342 
sexual selection: man. 
Part II. 
‘“things women Lave; men have beards, women have 
“ ‘ none. What kind of a person would she be without 
“ ‘ the peloid ? She would not be a woman at all with a 
“ * mouth like a man, but no beard.’ ” 43 
Hardly any part of the body, which can be unna- 
turally 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 , 44 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 
“ idles on our lips ; else when we grow old we shall be 
“ so very ugly.” With the men of New Zealand, a most 
capable judge 45 says, “to have fine tattooed faces was 
“ fde 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 
43 Livingstone, British Association,’ I860; report given in the 
* Athenaeum,’ July 7, 1860, p. 29. 
44 Sir S. Baker (ibid. vol. i. p. 210) speaking of the natives of Central 
Africa says, “every tribe has a distinct and unchanging fashion for 
“ dressing the hair.” Sec Agassiz (‘ .Tourney in Brazil,’ 1868, p. 318) 
on the invariability of the tattooing of the Amazonian Indians. 
45 Kev. E. Taylor, < New Zealand and its Inhabitants,’ 1855, p. 152. 
