The Descent of Man

in exchange the chica necessary to paint himself
red." (43. Humboldt, 'Personal Narrative,' Eng.
translat. vol. iv. p. 515; on the imagination
shewn in painting the body, p. 522; on modifying
the form of the calf of the leg, p. 466.) The
ancient barbarians of Europe during the Reindeer
period brought to their caves any brilliant
or singular objects which they happened to
find. Savages at the present day everywhere
deck themselves with plumes, necklaces, armlets,
ear-rings, etc. They paint themselves in the
most diversified manner. "If painted nations,"
as Humboldt observes, "had been examined
with the same attention as clothed nations, it
would have been perceived that the most fertile
imagination and the most mutable caprice have
created the fashions of painting, as well as those
of garments."
In one part of Africa the eyelids are coloured
black; in another the nails are coloured yellow
or purple. In many places the hair is dyed of