MAN— LOVE OF ORNAMENT. 569 



"ble caprice have created the fashions of painting, as well as 

 "those of garments." 



In one part of Africa the eyelids are colored black; in another 

 the nails are colored yellow or purple. In many places the hair 

 Is dyed of various tints. In different countries the teeth are 

 stained black, red, blue, &c., and in the Malay Archipelago it is 

 thought shameful to have white teeth "like those of a dog." Not 

 one great country can be named, from the Polar regions in the 

 north to New Zealand in the south, in which the aborigines do 

 not tattoo themselves. This practice was followed by the Jews 

 of old, and by the ancient Britons. In Africa some of the na- 

 tives tattoo themselves, but it is a much more common prac- 

 tice to raise protuberances by rubbing salt into incisions made 

 in various parts of the body; and these are considered by the 

 inhabitants of Kordofan and Darfur "to be great personal at- 

 "tractions." In the Arab countries no beauty can be perfect 

 until the cheeks "or temples have been gashed."" In South 

 America, as Humboldt remarks, "a mother would be accused of 

 "culpable indifference towards her children, if she did not cm- 

 "ploy artificial means to shape the calf of the leg after the fashion 

 "of the country." In the Old and New Worlds the shape of the 

 skull was formerly modified during infancy in the most extraor- 

 dinary manner, as is still the case in many places, and such de- 

 formities are considered ornamental. For instance, the savages 

 of Colombia'^ deem a much flattened head "an essential point 

 "of beauty." 



The hair is treated with especial care in various countries; it 

 is allowed to grow to full length, so as to reach to the ground, or 

 is combed into "a compact frizzled mop, which is the Papuan's 

 "pride and glory."'"' In Northern Africa "a man rectuires a period 

 "of from eight to ten years to perfect his coiffure." With other 

 nations the head is shaved, and in parts of South America and 

 Africa even the eyebrows and eyelashes are eradicated. The na- 

 tives of the Upper Nile knock out the four front teeth, saying 

 that they do not wish to resemble brutes. Further south, the 

 Batokas knock out only the two upper incisors, which, as Liv- 

 ingstone" remarks, gives the face a hideous appearance, owing 

 to the prominence of the lower jaw; but these people think the 



" "The Nile Tributaries,' 1867; 'The Albert N'yanza,' 1866, vol. i. 

 p. 218. 



45 Quoted by Prichard, 'Phys. Hist, of Mankind,' 4th edit. vol. i. 1851, 

 p. 321. 



4° On the Papuans, Wallace, 'The Malay Archipelago,' vol. ii. p. 44.5. 

 On the coiffure of the Africans, Sir S. Baker, 'The Albert N'yanza,' 

 vol. i. p. 210. 



« 'Travels,' p. 633. 



