CHAPTER XII

THE SEXUAL SELECTION OF MAN: TYPICAL BEAUTY

By the "Sexual Selection of Man" is meant the choice made by men and women as regards relations with the opposite sex. Mr. Darwin has shown that such selection takes place among the lower Vertebrata, and, judging from what we know of domesticated animals, it is much more common in the case of females than in that of males. The male, indeed, as a rule, seems to be ready to pair with any female, provided she belongs to his own species.1 As this probably depends upon the great strength of his sexual impulse, we may infer that in primitive times, when man had a definite pairing season, he displayed a like tendency, and that the sexual instinct, in proportion as it has become less intense, has become more discriminating.

Even now woman is more particular in her choice than man, provided that the union takes place without reference to interest. A Maori proverb says, "Let a man be ever so good-looking, he will not be much sought after; but let a woman be ever so plain, men will still eagerly seek after her." With regard to the Negroes of Sogno, Merolla da Sorrento states, "Women would have experience of their

1 According to Professor Vogt (Lectures on Man,' p. 421), the aversion between allied species in the wild state is more frequently overcome by the males than by the females; and, in crosses between wild and domesticated animals, the female generally belongs to the domesticated species or race (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 'Histoire naturelle générale,' vol. iii. p. 177).

2 Taylor, loc. cit. pp. 293, et seq.

husbands before they married them, in like manner as the men were to have of them; and in this particular I can aver that they are commonly much more obstinate or fickle than men, for I have known many instances in which the men were willing to be married, while the women held back, and either fled away or made excuses."1 Among the Eastern Central Africans, according to Mr. Macdonald, many cases are known of slave wives running away from free husbands, but none of slave husbands running away from free wives.2 In the crossings between unequal human races, the father almost always belongs to the superior race. “In every case," says M. de Quatrefages," and especially in transient amours, woman refuses to lower herself; man is less delicate." Thus, cases in which negresses form unions with the indigenous men of America are very rare; and Dr, Nott, who wrote in the middle of this century, never personally met any one who was the offspring of a negro man and a white woman, because of the extreme rarity of such half-breeds. In New Zealand it sometimes happens that a European man marries a Maori woman; but Mr. Kerry-Nicholls never came across an instance where a European woman had married a Maori man. Even in civilized society men are less particular in their connections than women of corresponding education, no doubt, would be, even if the rules of every-day morality were the same for both sexes.

In this and the following four chapters we shall deal with the instinctive feelings by which the sexes are guided in the act of selection. We have already observed that the sexual instinct is excited by artificial means, such as ornaments, mutilations, &c. Now we have to consider the intrinsic characters of a human being which affect the passions of a person of the opposite sex.

1 Merolla da Sorrento, loc. cit. p. 236.

2 Macdonald, Africana,' vol. i. p. 141.

3 de Quatrefages, 'The Human Species,' p. 267.

4 Peschel, loc. cit. p. 8, note 8.

Nott and Gliddon,' Types of Mankind,' p. 401.

"Kerry-Nicholls, 'The Maori Race,' in 'Jour. Anthr. Inst.,' vol. xv. p.

Mr. Darwin has shown that, among the lower Vertebrata, the female commonly gives the preference to "the most vigorous, defiant, and mettlesome male,”—a taste the origin of which is easily accounted for by the theory of natural selection. A similar instinctive appreciation of manly strength and courage is found in women, especially in the women of savage races. In a song, communicated by Mr. Schoolcraft, an Indian girl gives the following description of her ideal:"My love is tall and graceful as the young pine waving on the hill-And as swift in his course as the noble stately deer -His hair is flowing, and dark as the blackbird that floats through the air-And his eyes, like the eagle's, both piercing and bright-His heart, it is fearless and great-And his arm, it is strong in the fight." A tale from Madagascar tells of a princess whose beauty fascinated all men. Many princes fought to obtain possession of her; but she refused them all, and chose a lover who was young, handsome, courageous, and strong.2 The beautiful Atalanta gave herself to the best runner; 3 and the hero-suitors of the Finnish myths had to undergo difficult trials to prove their courage.* "When a Dyak wants to marry," says Mr. Bock, "he must show himself a hero before he can gain favour with his intended." has to secure a number of human heads by killing men of hostile tribes; and the more heads he cuts off, the greater the pride and admiration with which he is regarded by his bride. The demands of the Sàkalàva girls of Madagascar are less cruel. When a young man wishes to obtain wife, his qualifications, according to Mr. Sibree, are tested thus" Placed at a certain distance from a clever caster of the spear, he is bidden to catch between his arm and side every spear thrown by the man opposite to him. If he displays fear or fails to catch the spear, he is ignominiously rejected; but if there be no flinching and the spears are

1 Schoolcraft, loc. cit. vol. v. p. 612.

He

2 Leguével de Lacombe, 'Voyage à Madagascar,' vol. ii. pp. 121-123. 3 Apollodorus Atheniensis, 'Bißλo@ýên,' book iii. ch. ix. § 2.

4 Cf. Castrén, in ‘Litterära Soiréer,' 1849, p. 12.

a

Bock, 'The Head-Hunters of Borneo,' p. 216. Cf. Wilkes, loc. cit. vol. v. p. 363; Dalton, loc. cit. pp. 40, et seq. (Nagas of Upper Assam).

caught, he is at once proclaimed an 'accepted lover." It is said that a similar custom prevailed among the Bétsiléo, another Madagascar tribe.1 Among the Dongolowees, as we are informed by Dr. Felkin, if two men are suitors for a girl, and there is a difficulty in deciding between the rivals, the following method is adopted. The fair lady has a knife tied to each forearm, so fixed that the blade of the knife projects below the elbow. She then takes up a position on a log of wood, the young men sitting on either side with their legs closely pressed against hers. Raising her arms, the girl leans forward, and slowly presses the knives into the thighs of her would-be husbands. The suitor who best undergoes this trial of endurance wins the bride, whose first duty after marriage is to dress the wounds she has herself inflicted.2 Speaking of the natives on the River Darling, Major T. L. Mitchell says that the possession of gins, or wives, appears to be associated with all their ideas of fighting; "while, on the other hand, the gins have it in their power on such occasions to evince that universal characteristic of the fair, a partiality for the brave. Thus it is, that, after a battle, they do not always follow their fugitive husbands from the field, but frequently go over, as a matter of course, to the victors."

We may infer that women's instinctive inclination to strong and courageous men is due to natural selection in two ways. A strong man is not only father of strong children, but he is also better able than a weak man to protect his offspring. The female instinct is especially well marked at the lower stages of civilization, because bodily vigour is then of most importance in the struggle for existence. The same principle explains the attraction which health in a woman has for men. In civilized society, infirmity and sickliness are not always a serious hindrance to love, but in a savage state, says Alexander v. Humboldt, "nothing can induce a man to unite himself to a deformed woman, or one who is very unhealthy."4

1 Sibree, loc. cit. p. 251.

2 Wilson and Felkin, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 310.

3 Mitchell, 'Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia,' vol. i.

V. Humboldt, loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 233.

The ancient Greeks conceived Eros as an extremely handsome youth, and Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty as well as of love. So closely are these two ideas-love and beauty-connected. This connection is not peculiar to the civilized mind. In Tahiti, Cook saw several instances where women preferred personal beauty to interest.1 The Negroes of the West African Coast, according to Mr. Winwood Reade, often discuss the beauty of their women; 2 and, among the cannibal savages of Northern Queensland, described by Herr Lumholtz, the women take much notice of a man's face, especially of the part about the eyes. But, although in every country, in every race, beauty stimulates passion, the ideas of what constitutes beauty vary indefinitely. As Hume says, "Beauty is no quality in things themselves; it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty." 4

A flat, retreating brow seems to white men to spoil what would otherwise be a pretty face; but "the Chinook ideal of facial beauty," says Mr. Bancroft, "is a straight line from the end of the nose to the crown of the head."5 A little snubnose may embitter the life of a European girl; but the Australian natives "laugh at the sharp noses of Europeans, and call them in their language 'tomahawk noses,' much preferring their own style of flat broad noses." The Tahitians frequently said to Mr. Williams, "What a pity it is, that English mothers pull the children's noses so much, and make them so frightfully long!" We admire white teeth and rosy cheeks; but a servant of the king of Cochin China spoke with contempt of the wife of the English ambassador, because she had white teeth like a dog and a rosy colour like that of

1 Cook, 'Voyage to the Pacific Ocean,' vol. ii. p. 161.

2 Darwin, 'The Descent of Man,' vol. ii. pp. 373, et seq.

3 Lumholtz, loc. cit. p. 213.

4 Hume, Essays,' vol. i. p. 268.

5 Bancroft, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 227. Cf. Sproat, loc. cit. p. 29; Heriot,

loc. cit. p. 348.

6 Palmer, in 'Jour. Anthr. Inst.,' vol. xiii. p. 280, note.

7 Williams, 'Narrative of Missionary Enterprises,' p. 539. Cf. Ellis, 'Polynesian Researches,' vol. i. p. 81; King and Fitzroy, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 527.

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