The Open court . a woman is nottattooed in this world, she will have to be in the next, where insteadof the operation being spread over a period, it will be done at asingle sitting, and then with very sharp knives. A similar explana-tion has been given for removing the eyebrows. In Borneo, they 674 THE OPEN COURT. say evil spirits are hairy like monkeys, and as the people have nowish to resemble such spirits, they pull their eyebrows out. Hairdressing is another important feature in the toilet of theladies and gentlemen of uncivilized races. It has been said thatmost African natives look upon
The Open court . a woman is nottattooed in this world, she will have to be in the next, where insteadof the operation being spread over a period, it will be done at asingle sitting, and then with very sharp knives. A similar explana-tion has been given for removing the eyebrows. In Borneo, they 674 THE OPEN COURT. say evil spirits are hairy like monkeys, and as the people have nowish to resemble such spirits, they pull their eyebrows out. Hairdressing is another important feature in the toilet of theladies and gentlemen of uncivilized races. It has been said thatmost African natives look upon those who let their hair grow withoutpersonal attention as little better than wild beasts; certain it is thatwhile, as among some Congo tribes, not a particle of clothing may beworn, great attention is bestowed on working the hair into the mostelabora;te patterns of the hairdressers art. The Yaos, Anyanja, and other races of East and Central Africashave the head and never let the hair grow more than two inches in. Fig. 14. LENGUA INDIAN OF PARAGUAY. (By the courtesy of the South American Missionary Society.) length, and this is clipped and shaved into all sorts of heads are shaved both sides, a little narrow band being leftin the middle running from the forehead to the nape of the the Karamojo of Central Africa, the hair is plastered withclay and cow-dung, the whole being worked up to form a peoples, including the ancient Greeks, have held the hairto be particularly sacred and that a spirit or god resided thereinwhich must not be disturbed. If the hair were to be cut the godwould lose his abode, hence with some tribes to-day the hair ofpriests, wizards, and kings is always worn long. It is related of theFijians that so sacred was the hair of a chief held to be, when it SAVAGE LIFE AND CUSTOM. 675 became necessary to cut it, it was essential for him to eat a manbefore he underwent the process; the sacrifice averting any evilinfluence that
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade188, booksubjectreligion, bookyear1887
