lowing manner. "Immediately after birth, the infant is placed in a kind of oblong cradle, formed like a trough, with moss under it. One end, on which the head reposes, is more elevated than the rest. A padding is then placed on the forehead, with

piece of cedar bark over it, and by means of cords passed through small holes, on each side of the cradle, the padding is pressed against the head. It is kept in this manner upwards of a year. When released from this inhuman process, the head is perfectly flattened, and the upper part of it seldom exceeds an inch in thickness."*

The Charibs compressed the heads of their infants by boards and ligatures, and rendered the forehead so flat, "that they could see perpendicularly when standing erect;" and the Arrowauks practised the same custom, endeavoring, however, to give the crown of the head a greater elongation.

In South America, according to Condamine, "the appellation Omaguas, in the language of Peru, as well as Cambevas in that of Brazil, given to the same people by the Portuguese of Para, signifies Flat-heads. For they have the whimsical custom of pressing between two plates the forehead of their newly born children, in order to give them this singular shape, and make them, as they say, resemble the full moon." "Among the variety of singular customs prevailing in these nations," says Ulloa," one cannot help being surprised at the odd taste

*Ross Cox's Adventures on the Columbia River, pp. 69, 166. Lewis and Clarke, vol. ii. p. 131.

† Sheldon, in Arch. Am., vol. i. p. 372. Lawrence's Lectures, p. 237.

Condamine, in Pinkerton, vol. xiv. p. 226.

of the Omaguas, a people otherwise so sensible, who, to render their children what they call beautiful, flatten the fore and hind parts of the head, which gives them a monstrous appearance; for the forehead grows upwards, in proportion as it is flattened, so that the distance from the rising of the nose to the beginning of the hair, exceeds that from the lower part of the nose to the bottom of the chin. And the same is observable in the back part of the head: the sides also are very narrow from a natural consequence of the pressure; as thus, the parts pressed, instead of spreading conformable to the common course of nature, grow upwards. This practice is of great antiquity among them, and kept up so strictly, that they make a jest of other nations calling them calabash-heads. In order to give children this beautiful flatness, the upper part of the head is put, soon after their birth, betwixt two pieces of board, and this is repeated from time to time, till they have brought the head to the fashionable form."* The Mantas, consisting of several tribes subdued by the Incas, are described by Garcillasso de la Vega, as having their heads very much deformed. "As soon as their children were born, they applied to the front of the head and the back of the neck two small boards, between which they compressed the head, until they had arrived to the age of five years; and by these means the head became flat and very long." There are various authorities to show that artificial pressure of the cranium was common to many Peruvian nations, and none more satisfactory than the decree of the Synod of Lima, (passed 1585,) cited by Blumenbach, which prohibited the custom,—at

* Ulloa, vol. i. P. 411.

"Sur le front, et sur le chignon de cou."-Fr. Trans., 1737.

the same time alluding to it as formerly universal in Peru.* Dr. Morton has traced it likewise into Venezuela and Nicaragua. The same learned naturalist in his researches into American craniology has arrived at the conclusions, that the American nations, excepting the Polar tribes, are of one race and one species, but of two great families, which resemble each other in physical, but differ in intellectual character, and that the cranial remains discovered in the mounds, from Peru to Wisconsin, belong to the same race, and probably to the Toltecan family. The skulls from the mounds are described as being flattened on the occiput and frontal bones, "in such manner as to give the whole head a sugar-loaf or conical form, whence also their great lateral diameter and their narrowness from back to front," and the result of his investigation seems to be, that this peculiar configuration, as well as that of the Mexican heads represented in their sculptures and paintings, appears to result in part from the application of mechanical pressure.

But there are other crania brought by Mr. Pentland from Peru, which it is supposed belong to an ancient and extinct race. They are remarkable for their unusually great length and narrowness; the face is very projecting, the forehead retreating, so that the facial angle is smaller than in any known race of men; the os frontis is continued far backwards towards the vertex, and is very long, narrow and flat. By the discovery of these skulls the interesting question has been presented to naturalists, whether they are of a natural form, or altered by art. Professor Tiedemann says, " a careful examination of these skulls

* Lawrence's Lectures, p. 237. Ruschenberger. Morton's Crania, p. 147.

has convinced me that their peculiar shape cannot be owing to artificial pressure. The great elongation of the face, and the directionof the plane of the occipital bone are not to be reconciled with this opinion, and therefore we must conclude that the peculiarity of shape depends on a natural conformation. If this view of the subject be correct, it follows that these skulls belonged to a race of men now extinct, and which differed from any now existing." But it is clear that the habit of mechanical compression of the head was common to many American nations, and prevalent in Peru. "There is no race on the globe," says Humboldt, "in which the frontal bone is more depressed backwards, than the American." "The cus

tom of flattening the head had its origin, in the idea that beauty consists in such a form of the frontal bone as to characterize the race in a decided manner." In fact Waldeck saw in Yucatan profiles of the present Indian race, similar to those sculptured at Palenque ;* those ancient profiles, he says, are at an angle of 74°, which must be attributed to the custom of flattening the head. It is true these differ in form from those of Peru under consideration, but the alteration by compression has been as great. In view of the various processes which were used, the nature of the substances which were applied, and the parts which were compressed, it does not seem improbable that the singularly shaped Peruvian skulls may have been altered by artificial means. The tendency of the cranium to lateral expansion under a pressure from the front and back, which does not appear to have taken place in these heads, may have been prevented by ligatures or other mechanical applications to the sides of the

* Voyage Pittoresque, p. 24.

head. The testimony of Dr. Pritchard is strongly to this point; "it is more probable," he says, "that the ancient skulls of Titicaca owed their strange configuration to a process, which we know is capable of explaining the phenomena, than that they constituted an original race, a circumstance of which we have no other evidence than that derived from the shape of the cranium.* Professor Scouler has given the sketch of an infant skull of one of the Columbian tribes, which is as much elongated as the skulls brought by Mr. Pentland from Titicaca." It thus appears that there are no decided and general characteristics yet clearly ascertained, which separate any of the ancient civilized nations from the great American family,-nor any peculiar cranial conformations, which might not be justly attributed to the prevalent custom of altering the head by mechanical applications, so as to produce that form, which, according to aboriginal notions, possessed the highest degree of beauty.

In the prosecution of our inquiry as to the number of primitive races, it becomes necessary to examine in the next place, in what points of physical appearance the American and Mongolian races are assimilated.

The Mongolian variety. The Mongols have exercised an important influence in the affairs of Oriental Asia, having at different periods subjected Hindostan, Siam, Thibet and China. Hordes of this race roam over the vast regions of Siberia, and are found wandering from China to the banks of the Dneiper ;‡ and it is probable that in ages far beyond the scope of authen

*The hair upon these heads certainly establishes one point of connection with the Red race, for it is uniformly lank, long and black. † Pritchard's Physical Researches, vol. i. pp. 316, 320.

Dr. Clarke's Travels, part i. pp. 155, 159.