The African Baganda, the Rev. J. Roscoe states (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, January-June, 1902, p. 72), admire hanging breasts to such an extent that their young women tie them down in order to hasten the arrival of this condition.

“The most remarkable trait of beauty in the East,” wrote Sonnini, “is to have large black eyes, and nature has made this a characteristic sign of the women of these countries.  But, not content with this, the women of Egypt wish their eyes to be still larger and blacker.  To attain this Mussulmans, Jewesses, and Christians, rich and poor, all tint their eyelids with galena.  They also blacken the lashes (as Juvenal tells us the Roman ladies did) and mark the angles of the eye so that the fissure appears larger.” (Sonnini, Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypte, 1799, vol. i, p. 290.) Kohl is thus only used by the women who have what the Arabs call “natural kohl.”  As Flinders Petrie has found, the women of the so-called “New Race,” between the sixth and tenth dynasties of ancient Egypt, used galena and malachite for painting their faces.  Jewish women in the days of the prophets painted their eyes with kohl, as do some Hindu women to-day.

“The Ainu have a great affection for their beards.  They regard them as a sign of manhood and strength and consider them as especially handsome.  They look upon them, indeed, as a great and highly prized treasure.” (J.  Batchelor, The Ainu and their Folklore, p. 162.)

A great many theories have been put forward to explain the Chinese fashion of compressing and deforming the foot.  The Chinese are great admirers of the feminine foot, and show extreme sexual sensitiveness in regard to it.  Chinese women naturally possess very small feet, and the main reason for binding them is probably to be found in the desire to make them still smaller. (See, e.g., Stratz, Die Frauenkleidung, 1904, p. 101.)

An interesting question, which in part finds its explanation here and is of considerable significance from the point of view of sexual selection, concerns the relative admiration bestowed on blondes and brunettes.  The question is not, indeed, one which is entirely settled by racial characteristics.  There is something to be said on the matter from the objective standpoint of aesthetic considerations.  Stratz, in a chapter on beauty of coloring in woman, points out that fair hair is more beautiful because it harmonizes better with the soft outlines of woman, and, one may add, it is more brilliantly conspicuous; a golden object looks larger than a black object.  The hair of the armpit, also, Stratz considers should be light.  On the other hand, the pubic hair should be dark in order to emphasize the breadth of the pelvis and the obtusity of the angle between the mons veneris and the thighs.  The eyebrows and eyelashes should also be dark in order to increase the apparent size