CHAP. X.Of thePeoplethatwear Beards.
THE Capuchins, Carthusians, all the Portuguese monks, the Russian clergy and peasants, all the priests of the Greek Church, the German Jews, and the Anabaptists, are the only ones that wear beards in Europe.
Most of the inhabitants of Asia wear whiskers or beards more or less long according to their age.
All the followers of the law of Mahomet wear whiskers ’till they are forty, when they let their beards grow out, and preserve them afterwards all their lives.[99]
99.It is in Turkey, where the dignity of a long beard is of the first importance.
99.It is in Turkey, where the dignity of a long beard is of the first importance.
All the north part of Africa is inhabited by bearded people.
Nature has denied a beard to the different nations of blacks who inhabit the interior and but little known parts of that quarter of the world.
In most of the islands of the Pacific ocean, the men preserve their beards, and some of them stain them different colours.
The author ofRecherches philosophiques sur les Américains, doctor Robertson in hisHistory of America, and many other respectable writers, maintain that all the original natives of America have absolutely no hair on their chins; they except only the Esquimaux, (the inhabitants of North America,) who wear beards, and are unlike the natives of the other parts.[100]However, captain Cook says, that the want of beard in some of the American nations, proceeds less from a defect of nature than their custom of plucking them out by the roots to a greater or less degree: this he observed at Nootka, in his third voyage round the world: all the old men he saw on the west coast of America wore thick, bushy beards, but which were sleeked in the same manner as their hair generally is.
100.It has been proved, not long since, that the Esquimaux are descended from a colony of Danes and Norwegians who came through Iceland, and landed in this part of America, several centuries before Christopher Columbus discovered it. This is supported by the history of the times and by monuments of the arts and religion of the Europeans found in that country. SeeHistoire des decouvertes & de la navigation dans le Nord, byJ. R. Forster. I have read a French manuscript by Mr. P. D. L. C., in which the European origin of the Esquimaux is proved in the most incontestable manner.
100.It has been proved, not long since, that the Esquimaux are descended from a colony of Danes and Norwegians who came through Iceland, and landed in this part of America, several centuries before Christopher Columbus discovered it. This is supported by the history of the times and by monuments of the arts and religion of the Europeans found in that country. SeeHistoire des decouvertes & de la navigation dans le Nord, byJ. R. Forster. I have read a French manuscript by Mr. P. D. L. C., in which the European origin of the Esquimaux is proved in the most incontestable manner.
In the inner parts of America, Captain Carver met Savages with long beards on their chins. The following is his answer to those who have denied their having any. “After the age of puberty, their bodies, in their natural state, are covered with hair in the same manner as those of the Europeans. The men, indeed, esteem a beard very unbecoming, and take great pains to get rid of it, nor is there any ever to be perceived on their faces, except when they grow old, and become inattentive to their appearance....
“The Nawdowessies, and the remote nations pluck them out with bent pieces of hard wood, formed into a kind of nippers; whilst those who have communication with the Europeans procure from them wire, which they twist into a screw or worm; applying this to the part, they press the rings together, and with a sudden twitch draw out all the hairs that are enclosed between them.”[101]Carver’s Travels, page 225.
The mask of Montezuma’s armour, (the last king of Mexico,) preserved at Brussels, and on which there are very long whiskers, seems to confirm the observations of captains Cook and Carver: it is evident that the Americans would not have imitated this ornament of man, if nature had not presented them with the model.
Therefore, the observations made by captain Cook on the west coast of America, those of captain Carver in the inner part of the continent, and the monument of the ancient customs of Mexico, which present us with Montezuma’s whisker’d mask, prove that the assertion of the historians against American beards is at least doubtful, is it is not destitute of foundation.
According to the observations of all travellers, it is certain that the men who inhabit the temperate zones, and are most advantageously favoured by nature, are likewise most bearded: it may likewise be remarked, that those, who bestow most attention to shaving, are the most subject to petticoat government, and consequently the vainest.
101.The islanders of Sumatra pluck out their beards in the same manner. (See Cook’s third voyage, vol. iii.)
101.The islanders of Sumatra pluck out their beards in the same manner. (See Cook’s third voyage, vol. iii.)