570 THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



presence of tlie incisors most unsightly, and on beholding some 

 Europeans, cried out, "Look at the great teeth!" The chief 

 Sebituani tried in vain to alter this fashion. In various parts of 

 Africa and in the Malay Archipelago the natives file the incisors 

 into points like those of a saw, or pierce them with holes, into 

 which they insert studs. 



As the face with us is chiefly admired for its beauty, so with 

 savages it is the chief seat of mutilation. In all quarters of the 

 world the septum and more rarely the wings of the nose are 

 pierced; rings, sticks, feathers, and other ornaments being in- 

 serted into the holes. The ears are everywhere pierced and sim- 

 ilarly ornamented, and with the Botocudos and Lenguas of South 

 America the hole is gradually so much enlarged that the lower 

 edge touches the shoulder. In North and South America and in 

 Africa either the upper or lower lip is pierced; and with the 

 Botocudos the hole in the lower lip is so large that a disc of wood, 

 four inches in diameter, is placed in it. Mantegazza gives a curious 

 account of the shame felt by a South American native and of 

 the ridicule which he excited, when he sold his tembeta, — the 

 large colored piece of wood which is passed through the hole. In 

 Central Africa the women perforate the lower lip and wear a crys- 

 tal, which, from the movement of the tongue, has "a wriggling 

 "motion, indescribably ludicrous during conversation." The wife 

 of the chief of Latooka told Sir S. Baker* that Lady Balier "would 

 "be much improved if she would extract her four front teeth 

 "from the lower jaw, and wear the long pointed polished crystal 

 "in her under lip." Further south with the Makalolo, the upper 

 lip is perforated, and a large metal and bamboo ring, called a 

 pelele, is worn in the hole. "This caused the lip in one case 

 "to project two inches beyond the tip of the nose; and when 

 "the lady smiled the contraction of the muscles elevated it over 

 "the eyes. 'Why do the women wear these things?' the ven- 

 "erable chief, Chinsurdi, was a,sked. Evidently surprised at such 

 "a stupid question, he replied, 'For beauty! They are the only 

 " 'beautiful things women have; men have beards, women have 

 " 'none. What kind of a person would she be without the pelele? 

 " 'She would not be a woman at all with a mouth like a man, 

 " 'but no beard.' "" 



Hardly any part of the body, which can be unnaturally modi- 

 fled, has escaped. The amount of suffering thus caused must 

 have been extreme, for many of the operations require several 

 years for their completion, so that the idea of their necessity 

 must be imperative. The motives are various; the men paint their 



« 'The Albert N'yanza,' 1866, vol. i. p. 217. 



*' Livingstone, 'British Association,' 1860; report given in the 

 'Athenaeum.' -Tuly 7, ISGO, p. Sj. 



