378 The Descent of Man. Part III. 



Hearne,'* an exceKent observer, who lived many j'ears with tha 

 A^merican Indians, says, in speaking of the women, " Ask a 

 '' Northern Indian what is beauty, and he will answer, a broad 

 " flat face, small eyes, high cheek-bones, three or four broad 

 •' black lines aoi'oss 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 Mandschu 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 exaggerated in their pictures for the 

 purpose, as it " seems, of exhibiting its beauty, as contrasted 

 " with the eye of the red-haired barbarians." 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 at 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, says that their rounded heads and faces are their chief 

 characteristics ; and, he adds, " the roundness of the whole 

 " countenance is more striking in the women, who are reckoned 

 " beautiful in proportion as they display this form of face." The 

 Siamese have small noses with divergent nostrils, a wide mouth, 

 rather thick lips, a remarkably large face, with very high and 

 broad cheek-bones. It is, therefore, not wonderful that " beauty, 

 " according to our notion is a stranger to them. Yet they oon- 

 " sider their own females to be much more beautiful than those 

 " ol Europe. '"5* 



It is well known that with many Hottentot women the 

 posterior part 'of the body projects in a wonderful manner ; they 

 u,>e steatopygous ; and Sir Andrew Smith is certain that this 

 p«culiarity is greatly admired by the men.™ He once saw a 



"■ ' A Journey from Prince of furd and Finlayson, ' Phys. Hist, of 



Waies Fovt,' 8vo. edit. 1796, p. 89. Mankind,' vol. iv. pp. 534, 535. 



" Quoted by Prichard, ' Phys. ^' Idem illusti-issimus viator dixit 



Hist, of Mankind,' 3rd edit. vol. iv. mihi prsEciuctorium vel tabulam 



]R44, p. 519; Vogt, 'Lectures on fceminte, quod nobis teterrimum est, 



Man,' Eng. translat. p. 129. On quondam permagno jestimari ab 



the opinion of the Chinese on the hominibus in hie gente. Nrnc res 



r!ingalesi;,F,.TenDent, 'Ceylon,' 1859, mutata est, et censent talem con- 



vul. ii p. 1117. formationem niiniuie ojitanJiim ei«f, 



" Pi'idiard as taien from Craw- 



