SEXUAL SELECTION IN RELATION TO MAN 747 



longest hair of any man in the tribe, namely, ten feet and 

 seven inches. The Aymaras and Quichuas of South Amer- 

 ica likewise have very long hair; and this, as Mr. D. Forbes 

 informs me, is so much valued as a beauty, that cutting 

 it o£E 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 considered 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 Fuego 

 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 being a hairy man. This 

 fashion is carried so far that the Indians of Paraguay eradi- 

 cate their eyebrows and eyelashes, saying that they do not 

 wish to be like horses." 



It is remarkable that throughout the world the races 

 which are almost completely destitute of a beard dislike 

 hairs on the face and body, and take pains to eradicate 

 them. The Kalmucks are beardless, and they are well 

 known, like the Americans, to pluck out all straggling 

 hairs; and so it is with the Polynesians, some of the Ma- 

 lays, and the Siamese. Mr. Veitch states that the Japanese 

 ladies "all objected to our whiskers, considering them very 

 ugly, and told us to cut them off, and be like Japanese 

 men." The New Zealanders have short, curled beards; yet 

 they formerly plucked out the hairs on the face. They had 



"» "North American Indians," by G-. Catlin, 3d edit., 1842, vol. i. p. 49; 

 vol. ii. p. 227. On the natives of Tauoouver's Inland, see Sproat, "Scenes and 

 Studies of Savage Life," 1868, p. 26. On the Indians of Paraguay, Azara, 

 "Voyages," torn, ii p. 106. 



