28 
however, think just the reverse, and accordingly shave their heads 
quite close, and as this used to be performed with either a sharp 
flint or the fine edge of a shell, the operation must have been some- 
what painful and prolonged, and is a proof of what a price people 
will pay to be in the fashion. Curiously enough, the men wear 
the most elaborate coiffeur, which requires great art in building 
up, and is destined to last a whole life time, thus reversing our 
idea of the proper fashion for dressing the hair of the two sexes, 
for men wear the hair long, women short. The men, too, wear a 
long bone, or wooden pin thrust through their locks, but this pro- 
bably is not entirely for ornament. Some of the African tribes 
consider eyebrows unbecoming to a woman, so they are carefully 
eradicated with pinchers. Just now red hair happens to be in 
fashion, and many ladies and some savages (notably in the Pacific 
Islands) convert their naturally dark hair into a tawny red, by 
means of lime, and other ingredients. I remember the time when 
red hair was almost a reproach to a woman. Nor can we men 
boast much, for the way we cultivate, or shave off, or trim, or 
stiffen, our beards and moustaches, is as unreasonable and caprici- 
ous as any of the vagaries of female fashion. 
One would have thought the teeth, on whose soundness so much 
of our health and comfort depends, would have been left alone, but 
various African tribes modify them in every conceivable manner ; 
thus we have teeth pointed, serrated, filed flat and even, or made 
to show the darker dentine beneath by filing off the enamel. Many 
tribes consider white teeth extremely ugly (i.e. unfashionable), and 
stain them black or yellow; others not only stain them, but drill holes 
through them with infinite labour and insert plugs of brass or gold, 
which being kept bright by the friction of the lips, produce no 
doubt a very brilliant effect. 
There is no fashion more universal than piercing the ears, 
and inserting various forms of ornament in the aperture. Our 
ladies have not yet come to wearing nose-rings, though no 
doubt, they would do it if some English Princess or Parisian 
notoriety were to set the example. Civilized women moreover 
do not wilfully enlarge the opening in the lobe of the ear more 
than necessary for the insertion of a small ring. Now in New 
Zealand the hole of the ear is gradually enlarged by progressive 
stretching, until a well-dressed, or tattoed man of fashion can in 
some instances put his arms through them. Ordinarily they are 
used as pockets, and pipes, chisels, teeth, and nails of dead 
relatives, the eyes of a slain enemy, or any little odd trifle of that 
kind is inserted into them. Some Mexican tribes fill them up with 
bone or polished wood. The lipis too tempting a part to escape 
mutilation. Some of the Indians of 8. Brazil, insert long plugs 
