326 SEXUAL SELECTION: MAN. [Part IL 



without the pelele? She would not be a woman at all 

 with a mouth like a man, but no board.' " " 



Hardly any part of the body, which can be unnaturally 

 modilied, has escaped. The amount of sufiering thus 

 caused must have been wonderfully great, for many of the 

 operations require several years for their completion, so 

 that the idea of their necessity must be imperative. The 

 motives are various ; the men paint their bodies to make 

 themselves appear terrible in battle ; certain mutilations 

 are connected with religious rites ; or they mark the age 

 of puberty, or the rank of the man, or they serve to dis- 

 tinguish the tribes. As with savages the same fashions 

 prevail for long periods,** mutilations, from whatever 

 cause first made, soon come to be valued as distinctive 

 marks. But self-adornment, vanity, and the admiration 

 of others, seem to be the commonest motives. In regard 

 to tattooing, I was told by the missionaries in New Zea- 

 land, that when they tried to persuade some girls to give 

 up thei)ractiec. they answered, "We must just have a few 

 lines on our lips ; else when we grow old we shall be so 

 very iigly." With the men of New Zealand, a most 

 capable judge " says, " To have fine tattooed faces was the 

 great ambition of the young, both to render themselves 

 attractive to the ladies, and conspicuous in war." A star 

 tattooed on the forehead and a spot on the chin are 

 thought by tlie women in one part of Africa to be irresisti- 

 ble attractions. *" In most, but not all parts of the world, 

 the men, are more highly ornamented than the women, 



^^Livingstone, 'British Association,' 1860; report given in the 

 ' AthcncPum,' July 7, 1860, p. 29. 



** Sir S. Baker (ibid. vol. i. p. 210), speaking of the natives of Central 

 Africa, says, "Every tribe has a distinct and unchanging f;ishion for 

 dressing the hair." See Agassiz (' Journey in Brazil,' 1868, p. 318) on 

 the invariability of the tattooing of the Amazonian Indians. 



** Rev. R. Taylor, 'New Zealand and its Inhabitants,' 1855, p. 152. 



** Mantegazza, ' Viaggi e Studi,' p. 542. 



