 battle; certain mutilations are connected with religious rites, 

 or they mark the age of puberty, or the rank of the man, or they 

 serve to distinguish the tribes. Amongst savages the same 

 fashions prevail for long periods, 50 and thus mutilations, from 

 whatever cause first made, soon come to be valued as distinctive 

 marks. But self-adornment, vanity, and the admiration ot 

 others, seem to be the commonest motives. In regard to tattoo- 

 ing, I was told by the missionaries in New Zealand, that when 

 they tried to persuade some girls to give up the practice, they 

 answered, " We must just have a few lines on our lips ; else when 

 " we grow old we shall be so very ugly." W T ith the men of New 

 Zealand, a most capable judge 51 says, " to have fine tattooed faces 

 " was the great ambition of the young, both to render themselves 

 " attractive to the ladies, and conspicuous in war." A star 

 tattooed on tne forehead and a spot on the chin are thought by 

 the women in one part of Africa to be irresistible attractions. 52 



48 'The Albert N'yanza,' 1866, "fashion for dressing the hair." 

 rol. i. p. 217. See Agassiz ('Journey in Brazil,' 



49 Livingstone, 'British Associa- 1868, p. 318) on the invariability 

 tion,' 1860 ; report given in the of the tattooing of the Amazonian 

 'Athenaeum,' Julv 7, 1860, p. 29. Indians. 



50 Sir S. Baker (ibid. vol. i. p. 51 Rev. R. Taylor, ' New Zealand 

 210) speaking of the natives of and its Inhabitants,' 1855, p. 152. 

 Central Africa says, "every tribe 52 Mantegazza, * Viaggi e Studi,' 

 u has a distinct and unchanging p. 542. 



