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The Descent of Man

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and Africa even the eyebrows and eyelashes<br />

are eradicated. <strong>The</strong> natives <strong>of</strong> the Upper Nile<br />

knock out the four front teeth, saying that they<br />

do not wish to resemble brutes. Further south,<br />

the Batokas knock out only the two upper incisors,<br />

which, as Livingstone (47. 'Travels,' p.<br />

533.) remarks, gives the face a hideous appearance,<br />

owing to the prominence <strong>of</strong> the lower<br />

jaw; but these people think the presence <strong>of</strong> the<br />

incisors most unsightly, and on beholding some<br />

Europeans, cried out, "Look at the great teeth!"<br />

<strong>The</strong> chief Sebituani tried in vain to alter this<br />

fashion. In various parts <strong>of</strong> Africa and in the<br />

Malay Archipelago the natives file the incisors<br />

into points like those <strong>of</strong> a saw, or pierce them<br />

with holes, into which they insert studs.<br />

As the face with us is chiefly admired for its<br />

beauty, so with savages it is the chief seat <strong>of</strong><br />

mutilation. In all quarters <strong>of</strong> the world the septum,<br />

and more rarely the wings <strong>of</strong> the nose are<br />

pierced; rings, sticks, feathers, and other orna-

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