Rouge, Says Mr. Meredith, Is "A Form
Of Practical Adoration Of The Genuine." Charcoal Was This Lady's
Substitute For Rouge.
A face, to please her, should be black; and, with a
compassionate desire to improve on one of Nature's bad jobs, she set to
work.
She approached Peron, took up some charred sticks, rubbed them in
her hand, and then made advances to apply the black powder to his face.
He gravely submitted - in the sacred cause of science, it may be
supposed - and one of his colleagues was favoured with similar treatment.
"Haply, for I am black," he might have exclaimed with Othello after the
treatment; and the makers of charcoal complexions were charmed with their
handiwork. "We appeared then to be a great subject of admiration for
these women; they seemed to regard us with a tender satisfaction," wrote
Peron; and the reflection occurred to him "that the white European skin
of which our race is so proud is really a defect, a sort of deformity,
which must in these distant climates give place to the hue of charcoal,
dull red ochre, or clay." Bonaparte would not have concurred; for he, as
Thibaudeau tells us, emphatically told his Council of State, "I am for
the white race because I am a white man myself; that is an argument quite
good enough for me." It was hardly an argument at all; but it sufficed.
The expedition encountered extremely bad weather along the eastern coast
of Tasmania; where, also, Captain Baudin was too ill to superintend the
navigation in person.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 188 of 299
Words from 52017 to 52276
of 83218
