cheeks of the fairest women in Tahiti.[1312] The natives also of
several of the other archipelagoes in the Pacific have been seen to
blush.
Mr. Washington Matthews has often seen a blush on the faces of the
young squaws belonging to various wild Indian tribes of North America.
At the opposite extremity of the continent in Tierra del Fuego, the
natives, according to Mr. Bridges, blush much, but chiefly in regard
to women; but they certainly blush also at their own personal
appearance. This latter statement agrees with what I remember of the
Fuegian, Jemmy Button, who blushed when he was quizzed about the care
which he took in polishing his shoes, and in otherwise adorning
himself. With respect to the Aymara Indians on the lofty plateaus of
Bolivia, Mr. Forbes says,[1313] that from the colour of their skins it
is impossible that their blushes should be as clearly visible as in the
white races; still under such circumstances as would raise a blush in
us, there can always be seen the same expression of modesty or
confusion; and even in the dark, a rise of temperature of the skin of
the face can be felt, exactly as occurs in the European. With the
Indians who inhabit the hot, equable, and damp parts of South America,
the skin apparently does not answer to mental excitement so readily as
with the natives of the northern and southern parts of the continent,
who have long been exposed to great vicissitudes of climate; for
Humboldt quotes without a protest the sneer of the Spaniard, How can
those be trusted, who know not how to blush? [1314] Von Spix and
Martius, in speaking of the aborigines of Brazil, assert that they
cannot properly be said to blush; it was only after long intercourse
with the whites, and after receiving some education, that we perceived
in the Indians a change of colour expressive of the emotions of their
minds. [1315] It is, however, incredible that the power of blushing
could have thus originated; but the habit of self-attention, consequent
on their education and new course of life, would have much increased
any innate tendency to blush.
Several trustworthy observers have assured me that they have seen on
the faces of negroes an appearance resembling a blush, under
circumstances which would have excited one in us, though their skins
were of an ebony-black tint. Some describe it as blushing brown, but
most say that the blackness becomes more intense. An increased supply
of blood in the skin seems in some manner to increase its blackness;
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