To Return From This Digression To My Subject, I Have Only Farther To Observe
That The Estimation Of Female Beauty Among The Natives (The Men At Least)
Is In This Country The Same As In Most Others.
Were a New Hollander
to portray his mistress, he would draw her the 'Venus aux belles fesses'.
Whenever Baneelon described to us his favourite fair, he always painted her
in this, and another particular, as eminently luxuriant.
Unsatisfied, however, with natural beauty (like the people of all other
countries) they strive by adscititious embellishments to heighten attraction,
and often with as little success. Hence the naked savage of New South Wales
pierces the septum of his nose, through which he runs a stick or a bone,
and scarifies his body, the charms of which increase in proportion
to the number and magnitude of seams by which it is distinguished.
The operation is performed by making two longitudinal incisions
with a sharpened shell, and afterwards pinching up with the nails
the intermediate space of skin and flesh, which thereby becomes considerably
elevated and forms a prominence as thick as a man's finger. No doubt but pain
must be severely felt until the wound be healed. But the love of ornament
defies weaker considerations, and no English beau can bear more stoutly
the extraction of his teeth to make room for a fresh set from
a chimney sweeper, or a fair one suffer her tender ears to be perforated,
with more heroism than the grisly nymphs on the banks of Port Jackson,
submit their sable shoulders to the remorseless lancet.
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