Note 228-13 — Chapter II

The most frightful uncleanliness prevails among the inhabitants of polar countries, who never bathe, because of the climate, avoid all ventilation, and because of the leathern clothing which they smear with grease, etc. The Tunguses consider the after-birth cooked or roasted as a great delicacy. "Fathers and mothers wipe their children's[TN 51] noses with their mouth, and gulp the secretion down." (Georgi, Beschreib. aller Nationen des russ. Reiches, I, 287.) Among the Koruks, the suitor rinses his mouth with his sweetheart's water. (loc. cit., I, 349, 353.) Compare Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, III, 24, 57. In warmer climates, even less civilized nations are clean, for instance in the East and South-Sea Islands, etc. All the more surprising is the uncleanliness of the Hottentots and Bushmen, where the natural color is observable only under the eyes, where the tears produced by too much smoke has washed away the crust of dirt which, with this exception, covers the whole body. (Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, 333.) How long it takes for cleanliness to become a national trait, may be inferred from the history of water-closets, when, for instance, their introduction into every house during the 16th and even the 17th century, had to be provided for by law in Paris. (Beckmann, Beiträge, II, 358 ff.) The Göttingen statutes of 1342 had to expressly prohibit persons to merdare in public wine-cellars where persons ate and drank together. (Spittler, Gesch. Hannovers, I, 57.) Similarly in the courts of the German princes. On the other hand, universality of water-closets in England to-day.

In ancient times, too, the uncleanliness of the Spartans in body and clothing was very surprising to the Athenians: Xenoph., Resp. Laced., II, 4; Plutarch, Lycurg, 16. Just., Lac., 5. Still more that of many barbarians, for instance of the Illyrians: Stobaeus, V, 51, 132; Gaisf. Aelian., V, H. IV, 1. The ancient Romans bathed only once a week (Seneca, Epist., 86), while under the Empire, "the baths embraced and filled up the whole life of man and all his wishes." (Gerlach.) Compare Becker, Gallus, II, 10 ff.; Lamprid, V, Comm., 11.