SEXUAL SELECTION. 247 



above robust virtues were married, and produced offspring 

 in larger numbers than other women. As before re- 

 marked of bodily strength, although men do not now 

 fight for their wives, and this form of selection has 

 passed away, yet during manhood they generally under- 

 go a severe struggle in order to maintain themselves and 

 their families ; and this will tend to keep up or even 

 increase their mental powers, and, as a consequence, the 

 present inequality between the sexes. 



" CHARACTERISTIC SELFISHNESS OF MAN." 



_ 77 In most, but not all parts of the world, the 



men are more ornamented than the women, 

 and often in a different manner ; sometimes, though 

 rarely, the women are hardly at all ornamented. As the 

 women are made by savages to perform the greatest share 

 of the work, and as they are not allowed to eat the best 

 kinds of food, so it accords with the characteristic selfish- 

 ness of man that they should not be allowed to obtain or 

 use the finest ornaments. Lastly, it is a remarkable fact, 

 as proved by the foregoing quotations, that the same 

 fashions in modifying the shape of the head, in ornament- 

 ing the hair, in painting, tattooing, in perforating the 

 nose, lips, or ears, in removing or filing the teeth, etc., 

 now prevail, and have long prevailed, in the most distant 

 quarters of the world. It is extremely improbable that 

 these practices, followed by so many distinct nations, 

 should be due to tradition from any common source. 

 They indicate the close similarity of the mind of man, to 

 whatever race he may belong, just as do the almost uni- 

 versal habits of dancing, masquerading, and making rude 

 pictures. 



