58 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



with great canine teeth, which served them 

 as formidable weapons." * 



You will observe that Darwin abstains 

 from accounting for the absence of the tail 

 in the present race of mankind, or of the 

 beard in the better and more gentle 

 female sex. I once met with a reason for the 

 latter, which I give for what it is worth 

 not as my own opinion, but as stated in a 

 lady's album belonging to the first half of 

 the 19th century, and who happened to be 

 one of the most worthy and best of her 

 sex. The reason given was expressed in 

 poetic strains to the following effect, that 

 beards were denied them because (oh ! tell 

 it not in Gath) 



" Their tongues would never let their chins be still," 

 were they to require the calm and 

 placid art of shaving. Nor does he seek 

 to account for the way in which the race 

 lost their tails; nor does he attempt to 

 define the shape of the caudal appendage 

 which once ornamented the dorsal ex- 



* See Appendix F. 



