2'J2 VARIETIES IN THE HAIR, BEARD, . 



American nations which have little beard, proves that the 

 absence of tliis excrescence is not a sure sign of weakness*; 

 wliile its existence in the New Hollanders f, the people of 

 Tanna, Mallicollo J, &c. shews that its presence does not 

 necessarily indicate vigour or beauty. 



* •' The Mexicans, particularly those of the Azteck and Otomite races, 

 have more beard tlian ] ever saw in any other Indians of South America. 

 Almost all the Indians in the neighbourhood of the capital wore small mus- 

 tachios, and this is even a mark of the tributary cast. These mustachios, 

 which modern travellers have also found among the inhabitants of the 

 north-west coast of America, are so much the more curious, as celebrated 

 naturalists have left the question undetermined, whether the Americans are 

 naturally destitute of beard and of hair on the rest of their bodies, or whether 

 they pluck them carefully out. Without entering here into physiological 

 details, I can affirm that the Indians who inhabit the torrid zone of South 

 America have generally some beard ; and that this beard increases when they 

 shave themselves, of wliich we have seen examples in the missions of the 

 Capuchins of Caripe, where the Indian sextons wish to resemble the monks 

 their masters. But many individuals are i.aturally destitute of beard and 

 hair on their bodies. 



" Mr. De Galeano, in the account of the last Spanish expediiion to the 

 Straits of Magellan, informs us that there are many old men among the Pata- 

 gonians with beards, though they arc short, and by no means bushy. {^Viaje al 

 Estrecho de Mogalhaens, p. 331. On comparing this assertion with the facts 

 collected by Marchand, Meaks, and especially Mr. Volt^tey, in the northern 

 temperate zone, we are tempted to believe that the Indians have more and 

 more beard in proportion to their distance from the equator. However, this 

 apparent want of beard is by no means peculiar to the American race; for 

 many hordes of Eastern Asia, and especially many tribes of African Negroes? 

 have so little beard, that we should be almost tempted to deny its existence. 

 The Negroes of Congo, and the Caribs, two eminently robust races, fre- 

 quently of a colossal stature, prove, that to look on a beardless chin as the 

 sure sign of the degeneration and physical weakness of the human species, 

 is a mere physiological dream. We forget that all which has been observed 

 in the Caucasian races, does not apply equally to the Mongol or American 

 race, or to the African Negroes." Humboldt, Political Essai/, v. i. p. 147, 

 148. 



+ Collins' Jcconnt of the English Colony in New South Wales ; p. 550. 



+ The Mallicollese have strong, crisp, and bushy beards ; although they 

 are called "an ape-like nation," and the ugliest seen in the South Sea. 

 Cook, Voyage toicards the South Pole; v. ii. p. 34. plate 4T. Of the Tan- 

 nese and New Caledonians, see ibid. p. 118; plates 26 and 39; and 

 Forster's 05serufl^/'o;js, p. 2S8. 



