re performed were kept as festivals. The
ludicrous custom of piercing the ears for the wearing of ornaments,
typical of savagery and found in all indigenous African tribes, is
universally prevalent among our own people.

The extremists in this custom are the Botocudos, who represent the most
cruel and ferocious of the Brazilian tribes, and who especially cherish
a love for cannibalism. They have a fondness for disfiguring themselves
by inserting in the lower parts of their ears and in their under lips
variously shaped pieces of wood ornaments called peleles, causing
enormous protrusion of the under lip and a repulsive wide mouth, as
shown in Figure 230.

Tattooing is a peculiar custom originating in various ways. The
materials used are vermilion, indigo, carbon, or gunpowder. At one time
this custom was used in the East to indicate caste and citizenship.
Both sexes of the Sandwich Islanders have a peculiar tattooed mark
indicative of their tribe or district. Among the Uapes, one tribe, the
Tucanoes, have three vertical blue lines. Among other people tattooed
marks indicated servility, and Boyle says the Kyans, Pakatans, and
Kermowits alone, among the Borneo people, practised tattooing, and adds
that these races are the least esteemed for bravery. Of the Fijians the
women alone are tattooed, possibly as a method of adornment.

The tattooing of the people of Otaheite, seen by Cook, was surmised by
him to have a religious significance, as it presented in many instances
"squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of men
and dogs." Every one of these people was tattooed upon reaching
majority. According to Carl Bock, among the Dyaks of Borneo all of the
married women were tattooed on the hands and feet, and sometimes on the
thighs. The decoration is one of the privileges of matrimony, and is
not permitted to unmarried girls. Andrew Lang says of the Australian
tribes that the Wingong or the Totem of each man is indicated by a
tattooed representation of it on his flesh. The celebrated American
traveler, Carpenter, remarks that on his visit to a great prison in
Burmah, which contains more than 3000 men, he saw 6000 tattooed legs.
The origin of the custom he was unable to find out, but in Burmah
tattooing was a sign of manhood, and professional tattooers go about
with books of designs, each design warding off some danger. Bourke
quotes that among the Apaches-Yumas of Arizona the married women are
distingui