233 



cording to the ideas that we annex to beauty ; 

 yet the girls have something soft and melan- 

 choly in their looks, which forms an agreea- 

 ble contrast with the expression of the mouth, 

 which is somewhat austere and savage. They 

 wear the hair plaited in two long tresses ; they 

 do not paint their skin, and from their extreme 

 poverty are acquainted with no other ornaments 

 than necklaces and bracelets made of shells, 

 birds' bones, and seeds. Both men and women 

 are very muscular, but fleshy and plump. It 

 is superfluous to add, that I saw no person, who 

 had any natural deformity ; I might say the 

 same of thousands of Caribs, Muyscas, and Mex- 

 ican and Peruvian Indians, whom we observed 

 during the course of five years. Bodily defor- 

 mities, deviations from nature, are infinitely 

 rare among certain races of men, especially 

 those nations, who have the dermoid system 

 highly coloured. I cannot believe, that they 

 depend solely on the progress of civilization, 

 a luxurious life, or the corruption of morals. 

 In Europe a deformed or very ugly girl mar- 

 ■ ries if she have a fortune, and the children often 

 inherit the deformity of the mother. In the 

 savage state, which is a state of equality, no- 

 thing can induce a man to unite himself to a 

 deformed woman, or one who is very unhealthy. 

 If therefore such a woman have had the raisfor 



