st be caused by his being continually exposed
to the inclemency of the weather.

The woman begins to decline soon after her first confinement. From the
age of 13 to 15 she becomes a wife and in two years from that date she
is but the ghost of her former self. Thin, and with a wrinkled skin, not
even a shadow remains of her youthful freshness and the attractive
points she had as a girl.

But what does this matter to her? Her husband is faithful to her, with a
fidelity that knows no hypocrisy; she is happy and is proud of her
maternity; she can still dance and strike chords upon her _krob_,
modulate a plaintive ditty on her _ciniloi_ and sing whilst she beats on
her bamboo sticks an accompaniment that tortures well-tuned ears. For
the rest, if her beauty soon fades, her ugliness does not create the
least feeling of disgust amongst the Sakais of the masculine gender, who
have aesthetic ideas peculiarly their own.

It is enough to say that the ugliest of the female sex are the prettiest
and the most admired.

I am speaking in earnest.

They, as well as the men, are in the habit of painting themselves in
grotesque stripes and hieroglyphics, in imitation of medicinal plants,
the principal colours used being red and black. Sometimes they add a
little white but very rarely yellow.

When I tell you that these strange designs are not only the
manifestation of coquetry or vanity but that they are also made to
frighten away the Evil Spirit you may well imagine how they each try to
arabesque their skin in a more horrible way than the other, in order to
look uglier and be more admired.

How many, even in civilized places, would like to adopt such a mode of
winning the admiration which their forbidding features cannot command!

One of these artistic creations cannot last more than a day. It is
carefully scraped off and replaced.

* * * * *

The Sakai's life is tranquil and serene. He does not pass much of his
time in the hut because every morning he goes off into the forest in
search of game and vegetable food. He is accompanied by his boys who
either practise with their blow-pipe or with a pointed stick dig in the
ground for roots and bulbs, or they catch insects and reptiles to fill
the baskets they carry on their backs.

When the Sakai is not out hunting, or visiting friends and relations in
other villages, he remains quietly in his hut sleeping, smoking, chewing
a nice quid or in prepar