FORM AND FASHION 47 



them, and this they could not do by the tail alone. 

 If they were near enough to recognise them, they 

 would be able, probably, to follow them by sight 

 alone, tail or no tail, nor would another white 

 powder-pufF be liable to lead them astray, as other- 

 wise it might do. With antelopes, indeed, which 

 have to follow one another, so as not to stray from 

 the herd, a light-coloured patch, or wash upon the 

 hinder quarters, might be an advantage ; but as 

 some of the kinds that have ^ it are handsomely 

 ornamented on the face and body, and as the wash 

 of colour behind is often, in itself, not inelegant, 

 why should not one and all be for the sake of 

 adornment, or, rather, is it not more likely that 

 they are so ? No one, I suppose, who believes in 

 sexual selection at all, will be inclined to explain 

 the origin of the coloured posterior surface in the 

 mandril, and some other monkeys, in any other way. 

 To me, having regard to certain primary facts in 

 the sexual relations of all animals, it does not 

 appear strange that this region should, in many 

 species, have fallen under the influence of the latter 

 power. Can we, indeed, say, taking the Hottentots 

 and some civilised monstrosities of feminine costume 

 that do most sincerely flatter them into considera- 

 tion, that it has not done so in the case of man ? 



The protective theory, as applied to animals that 

 hunt, or are hunted, by night, seems plausible only 

 if we suppose that the enemies against whom they 

 are protected, are human ones. But even if man has 

 been long enough upon the scene to produce such 

 modification, who can imagine that he has had 

 1 Darwin mentions one conspicuous instance. 



