30 
HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
assigns a decorative origin to the practices in question is not invalidated by the 
fact that one or other of them may be made to constitute a part of the initiatory 
rites ; as for instance among the Port Lincoln (S.A.) tribes* where scarring of 
the body formed the third (final) and most important stage of initiation. Facts 
could, I think, be cited of practices originally springing from one set of motives 
becoming adopted, so to speak, to those of another kind, and thus those of a 
non-ceremonial character might eventually gain a ritual or religious significance. 
And there are no doubt many facts which can be alleged to justify the belief 
that the universal desire for adornment, whether of person or clothing, arose in 
the first place as a part of the methods of successful courtship of the opposite 
sex. However much decorative measures generally may have been utilised for 
other purposes, such as making the person terrible in war, or as a part of their 
ceremonials, which comes nearly to the same thing, for many of the latter are 
clearly imitative of combats—in all ostentatious display appears the underlying 
motive. 
In an interesting discussion on this subject Professor Westermarckf points 
out that this desire for self decoration is to a great extent identical with the 
wish to attract attention by the charm of novelty, and he adds that “at all stages 
of civilisation people like a slight variety, but deviations from what they are 
accustomed to see must not be too great, or of such a kind as to provoke a 
disagreeble association of ideas.” 
No doubt there is considerable scope for novelty and variation in the 
decorative patterns which are made upon the body with pigments and other 
materials as part of their ceremonial performances or customs of war. Even the 
scar patterns afford some such scope, but it is difficult to say this much of the 
piercing of the septum or of the knocking out of the teeth ■ though in the case of 
the former it may at least be urged that, equally with the punctured ear-lobe, it 
permits of the expression of some amount of variety of display in the character 
of the ornament worn. 
No similar advantage, however, can be claimed for the knocking out of the 
teeth when the only variation possible is in the number and kind removed, and in 
these respects such variations can hardly be said to exist, for so far as I know the 
selection is limited to one or both of the upper central incisors, and on this ground 
one might hesitate to place this operation in the same category as the others. 
* “ Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln.” C. W. Schlirmann. 
t “ History of Human Marriage.” Westermarck. 
