44 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i 



surrounded the small part of the leg.J A distinction., 

 however, to which such of their females as had been 

 taken in the chance of war, dare not aspire. In 

 other respects both male and female appeared as 

 naked as our first parents before the fall.|| Like them 

 as they knew no guilt, they knew no shame ; nor 

 was cloathing thought necessary to personal comfort, 

 where the chill blast of winter is never felt. 



Their hair was uniformly of a shining black, straight 

 and coarse ; but they dressed it with daily care, and 

 adorned it with great art; the men, in particular, de- 

 corating their heads with feathers of various colours. 

 As their hair thus constituted their chief pride, it was 

 an unequivocal proof of the sincerity of their sorrow, 

 when, on the death of a relation or friend, they cut 

 it short like their slaves and captives;* to whom the 

 privilege of wearing long hair was rigorously denied. f 

 Like most other nations of the new hemisphere, they 

 eradicated, with great nicety, the incipient beard,J 

 and all superfluous hairs on their bodies ; a circum r 

 stance which has given rise to a notion that all the 

 Aborigines of America were naturally beardless. 

 This opinion is indeed countenanced by many respec- 



J Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. p. 446. Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1159. Labat, 

 torn. ii. p. 12, The same sort of brodequin, or buskin, is worn by 

 female Hottentots and other nations of Africa. 



Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 394. 



|| Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. p. 441. Purcha, vol. iv. p. 1157. 



* Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. p. 439. Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 



-\ Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 405. 



J Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 



