ANIMALS. 417 



moisture from the body, and it is split at the 

 points ; so that a single hair, at its end, resembles 

 a brush. Whatever be the size or the shape of 

 the pore through which the hair issues, it accom- 

 modates itself to the same ; being either thick, as 

 they are large ; small, as they are less ; round, 

 triangular, and variously formed as the pores 

 happen to be various. The hair takes its colour 

 from the juices flowing through it ; and it is 

 found that this colour differs in different tribes 

 and races of people. The Americans and the 

 Asiatics have their hair black, thick, straight, 

 and shining. The inhabitants of the torrid cli- 

 mates of Africa have it black, short, and woolly. 

 The people of Scandinavia have it red, long, 

 and curled; and those of our own, and the 

 neighbouring countries, are found with hair of 

 various colours* However, it is supposed by 

 many, that every man resembles in his disposi- 

 tion the inhabitants of those countries whom he 

 resembles in the colour and the nature of his 

 hair ; so that the black are said, like the Asiatics, 

 to be grave and acute ; the red, like the Gothic 

 nations, to be choleric and bold. However this 

 may be, the length and the strength of the hair 

 is a general mark of a good constitution ; and as 

 that hair which is strongest is most commonly 

 curled, so curled hair is generally regarded 

 among us as a beauty. The Greeks, however, 

 had a very different idea of beauty in this res- 

 pect ; and seem to have taken one of their pe- 

 culiar national distinctions from the length and 

 the straightness of the hair. 

 VOL. i. D d 



