3i8 FASHION IN DEFORMITY xx 



the world, and marked changes in at least all more or less 

 civilised communities have characterised successive epochs of 

 history. Not only the length and method of arrangement, 

 but even the colour of the hair, is changed in obedience to 

 caprices of fashion. In many of the islands of the Western 

 Pacific the naturally jet black hair of the natives is converted 

 into a tawny brown by the application of lime, obtained by 

 burning the coral found so abundantly on their shores ; and 

 not many years since similar means were employed for pro- 

 ducing the same result among the ladies of Western Europe 

 a fact which considerably diminishes the value of an idea 

 entertained by many ethnologists, that community of custom 

 is evidence of community of origin or of race. 



Notwithstanding the painful and laborious nature of the 

 process, when conducted with no better implements than flint 

 knives, or pieces of splintered bone or shell, the custom of 

 keeping the head closely shaved prevails extensively among 

 savage nations. This, doubtless, tends to cleanliness, and 

 perhaps comfort, in hot countries ; but the fact that it is in 

 many tribes practised only by the women and children shows 

 that these considerations are not those primarily engaged in 

 its perpetuation. In some cases, as among the Fijians, while 

 the heads of the women are commonly cropped or closely 

 shaved, the men cultivate, at great expense of time and 

 attention, a luxuriant and elaborately arranged mass of hair, 

 exactly reversing the conditions met with in the most highly 

 civilised nations. 



In some regions of Africa it is considered necessary to 

 female beauty carefully to eradicate the eyebrows, special 

 pincers for the purpose forming part of the appliances of the 

 toilette ; while the various methods of shaving and cutting 

 the beard among men of all nations are too well known to 

 require more than a passing notice. The treatment of finger 

 nails, both as to colour and form, has also been subject to 

 fashion; but the practical inconveniences attending the in- 

 ordinate length to which these are permitted to grow in some 

 parts of the east of Asia appear to have restricted the custom 

 to a few localities. (See Fig. 13, p. 319.) 



It may be objected to the introduction of this illustration 



