“I am the tender shoot of the drooping libau with its fragrant scent.”  “I am the comb of the champion fighting-cock that never runs away,” “I am the hawk flying down the Kanyau Kiver, coming after the fine feathered fowl.”  “I am the crocodile from the mouth of the Lingga, coming repeatedly for the striped flower of the rose-apple.”

Roth (I., 119-21) cites forty-five of these verses, mostly expressive of such selfish boasting and vanity.  Not one of them expresses a feeling of tenderness or admiration of a beloved person, not to speak of altruistic feelings.

THE GIRL WITH THE CLEAN FACE

Is a Dyak capable of admiring personal beauty?  Some of the girls have fine figures and pretty faces; but there is no evidence that any but the voluptuous (non-esthetic) qualities of the figure are appreciated, and as for the faces, if the men really appreciated beauty as we do, they would first of all things insist that the girls must keep their faces clean.  An amusing experiment made by St. John with some Ida’an girls (I., 339) is suggestive from this point of view: 

“We selected one who had the dirtiest face—­and it was difficult to select where all were dirty—­and asked her to glance at herself in a looking-glass.  She did so, and passed it round to the others; we then asked which they thought looked best, cleanliness or dirt:  this was received with a universal giggle.

“We had brought with us several dozen cheap looking-glasses, so we told Iseiom, the daughter of Li Moung, our host, that if she would go and wash her face we would give her one.  She treated the offer with scorn, tossed her head, and went into her father’s room.  But about half an hour afterwards, we saw her come into the house and try to mix quietly with the crowd; but it was of no use, her companions soon noticed she had a clean face, and pushed her to the front to be inspected.  She blushingly received her looking-glass and ran away, amid the laughter of the crowd.”

The example had a great effect, however, and before evening nine of the girls had received looking-glasses.[184]

FIJIAN REFINEMENTS

In the chapter on Personal Beauty I endeavored to show that if savages who live near the sea or river are clean, it is not owing to their love of cleanliness, but to an accident, bathing being resorted to by them as an antidote to heat, or as a sport.  This applies particularly to the Melanesian and Polynesian inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, whose chief pastimes are swimming and surf riding.  Thomas Williams, in his authoritative work on Fiji and the Fijians, makes some remarks which entirely bear out my views: 

“Too much has been said about the cleanliness of the natives.  The lower classes are often very dirty....  They ... seldom hesitate to sink both cleanliness and dignity in what they call comfort” (117).

We are therefore not surprised to read on another page (97) that