22 lavater's 
The wandering Arabs, and fome AfhcRn wo- 
men, paint the chin and lips with an indelible 
blue; adorning other parts of their bodies with fan- 
taftical figures, in the fame colour. 
The Moguls tear up their flelh into the fliape of 
flowers, like the effea of cupping-glaffes ; and^ 
being painted with the juice of roots, thefe orna- 
ments make their perfons refembje a piece of co- 
loured manufaflure. 
The Tunquinefe and Siarqefe bjacken the teeth 
with a kind of varnifh, pretending that their na- 
tural whjtenefs is unbeconiing, fince it puts man 
upon a par with other living creatures ^ and, in 
order to make this whimfical change durable, they 
fubmit to an abftinence of feveral days under that 
painful operation. But thefe fayages^ and the ne- 
groes on the coaftof Guinea, have a ftill ftranger 
cuftom, which is, to run the noflrils through with 
a peg about four inches long, and of a finger’s 
breadth ; fo that its two ends, touching the cheek- 
bone, apparently diminifh the fize of the nofe : they 
likewife wear ftill larger pins in their ears. 
Every fimilar cuftom increafes the natural de- 
formity of people far removed from the ftandard of 
perfection, confiftent with our ideas. Indeed, na- 
ture feems to have treated them as ill-favoured 
children of a crofs ftep-mother. In point of tafte^ 
they furnifh no models in their drefs, caprice, igno- 
rance, and habits of life; for, accuftomed to fee 
their 
