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Show 350 SEXUAL SELECTION : l\fAN. PAnT JJ. vVe thus sec how widely the different races of man differ in their taste for the beautiful. In every nation sufficiently advanced to have made effigies of their gods or of their deified rulers, the sculptors no doubt have {}ndeavoured to express tl1oir highest i(leal of beauty and grnndeur.61 Uncler this point of view it is well to compare in our mind tho Jupiter or Apollo of tho Greeks with the Egyptian or Assyrian statues; and these with tho hideous bas-reliefs on tho ruined builclinO's of Cen-tral America. n I have met with very few statements opposed to the .above conclusion. Mr. Winwood Reade, however, who has had ample opportunities for observation, not only with the negroes of the West Coast of Africa, but with those of the interior who have never associated with Europeans, is convinced that their ideas of beauty are -on the ~whole the same as ours. He has repeatedly found. that he agreed with negroes in their estimation of tho beauty of,.the native girls; and that their appreciation of the beauty of European women corresponded with ours. They admire long hair, and use artificial means to make it appear abundant ; they admire :also a beard, though themselves very scantily provided. Mr. H.eade feels doubtful what kind of nose is most appreciated : a girl has been heard to say, "I •· do not want to marry him, he has got no nose ; " and ihis shows that a very flat nose is not an o~joct of admiration. vVe should, however, bear in mind that the depressed and very broad noses and pr~jecting jaws of the negroes of the West Coast are exceptional types with the inhabitants of Africa. Notwithstanc1in0' the .r • b 10regomg statements, Mr. Reade does not think it pro- 61 Ch. Comte hns remarks to this eflcet in his 'Traite de Legislation,' 3rd edit. 1837, p. 13G. CHAP. XIX. BEA.UTY. 351 bable tl1at negroes would ever prefer the "most beau"'' tifnl European woman, on the mere gromuls of physical .admiration: to a good-looking negress." 62 The truth of the principle, long ago insisted on by IIumbold.t,63 that man admires and often tries to exaggerate whatever characters nature may ·have given him, is shown in many ways. ~:rhe p~·actice of beardless races extirpating every trace of a beard, and generally all the hairs on the body, offers one illustration. The skull has IJJeen greatly modified clnring ancient and modern times by many nations; and thero can be little doubt that this has been practised, CS]Jecially in N. and S. America, in <>rcler to exaggerate some natural and admired peculiarity. Many American Imlians are known to admire a head. flattened to such an extreme degree as to appear to us like that of an idiot. The natives on the north.: western coast compress the hoarl into a. pointed cone ; .and it is their constant practice to gather the hair into a knot on the top of the head, fo\ tho sake, as Dr. Wilson remarks, '' of increasing the apparent eleva" tion of the favourite conoid form." The inhabitants of .A.rakhan "admire a broad, smooth forehead, and in "' order to produce it, they fasten a plate of loau on the "heads of the new-born children." On the other hand, 62 'fhe Fuegians, as I have been informed by a missionary who long resiuecl with them, com;ider European women as extremely beautiful ; lmt from what we have seen of the judgment of the other aborigines of America, I cannot but think that this must he a mistake, 1mless indeed the statement refers to the few l<'ucgians who have lived for some time with Europeans, anu who must consider us as superior beings. I shoultl :add that a most experienced observer, Capt. Burton, believes that a woman whom we consider beautiful is admired throughout the world, 'Anthropological Review,' Mnrch, 1864, p. 245. 63 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. trnnslat. vol. iv. p. 518, and elsewJwre. Mnntcgnzza, in his 'Vinggi c Stndi,' 1867, strongly insists on this same principle. |