588 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Such an artificial selection is peculiarly liable to play havoc 

 with facial features, for which reason these latter are rendered 

 quite unreliable for purposes of racial identification. And yet, 

 because they are entirely superficial, they are first noted by the 

 traveler and used as a basis of classification. A case in point is 

 offered by the eastern Eskimos, who possess in marked degree not 

 only the almond eye, so characteristic of the Mongolian peoples, 

 but also the broad face, high cheek bones, and other features 

 common among the people of Asia. Yet, notwithstanding this 

 superficial resemblance, inspection of our world map of the head 

 form shows that they stand at the farthest remove from the Asi- 

 atic type. They are even longer-headed than most of the African 

 negroes. Equally erroneous is it to assume, because the Asiatic 

 physiognomy is quite common among all the aborigines of the 

 Americas, even to the tip of Cape Horn, that this constitutes a 

 powerful argument for a derivation of the American Indian from 

 the Asiatic stock. We shall have occasion to point out from time 

 to time the occurrence of local facial types in various parts of 

 Europe. On the principle we have indicated above, these are 

 highly interesting as indications of a local sense of individuality, 

 but they mean but little, so far as racial origin and derivation 

 are concerned. 



Happily for us, racial differences in head form are too slight to 

 suggest any such social selection as has been suggested ; moreover, 

 they are generally concealed by the headdress, which assumes 

 prominence in proportion as we return toward barbarism. Obvi- 

 ously, a Psyche knot or savage peruke suffices to conceal all slight 

 natural differences of this kind ; so that Nature is left free to 

 follow her own bent without interference from man. The color 

 of skin peculiar to a people may be heightened readily by the use 

 of a little pigment. Such practices are not infrequent. To mod- 

 ify the shape of the cranium itself, even supposing any peculiarity 

 were detected, is quite a different matter. It is far easier to rest 

 content with a modification of the headdress, which may be ren- 

 dered socially distinctive by the application of infinite pains and 

 expense. It is well known that in many parts of the world the 

 head is artificially deformed by compression during infancy. 

 This was notably the case in the Americas. Such practices have 

 obtained and prevail to-day in parts of Europe. For example, 

 the people about Toulouse in the Pyrenees are accustomed to 

 distort the head by the application of bandages during the form- 

 ative period of life. This deformation * is sometimes so extreme 



* For a- full account of such deformation, ukle L'Anthropologie, Paris, vol. iv, p. 11, 

 seq. The illustrations of such deformation, of the processes employed, and of the effect 

 upon the brain development, are worthy of note. 



