PERSONAL DISFIGUREMENT. 
5 
shins being at least as common as among the negroes 
of Africa. 
A singular custom of raising tlie skin in cicatrices, 
especially on the shoulders, breast, and thighS;, prevails 
very generally among the Papuans. These cicatrices are 
formed by cutting the skin through with some sharp 
instrument in longitudinal stripes, and if on the shoulder 
or breast, white ciay, or some other earthy substance, is 
rubbed into the wound, which causes the flesh below to 
rise, and the scarifications, when allowed to heal, assume 
the form of embossed cicatrices, often as large as the 
fi.nger. The process by which the flesh is raised is perfectly 
inexplicable to an European, who would be thrown into 
fever by any one of the wounds which these strange 
people bear, two or three at a time, without complaining, 
h\ii certainly not without suffering. The practice of 
boring the septum of the oose has also been generally 
obser\'€d among the wiidcr Papuans. In the first 
instance they wear a roll of plantain-leaf in the orifice, 
which, by its elasticity, enlarges the hole so much as to 
admit the thigh-bone of a large bird or some other 
ornament, which is worn extending across the face on 
all great occasions. The coast tribes of New Guinea, 
and of the islands lying immediately to the east, have a 
practice of filing or grinding the front teeth to points j 
and another singular custom is prevalent with some of 
the coaat tribes of Papuans, that of destroying the colour 
of the hair, which is naturally black, by applications of 
burnt coral mixed with sea-water, and by preparations of 
wood-ashes in some instances, which gives the hair a 
light red or flaxen tinge. As the practice of pointing 
