Here, As Among Most Savage People I Have Dwelt Among, I Was
Delighted With The Beauty Of The Human Form-A Beauty Of Which
Stay-At-Home Civilized People Can Scarcely Have Any Conception.
What Are The Finest Grecian Statues To The Living, Moving,
Breathing Men I Saw Daily Around Me?
The unrestrained grace of
the naked savage as he goes about his daily occupations, or
lounges at his ease, must be seen to be understood; and a youth
bending his bow is the perfection of manly beauty.
The women,
however, except in extreme youth, are by no means so pleasant to
look at as the men. Their strongly-marked features are very
unfeminine, and hard work, privations, and very early marriages
soon destroy whatever of beauty or grace they may for a short
time possess. Their toilet is very simple, but also, I am sorry
to say, very coarse, and disgusting. It consists solely of a mat
of plaited strips of palm leaves, worn tight round the body, and
reaching from the hips to the knees. It seems not to be changed
till worn out, is seldom washed, and is generally very dirty.
This is the universal dress, except in a few cases where Malay
"sarongs" have come into use. Their frizzly hair is tied in a
bench at the back of the head. They delight in combing, or rather
forking it, using for that purpose a large wooden fork with four
diverging prongs, which answers the purpose of separating and
arranging the long tangled, frizzly mass of cranial vegetation
much better than any comb could do.
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