regards it as a point of honour to leave one tuft, in case he ever has the misfortune of being defeated, for it would be mean to cheat his victor of the scalp, the recognised emblem of conquest.

The Islanders of Torres Straits twist their hair into long pipe-like ringlets, and also wear a kind of wig prepared in the same fashion. Sometimes they shave the head, leaving a transverse crest of hair. At Cape York the hair is almost always kept short.1 In Tanna the women wear it short, but have it all laid out in a forest of little erect curls, about an inch and a half long. The men wear it twelve and eighteen inches long, and have it divided into some six or seven hundred little locks or tresses. Beginning at the roots, every one of these is carefully wound round by the thin rind of a creeping plant, giving it the appearance of a piece of twine. The ends are left exposed for about two inches, and oiled and curled.2

The Feejeeans give a great deal of time and attention to their hair, as is shown in Pl. II. Most of the chiefs have a special hairdresser, to whom they sometimes devote several hours a day. Their heads of hair are often more than three feet in circumference, and Mr. Williams measured one which was nearly five feet round. This forces them to sleep on narrow wooden pillows or neck-rests, which must be very uncomfortable. They also dye the hair. Black is the natural and favourite colour, but some prefer white, flaxen, or bright red.

'On one head,' says Mr. Williams, 'all the hair is

1 McGillivray's Voyage of the Polynesia, p. 77.

Fiji and the Fijians, vol. i. p.

เ

เ

66

(

FEEJEE HAIRDRESSES.

' of a uniform height; but one-third in front is ashy or 'sandy, and the rest black, a sharply defined separation dividing the two colours. Not a few are so ingeniously grotesque as to appear as if done purposely to excite 'laughter. One has a One has a large knot of fiery hair on his crown, all the rest of his head being bald. Another 'has the most of his hair cut away, leaving three or four 'rows of small clusters, as if his head were planted with 'small paint-brushes. A third has his head bare except 'where a large patch projects over each temple. One, 'two, or three cords of twisted hair often fall from the 'right temple, a foot or eighteen inches long. Some men wear a number of these braids, so as to form a 'curtain at the back of the neck, reaching from one ear 'to the other. A mode that requires great care has 'the hair brought into distinct locks radiating from the 'head. Each lock is a perfect cone about seven inches 'long, having the base outwards; so that the surface of 'the hair is marked out into a great number of small 'circles, the ends being turned in in each lock, towards 'the centre of the cone.' 1 In some of the Pacific Islands the natives wear wigs, or tresses of hair, in addition to their own.2

Schweinfurth describes a dandy, belonging to the Dinkas, a negro tribe of the Soudan, whose hair was dyed red, and trained up into points like tongues of flame, standing stiffly up, all round his head.

In fact, the passion for self-ornamentation seems to prevail amongst the lowest as much as, if not more than, among the more civilised races of man.

1 See, for many further particulars, Darwin's Descent of Man, p. 338, et seq.

2 Hale's United States Expl. Exp.: Ethnography, p. 12.

CHAPTER III.

MARRIAGE AND RELATIONSHIP.

NOTHING, perhaps, gives a more instructive insight

into the true condition of savages than their ideas on the subject of relationship and marriage; nor can the great advantages of civilisation be more conclusively proved than by the improvement which it has already effected in the relation between the two sexes.

Marriage, and the relationship of a child to its father and mother, seem to us so natural and obvious, that we are apt to look on them as aboriginal and general to the human race. This, however, is very far from being the case. The lowest races have no institution of marriage; true love is almost unknown among them; and marriage, in its lowest phases, is by no means a matter of affection and companionship.

The Hottentots, says Kolben,'' are so cold and in'different to one another that you would think there 'was no such thing as love between them.' Among the Koussa Kaffirs, Lichtenstein asserts that there is 'no 'feeling of love in marriage.' 2 In North America, the Tinné Indians had no word for dear' or 'beloved;' and the Algonquin language is stated to have contained no verb meaning to love;' so that when the Bible was

1 Kolben's Hist. of the Cape of Good Hope, vol. i. p. 162.

2 Travels in South Africa, vol. i.

p. 261.

68 THE POSITION OF WOMEN AMONG SAVAGES.

translated by the missionaries into that language it was necessary to invent a word for the purpose.

• In his native state,' says Mr. Morgan,1 the (North American) Indian is below the passion of love. It is • entirely unknown among them, with the exception, to a limited extent, of the village Indians.' He mentions elsewhere a case of an Ahahuelin woman named • Ethabe,' who had been married for three years to a Blackfoot Indian, yet there was no common articulate language which they both understood. They communicated entirely by signs, neither of them having taken the trouble to learn the other's language.2

Though the songs of savages are generally devoted to the chase, war, or women, they can very rarely be called love songs. Dr. Mitchell, for instance, who was for several years chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, mentions that neither among the Osages nor the Cherokees could there be found a single poetical or musical sentiment, founded on the tender passion between the sexes. Though often asked, they produced no songs of love.'s

In Yariba (Central Africa), says Lander, 'marriage is celebrated by the natives as unconcernedly as possible: a man thinks as little of taking a wife as of cutting an ear of corn-affection is altogether out of the question. The King of Boussa," he tells us in another place, when he is not engaged in public affairs, usually employs all his leisure hours in superintending

6

ABSENCE OF AFFECTION IN MARRIAGE.

69

'the occupations of his household, and making his own 'clothes. The Midiki (queen) and he have distinct 'establishments, divided fortunes, and separate interests; indeed, they appear to have nothing in common with each other, and yet we have never seen so friendly a couple since leaving our native country.' On the Gold Coast, not even the appearance of 'affection exists between husband and wife.' Among the Mandingoes marriage is merely a form of regulated slavery. Husband and wife 'never laugh or joke together.' 'I asked Baba,' says Caillié, why he did not * sometimes make merry with his wives. He replied 'that if he did he should not be able to manage them, 'for they would laugh at him when he ordered them to ' do anything.'2

In India, the Hill tribes of Chittagong, says Captain Lewin, regard marriage as a mere animal and con'venient connection;' as the 'means of getting their 'dinner cooked. They have no idea of tenderness, nor ' of chivalrous devotion.' 3

Among the Samoyedes of Siberia the husbands show little affection for their wives, and, according to Pallas, daignent à peine leur dire une parole de 'douceur.' Further East, in the Aleutian Islands, the marriages, according to Müller,5 méritent à peine le nom;' and the facts he mentions go far to justify this

statement.

Among the Guyacurus of Paraguay 'the bonds of ' matrimony are so very slight, that when the parties do

1 Burton's Mission to the King

of Dahomey, vol. ii. p. 190.

Travels, vol. i. p. 350.

Hill Tracts of Chittagong,

p. 116.

♦ Pallas's Voyages, vol. iv. p. 94.

5 Des. de toutes les Nat. de l'Empire de Russe, Part III., p. 129.