ORNAMENTS. LABRETS. 517 



They often wore " necklaces of shells, claws, or wampum ; 

 feathers on the head and armlets, as well as ear and nose 

 jewels/'* Many of the Indian tribes are clean in their 

 persons, and frequently use both the sweat-house and cold 

 bath; others are described as repulsive in countenance and 

 filthy both in person and habit. 



Among the western tribes tattooing is very general with 

 the women, though not carried to any great extent. 



The eastern tribes do not generally disfigure themselves 

 artificially, except indeed by the use of paint ; but it is very 

 different in the west. The Sachet Indians of De Fuca's 

 Straits wear pieces of bone or wood passed through the carti- 

 lage of the nose ; the Classet Indians cut their noses when 

 they capture a whale ; among the Babines, who live north of 

 Columbia Eiver, the size of the under-lip is the standard of 

 female beauty.-)- A hole is made in the under-lip of the infant, 

 in which a small bone is inserted; from time to time the 

 bone is replaced by a larger one, until at last a piece of wood 

 three inches long and an inch and a half wide, is inserted in 

 the orifice, which makes the lip protrude to a frightful extent. 

 The process appears to be very painful. 



Owing to the almost universal custom of fastening babies 

 to a cradle-board, the American skulls are characterized by 

 a flattened occiput. This peculiarity does not now occur in 

 European heads, but it is found in many ancient skulls from 

 various parts of the old continents, and indicates, as pointed 

 out by Vesalius, Gosse, and Wilson, that the cradle-board, 

 though long abandoned, was at one time used in Western 

 Europe, as it is even now among the Indians of North Ame- 

 rica. The extraordinary practice of moulding the form of the 

 head was common to several of the Indian tribes. It pre- 

 vailed in Mexico and Peru, in the Carib Islands, and among 



* Schoolcraft, vol. iii. p. 65. rica, p. 242 ; Vancouver, 1. c. vol. ii. 



t Kane's Indians of North Ame- pp. 280, 408. 



