daughters of Eve smiled and showed their beautiful white teeth, and when their eyes peeped coquettishly from beneath the curly hair which hung in quite the modern fashion down their foreheads,” Lumholtz realized that even here women could exert the influence ascribed by Goethe to women generally. (C.  Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 132.) Much has, again, been written about the beauty of the American Indians.  See, e.g., an article by Dr. Shufeldt, “Beauty from an Indian’s Point of View,” Cosmopolitan Magazine, April, 1895.  Among the Seminole Indians, especially, it is said that types of handsome and comely women are not uncommon. (Clay MacCauley, “Seminole Indians of Florida,” Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-1884, pp. 493 et seq.)

There is much even in the negress which appeals to the European as beautiful.  “I have met many negresses,” remarks Castellani (Les Femmes au Congo, p. 2), “who could say proudly in the words of the Song of Songs, ‘I am black, but comely.’  Many of our peasant women have neither the same grace nor the same delicate skin as some natives of Cassai or Songha.  As to color, I have seen on the African continent creatures of pale gold or even red copper whose fine and satiny skin rivals the most delicate white skins; one may, indeed, find beauties among women of the darkest ebony.”  He adds that, on the whole, there is no comparison with white women, and that the negress soon becomes hideous.

The very numerous quotations from travelers concerning the women of all lands quoted by Ploss and Bartels (Das Weib, seventh edition, bd. i, pp. 88-106) amply suffice to show how frequently some degree of beauty is found even among the lowest human races.  Cf., also, Mantegazza’s survey of the women of different races from this point of view, Fisiologia della Donna, Cap.  IV.

The fact that the modern European, whose culture may be supposed to have made him especially sensitive to aesthetic beauty, is yet able to find beauty among even the women of savage races serves to illustrate the statement already made that, whatever modifying influences may have to be admitted, beauty is to a large extent an objective matter.  The existence of this objective element in beauty is confirmed by the fact that it is sometimes found that the men of the lower races admire European women more than women of their own race.  There is reason to believe that it is among the more intelligent men of lower race—­that is to say those whose aesthetic feelings are more developed—­that the admiration for white women is most likely to be found.