228 STATURAL AND CIVIL 



from the wants, desires, and inclinations, pecu- 

 liar to situation and employment, will be the; 

 same in the same state of society. A hunter in 

 Asia, and a hunter in America, will have near- 

 ly the same character, the same occupations, 

 pursuits, and manners. But those customs 

 which do not arise from situation, or from any 

 natural want or desire, may be termed arbitrary : 

 And the probability is, that two nations would 

 not agree in these, unless they were derived 

 from the one to the other. Several of these 

 aj-bitrary customs, were common to the men of 

 Asia and America. 



One of these customs, was that of extracting 

 their beards with the roots. The Tartars and 

 the Americans, had both adopted this practice. 

 Both of them appeared either wholly without a 

 beard, or only with a few scattered hairs : And 

 both of them made it their practice to extract or 

 pluck them out with the roots. Something of 

 the same kind is practised by the Chinese. 

 The Tartar and the American had both con- 

 tracted the same wandering or roving disposi- 

 tion, contrary to the customs and dispositions 

 of most nations ; who seldom have any disposi- 

 tion to desert their connexions and country, 

 until they are compelled to it by necessity or 

 force. They had both adopted the same meth- 

 od of war ; wasting, destroying, and burning a 

 country. The custom of scalping the dead, 

 was one of the barbarous habits the Scythians 

 practised. They cut a circle round the nedks 

 of diose which they had slain, stripped off the 

 skin, and carried 'it with them in triumph. In 

 their marches, the Kamtschatkacs never went 



