212 On the peoj}Hng of America. 



Cherokee chief. As the Indians seem to know that they have 

 been regarded as an inferior, beardless race of men, it is not im- 

 probable that the custom ot wearing whiskers, such as we have 

 observed, by some of their chiefs, may have originated in pride ; 

 or it may be considered as a mark of seniority and rank. A dark 

 skin does not show the beard when siiaved, but whiskers are very 

 conspicuous. The habit of shaving is modern among the In- 

 dians, and such is probably the use of whiskers, for the ancient 

 tu"tom was to pluck out the beard. It was pulled out by the 

 finger nails, as some of them allege, and others of them describe 

 other modes by which it was extirpated. The tedious hours of 

 an idle savage, sitting on the ground more than half his time ; 

 without work, without books, without converse, and almost 

 without thought, must have been relieved by the frequent and 

 trifling exercise of plucking the beard. And it is not improbable 

 that the desire of some employment, which required little mo- 

 tion, and little exertion of the mind, gave rise to that other ab- 

 surd, but very common practice among savages, tatooing, or 

 marking the skin by various paints and figures. It appears 

 strange, at first sight, that a custom so unnatural as pricking 

 the skin, and marking it with different paints, should prevail 

 among the savage nations in Africa and Asia, in the South Seas 

 and in America. The Arabs mark their lips, as well as the arms 

 and body, with blue paint*. Customs like these, which originated 

 in whim, or rather in the desire of relieving tedious iionrs by 

 some employment, produce a considerable change in the exter- 

 nal form: and that adventitious form is soon regarded as a cri- 

 terion of beauty; it becomes general in the nation. The Indians, 

 like the Tartars, frequently cut the hair from the greater part 

 of their head. This custora was prior to the use of scissars 

 among them. Some old Indians whom I consulted on this sub- 

 ject, allege that their ancestors, not having sharp instruments, 

 hnd recourse to fire, such is tlieir tradition, for removing the 

 hair. They singed it oiF with a live coal of hickorv, or some 

 otiier hard wood. Those observations on tiie subject of beards, 

 perfectly agree with the testimony of other people, I have been 

 assured !<y traders and gentlemen who have conversed much with 

 the Indians, and lived among them on terms of the utmost 

 familiarity, that Indians, in all cases, have hair, exactly as 

 white people have it; without any difference, except that it is 

 thinner. As their taste begins to change, from their acquaintance 

 with white people, they are less solicitous at present to extir- 

 pate those hairs which are not supposed, as formerly, to mar the 

 beauty. 



* Pietro della Valie. The savage mountaineers in the kingdom of Ava, 

 ia India, disfigure themselves by tutooing. 



We 



