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reaches quite across the face, and so effectually stops up both nostrils, that they are forced to keep their mouths wide open for breath, and snuffle so when they attempt to speak, that they are scarcely intelligible to each other. Our seamen, with some humour, called it their sprit sail yard; and indeed it had so ludicrous an appearance, that, till we were used to it, we found it difficult to restrain from laughter." He also describes a custom of a peculiar nature which prevails in the Friendly Islands. "The greater part of the inhabitants, both male and female, were observed to have lost one or both of their little fingers. This custom seemed not to be characteristic of rank, of age, or of sex; for, with the exception of some young children, very few people were discovered in whom both hands were perfect. They likewise burn or make incisions in their cheeks."

All the eastern nations are said to have a predeliction for long ears. Some draw the lobe of the ear, in order to stretch it to a greater length, and pierce it so as to allow the admission of an ordinary pendant. The natives of Laos so prodigiously widen the holes in their ears, that a man's hand may be thrust through them. Hence, the ears of these people often descend to the tops of their shoulders.* Gentil assures us, that the women, in the northern parts of China, employ every art in order to diminish their eyes. For this purpose, the girls, instructed by their mothers, extend their eye-lids continually, with the view of making their eyes oblong and small. These properties, in the estimation of the Chinese, when joined to a flat nose, and large, open, pendulous ears, constitute the perfection of beauty.-We are informed by Struys, that the women of Siam wear so large and heavy pendants in their ears, that the holes gradually become wide enough to admit a man's thumb. The natives of New Holland pull out the two fore-teeth of the upper jaw. In Calicut, there is a band of nobles called Naires, who lengthen their ears to such a degree, that they hang down to their shoulders, and sometimes even lower.t The A

* Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, Vol. II. † Ibid.

rabs paint their lips, arms, and the most conspicuous parts of their bodies, with a deep blue colour. This paint, which they lay on in little dots, and make it penetrate the flesh, by puncturing the skin with needles, can never be effaced. Some of the Asiatics paint their eye-brows of a black colour, and others eradicate the hairs with rusma, and paint artificial eye-brows, in the form of a black crescent, which gives them an uncommon and ugly appearance. The inhabitants of Prince William's Sound, paint their faces and hands, bore their ears and noses, and slit their under lips. In the holes made in their noses, they hang pieces of bone or ivory, which are ofter two or three inches long; and, in the slit of the lip, they place a bone or ivory instrument with holes in it, from which they suspend beads that reach below the chin. These holes in the lip disfigure them greatly, for some of them are as large as their mouths.*

Such distortions of the beautiful structure of the human frame, are not peculiar to the savage tribes of the human race, but are practised by nations which have made considerable advances in science and civilization. It is well known that, in China, a ridiculous custom prevails, of rendering the feet of their females so small, that they can with difficulty support their bodies. This is deemed a principal part of their beauty; and no swathing nor compression is omitted, when they are young, to give them this fancied accomplishment. Every woman of fashion, and every woman who wishes to be reckoned handsome, must have her feet so small, that they could easily enter the shoe of a child of six years of age. The great toe is the only one left to act with freedom; the rest are doubled down under the foot, in their tenderest infancy, and restrained by tight bandages, till they unite with, and are buried in the sole. I have inspected a model of a Chinese lady's foot, exactly of this description, which, I was assured, was taken from life. The length was only two inches and three-fourths; the breadth of the base of the heel, seven-eighths of an inch; the breadth of the broadest part of the foot, one and one-fourth of an inch; and

* Portlock's Voyage round the World.

the diameter of the ankle, three inches above the heel, one and seven eighths of an inch. With feet of this description the Chinese ladies may be said rather to totter than to walk; and, by such practices, they evidently frustrate the benevolent intentions of the Creator, and put themselves to unnecessary inconvenience and pain. Yet such is the powerful influence of fashion, however absurd and ridiculous, that women of the middling and inferior classes frequently suffer their feet to be thus maimed and distorted, in order to ape the unnatural customs of their superiors.

We have every reason to believe, that the harsh and ugly features, and the ferocious aspect by which numerous tribes of mankind are distinguished, are owing to such voluntary distortions of the human frame, and to the filthy and abominable practices in which they indulge. Father Tertre assures us, that the flat noses of the negroes are occasioned by a general practice of mothers, who depress the noses of their new-born infants, and squeeze their lips, in order to thicken them; and that those children. who escape these operations have elevated noses, thin lips, and fine features. It is somewhat unaccountable, and it shows the perversity of the human mind, in its present degraded state, that such practices should be so general, and so obstinately persisted in, when we consider the pain and inconvenience with which they are attended. -To pull the hairs of the chin or eye-brows from the roots; to slit the under lip, till the incision be as large as one's mouth; to pierce the nostrils, till a bone as large as a man's finger can be thrust through them; and to cover the body with black streaks, which make the blood to flow at every stroke of the instrument by which they are produced, must be attended with excruciating pain. Sir Joseph Banks, who accompanied Captain Cook in his first voyage, was present, in the island of Otaheite, at the operation of tattooing, performed on the back of a girl of thirteen years of age. The instrument used had twenty teeth; and at each stroke, which was repeated every moment, issued an ichor or serum, tinged with blood. girl bore the pain with great resolution, for some minutes, till, at length, it became so intolerable, that she burst out into violent exclamations; but the operator, notwithstand

The

ing the most earnest entreaties to desist, was inexorable, while two women who attended upon the occasion, both chid and beat her for struggling.

I am therefore disposed to view such absurd and barbarous practices, as intimately connected with the operation of a principle of malevolence, as an attempt to frustrate the wise designs of divine benevolence, and as directly repugnant to the spirit of Christianity, and to the benevolent precepts of the gospel of peace.

And it becomes some of the ladies, and the dandies of modern Europe to consider, whether some of their awkward attempts to improve the symmetry of the human frame ought not to be viewed in the same light. Not many years ago, it was considered, in the higher circles of society, as an admirable improvement of the female form, to give the lower half of the body the appearance of the frustum of a large tun, as if it had been ten times the capacity of its natural size, by supporting their robes with enormous hoops; and, about the same period, the lower ranks of female society considered it as the perfection of proportion and beauty, to have their waists compressed into the smallest possible space, till the vital functions, in many instances, were deranged, and ultimately destroyed. Were the dictates of sound reason universally attended to, and were the influence of Christianity fully felt among all nations, the preposterous and savage practices to which I have now adverted, would not only be discontinued, but held in abhorrence. And were such customs completely abolished, we might soon expect to behold, among all the tribes of mankind, every distortion of the features of the countenance removed, and the human form restored to its original beauty and perfection. Instead of a warlike visage, and a ferocious aspect, and the frightful appearance of naked savages, streaked with colours of black and blue, we should behold, in every land, every countenance beaming with the raditions of benevolence, and reflecting the moral image of the Creator.

363

MALEVOLENCE AS IT APPEARS IN THE RELIGION OF SAVAGE TRIBES.

There is scarcely a nation on the surface of the globe but what appears to have some impressions of the existence of a Superior Power, and to have formed a system of religious worship. But, it is a striking fact, that, among the greater portion of human beings, their religious notions, and their sacred rites, instead of breathing a spirit of kindness and benevolence towards their fellowcreatures, are blended with a principle of hatred and revenge. This might be illustrated by an induction of a great variety of instances, in reference to almost every un civilized portion of the human race. I shall content myself, however, with stating only one instance, in reference to the Nesserie, a tribe not much known in Europe, and which may serve as an example of many others.

The territory of this people extends from Antioch nearly to Tripoli. They occupy almost all the mountains to the east of Latakia, and a great part of the plain. Among them is perceived a mixture of the religious usages of Paganism, of the Jewish law, of that of Mahomet and Ali, and of some dogmas of the Christian Religion.-The women are considered as a part of the domestic animals of the house, and treated as slaves. They have no idea of religion, and when they are bold enough to inquire of their masters concerning it, the latter answer them, that their religion is, to be charged with the reproduction of the species, and to be subject to the will of their husbands. -The Nesserie say their prayers at midnight, and before sun-set. They may say them either sitting, standing, or walking; but they are obliged to begin again repeating their ablution, if they speak to a person not of their religion, if they perceive, either near or at a distance, a camel, a pig, a hare, or a negro. In their prayers, they curse the man who shaves below the chin, him who is impotent, and the two Caliphs, Omar and Abou-Bekr. They detest the Turks, to whom they are sworn enemies. This warlike people of mountaineers would be strong enough to shake off the yoke of the Turks, and live independent

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