SEXUAL SELECTION. 240 



to become as beautiful as the Venus de' Medici, we should 

 for a time be charmed ; but we should soon wish for va- 

 riety ; and, as soon as we had obtained variety, we should 

 wish to see certain characters a little exaggerated beyond 

 the then existing common standard. 



p ^ It is well known that with many Hotten- 



tot women the posterior part of the body 

 projects in a wonderful manner ; they are steatopygous ; 

 and Sir Andrew Smith is ceiiain that this peculiarity is 

 greatly admired by the men. He once saw a woman who 

 was considered a beauty, and she was so immensely de- 

 veloped 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 the various ne- 

 gro tribes have the same peculiarity ; and, according to 

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

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

 projects farthest a tergo. Nothing can be more hateful 

 to a negro than the opposite form." 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE BEAED. 



With respect to the beard in man, if we 

 turn to our best guide, the Quadrumana, we 

 find beards equally developed in both sexes of many spe- 

 cies, but in some, either confined to the males, or more 

 developed in them than in the females. From this fact 

 and from the curious arrangement, as well as the bright 

 colors of the hair about the head of many monkeys, it is 

 highly probable, as before explained, that the males first 

 acquired their beards through sexual selection as an orna- 

 ment, transmitting them in most cases, equally or nearly 

 so, to their offspring of both sexes. "We know from 

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