Often cicatrices are made in the skin, without any colouring matter being used. Some tribes of Madagascar, for instance, are in the habit of making marks, “which are intended to be ornamental,” by slight incisions in the skin.[1002] The natives of Tana ornament themselves by “cutting or burning some rude device of a leaf or a fish on the breast, or upper part of the arm.”[1003] The Australians throughout the continent scar their persons, as Mr. Curr assures us, only as a means of decoration.[1004] And, in Fiji, “rows of wart-like spots are burned along the arms and backs of the women, which they and their admirers call ornamental.”[1005] It has been suggested that many of these practices sprang from other motives than a desire for decoration; and some are said to have had a religious origin. The Australian Dieyerie, on being asked why he knocks out two front teeth of the upper jaw of his children, can answer only that, when they were created, the Muramura, a good spirit, thus disfigured the first child, and, pleased at the sight, commanded that the like should be done to every male or female child for ever after.[1006] The Pelew Islanders believe that the perforation of the septum of the nose is necessary for winning eternal bliss;[1007] and the Nicaraguans say that their ancestors were instructed by the gods to flatten the children’s heads.[1008] Again, in Fiji, it is supposed that the custom of tattooing is in conformity with the appointment of the god Dengei, and that its neglect is punished after death.[1009] A similar idea prevails among the Kingsmill Islanders and Ainos;[1010] and the Greenlanders formerly believed that the heads of those girls who had not been deformed by long stitches made with a needle and black thread between the eyes, on the forehead, and upon the chin, would be turned into train tubs, and placed under the lamps in heaven, in the land of souls.[1011] But such tales are not of much importance, as any usage practised from time immemorial may easily be ascribed to the command of a god.