Chap. XIX. 
LOVE OF ORNAMENTS. 
339 
“the cliica necessary to paint himself red .” 37 The 
ancient barbarians of Europe during the Reindeer period 
brought to their caves any brilliant or singular objects 
which they happened to find. Savages at the present 
day everywhere deck themselves with plumes, neck- 
laces, armlets, earrings, &c. They paint themselves in 
the most diversified manner. “ If painted nations,” as 
Humboldt observes, “ had been examined with the same 
“ attention as clothed nations, it would have been per- 
“ ceived that the most fertile imagination and the most 
“ mutable caprice have created the fashions of painting, 
“ as well as those of garments.” 
In one part of Africa the eyelids are coloured black ; 
in another the nails are coloured yellow or purple. In 
many places the hair is dyed of various tints. In dif- 
ferent countries the teeth are stained black, red, blue, 
&c., and in the Malay Archipelago it is thought shame- 
ful to have white teeth like those of a dog. Not one 
great country can be named, from the Polar regions in 
the north to New Zealand in the south, in which the 
aborigines do not tattoo themselves. This practice was 
followed by the Jews of old and by the ancient Britons. 
InAfriea some of the natives tattoo themselves, but it 
is much more common to raise protuberances by rubbing 
salt into incisions made in various parts of the body ; 
and these are considered by the inhabitants of Kordofan 
and Darfur “ to be great personal attractions.” In the 
Arab countries no beauty can be perfect until the cheeks 
“or temples have been gashed .” 38 In South America, 
ns Humboldt remarks, “a mother would be accused of 
37 Humboldt, ‘Personal Narrative,’ Eng. translat. vol. iv. p. 
on the imagination shewn in painting the body, p. 022 ; on modifying 
the form of the calf of the leg. p. 466. 
38 1 The Nile Tributaries,’ 1867 ; 1 The Albert N’yanzn,’ 1866, vol. l. 
p. 218. 
Z 2 
