Chap. XIII. BLUSHING. 317 



Forster says that " you ma}' easily distinguish a spread- 

 ing blush " on the cheeks of the fairest women in Ta- 

 hiti. 12 The natives also of several of the other archi- 

 pelagoes in the Pacific have been seen to blush. 



Mr. Washington Matthews has often seen a blush on 

 the faces of the young squaws belonging to various wild 

 Indian tribes of Xorth America. At the opposite ex- 

 tremity of the continent in Tierra del Fuego, the natives, 

 according to Mr. Bridges, " blush much, but chiefly in 

 regard to women; but they certainly blush also at their 

 own personal appearance." This latter statement agrees 

 with what I remember of the Fuegian, Jemmy Button, 

 who blushed when he was quizzed about the care which 

 he took in polishing his shoes, and in otherwise adorn- 

 ing himself. With respect to the Aymara Indians on 

 the lofty plateaus of Bolivia, Mr. Forbes says, 13 that 

 from the colour of their skins it is impossible that their 

 blushes should be as clearly visible as in the white races; 

 still under such circumstances as would raise a blush 

 in us, " there can always be seen the same expression of 

 modesty or confusion; and even in the dark, a rise of 

 temperature of the skin of the face can be felt, exactly 

 as occurs in the European." With the Indians who in- 



12 J. R. Forster, ' Observations during- a Voyage round 

 the World,' 4to, 1778, p. 229. Waitz gives (* Introduction to 

 Anthropology,' Eng. translat. 1863, vol. i. p. 135) references 

 for other islands in the Pacific. See, also, Dampier ' On the 

 Blushing of the Tunquinese ' (vol. ii. p. 40); but I have not 

 consulted this work. Waitz quotes Bergmann, that the 

 Kalmucks do not blush, but this may be doubted after 

 what we have seen with respect to the Chinese. He also 

 quotes Roth, who denies that the Abyssinians are capable 

 of blushing. Unfortunately, Capt. Speedy, who lived so 

 long with the Abyssinians, has not answered my inquiry 

 on this head. Lastly, I must add that the Rajah Brooke 

 has never observed the least sign of a blush with the Dyaks 

 of Borneo; on the contrary under circumstances which 

 would excite a blush in us, they assert " that they feel the 

 blood drawn from their faces." 



13 Transact, of the Ethnological Soc. 1S70, vol. ii. p. 16. 



