572 THE DESCENT OP MAN. 



different about the beauty of their women, valuing them solely 

 as slaves; it may therefore be well to observe that this conclusion 

 does not at all agree with the care which the women take in 

 ornamenting themselves, or with their vanity. Burchell" gives 

 an amusing account of a Bush-woman who used as much grease, 

 red ochre, and shining powder "as would have ruined any but a 

 "very rich husband." She displayed also "much vanity and too 

 "evident a consciousness of her superiority." Mr. Winwood Reade 

 informs me that the negroes of the West Coast often discuss the 

 beauty of their women. Some competent observers have attrib- 

 uted the fearfully common practice of infanticide partly to the 

 desire felt by the women to retain their good looks." In several 

 regions the women wear charms and use love-philters to gain 

 the affections of the men; and Mr. Brown enumerates four plants 

 used for this purpose by the women of North- Western America."' 



Hearne,™ an excellent observer, who lived many years with the 

 American Indians, says, in speaking of the women, "Ask a North- 

 "ern Indian what is beauty, and he will answer, a broad flat face, 

 "small eyes, high cheek-bones, three or four broad black lines 

 "across each cheek, a low forehead, a large broad chin, a clumsy 

 "hook nose, a tawny hide, and breasts hanging down to the belt." 

 Pallas, who visited the northern parts of the Chinese empire, 

 says "those women are preferred who have the Mandschti form; 

 "that is to say, a broad face, high cheek-bones, very broad noses, 

 "and enormous ears;""' and Vogt remarks that the obliquity of 

 the eye, which is proper to the Chinese and Japanese, is exag- 

 gerated in their pictures for the purpose, as it "seems, of exhibit- 

 "ing its beauty, as contrasted with the eye of the red-haired bar- 

 "barians." It is well known, as Hue repeatedly remarks, that 

 the Chinese of the interior think Europeans hideous, with their 

 white skins and prominent noses. The nose is far from being 

 too prominent, according to our ideas, in the natives of Ceylon; 

 yet "the Chinese in the seventh century, accustomed to the flat 

 "features of the Mongol races, were surprised ait the prominent 

 "noses of the Cingalese; and Thsang described them as having 

 " 'the beak of a bird, with the body of a man.' " 



Finlayson, after minutely describing the people of Cochin China, 



" 'Travels in S. Africa,' 1824, vol. i. p. 414. 



" See, for references, Gerland 'Ueber das Aussterben der Naturvol- 

 ker,' 1868, s. 51, 53, 55; also Azara 'Voyages,' c&c. torn. ii. p. 116. 



'^ On tlie vegetable proauctions used by tiie North- Western Ameri- 

 can Indians, 'Pharmaceutical Journal,' vol. x. 



■" 'A Journey from Prince of Wales Port,' Svo. edit. 1796, p. 89. 

 s' Quoted by Prichard, 'Phys. Hist, of Mankind," 3rd edit. vol. Iv. 

 1844, p. 519; Vogt, 'Lectures on Man,' Eng. translat. p. 129. On the 

 opinion of the Chinese on the Cingalese, E. Tennent, 'Ceylon,' 1859, 

 vol. Ii. p. 107. 



