From the naked body the ornaments were transferred to clothing, partly because climate made clothes necessary, partly for another reason. “A savage begins,” Professor Moseley says, “by painting or tattooing himself for ornament. Then he adopts a movable appendage, which he hangs on his body, and on which he puts the ornamentation which he formerly marked more or less indelibly on his skin. In this way he is able to gratify his taste for change.”[1110]
It is usually said that man began to cover his body for two reasons: first, to protect himself from frost and damp; secondly, on account of a feeling of shame.
There can be no doubt that, when man emigrated from his warm native home and settled down in less hospitable zones, it became necessary for him to screen himself from the influences of a raw climate. The Eskimo wrap themselves up in furs, and the wretched natives of Tierra del Fuego throw a piece of sealskin over one of their shoulders, “on the side from which the wind blows.”[1111]
The second motive, too, seems acceptable at first sight. The savage men of the tropics, though otherwise entirely naked, commonly wear a scanty dress which Europeans might readily suppose to be used for the sake of decency. Nothing of the sort is found in any other animal species; hence Professor Wundt concludes that shame is “a feeling specifically peculiar to man.”[1112]
But why should man blush to expose one part of the body more than another? This is no matter of course, but a problem to be solved.
The feeling in question cannot be regarded as originally innate in mankind. There are many peoples, who, though devoid of any kind of dress, show no trace of shame, and others who, when they dress themselves, pay not the least regard to what we consider the first requirements of decency.
Thus, in the northern parts of the Californian Peninsula, both men and women have been found in a state of nudity.[1113] Among the Miwok, according to their own confession, persons of both sexes and of all ages were formerly absolutely naked.[1114] Lyman found the same to be the case with the Paiuches in northern Colorado, Columbus with the aborigines of Hispaniola, Pizarro with the Indians of Coca, v. Humboldt with the Chaymas, Wallace with the Purupurús, v. Schütz-Holzhausen with the Catamixis, Prince Maximilian with the Puris at St. Fidelis, Azara with certain Indians in the neighbourhood of the river Paraguay.[1115] In some Indian tribes the men alone go naked,[1116] in others the women.[1117] Again, in North America, Mackenzie met a troop of natives, of whom the men wore many ornaments and much clothing, but had, apparently, not the slightest notion of bashfulness. And of the Fuegians we are told that, although they have the shoulder or the back protected by a sealskin, the rest of the body is perfectly naked.[1118]
The men of most Australian tribes, and in many cases the women, wear no clothes except in cold weather, when they throw a kangaroo skin about their shoulders. “They are as innocent of shame,” says Mr. Palmer, “as the animals of the forests.”[1119] In Tasmania, too, the aborigines were usually naked, or, when they covered themselves, they showed that the idea of decency had not occurred to them.[1120] The same is said of some tribes in Borneo[1121] and Sumatra,[1122] the people of Jarai, bordering upon the empire of Siam,[1123] the inhabitants of the Louisiade Archipelago,[1124] Solomon Islands,[1125] Penrhyn Island, and some other islands of the South Sea;[1126] whilst, in others, only the men generally go naked.[1127] The Papuans of the south-west coast of New Guinea “glory in their nudeness, and consider clothing to be fit only for women.”[1128] In one part of Timor, on the other hand,[1129] as also in a tribe of the Andamanese,[1130] it is the women that are devoid of any kind of covering.
Passing to Africa, we meet with instances of the same kind. Concerning the Wa-taveita of the eastern equatorial region, Mr. Johnston remarks that “both sexes have little notion or conception of decency, the men especially seeming to be unconscious of any impropriety in nakedness. What clothing they have is worn as an adornment or for warmth at night and early morning.”[1131] The Wa-chaga and Mashukulumbe generally go about naked,[1132] and so do the Bushmans, except when they use a piece of skin barely sufficient to cover the back.[1133] Again, among the Bubis of Fernando Po[1134] and the natives of Balonda[1135] and Loango,[1136] the women have no sort of covering, whilst, among the Negroes of the Egyptian Soudan,[1137] the Baris,[1138] Shilluk,[1139] Dinka,[1140] Watuta,[1141] and Masai,[1142] this is the case with the men only. Apud Masaios membrum virile celare turpe existimatur, honestum expromere, atque etiam ostentare.[1143] In Lancerote also, according to Bontier and Le Verrier, the men used no covering; and, in Teneriffe, “the inhabitants went naked, except some few who wore goatskins.”[1144]
It might perhaps be supposed that the feeling of modesty, though not originally innate, appeared later on, at a certain stage of civilization, either spontaneously or from some unknown cause. This seems, indeed, to be the opinion of Professor Wundt, who says that man began to cover himself from decency.[1145] But let us see what covering savages often use.