332 SEXUAL SELECTION: MAN. [Part H. 



tives sometimes increase the apparent length of their hair 

 by weaving into it fibrous substances. Although the hair 

 on the head is thus cherished, that on the face is considered 

 by the North American Indians " as very vulgar," and 

 every hair is carefully eradicated. This practice prevails 

 throughout the American Continent from Vancouver's Isl- 

 and in the nortli to Tierra del Fuego in the south. When 

 York jMinster, a Fuegian on board the " Beagle " was taken 

 back to his country, the natives told him he ought to pull 

 out the few short hairs on his face. They also threatened 

 a young missionarj^, who Avas left for a time with them, 

 to strijj him naked, and pluck the hairs from his face and 

 body, yet he was far from a hairy man. This fashion is 

 carried to such an extreme that the Indians of Paraguay 

 eradicate their eyebrows and eyelashes, saying that they 

 do not wish to be like horses." 



It is remarkable that throughout the world the races 

 which are almost completely destitute of a beard dislike 

 hairs on the face and body, and take pains to eradicate 

 them. The Calmucks are beardless, and they are well 

 known, like the Americans, to pluck out all straggling 

 hairs; and so it is with the Polynesians, some of the 

 Malays, and the Siamese. Mr. Veitch states that the 

 Japanese ladies " all objected to our whiskers, considering 

 them very ugly, and told us to cut them oflf, and be like 

 Japanese men." The New-Zealanders are beardless ; they 

 carefully pluck out the hairs on the face, and have a 

 saying that " there is no woman for a hairy man. " " 



" North American Indians,' by G. Catlin, 3d. edit. 1842, vol. i. p. 49; 

 vol. ii. p. 227. On the natives of Vancouver Island, see Sproat. ' Scenes 

 and Studies of Savage Life,' 1868, p. 25. On the Indians of Paraguay, 

 Azara, 'Voyages,' torn. ii. p. 105. 



** On the Siamese, Pritchard, ibid. vol. iv. p. 533. On the Japanese, 

 Veitch in ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1860, p. 1104. On the New-Zealanders, 

 Mautcgazza, ' Viaggi e Studi,' 1867, p. 626. For the other nations men- 



