on the head; and this indicates that our semi-human progenitors were
not furnished with long tresses, which must therefore have been a late
acquisition. This is likewise indicated by the extraordinary difference
in the length of the hair in the different races; in the negro the hair
forms a mere curly mat; with us it is of great length, and with the
American natives it not rarely reaches to the ground. Some species of
Semnopithecus have their heads covered with moderately long hair, and
this probably serves as an ornament and was acquired through sexual
selection. The same view may perhaps be extended to mankind, for we
know that long tresses are now and were formerly much admired, as may
be observed in the works of almost every poet; St. Paul says, if a
woman have long hair, it is a glory to her; and we have seen that in
North America a chief was elected solely from the length of his hair.
COLOUR OF THE SKIN.
The best kind of evidence that in man the colour of the skin has been
modified through sexual selection is scanty; for in most races the
sexes do not differ in this respect, and only slightly, as we have
seen, in others. We know, however, from the many facts already given
that the colour of the skin is regarded by the men of all races as a
highly important element in their beauty; so that it is a character
which would be likely to have been modified through selection, as has
occurred in innumerable instances with the lower animals. It seems at
first sight a monstrous supposition that the jet-blackness of the negro
should have been gained through sexual selection; but this view is
supported by various analogies, and we know that negroes admire their
own colour. With mammals, when the sexes differ in colour, the male is
often black or much darker than the female; and it depends merely on
the form of inheritance whether this or any other tint is transmitted
to both sexes or to one alone. The resemblance to a negro in miniature
of Pithecia satanas with his jet black skin, white rolling eyeballs,
and hair parted on the top of the head, is almost ludicrous.
The colour of the face differs much more widely in the various kinds of
monkeys than it does in the races of man; and we have some reason to
believe that the red, blue, orange, almost white and black tints of
their skin, even when common to both sexes, as well as the bright
colours of their fur, and the ornamental tufts about the head, have all
been acquired through sexual selection. As the order of development
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