The Descent of Man

The general truth of the principle, long ago
insisted on by Humboldt (69. 'Personal Narrative,'
Eng. translat. vol. iv. p. 518, and elsewhere.
Mantegazza, in his 'Viaggi e Studi,' strongly
insists on this same principle.), that man
admires and often tries to exaggerate whatever
characters nature may have given him, is
shewn in many ways. The practice of beardless
races extirpating every trace of a beard, and
often all the hairs on the body affords one illustration.
The skull has been greatly modified
during ancient and modern times by many nations;
and there can be little doubt that this has
been practised, especially in N. and S. America,
in order to exaggerate some natural and admired
peculiarity. Many American Indians are
known to admire a head so extremely flattened
as to appear to us idiotic. The natives on the
north-western coast compress the head into a
pointed cone; and it is their constant practice to
gather the hair into a knot on the top of the
head, for the sake, as Dr. Wilson remarks, "of