no doubt, promotes and conserves muscular strength. The Indian woman
being commonly a wife and mother before a really full maturity has been
reached, or any absolute unyieldingness of form been contracted, the
figure yet admits of such-like beneficent processes being exerted upon it.
In making mention of this custom, and, in a certain way, paying it honor,
let me not be taken as wishing to precipitate a revolution in the accepted
modes, with refined-communities, of bringing up children. To a community,
however, like that of which we are treating, such plan is not ill-suited,
the Indian mother being secure against any very critical observation of
her acts, or of the fashion she adopts. Let the custom, then, continue,
as it can be shown, I think, to favour the production of a healthier
and stronger frame both in the mother and in the child. A good figure is
also insured to the Indian woman, from her contemning, perhaps at the bid
of necessity, arising from her poverty, though, I verily believe, from
a well-grounded conception of their deforming tendencies, the absurdly
irrational measures, which, adopted by many among ourselves to promote
symmetry, only bring about distortion.

The Indian has very symmetrical hands, and the variation in size,
in this respect, in the case of the two sexes, is often very slight,
and, sometimes, scarce to be traced. The compliment, in the case of the
man, has, and is meant to have, about it a quite appreciable tinge of
condemnation, as suggesting his self-compassionate recoiling from manual
exertion; and the explanation of the near approach in the formation of the
hand of the woman to that of the man, may be found in the delegating to
her, by the latter, in unstinted measure, and in merciless fashion, work
that should be his. It is rare, also, to find a really awkwardly shaped
foot in an Indian. The near conformity to a uniform size in the case of
the two sexes, which I have noticed as being peculiar with the hand,
may also be observed with the foot. I would sum up my considerations