SEXUAL SELECTION IN RELATION TO MAN 745 



they are steatopygous; and Sir Andrew Smith is certain 

 that this pecuharity is greatly admired by the men." He 

 once saw a woman who was considered a beauty, and she 

 was so immensely developed behind, that when seated on 

 level ground she could not rise, and had to push herself 

 along until she came to a slope. Some of the women in 

 various negro tribes have the same peculiarity; and, ac- 

 cording to Burton, the Somal men "are said to choose their 

 wives by ranging them in a line, and by picking her out 

 who projects furthest a tergo. Nothing can be more hateful 

 to a. negro than the opposite form." '° 



"With respect to color, the negroes rallied Mungo Park 

 on the whiteness of his skin and the prominence of his nose, 

 both of which they considered as "unsightly and unnatural 

 conformations." He in return praised the glossy jet of their 

 skins and the lovely depression of their noses; this, they 

 said, was "honey mouth," nevertheless they gave him food. 

 The African Moors also "knitted their brows and seemed to 

 shudder" at the whiteness of his skin. On the eastern coast, 

 the negro boys, when they saw Burton, cried out, "Look at 

 the white man; does he not look like a white ape ?" On the 

 western coast, as Mr. Winwood Eeade informs me, the ne- 

 groes admire a very black skin more than one of a lighter 

 tint. But their horror of whiteness may be attributed, ac- 

 cording to this same traveller, partly to the belief held by 

 most negroes, that demons and spirits are white, and partly 

 to their thinking it a sign of ill health. 



The Banyai of the more southern part of the continent 

 are negroes, but "a great many of them are of a light coffee- 

 and-milk color, and, indeed, this color is considered hand- 

 some throughout the whole country' ' ; so that here we have 



>9 Idem illustrissimus viator dixit mihi preecinctorium vel tabulam fcemiuse, 

 quod nobis teterrimum est, quondam permagno sestimari ab hominibus in h^ 

 gente. Kunc res mutata est, et censent talem confonnationem minime optan- 

 dam esse. 



«• "Tiie Anthropological Beview," November, 1864, p. 237. For additional 

 references see Waitz, "Introduct. to Anthropology," Eng. translat, 1863, voL 

 i p. 105. 



