OCR Text |
Show 378 SEXUAL SELECTION: !!fAN. PART 11. of denudation. "With respect to the completion of the process through scxun1 selection, it is well to bear in mind the New Zea1and 'proverb, "there is no woman "for a hairy man." All who have seen photographs of the Siamese hairy family will admit how ludicrously hideous is the opposite extreme of excessive hairiness. lienee tho king of Siam had to bribe a man to marry the first hairy woman in the family, who transmitted this character to her young offspring of both sexes.20 Some races arc much more hairy than others, especi~ tlly on the male side; but it must not be assumed that the more hairy races, for instance Europeans, have retained a primordial condition more completely than have the naked races, such as the ICalmucks or Americans. It is a more probable view that the hairiness {)f tho former is due to partial reversion, for characters which have long been inherited are always apt to return. It does not appear that a cold climate has been influential in leading to this kind of reversion ; excepting perhaps with the negroes, who have been reared during several generations, in the United States/1 and possibly ·with the Ainos, who inhabit the northern 20 'Tho Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. 18G8, p. 327. 21 'Investigations into Military and Anthropological Statistics of American Soldiers,' by B. A. Gould, 1869 ; p. 568 :-Observations were carefully made on the pilosity of 212() black and coloured soldiers, whilst they wore bathing; and by looking to tho publisheu table " it " is manifest at a glance that there is but little, if any, diffe~ence "between the white und the black mces in this respect." It is, however, certain that negroes in their native anu much hotter land of Africa, have remarkably smooth bodies. It should bo particularly observed, thut pme blacks and mulattoes were included in the above c~umeration; and thi:; is im unfortunate circumstance, as in accordance w1th the principle, the truth of which I have elsewhere proved, crossed races would be eminently liable to revert to tho primordial lJairy character of their early ape-like progenitors. CHAP. XX. BEARDS. 379 islands of the Japan archipelago. But the laws of inheritance are so complex than we can seldom understand their action. If the greater hairiness of certain races be the 1·esult of reversion, unchecked by any form of selection, the extreme variability of this character, even within the limits of the same race, ceases to be remarl,able. With respect to the beard, if we turn to our best guide, namely the Quadrumana, we find beards equally well developed in both sexes of many species, but in {)thers, either confined to the males, or more developed in them than in the females. From this fact, and from the curious arrangement, as well as the bright colours, of the hair about the heads of many monkeys, it is highly probable, as before explained, that the males first acquired their beards as an ornament through sexual selection, transmitting them in most cases, in an equal or nearly equal degree, to their offspring of both sexes. We know from Eschricht 22 that with mankind, the female as well as the male footus is furnished with much hair on the face, especially round the mouth; and this indicates that we are descended from a progenitor, of which Loth sexes were bearded. It appears therefore at first sight probable that man has retained his beard from a very early period, whilst woman lost her beard at the same time when her body became almost completely divested of hair. Even the colour of the beard with mankind seems to have been inherited from an ape-like progenitor; for when there is any difference iu tint between the hair of the head and the beard, the latter is lighter coloured in all monkeys and in man. There is less improbability in the men of the bearded 22 "Ueber die Riehtung der Haaro am Mensehlichen Korper," in MUller' I:!' Archiv fUr Anat. und Phys.' 1837, s. 40. |