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Show 34A· SEXUAL SELECTION: l\IAN. PART Jl. their vanity. Burchell 47 gives an amusing account of a Bnsh-woman, who used so mnch grease, red ochre, and shining powder, " as ·would have ruined any Lut a very rich hu ·Land." She displayed also "much vanity and too evident a consciousness of her snpcriority." l\1 r. vVinwood Reade informs me that the negroes of the "West Coast often discuss the beauty of their women. Some competent observers have attributed the fearfully common practice of infanticide partly to the desire felt l>y the women to retain their good looks.'~8 In several regions the women wear charms and lO\'e-philters to gain the affections of the men; and lUr. Brown enumerates four plant. used for this purpose by the women of North-vVestem America. 4.U Hearne,50 who lived many years with the American Indians, and who was an excellent observer, says, in speaking of the women, "Ask a Northern Indian what " is beauty, and he will answer, a broad flat face, small " eyes, high check-bones, three or four broad Llack lines "across each cheek, a low forehead, a large broad chin, "a clumsy hook nose, a tawny hide, and breasts hanging "down to the b8lt." Pallas, who visited the northern parts of the Chinese empire, says "tho o women arc "preferred who have the l\faudschu form · that is to sav " a broad face, high cheek-bones, very b:.oad nose~, a~(l "enormous ears;" 51 and Vogt remarks that the obliquity of the eye, which is proper to the Chinese and Japanese, 47 • Travels inS. Afrir·a,' 182+, vol. i. p. 414. 48 Sec, for references, 'Gcrland i.ibcr das Ausstcrbcn dcr Nuturvi.ilkcr,' GS, s. 51, 53, 55; nlso Azn,ra, • Voyages,' &c. tom. ii. p. llG. 4 " On the vrgctablc productions used by the North-WrRtcrn Am ~ rican Inuians, 'Pharmaceutical Journn.l,' vol. x. •o 'A Journey from Prince of Wulcs Fort,' Svo. edit. 17DG, p. 89. 61 Quoted by Prichard, 'Pbys. IIist. of Mankind,' 3rJ edit. vo1. iv. 184-l, p. 519; Vogt, 'Lectures on Man,' Eng. translat. p. 129. On tho opinion of tho Chinese on tho Cingaloso, E. •renncnt, • Ucylon,' vol. ii. lHj~, p. 107. LIIAP. XlX. BEAUTY. 345 is exaggerated in their pictures for the purpose, a~ it "it seems, of exhibiting its beauty, as contrasted w1th '"the eye of the red-haired barbarians." It is well ]mown, as Hnc repeatedly remarks, that the Chinese of the interior think Europeans hideous with their white ::;kins and prominent noses. 1'he IIOse is far from being too prominent, according to our ideas, in the natives of Ceylon ; yet "the Chinc~e in the seventh century, ac'' customed to the flat features of the Mogul races, were " surprised at the prominent noses of the Cingalese; and "'l'hsang described them as having 'the beak of a bird, "with the body of a man.'" :Finlayson, after minutely describino- the people of Cochin China, says that their rounded heads and faces arc their chief characteristics ; and. he adds, "the "roundness of the whole countenance is more striking ~:in the women, who are reckoned beautiful in propor" tion as they display this form of face." The Siamese have small noses witlt divergent nostrils, a wide month, rather tuick lips, a remarkably large face, with very high and broad cheek-bones. It is, therefore, not wonderful that "beauty, according to our notion is a stranger ~' to them. Yet they consider their own females to be "much more beautiful than those of Europe." 52 It is well known that with many Hottentot women the posterior part of the body projects in a wonderful :mn.nner; they are steatopygous; and Sir Andrew Smith is certn,in that this peculiarity is greatly admired by the mcn.r.3 He once saw a woman "·ho was considered a • 2 Prichard, as taken from Cmwfurd and J."inlayson, 'l'hys. Hi t. of ]\<Iankind,' vol. iv. p. 5H4:, 535. 63 Idem illustrissimus viator dixit mihi prrocinctorimn vel tahula frominre, quod nobis te:tcrrimum est, quondam permugno rostimari ab hominibus in hn,c gcnte. Nunc res mutata est, et ccnsct talem confurmationcm minime optandam e5t." |