In the Philippines, the practice of tattooing appears
to be still continued, and was at one time so
frequent, that the Spaniards gave to some islands
of the group, from this circumstance, the name of
the Pintados, or islands of painted men.
Of practices of the same nature, less general, I
may mention that of some tribes of flattening the
noses and compressing the foreheads of infants
while the bones are yet cartilaginous; the practice
of distending the lobes of the ears to a monstrous
size, and that of permitting the nail of one or more
fingers of the hand to grow to an extravagant
length, in imitation of the Chinese nations. None
of these practices are general, and among the
more civilized tribes all of them appear to be
falling into, disuse. The Javanese, for example,
ridicule, and consider as a deformity, the enormously
distended apertures in the lobes of the ears
of the women of Bali. It is not improbable that,
in the course of a little more civilization and refinement,
the absurd practice of filing and blackening
the teeth will also be abandoned.
The use of a coloured cosmetic to improve
the complexion is still continued by all the civilized
tribes, on festive occasions. Upon all occasions
of state and ceremony, the Javanese of both
sexes have the face and upper part of the body,
and limbs, (as far as their feelings of delicacy will
permit them to expose them,) covered with a yellow
cosmetic, applied in a fluid form, consisting of orpiment
and perfumed flowers. Many of those portions
of dress used on common occasions are discontinued
on these, and we may truly say of the Javanese,
that, when in full dress, they are almost.
naked.