The races of man, and their geographical distribution . ejeeansto Labillardieres portraits of New Caledonians; and afurther acquaintance with the people presented novelty atevery step. Points connected with their personal appear-ance first arrested attention; as the presence of wigs, andthe variety of colours imparted to the hair. Of these, theflaxen or ashy tint alone appeared to be the result of aprocess of dyeing; while the coal-black and the red werederived from the mixture of foreign substances. Among avariety of fashions, the men sometimes wore very numerousslender braids; and though I s
The races of man, and their geographical distribution . ejeeansto Labillardieres portraits of New Caledonians; and afurther acquaintance with the people presented novelty atevery step. Points connected with their personal appear-ance first arrested attention; as the presence of wigs, andthe variety of colours imparted to the hair. Of these, theflaxen or ashy tint alone appeared to be the result of aprocess of dyeing; while the coal-black and the red werederived from the mixture of foreign substances. Among avariety of fashions, the men sometimes wore very numerousslender braids; and though I saw nothing to justify thereport, that the Feejeepns count the separate hairs, theattentions bestowed on the head-dress occupy no inconsider-able portion of their lives. The seeming absence of tattooing was at first attributed tothe circumstance that the Feejee complexion is too dark toshow the markings conspicuously. It appeared, however,that the women have the practice, and cover the markings bythe dress. Ornament and national designation are in this. IP A IP MAIN] A F] THE PAPUAN PACE. 151 case out of the question; and the reasons assigned by theFeejeeans are probably not more reliable than their talesrespecting circumcision and the removal of a occurs among the modern Arabs, derived apparentlyfrom certain nations of antiquity; and there seems everyprobability, that the custom originated with a light-colouredrace. The question will acquire further interest, if it can bemade to appear that in this one instance the Feejeeans haveborrowed a custom from the Polynesians. In many instances, the women were further marked onthe arms and upper part of the breast with elevated scars;such as have been observed to replace tattooing in othercountries where the complexion is very dark. These scarshad sometimes the form of stars, or of concentric circles. With the change in complexion, a change had taken placein national taste in regard to colours; yellow, the favouri
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectethnology, bookyear18
