580 The Descent of Man. Part HI. 



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, accoi'ding 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 nke 

 " a dog, and a rosy colour 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 Yura- 

 caras, who inhabit the wooded, damp slopes of the eastern 

 Cordillera, ai-e remarkably pale-coloured, 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 ofl3.ce from having the longest hair of any man in 

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

 yuichuas 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- 

 sidered by the North American Indians " as very vulgar," and 

 every hair is carefully eradicated. This practice prevails 

 throughout the American continent from Vancouver's Island in 

 the north to Tierra del Euego in the south. When York 

 Minster, a Fuegian on board the 'Beagle,' was taken back to 

 his country, the natives told him he ought to pull out the few 

 short hairs on his face. They also threatened a young missionary, 

 who was left for a time with them, to strip him naked, and 

 pluck the hairs from his face and body, yet he was far from laeing 

 a hairy man. This fashion is carried so far that the Indians of 

 Paraguay eradicate their eyebrows and eyelashes, saying that 

 (hey do not wish to be like horses."" 



=2 For the JavaDS and Couhin- G. Catlin, 3rd edit. 1842, vol, i. p. 



Chinese, see Waitis, ' Introduct. to 49 ; vol. ii. p. 227. On the natives 



Anthropology,' Eng. t2-.\nslat. vol. i. of Vancouver's Islaad, see Sproat, 



p. 305. On the Yui-a-caras, A. ' Scenes and Studies of Savage Life,' 



d'Orligny, as quoted in Prichard, 1868, p. 25. On the Indians o( 



' Phys. Hist, of Mankind,' vol. v. 3rd Paraguay, Azara, ' Voyages,' torn, ii 



^dit. p. 476. p. 105. 



** *Noith American Indiane,' by 



