342 
SEXUAL SELECTIOX: MAX. 
Part IL. 
^ things women have ; men have beards, women have 
^ none. What kind of a person would she be without 
the pelele ? She would not be a woman at all with a 
^ mouth like a man, but no beard.’ 
Hardly any part of the body, which can be unna-^ 
turaliy modified, has escaped. The amount of suffering 
thus caused must have been wonderfully great, for 
many of the operations require several years for their 
completion, so that the idea of their necessity must be- 
imperative. The motives are various ; the men paint 
their bodies to make themselves appear terrible in bat- 
tle; certain mutilations are connected with religious 
rites; or they mark the age of puberty, or the rank 
of the man, or they serve to distinguish the tribes. 
As with savages the same fashions prevail for long 
periods, mutilations, from whatever cause first made,, 
soon come to be valued as distinctive marks. But 
self-adornment, vanity, and the admiration of others,, 
seem to be the commonest motives. In regard to 
tattooing, I was told by the missionaries in New Zealand,, 
that when they tried to persuade some girls to give up 
the practice, they answered, We must just have a few 
lines on our lips ; else when we grow old we shall bo 
so very ugly.” With the men of New Zealand, a most 
capable judge says, to have fine tattooed faces was 
the great ambition of the young, both to render them- 
selves attractive to the ladies, and conspicuous in war.” 
A star tattooed on the forehead and a spot on the chin 
Livingstone, ‘ British" Association/ 1860 ; report given in the 
‘ Athensenm,’ July 7, 1860, p. 29. 
Sir S. Baker (ibid. vol. i. p. 210) speaking of the natives of Cential 
Africa says, “ every tribe has a distinct and unchanging fashion for 
“ dressing the hair.” See Agassiz (‘ Journey in Brazil,’ 1868, p. 318). 
on the invariability of the tattooing of the Amazonian Indians. 
Kev. K. Taylor, ‘Xew Zealand and its Inhabitants,’ 1855, p. 152. 
