8, and the Papuan maiden walks
thus whenever she is in the presence of men, subsiding into a simpler gait
when no men are present. In some parts of tropical Africa the women walk
in this fashion. It is also known to the Egyptians, and by the Arabs is
called _ghung_.[146] As Mantegazza remarks, the essentially feminine
character of this gait makes it a method of sexual allurement. It should
be observed that it rests on feminine anatomical characteristics, and that
the natural walk of a femininely developed woman is inevitably different
from that of a man.

In an elaborate discussion of beauty of movement Stratz
summarizes the special characters of the gait in woman as
follows: "A woman's walk is chiefly distinguished from a man's by
shorter steps, the more marked forward movement of the hips, the
greater length of the phase of rest in relation to the phase of
motion, and by the fact that the compensatory movements of the
upper parts of the body are less powerfully supported by the
action of the arms and more by the revolution of the flanks. A
man's walk has a more pushing and active character, a woman's a
more rolling and passive character; while a man seems to seek to
catch his fleeing equilibrium, a woman seems to seek to preserve
the equilibrium she has reached.... A woman's walk is beautiful
when it shows the definitely feminine and rolling character, with
the greatest predominance of the moment of extension over that of
flexion." (Stratz, _Die Schoenheit des Weiblichen Koerpers_,
fourteenth edition, p. 275.)

An occasional development of the idea of sexual beauty as associated with
developed hips is found in the tendency to regard the pregnant woman as
the most beautiful type. Stratz observes that a woman artist once remarked
to him that since motherhood is the final aim of woman, and a woman
reaches her full flowering period in pregnancy, she ought to be most
beautiful when pregnant. This is so, Stratz replied, if the period of her
full physical bloom chances to correspond with the early months of
pregnancy, for with the onset of pregnancy metabolism is heightened, the
tissues become active, the tone of the skin softer and brighter, the
breasts firmer, so that the charm of fullest bloom is increased until the
moment when the expansion of the womb begins to destroy the harmony of the
form. At one period of European culture, however,--at a moment and a