(Footnote.  Ghirardini, an Italian painter, who touched at Sumatra on his
way to China in 1698 observes of the Malays: 
Son di persona ben formata
Quanto mai finger san pittori industri. 
He speaks in high terms of the country as being beautifully picturesque.)

The women however have the preposterous custom of flattening the noses, and compressing the heads of children newly born, whilst the skull is yet cartilaginous, which increases their natural tendency to that shape.  I could never trace the origin of the practice, or learn any other reason for moulding the features to this uncouth appearance, but that it was an improvement of beauty in their estimation.  Captain Cook takes notice of a similar operation at the island of Ulietea.  They likewise pull out the ears of infants to make them stand at an angle from the head.  Their eyes are uniformly dark and clear, and among some, especially the southern women, bear a strong resemblance to those of the Chinese, in the peculiarity of formation so generally observed of that people.  Their hair is strong and of a shining black; the improvement of both which qualities it probably owes in great measure to the early and constant use of coconut oil, with which they keep it moist.  The men frequently cut their hair short, not appearing to take any pride in it; the women encourage theirs to a considerable length, and I have known many instances of its reaching the ground.  The men are beardless and have chins so remarkably smooth that, were it not for the priests displaying a little tuft, we should be apt to conclude that nature had refused them this token of manhood.  It is the same in respect to other parts of the body with both sexes; and this particular attention to their persons they esteem a point of delicacy, and the contrary an unpardonable neglect.  The boys as they approach to the age of puberty rub their chins, upper lips, and those parts of the body that are subject to superfluous hair with chunam (quicklime) especially of shells, which destroys the roots of the incipient beard.  The few pilae that afterwards appear are plucked out from time to time with tweezers, which they always carry about them for that purpose.  Were it not for the numerous and very respectable authorities from which we are assured that the natives of America are naturally beardless, I should think that the common opinion on that subject had been rashly adopted, and that their appearing thus at a mature age was only the consequence of an early practice, similar to that observed among the Sumatrans.  Even now I must confess that it would remove some small degree of doubt from my mind could it be ascertained that no such custom prevails.*