574 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



"color, and, indeed, this color is considered handsome through- 

 "out the whole country;" so that here we have a different stand- 

 ard of taste. With the Kafirs, who differ much from negroes, 

 "the skin, except among the trihes near Delagoa Bay, is not usually 

 "black, the prevailing color being a mixture of black and red, 

 "the most common shade being chocolate. Dark complexions, as 

 "being most common are naturally held in the highest esteem. 

 "To be told that he is light-colored, or like a white man, would 

 "be deemed a very poor compliment by a Kafir. I have heard 

 "of one unfortunate man who was so very fair that no girl would 

 "marry him." One of the titles of the Zulu king is "You who are 

 "black.""' Mr. Galton, in speaking to me about the natives of 

 S. Africa, remarked that their ideas of beauty seem very different 

 from ours; for in one tribe two slim, slight, and pretty girls were 

 not admired by the natives. 



Turning to other quarters of the world; in Java, a yellow, not 

 a white girl, is considered, according to Madame Pfeiffer, a beauty. 

 A man of Cochin China "spoke with contempt of the wife of the 

 "English Ambassador, that she had white teeth like a dog, and a 

 "rosy color like that of potato-flowers." We have seen that the 

 Chinese dislike our white skin, and that the N. Americans admire 

 "a. tawny hide." In S. America, the Yuracaras, who inhabit the 

 wooded, damp slopes of the eastern Cordillera, are remarkably 

 pale-colored, as their name in their own language expresses; 

 nevertheless they consider European women as very inferior to 

 their own."^ 



In several of the tribes of North America the hair on the head 

 grows to a wonderful length; and Catlin gives a curious proof 

 how much this is esteemed, for the chief of the Crows was 

 elected to this olfice from having the longest hair of any man in 

 the tribe, namely ten feet and seven inches. The Aymaras and 

 Quichuas of S. America, likewise have very long hair; and this, 

 as Mr. D. Forbes informs me, is so much valued as a beauty, 

 that cutting it off was the severest punishment which he could 

 inflict on them. In both the Northern and Southern halves of 

 the continent the natives sometimes increase the apparent length 

 of their hair by weaving into it fibrous substances. Although 

 the hair on the head is thus cherished, that on the face is con- 



«' Mungo Park's 'Travels in Africa.' 4to. 1816, pp. 63, 131. Burton's 

 statement is quoted by Schaaffhausen, 'Archiv. fur Anthropolog.' 1866, 

 s. 163. On the Banyai, Livingstone, 'Travels,' p. 64. On the Kafirs, 

 the Rev. J. Shooter, 'The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country,' 1857, 



p. 1. 



»* For the Javans and Cochin-Chinese, see Waitz, 'Introduct. to 

 Anthropology,' Eng. translat. vol. i. p. 305. On the Yura-caras, A. 

 d'Orligny, as quoted in Prichard, 'Phys. Hist, of Mankind,' vol. v. 3rd 

 edit. p. 476. 



