Chap. XIX.] BEAUTY. 335 



extirpating every trace of a beard, and generally all the 

 hairs on the body, offers one illustration. The skull has 

 been greatly modified during ancient and modern times 

 by many nations ; and there can be little doubt that this 

 has been practised, especially in Xorth and South Amer- 

 ica, in order to exaggerate some natural and admired pe- 

 culiarity. Many American Indians are known to admire 

 a head flattened to such an extreme degree as to appear 

 to us like that of an idiot. The natives on the north- 

 western coast compress the head into a pointed cone; 

 and it is their constant practice to gather the hair into a 

 knot on the top of the head, for the sake, as Dr. Wilson 

 remarks, " of increasing the apparent elevation of the 

 favorite conoid form." The inhabitants of Arakhan " ad- 

 mire a broad, smooth forehead, and in order to produce it 

 they fasten a plate of lead on the heads of the new-born 

 children." On the other hand, " a broad, well-rounded 

 occiput is considered a great beauty " by the natives of 

 the Fiji islands." 



As with the skull, so with the nose ; the ancient Huns 

 during the age of Attila were accustomed to flatten the 

 noses of their infants with bandages, " for the sake of ex- 

 aggerating a natural conformation." With the Tahitians, 

 to be called long-nose is considered as an insult, and they 

 compress the noses and foreheads of their children for the 

 sake of beauty. So it is with the Malays of Sumatra, the 

 Hottentots, certain Negroes, and the natives of Brazil." 



^ On the skulls of the American tribes, see Nott and Gliddon, * Types 

 of Mankind,' 1854, p. 440 ; Pritchard, ' Phys. Hist, of Mankind,' vol. i. 3d 

 edit. p. 321 ; on the natives of Arakhan, ibid. vol. iv. p. 537. Wilson, 

 'Physical Ethnology,' Smithsonian Institution, 1863, p. 288; on the 

 Fijians, p. 290. Sir J. Lubbock (' Prehistoric Times,' 2d edit. 1869, p. 

 506) gives an excellent resume on this subject. 



«5 On the Huns, Godron, 'De I'Espece,' tom. ii. 1859, p. 300. On the 

 Tahitians, Waitz, ' Anthropolog.' Eng. translat. vol. i. p. 305. Marsden, 



