DA " ' LABEETIFERY. 81 



Though perhaps not realized in its full force by anthropologists, and 

 obscured by the degradation resulting from contact with civilization, 

 the separation of the immature youth of the two sexes is a feature 

 originally strongly insisted upon in the social practice of all the North- 

 west American tribes I have been in intimate contact with, and with- 

 out doubt of all our aborigines when their culture was in its pristine 

 vigor. The evil results of other causes would be evident to less intelli- 

 gent observers, and the loss of force it would entail in the community 

 would mean, in the long run, defeat, captivity, and extinction amid the 

 struggle of adjacent communities for a continued existence or the in- 

 crease of power. 



It must, of course, be clearly understood that the rite of piercing, 

 circumcision, or tattooing, as such, was, in most if not all cases, not the 

 sole ceremony or condition upon which full community in tribal privi- 

 leges was granted. But each or either of them was originally a part if 

 not the whole prerequisite, and was looked forward to by the youth as a 

 key to that door which opened on the field where his aspirations and 

 desires might find untrammeled exercise. 



In the first instance, therefore, it was probably restricted to males ; 

 vigor and endurance of pain being attributes more necessary to that sex 

 than to the other, in the preservation of the community. As a symbol 

 of maturity and the privilege or obligation of the individual, in connec- 

 tion with communal rights, it might naturally in time be extended to 

 the other sex. 



I believe that the idea of ornament in connection with the object worn 

 as a symbol would always follow, though closely, its adoption on other 

 grounds. The idea that it was a symbol of vigor, fortitude, and mature 

 development would connect with the symbol the admiration naturally 

 excited by the qualities it symbolized, which are in the highest esteem 

 in uncivilized peoples ; and therefore it would be considered as an or- 

 nament without reference to any inherent elegance of form, material, or 

 color. These would afterward be developed, as a matter of course, with 

 the development of aesthetics in other directions, and if this develop- 

 ment in other lines did not take place, the original rudeness of the sym- 

 bol (as in the wooden plug of the Botokudos) would be likely to remain 

 unchanged. 



In most cases the communal sexual freedom it typified would remain 

 the fundamental idea up to a pretty high degree of culture. Amoug 

 the Tliukit the labret was forbidden to slaves, and sexual intercourse 

 with slaves was considered disgraceful to a free man of the community. 



Schmeltz, 1. c, p. 551-'2) is a peculiarity Melanesian trait, finding very full expres- 

 sion at the Anchorites Islands of the New Britain group. Among the Mikronesians 

 simple or nearly simple piercing is known, while among the Polynesians the nose is 

 not pierced and the ears not commonly. In the first-mentioned locality a peculiar 

 significance is attached to the operation, which takesplaceabout the age of six years, 

 and males are rigidly excluded from the ceremony ; but boring the nose among males 

 is attended with no ceremony, although the practice is general. 

 3 ETH 6 



