MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



461 



exclude the influence of civili- 

 zation. Besides, with copper- 

 coloured men, as with the whites, 

 luxury and effeminacy, by 

 weakening the physical consti- 

 tution, had heretofore rendered 

 defoi-mities more common at 

 Couzco and Tenochtitlan. It is 

 not among the Mexicans of the 

 present day, who are all labourers, 

 and leading the most simple lives, 

 that Montezuma would have 

 found the dwarfs and hump-backs, 

 that Bernal Diaz saw waiting at 

 his table when he dined.* The 

 custom of marrying very young, 

 according to the testimony of the 

 monks, is no way detrimental to 

 population. This precocious nu- 

 bility depends on the race, and 

 not on the influence of a climate 

 excessivel}' warm. It is found on 

 the north-west coast of America, 

 among the Eskimoes, and in Asia, 

 among the Kamtschadales, and 

 the Coriacs, where girls of ten 

 years old are often mothers. It 

 may appear astonishing, that the 

 time of gestation, the duration of 

 pregnancjs is never altered in a 

 state of health, with any race, or 

 in any climate. 



The Chaymas are almost with- 

 out beard on the chin, like the 

 Tungooses, and other nations of 

 the Mongul race. They pluck 

 out the few hairs that appear ; 

 but it is not just to say in general, 

 that they have no beard merely 

 because they pluck out the hairs. 

 Independently of this custom, the 

 greater part of the natives would 

 be nearly beardless.f I say the 



* Bernal Diaz, Hist. verd. de la 

 Nueva Espana, 1030, cap. 91, p. 68. 



+ There would nerrr have been 

 any difference of opinion between 



greater jiart, for there exist 

 tribes, which, appearing distinct 

 among the others, are so much 

 more worthy of fixing our atten- 

 tion. Such are in North America 

 the Chippeways,* visited by Mac- 

 kenzie, and the Yabipaees,t near 

 the Toltec ruins at Moqui, with 

 bushy beards ; in South America, 

 the Patagonians, and the Gua- 

 ranies. Among these last indivi- 

 duals are found, some of whom 

 have hairs on the breast. When 

 the Chaymas, instead of extracting 

 the little hair they have on the 

 chin, attempt to shave themselves 

 frequently, their beard grows. I 

 have seen this experiment tried 

 with success by young Indians, who 

 served at mass, and who anxiously 

 wished to resemble the Capuchin 

 Fathers, their missionaries, and 

 masters. The greater part of the 

 people, however, have as great an 

 antipathy to the beard, as the 

 Eastern nations hold it in rever- 

 ence. This antipathy is derived 

 from the same source as the 

 predilection for flat foreheads, 

 which is seen in so singular a 

 manner in the statues of ths 

 Azteck heroes and divinities. 



physiologists upon the existence of 

 tlie beard among the Americans, if 

 they had paid attention to what the 

 first historians of the Conquest of 

 their country have said on this sub- 

 ject; for example, Pigafetta, in 1519, 

 in his journal preserved in the Am- 

 brosian Library at Milan, and pub- 

 lished (in 1800) by Amoretti, p. 18; 

 Benzoni, Hist, del Mundo Nuovo, 

 1572, p. 35; Bembo, Hist. Venet., 

 1557, p. 86. 



* Between latitude 60" and 65" 

 north. 



t Humb., Nouv. Esp.T. ii, p. 410. 



Nations 



