It is not necessary for the present purpose to submit to a close analysis all the other theories of bodily embellishment which oppose an unrestricted application of the Darwinian interpretation. Suffice it to say that facts exist which support almost every one of these views. Thus it seems quite unquestionable that tattooings often serve as a means of conveying intellectual information.[334] Not only are exploits of valour which provide an occasion for boasting ornament registered by incisions on the body, but this primitive record may also be used in order to commemorate other events that have made a great impression on the individual in question. The most instructive example of such essentially commemorative self-decoration that is known in ethnological literature is no doubt the tattooing of Tepane, the native of the Eastern Island whom Dr. Stolpe met in Tahiti. On his right fore-arm this highly interesting individual wore a pattern which, although insignificant at first sight, on closer examination showed itself to be nothing less than a pictorial description of the memorable event when the great stone idols, now outside the British Museum, were hauled down from their original place to the British ship which was going to take them over sea. Among the figures on this little historical picture Tepane himself was able to point out the first and second officer of the _Topaz_, who, standing somewhat apart, watched the work of the sailors.[335] It is indeed exceptional to meet with such complete realistic drawings among the “motives” of tattoo. But there is no doubt that by symbolical representation sights and events have often been recorded on the body, this most primitive of all commonplace-books. There is no default of instances showing that decoration, fixed as well as detached, has been largely used as a magical protection against illness, bewitching, or evil eye.[336] This superstitious intention appears with unmistakable evidence in the decorations of the Xingu tribes of the interior Brazil, where children and pregnant women, _i.e._ persons who particularly need to be guarded against malignant influences, are richly decorated with collars of beads, teeth, bones, and so on.[337] Among these Indians Professor von den Steinen was also able to find some typical examples of the process, which has been observed in several other tribes, by which a cosmetic painting of the body is developed from a purely practical greasing with earth or fat, executed in order to preserve the skin against weather or insect bites.[338]