The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1901-04-26

IL is Impossible TO Th1nk without
emotion of the pains which are cheer
fully endured by the simple savage
when competition is severe in the mar
| riage market. One of the principal
| modes of self-adornment is tattooing,
and to be properly tattooed is to suf-
| fer for days, weeks or even months
| according to the style and size of the
pattern) of the most excruciating tor
ment. Yet this practice prevails over
| the larger portion of the globe, from
the polar regions in the north to New
Zealand in the south; and there is not
single visible portion of the human
form, with the exception of the eye
balls, upon which the tattooer has not
exercised his skill. 1t is part of the
business of courtship, and has to be
put up with. A French traveller, !
Louis de Freycinet, has assured US that
the Sandwich Islanders spare no part
of the body; the crown of the head, the
forehead, nose, eyelids, chin, neck,
breast, back, arms, legs and even the
palms of the hands and the tip of the
tongue are submitted in certain cir
cumstances to the tattooer's needle.
When it is all done and the wounds
are healed the scarified gallants are
exhibited at a grand ball given in their
honor. Now and then, however, a gal
liant dies in torment before the tat
tooer has quite finished with him.
Where tattooing is not much in
vogue, paint, ochre, SCOT, grease and
all manner of pigments are in great
demand by the bucks of the tribe at
that season when the fancy lightly
turns to thoughts of love. They want
feathers, too, and gewgaws and trim.
kets of every description, from glass
beads to old teeth, bones and metal
buttons. 1t is the beau's opinion that
he cannot pile too much on, whether
it be scalps, paint, yellow ochre, cut.
lery, pottery or brassware. He is es-
pecially particular about his hair,
which he wears flowing down his back
or rolled atop of his head with ball
of black cotton stuck in it to make
it look bigger, or twisted into hun
dreds of little ringlets, or mop fashion,
or in one long tail which trails behind
him as he walks, or twisted and drawn
out in front "till it looks like horn
projecting from between the eyes" In
word, there is nothing he will not do
to make himself supremacy ugly, to
the end that the ladies may consider
him supremely beautiful.
Savage man is almost everywhere a
marrying man. Often he is a very
much married man. He abhors the
single state. Old maids and old bach
elors are rare in all savage and bar
barous communities. The rule is to
marry early, and sometimes also to
marry often. Here is one point of diff
ference, and notable one, between
uncivilized and civilized societies. In
the second volume of his History of
European Morals" Mr.. Lecky points
out that Gin no highly civilized society
is marriage general on the first de-
velopment of the passions" and that
1.-The continual tendency Of increasing
knowledge is to render such marriages
more rare" The very opposite of this
general rule, which is characteristic
of most uncivilized peoples, finds ex-
preston in cases where children are
pledged in marriage even before they
are born; among the Talamanca In
dams, where ga bride is generally
from ten to IA years DID," among
certain other Central American tribes.
where the parents ''try to get wife
for their son when he is nine or ten
years DID," among the Guanas, where,
as Azara says, ''the girls who marry
latest marry at the age of Mines"
among most of the Australian tribes.
where nearly all the girls are be-
trothed at very early age;" among
the Santals, where lad marries, as
rule, about the age of 16 or II, and a
girl at that of 49," and among the
Kandhs. where ga boy marries when
he reaches his tenth or twelfth year,
his wife being usually about four years
older" So strong, in short, is the SEN
timent in favor of marriage among un-
civilized races that, according to Yves
termarck,. person who does not mar
r. sis looked upon almost as an I'M
natural being. or, at any rate, is dis
dained." He cites many examples in
proof of this assertion. Thus it is or
was matter of universal belief in Fiji
that he who died without having been
married was stopped on the road to
Paradise by the god Nangganangga
and smashed to atoms" The Santals
regard the obstinate bachelor as little
better than thief, and not at all bet
ter than witch; and both sexes treat
him with supreme contempt. In KAT
fir kraals a bachelor has no voice. In
Tlascala man of full age who refused
to marry "has his hair cut off for
shame" In Corea, on the authority of
Rev. John Ross, "the male human be-
ing who is unmarried is never called
man, whatever his age, but goes by
the name of yatow, name given by
the Chinese to unmarriageable young
girls; and the man of Is or IA has
perfect right to strike, abuse, and or
der about the yatow of 80, who dare
not so much as open his lips to COM
plain"
The modern Hindus-here we take
leave OF the savages-honor marriage
L.