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tioned, and his air bold and commanding. When first he was seen approaching the boat, he was raised upon the shoulders of two men, and surrounded by the whole party, shouting and clapping their hands. Besides his cloak, which was only distinguished by its superior size, he wore a necklace of reeds, and several strings of human hair over his breast. His head was adorned with a coronet of the wing-feathers of the swan, very neatly aranged, and which had a pleasing effect. The faces of several were painted with red, white, and yellow clays[1], and others
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- ↑ In viewing the manners of man in his most savage state, in which a cultivated mind sees only disgusting images of wretchedness, we yet cannot fail to notice that universal principle, which seems to act with equal force upon the refined courtier of Europe and the wandering savage of the desert. The Parisian beau cannot take greater pains in adjusting his hair, or perfuming himself self with the odours of the East, than the savage does in bedaubing his face with clays, or anointing his skin with the blubber of the whale. To carry, the proof yet farther, we find that savages who are unacquainted with the adventitious ornaments of dress, have recourse to various methods of altering the natural forms of the limbs or features, or to marking the body with scars, punctures, &c. which they deem highly ornamental. Among some tribes the head is flattened, among others it is rendered more convex, but the nose and ears are the chief objects of their personal vanity, and among all the savage tribes I have seen, they undergo some kind of distortion. As these operations ate performed in infancy, when the parts are flexible, and capable of taking any form, we are often led to conclude, that to be the natural configuration, which is only the effect of artificial distortion.
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