Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/885

Rh A last proof of our position is given by the hieroglyphics which we have found to be so frequent among the tattoo marks of criminals, and upon certain inscriptions which undoubtedly go back to an ancient age. A very interesting specimen of this kind is found in a study of tattooing in Portugal by Dr. Peixotto (Tatouage en Portugal, 1893), which I reproduce here:

As the reader will see, it is the formula of a square, which reproduces the same words, "Sator," "Arepo," "Tenet," "Opera," and "Rotas," on whichever of the four sides we read it, and in whichever vertical or horizontal direction—one of those magical formulas which, according to Kohler (Anthropological Society of Berlin, 1891), were used to drive away fevers from the age of the Romans, as far back probably, at least, as Cato's time.

The influences of atavism and tradition seem to me to be confirmed by the fact that we find the custom of tattooing diffused among classes so tenacious of old traditions as shepherds and peasants.

After this study, it appears to me to be proved that this custom is a completely savage one, which is found only rarely among some persons who have fallen from our honest classes, and which does not prevail extensively except among criminals, with whom it has had a truly strange, almost professional, diffusion; and, as they sometimes say, it performs the service among them of uniforms among our soldiers. To us they serve a psychological purpose, in enabling us to discern the obscurer sides of the criminal's soul, his remarkable vanity, his thirst for vengeance, and his atavistic character, even in his writing.

Hence, when the attempt is made to introduce it into the respectable world, we feel a genuine disgust, if not for those who practice it, for those who suggest it, and who must have something atavistic and savage in their hearts. It is very much, in its way, like returning to the trials by God of the middle ages, to juridical duels atavistic returns which we can not contemplate without horror.

O Fashion! You are very frivolous; you have caused many complaints against the most beautiful half of the human race! But you have not come to this, and I believe you will not be permitted to come to it.