They place themselves at the distance of two or three yards from each other; they turn their backs to their companions, and take their meal in profound silence.
Various are the opinions and customs of mankind with respect to Female Beauty and Ornaments,—as will be perceived from the following prejudices of different nations.
The ladies in Japan gild their teeth; and those of the Indies paint them red. The blackest teeth are esteemed the most beautiful in Guzerat, and in some parts of America. In Greenland the women colour their faces with blue and yellow; and a Muscovite lady would consider her beauty incomplete, unless she were plastered over with paint, however prodigal nature may have been in her gifts. The Chinese must have their feet as diminutive as those of the she-goats, and to render them thus, their youth is passed in tortures. In ancient Persia, an aquiline nose was often thought worthy of the crown; and if there was any competition between two princes, the people generally went by this criterion of majesty. In some countries, the mothers break the noses of their children; and others press the head between two boards, that it may become square. The modern Persians have a strong aversion to red hair: the Turks, on the contrary, are warm admirers of it. The Indian beauty is thickly smeared with bear’s fat; while the female Hottentot regrets not the absence of silks and wreaths of flowers, if she can but receive from the hand of her lover the warm entrails and reeking tripe of animals he has just slaughtered, that she may deck herself with these enviable ornaments.
In China, small eyes are liked; and the girls are continually plucking their eyebrows, that they may be small and long. The Turkish women dip a gold brush in the tincture of a black drug, which they pass over their eyebrows. This is too visible by day, but it looks shining by night. They also tinge their nails with a rose colour.
An ornament for the nose appears to us perfectly unnecessary. The Peruvians, however, think otherwise; and they hang on it a weighty ring, the thickness of which is regulated by the rank of their husbands. The custom of boring the nose, as our ladies do their ears, is very common in several nations. Through the perforation are hung various materials; such as green crystal, gold, stones, a single and sometimes a great number of gold rings, which become at times rather troublesome to them.
The female head-dress is carried in some countries to singular extravagance. The Chinese fair carries on her head the figure of a certain bird. This bird is composed of copper or of gold, according to the quality of the person: the wings spread out, fall over the front of the head-dress, and conceal the temples; the tail, long and open, forms a beautiful tuft of feathers; the beak covers the top of the nose; the neck is fastened to the body of the artificial animal by a spring, that it may the more freely play, and tremble at the slightest motion.
The extravagance of the Myantses is far more ridiculous than the above. They carry on their heads a slight board, rather longer than the foot, and about six inches broad: with this they cover their hair, and seal it with wax. They cannot lie down, nor lean, without keeping the neck very straight; and the country being very woody, it is not uncommon to find them with their head-dress entangled in the trees. Whenever they comb their hair, they pass an hour by the fire in melting the wax; but this combing is only performed once or twice a year.
To this curious account, extracted from Duhalde, we must join that of the inhabitants of the land of Natal. They wear caps or bonnets, from six to ten inches high, composed of the fat of oxen. They then gradually anoint the head with a purer grease, which mixing with the hair, fastens these bonnets for their lives.
The reader will be amused with the following account of The Various Modes of Salutation.—When men, says the compiler of L’Esprit des Usages et des Coutumes, salute each other in an amicable manner, it signifies little whether they move a particular part of the body, or practise a particular ceremony. In these actions there must exist different customs. Every nation imagines it employs the most reasonable ones. This infinite number of ceremonies may be reduced to two kinds; to reverences or salutations, and to the touch of some part of the human body. Modes of salutation have very different characters, and it is not uninteresting to examine their shades. Many display a refinement of delicacy; while others are remarkable for their simplicity, or sensibility.
The islanders near the Philippines take the hand or foot of him they salute, and with it they gently rub their face. The Laplanders apply their nose strongly against that of the persons they salute. Dampier says, that at New Guinea they are satisfied in placing on their heads the leaves of trees, which have ever passed for symbols of friendship and peace. Other salutations are very incommodious: it requires great practice to enable a man to be polite in an island in the straits of the Sound. Houtman tells us, “they raised his left foot, which they passed gently over the right leg, and thence over his face.” The inhabitants of the Philippines bend their bodies very low, in placing their hands on their cheeks, and raising at the same time one foot in the air, with their knee bent. An Ethiopian takes the robe of another, and ties it about his own waist, so that he leaves his friend half naked. This custom of undressing takes other forms: sometimes men place themselves naked before the person whom they salute, to show their humility, and that they are unworthy of a covering in his presence. This was practised before Sir Joseph Banks, when he received the visit of two Otaheitan ladies. Their innocent simplicity did not appear immodest in the eyes of the virtuoso. Sometimes they only undress partially. The Japanese only take off a slipper; the people of Arracan their sandals in the street, and their stockings in the house. The grandees of Spain claim the right of appearing covered before the king, to shew that they are not so much subjected to him as the rest of the nation.