750 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



races extirpating every trace of a beard, and often all the 

 hairs on the body, affords one illustration. The skull has 

 been greatly modified during ancient and modern times by 

 many nations; and there can be little doubt that this has 

 been practiced, especially in North and South America, in 

 order to exaggerate some natural, and admired peculiarity. 

 Many American Indians are known to admire a head so 

 extremely flattened as to appear to us idiotic. The natives 

 on the northwestern coast compress the head into a pointed 

 cone ; and it is their constant practice to gather the hair into 

 a knot on the top of the head, for the sake, as Dr. Wilson 

 remarks, "of increasing the apparent elevation of the favor- 

 ite conoid form." The inhabitants of Arakhan "admire a 

 broad, smooth forehead, and, in order to produce it, they 

 fasten a plate of lead on the heads of the new-born chil- 

 dren." On the other hand, "a broad, well-rounded occi- 

 put is considered a great beauty" by the natives of the 

 Fiji islands." 



As with the skull, so with the nose; the ancient Huns 

 during the age of Attila were accustomed to flatten the noses 

 of their infants with bandages, "for the sake of exaggerating 

 a natural conformation." With the Tahitians, to be called 

 long-nose is considered as an insult, and they compress the 

 noses and foreheads of their children for the sake of beauty. 

 The same holds with the Malays of Sumatra, the Hottentots, 

 certain Negroes, and the natives of Brazil." The Chinese 

 have by nature unusually small feet ;" and it is well known 

 that the women of the upper classes distort their feet to 



™ On the skulls of the American tribes, see Nctt and Grliddon, "Types of 

 Mankind," 1854, p. 440; Prichard, "Phys. Histoi^^ of Mankind," vol. i., 3d 

 edit., p. 321 ; on the natives of Arakhan, ibid., toL iv. p. 637. Wilson, "Phys- 

 ical Eil',hnology," Smithsonian Institution, 1863, p. 288; on the Fijians, p. 290. 

 Sir J. Lubbock ("Prehistoric Times," 2d edit., 1869, p. 506) gives an excellent, 

 i^umd on this subject. 



" Oa the Huns, Godron, "Oe I'Espdce," torn, ii., 1869, p. 300. On iba 

 Tahitians, Waitz, " Antbiopolog, " Eng. translate, voL i. p. 305. Marsden, 

 quoted by Prichard, "Phys. Hist, of Mankind," 3d edit., vol, v. p. 67. Law- 

 rence, "Lectures on Physiology," p. 337. 



" This fact was ascertained in the "Eeise der ITovara: Anthropolog. Thid," 

 Dr. Weisbach, 1867, s. 265. 



