742 THE DESCENT OF MAN^ 



men paint their bodies to make themselves appear terrible 

 in battle; certain mutilations are connected with religious 

 rites, or they mark the age of puberty, or the rank of the 

 man, or they serve to distinguish the tribes. Among sav- 

 ages the same fashions prevail for long periods," and thus 

 mutilations, from whatever cause first made, soon come to 

 be valued as distinctive marks. But self -adornment, van- 

 ity, and the admiration of others seem to be the commonest 

 motives. In regard to tattooing, I was told by the mission- 

 aries in New Zealand, that when they tried to persuade some 

 girls to give up the practice, they answered, "We must just 

 have a few lines on our lips; else when we grow old we shall 

 be so very ugly." With the men of New Zealand, a most 

 capable judge" says, "to have fine tattooed faces was the 

 great ambition of the young, both to render themselves at- 

 tractive to the ladies, and conspicuous in war." A star 

 tattooed on the forehead and a spot on the chin are thought 

 by the women in one part of Africa to be irresistible attrac- 

 tions." In most, but not all, parts of the world the men are 

 more ornamental than the women, and often in a different 

 manner; sometimes, though rarely, the women are hardly 

 at all ornamented. As the women are made by savages to 

 perform the greatest share of the work, and as they are 

 not allowed to eat the best kinds of food, so it accords with 

 the characteristic selfishness of man that they should not be 

 allowed to obtain or use the finest ornaments. Lastly, it 

 is a remarkable fact, as proved by the foregoing quotations, 

 that the same fashions in modifying the shape of the head, 

 in ornamenting the hair, in painting, tattooing, in perforat- 

 ing the nose, lips, or ears, in removing or filing the teeth, 

 -etc., now prevail, and_ have long prevailed, in the most dis- 

 tant quarters of the world. It is extremely improbable that 



^ Sir S. Baker (ibid. , vol. i. p. 2 1 0) speaking of the natives of Central Africa, 

 says, "every tribe has a distinct and unchanging fashion for dressing the hair.' 

 See Agassiz ("Journey in Brazil," 1868, p. 318) on the invariability of the tat- 

 tooing of the Amazonian Indians. 



" Rev. E. Taylor, "New Zealand and its Inhabitants," 1865, p. 152 



5' Mantegazza, "Viaggi e Studi," p. 542. 



