ter face dancers could sometimes have their hair color change in response, for example, to the heat of the sun Face (lancers could never make quick voluntary changes m the length of their hair However they could give the appearance of almost instantaneous growth by still another prenatal modification Cellular manipulation of the embryo caused certain nerves to devel op as voluntary nerve cells rather than as sympathetic autonomic ones These were the nerves that stimulated die erector muscle attached to the root of each hair (arrectores pilonim) Thus the face dancer could cause his hair to lie flat, to stand on end, or to assume any midway position with astonishing facility The erection of the hair gave an immediate impression of longer hair, and stimuli to patches of the scalp could make the hair look freshly cut, well trained, or unruly as desired Quick changes of eye color could be achieved only by the use of colored contact lenses Better prepared changes in eye and skin color wens produced over several days by stimulating the production of hormones from the pineal and pituitary glands to dis perse or concentrate melanin in pigment containing cells, or to break down the mela mn to melaooid lending a yellowish tint to the skin Changes of Sex It was noted earlier that face dancers were always sexually immature sterile males The reasons for this were twofold first, the longstanding parsimony of the Tleilaxu culture caused its technicians to shrink from doing more than was required to produce an effect It would have been no great trouble, for instance to close the uterine tubes in the peritoneal celomic sacs of the female But with males this step was unnecessary, using males represented that much saving of time and labor The second reason was even more important Face dancers might be required to impersonate either men or women under conditions where the genitalia might be viewed or required to function Hence, m the early fetal stage of the male dancer to be, hormonal snmulus prevented the urethral groove from closing at the proximal end Further related measures equipped the face dancer with both a small but functional penis and a functional vagi na (face dancers lacked of course, uterus and ovaries) Relatively minor surgery pro duced a fold in the mons venens in which the penis was hidden when the dancer impersonated a woman The disguise was completed by the voluntary control the face dancer possessed over the cremaster muscles in die scrotum which allowed the retraction of the testes into the abdomen The result of this chemical and hormonal intervention was to make the face dancer operative as either sex but sterile Other Modifications As a result of their training, face dancers exercised marvelous differential muscular control and yogahke practices endowed them with astonishing con trol over autonomic nerves augmented by surgical changes where needed Even appren tice face dancers were the result of an expen sive process of adaptation and training that consumed years of intensive study For example, as genetic castmti the face danc ers enjoyed an extended vocal range and voice lessons alone occupied the better part of six years Similar long investments of time were required to enable the face dancer to give the appearance of youth or old age FAMILY ATOMICS 210 FAMILY ATOMICS But despite all the miracles of technology, the very best face dancers brought a talent to their work that training and technology could not replace, nor could breeding produce on demand Talent is not distributed evenly across populations, and die shortage of such individuals following the ascension of Leto II to the throne led to the notable decline of the face dancers during the latter half of his reign Such misguided tactics as the mass use of face dancers in the attempted assassination of Leto II or the attack on the Ixian embassy on Airakis show the desperation of the Tleilaxu and the decline of a great if twisted profession WEM Farther references G Z Huvalatan and Z D Bwid Development of the Tleilax Face Dancer in the First Three Months Antares J Anat 94 297-328 A T Hersag Z Rouk and E S Iizavz A Description of 34 Face Dancers through the first Ten Years of Development, Antares J Arua 98 435 93 R Kunazhatunfar Development of the Face Dancer Celoimc Sacs,' Atreules Mem Conmb Embryol 12459-91 EK Senlenag The Early Development of the Face Dancer Vertebral Column AtreidesMem Contnb Embryol 1332131 T Shiganuum Comparison of Normal and Face Dane er Skull Development Interp Anat Rec 376 183 203 FAMILY ATOMICS, HISTORY OF.