S56 VARIETIES OF FIGURE. 



mined to unite all kinds of personal embellishment. " They 

 make three incisions in the under lip ; they place in the mid- 

 dle one a flat bone, or a small coloured stone ', and in each 

 of the side-ones a long pointed piece of bone, which bends 

 and reaches almost to the ears. They likewise make a hole 

 through the gristle of the nose, into which they put a small 

 piece of bone in such a manner as to keep the nostrils ex- 

 tended. They also pierce holes in the ears, and wear in 

 them what little ornaments they can procure*." 



The barbarous Chinese custom of contracting the feet of 

 women, and the great extent to which their irrational pur- 

 pose is accomplished, are well known. While the Euro- 

 peans were expressing their surprise at such an absurdity, 

 and pitying the sufferers, they were constantly permitting 

 under their own eyes the equally, If not more pernicious 

 practice of tight stays ; by which I have seen the figure of 

 the thorax completely and permanently altered at its lower 

 part f. 



When the male New-Hollanders approach the age of pu- 

 berty, they have one of the front incisors of the upper jaw 

 knocked out, with a curious set of ceremonies described and 

 delineated by Mr. Collins J. The women of these people 

 and of some others, particularly in the South Sea, are 

 often seen to have lost one or two joints of the little 

 finger. The exact nature and object of both these mutila- 

 tions are not understood. 



Many travellers have spoken of the large and pendulous 

 mammae of the females of certain barbarous tribes, particu- 

 larly in Africa. There is no original differences in these 

 cases ; the Hottentots and Negresses, previously to child- 

 bearing, have bosoms as finely formed as any women ; but 

 after this time the breasts become very loose and flaccid, 



* CoxE, p. 176, 177. A similar custom prevailed among the Brazilians* 

 SouTHEY, History of Brazil^ v, i. p. 11. 



+ These small-waisted damsels are placed by Li\n^,i.is among the monstrous 

 varieties of our species ; '* junceae puellae, abdomine attennato, Europcre." 



^ Account uf the English Colony, &c. Appendix; with eight illustrative 

 engravings. 



