A VOYAGE TO 
downward *. Their eye-brows are alfo fcanty, and always 
narrow; but the hair of the head is in great abundance, 
* One of the moft curious fingularities obfervable in the natural hiftory of the human 
ipecies, is the fuppofed defeat in the habit and temperature of the bodies of the American 
Indians, exemplified in their having no beards, while they are furnifhed with a profufion 
of hair on their heads. M. de Paw, the ingenious author of Recherches fur les Ameri- 
cains ; Dr. Robertfon, in his Hiftory of America ; and, in general, the writers for whofe 
authority we ought to have the higheft deference, adopt this as an indifputable matter of 
fadl. May we not be permitted to requeft thofe who efpoufe their fentiments, to re- 
confider the queftion, when we can produce Captain Cook’s evidence on the oppofite 
fide, at leaft fo far as relates to the American tribe, whom he had intercourfe with at 
Nootka ? Nor is Captain Cook fingular in his report. What he faw on the fea coaft, 
Captain Carver alfo met with amongft the American Indians far up in the country. 
His words are as follow : 44 From minute inquiries, and a curious infpedtion, I am able 
44 to declare (however refpedtable I may hold the authority of thefe Hiftorians in other 
w points), that their aifertions are erroneous, and proceeding from a want of a thorough 
44 knowledge of the cuftoms of the Indians. After the age of puberty, their bodies, in 
u their natural ftate, are covered in the fame manner as thofe of the Europeans. The 
44 men, indeed, efteem a beard very unbecoming, and take great pains to get rid of it; 
44 nor is there any ever to be perceived on their faces, except when they grow old, and 
“ become inattentive to appearances.—The Naudoweffes, and the remote nations, pluck 
44 them out with bent pieces of hard wood, formed into a kind of nippers ; whilft thofe 
44 who have communication with Europeans, procure from them wire, which they 
44 twill into a fcrew or worm ; applying this to the part, they prefs the rings together, 
44 and with a fudden twitch draw out all the hairs that are inclofed in them.” Carver's 
Travels , p. 224, 225. The remark made by Mr. Marfden, who alfo quotes Carver, 
is worth attending to, that the vizor or mafk of Montezuma’s armour, preferved at 
Bruflels, has remarkably large whilkers ; and that thofe Americans could not have imi¬ 
tated this ornament, unlefs nature had prefented them with the model. From Captain 
Cook’s obfervation on the Weft coaft of North America, combined with Carver’s in 
the inland parts of that continent, and confirmed by the Mexican Vizor as above, there 
feems abundant reafon to agree with Mr. Marfden, who thus modeftly exprefies himfelf: 
cc Were it not for the numerous and very refpedtable authorities, from which we are 
44 allured that the natives of America are naturally beardlefs, I Ihould think that the com- 
44 mon opinion on that fubject had been haftily adopted ; and that their appearing thus at 
44 a mature age, was only the confequence of an early practice, fimilar to that obferved 
44 among the Sumatrans. Even now, I muft confefs, that it would remove fome fmall 
“ degree of doubt from my mind, could it be afccrtained that no fuch cuftom prevails.” 
Marfden* s Hiftory of .Sumatra, p. 39, 40. 
very 
