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Show 318 BLUSHING. CHAP. XIII was old, rlnmsy, poor, and ragged, and the idea of his driving himself about in his carriage for display amused Mr. Stack so much that he could not help bursting out into a laugh; and then ''the old man blushed up to the ''roots of his hair." Forster says that " you may easily " distinguish a spreading blush " on the cheeks of tl1e fairest women in Tahiti.12 The natives also of several of the other archipelagoes in the Pacific have been seen to blush. Mr. Washington MatthewR has often seen a blush on the faces of the young squaws belonging to various wild Indian tribes of North America. At the opposite extremity of the continent in Tierra del Fuego, the natives, according to Mr. Bridges, " blush much, but "chiefly in regard to women; but they certainly blush " also at their own personal appearance.'' This latter statement agrees with what I remember of ihe Fuegian, Jem1ny Button, who blushed when he was quizzed about the care which he took in poliRhing his shoes, and in otherwise adorning himself. \Vith respect to the Aymara Indians on the lofty plateaus of Bolivia, Mr. ],orbes says,13 that from the colour of their skins it is impossible tbat their blushes should b~ as clearly 12 J. R. Forster, 'Observations during a Voyflge round the World,' 4to, 1778, p. 229. Waitz gives ('Introduction to Antltl·opology,' Eng. translat. 1863, vol. i. p. 135) references for other islands in the Pn.cific. See, also, Dampier 'On the Blushing of the Tunquinese ' (vol. ii. p. 40) ; but I have not consulted this work. Waitz quotes Bergmann, that the Kalmucks do not blush, but this may be doubted after what we haYe seen with respect to the Chinese. He also quotes Roth, who denies tltat the Abyssinians are capable of blushing. Unfortunatdy, Capt. Speedy, who lived so long with the Abyssinian~, has not answered my inquiry on this head. Lastly, I must add that the Rajah Brooke has never observed the least sign of a blush with the Dyaks of Borneo; on the contrary, under circumstances which would excite a blush jn us, they aAsert "that they feel the blood drawn from their faces.'' 13 Trausact. of the Ethnological Soc. 1870, vol. ii. p. 16. CHAP. XIII. BJ,USHING. 319 visible as in the white race ; still under such circunl-tauces as would rai e a blu h in u , " there can always ,; be seen the sa1ne expre sion of modesty or confusion; '' and even in the dark, a rise of temperature of the " skin of the face can be :D It, exactly as occurs in the "European." vVith the Indians who inhabit the hot, equable, and damp parts of South America, the skin appar ntly do s not answer to mental xcitement so readily as with the natives of the northern and southern parts of the continent, who have long been exposed to gr at vicissitudes of climate; for Humboldt quotes without a protest the Aneer of the Spaniard, '' How can " those be trusted, who know not how to blush?" 14 Von Spix and l\lartius) in speaking of the aborigines of Brazil, as 'ei't that they cannot properly be ajd to blush; "it was only aft r long intercourse with th " whites, and after r ceiving some education, that we ~' perceived in the Indians a change of colour expre s" ive of the emotjons of their minds.'' 15 It is, however, incredible that the power of blushing could have thus originated; but the habit of self-attention, consequ nt on their education and new course of life, would have n1uch increased any innate tendency to blush. . Several trustworthy observers have assured me that they have seen on the faces of negroes an appearance resembling a blu h, under circumstances which would have excited one in us, though their skins were of an ebony-black tint. Some de~cribe it as blu .. hinO' brown b ' Lut 1noRt say that the blackness becomes more intense. An increased supply of blood in the skin seems in some manner to increase its blackness; thus certain exanthenlatous dis ases cause the affected places in the H Humboldt, 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. trn.nslat. vol. iii. p. 229. ll Quoted IJy Prichard, Phys. Hist. of Mankind, 4th euit. 1851, vol. i. p. 271. |