264 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



must be assumed that the dead man was not laid away in a coffin, but 

 placed on the ground; that, in fact, he belonged to an earlier "^period.' 

 How long ago that was can not be known, unfortunately, since no data 

 are at handj however, the bones are in a nearly fossilized condition, 

 which allows the conclusion that they were deposited long ago. 



The deformation itself furnishes no clue to a chronological conclu- 

 sion. In Thevenot* is found the statement that, according to the 

 account of a priest, probably in the 16th century, the custom prevails 

 in some of the islands to press the heads of new-born babes between 

 two boards, also to flatten the forehead, 'since they believed that this 

 form was a special mark of beauty.^ A similar deformation, with 

 more pronounced flattening and backward pressure of the forehead, is 

 shown on the crania which Jagor produced from a cave at Caramuan 

 in Luzon, There are modes of flattening which remind one of Peru. 

 When they came into our hands it was indeed an immense surprise, 

 since no knowledge of such deformation in the South Sea was at hand. 

 First our information led to more thorough investigations; so we are 

 aware of several examples of it from Indonesia and, indeed, from the 

 South Sea (Mallicolo). However, this deformation furnishes no clue 

 to the antiquity of the graves, f 



I have sawed one of these skulls in two along the sagittal suture. 

 The specimen gives a good idea of the amount of compression and 

 of the violence which this skull endured when quite young. The 

 cranial cavity is inclined backward and lengthened, and curves out 

 above, while the occiput is pressed downward and the region of the 

 front fontanelle is correspondingly lacking. Likewise, a considerable 

 thickness of the bone is to be noted, especially of the vertex. The 

 upper jaw is slightly prognathous and the roof of the mouth unusually 

 arched. 



For the purpose of the present study, it is unnecessary to go further 

 into particulars. It might be mentioned that all Lanang skulls are 

 characterized by their size and the firmness of bone, so that they depart 

 widely from the characteristics of the other Philippine examples 

 known to me. Similar skulls have been received only from caves, 

 which exist in one of the little rocky islands east from Luzon. They 

 suggest most Kanaka crania from Hawaii, and Maiori crania from 

 Chatham islands, and they raise the question whether they do not 

 belong to a migration period long before the time of the Malays. I 



* Pi61ations des diverses voyages curieux. Paris, 1591 (1663). 



[t Chinese and Korean pottery are said to have been found with the de- 

 formed crania. Similar deformations exist in the Celebes, New Britain, etc. 

 Head-shaping has been universal, cf. A. B. Meyer, Uber kunstliche deformirte 

 Schadel von Borneo und Mindanao and liber die Verbreitung der Sitte der 

 kunstlichen Schudeldeformirung, 1881, 36 pp., 4°. — Translatok.] 



