AND COLOUR OF THE IRIS. 2J^ 



The very competent and respectable testimony of Ulloa 

 establishes a general deficiency of beard among the South 

 Americans. " The Indians have no beard ; and the greatest 

 alteration occasioned by their arriving at the years of matu- 

 rity is only a few straggling hairs on the chin ; but so short 

 and thin, as never to require the assistance of a razor*. 

 He states in another place f, that gray hair and beards in- 

 dicate in the American race a very advanced age : the former 

 is not seen till before or about the seventieth year: the 

 latter about the age of sixty, and then slender and thin. 

 BouGUER J; Charlevoix §, the Chevalier De Pinto ||, 

 DoBRizHOFFER ^[j MoLiNA **, and. Humboldt tt, give 

 similar testimony on this point. 



* Travels in South America; v. i. p. 2G7. 



+ Notictas Americanas; v. ii. It is translated into German and French. 



+ Of ilie Peruvians," lis n'ont point de harbe, ni de poll sur la poitrine, 

 ni en aucun endroit du corps." 3Te>n. de V Acad, des Sciences^ 1740, p. 274. 



§ Journal Ilistorique^ p. 311. 



II In Ro-^KRTSos^s History of America; i,461. 



5 De AhiponibuSf ii. 6, 25, & seq. 



** " The Chilians, like the Tartars, have bnt little beard ; and the custom 

 of plucking out the hair, as fast as it grows, makes (hem appear as if beard- 

 less t for this purpose they always carry with them a small pair of pincers, 

 which forms a part of their toilette. There are some of them, however, who 

 have as thick a beard as the Spaniards. The hair which marks the age of 

 puberty they have in still greater quantities than the beard. The opinion 

 that a thin b-ard is the mark of a feeble body is not verified in the case of 

 these people. The Indians are generally vigorous, and are better able to 

 endure fatigue than the Creoles ; for which rejison they are always preferred in 

 those employments that require strength." Natural History of Chili, p. 275. 



The Araucans '* have scarcely any beard ; and the smallest hair is never 

 to be discerned on their faces, from the care they take to pluck out the 

 little that appears." " The same attention is paid to the removing it from their 

 bodies, where its growth is more abundant." Civil History of Chili, p. 55. 



+f "The Chaymas are almost without beard on the chin, like the Tun- 

 gooses, and other nations of the Mongol race. They pluck out the few hairs 

 that appear; but it is not correct to say that they have no beard, merely 

 because they pluck out the hairs. Independently of this custom, the greater 

 part of the natives would be nearly beardless." No controversy would have 

 arisen on this point, if the correct account given by the first historians of the 

 conquest of America had been sufliciently attended to. (See the Journal of 

 PiGAFETTA, published by AsionETTi, 1 800, p. 18. BEyzom, StoriaiklMumlo 



T 



