Chap. XIX.] BEAUTY. 329 



far from being too prominent, according to our ideas, in 

 the natives of Ceylon ; yet " the Chinese in the seventh 

 century, accustomed to the flat features of the Mogul 

 races, were surprised at the prominent noses of the Cinga- 

 lese ; and Thsang described them as having ' the beak of 

 a bird, with the body of a man.' " 



Finlayson, after minutely describing the people of 

 Cochin-China, says that their rounded heads and faces are 

 their chief characteristics ; and he adds, " The roundness of 

 the whole countenance is more striking in the women, who 

 ai"e reckoned beautiful in proportion as they display this 

 form of face." The Siamese have small noses with diver- 

 gent nostrils, a wide mouth, rather thick lips, a remarkably 

 large face, with very high and broad cheek-bones. It is, 

 therefore, not wonderful that " beauty, according to our 

 notion, is a stranger to them. Yet they consider their own 

 females to be much more beautiful than those of Eu- 

 rope." '' 



It is well known that with many Hottentot women the 

 posterior part of the body projects in a wonderful manner ; 

 they are steatopygous ; and Sir Andrew Smith is certain 

 that this peculiarity is greatly admired by the men." He 

 once saw a woman who was considered a beauty, and she 

 was so immensely developed behind, that when seated on 

 level ground she could not rise, and had to push herself 

 along until she came to a slope. Some of the women in 

 various negro tribes are similarly characterized ; and, ac- 

 cording to Burton, the Somal men " are said to choose 

 their wives by ranging them in a line, and by picking her 



^^ Prichard, as taken from Crawfurd and Finlayson, ' Phys. Hist, of 

 Mankind,' vol. iv. pp. 534, 535. 



53 " Idem illustriasimus viator dixit mihi prsecinctorium vel tabula 

 faeminse, quod nobis teterrimum est, quondam permagno aestimari ab 

 hominibus in hac gente. Nunc res mutata est, et censet talem confor- 

 mationem minime optandam est." 



