568 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



ancestors long ago aroused each other's ardent passions, during 

 their courtship and rivalry. 



The Influence of Beauty in determining the Marriages of Man- 

 hind. — In civilized life man is largely, but by no means exclu- 

 sively, influenced In the choice of his wife by external appear- 

 ance; but we are chiefly concerned with primeval times, and our 

 only means of forming a judgment on this subject is to study 

 the habits of existing semi-civilized and savage nations. If it can 

 be shown that the men of different races prefer women having 

 various characteristics, or conversely with the women, we have 

 then to inquire whether such choice, continued during many gen- 

 erations, would produce any sensible effect on the race, either on 

 one sex or both according to the form of inheritance which has 

 prevailed. 



It will be well first to show in some detail that savages pay the 

 greatest attention to their personal appearance.*"' That they have 

 a passion for ornament is notorious; and an English philosopher 

 goes so far as to maintain, that clothes were first made for orna- 

 ment and not for warmth. As Professor Waitz remarks, "how- 

 "ever poor and miserable man is, he finds a pleasure in adorning 

 "himself." The extravagance of the naked Indians of South 

 America in decorating themselves is shown "by a man of large 

 "stature gaining with difliculty enough by the labor of a fortnight 

 "to procure in exchange the chica necessary to paint himself 

 "red."" The ancient barbarians of Europe during the Reindeer 

 period brought to their caves any brilliant or singular objects 

 which they happened to find. Savages at the present day every- 

 where deck themselves with plumes, necklaces, armlets, ear-rings, 

 &c. They paint themselves in the most diversified manner. "If 

 "painted nations," as Humboldt observes, "had been examined 

 "with the same attention as clothed nations, it would have been 

 "perceived that the most fertile imagination and the most muta- 



*- A full and excellent account of the manner in which savages in all 

 parts of the world ornament themselves, is given by the Italian trav- 

 eler. Prof. Mantegazza, 'Rio de la Plata, Viaggi e Studi,' 1867, pp. 525- 

 545: all the following statements, when other references are not 

 given, are taken from this work. See, also, Waitz, 'Introduct. to An- 

 thropolog.' Bng. transl. vol. i. 1863, p. 275, et passim. Lawrence also 

 gives very full details in his 'Lectures on Physiology,' 1S22. Since this 

 chapter was written Sir J. Lubbock has published his 'Origin of 

 Civilization,' 1870, in which there is an interesting chapter on the 

 present subject, and from which (pp. 42, 48) I have taken some facts 

 about savages dyeing their teeth and hair, and piercing their teeth. 



*' Humboldt, 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. Translat. vol. iv. p. 515; on 

 the imagination shown in painting the body, p. 522; on modifying the 

 form of the calf of the leg, p. 466. 



