858 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



occasion to state that the lacquered or japanned goods of China, Japan, 

 Borneo, etc., are not manufactured, as is generally supposed, from the produc- 

 tions of the lac insect, but from a vegetable production a liquor obtained by 

 making incisions in the bark of certain trees. 



OX THE OPATE IXDIAX, OK "BEAR- WOMAN." 



At a recent meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. Kneeland 

 read the following paper, on a so-called Opate Indian, exhibited in Boston, in 

 September, 1355: 



This girl, who is 22 years of age, 4 feet 6 inches in height, and of the 

 weight of 112 Ibs., is probably a member of some Indian tribe inhabiting the 

 Sierra Madre Mountains ; these mountains run for the most part parallel to 

 the Gulf of California, through the Mexican States of Sonora and Cinaloa; 

 their distance from the sea varies from 200 to 50 miles, and in the neighbor- 

 hood of Mazatlan they come still nearer to the coast. This girl has been 

 called an Opate Indian ; if she belong to this tribe, she is from the central 

 part of Sonora. It has also been stated that she was obtained from the 

 Sierra Madre Mountains in Cinaloa, in the neighborhood of Copula. This is, 

 however, of little consequence, as the girl, without doubt, belongs to some 

 one of the Indian tribes between the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Gulf of 

 California, in the Mexican provinces of Sonora and Cinaloa; and whatever 

 may be the particular tribe of a scattered race which may claim her, she is 

 just as much a curious, rare and interesting specimen of humanity. 



As to her tribe living in caves, in a naked state, on an equality with brutes, 

 aiid partaking of their food, that would degrade her to a level with the Digger 

 Indians of California, who, though very degraded, are yet far above the brutes. 

 The locality of the Digger Indians is several degrees farther north than the 

 Sierra Madre range. This resemblance to the brute is mentioned, as the 

 popular belief seems to*be in her case, as in the Aztec children, that she is a 

 specimen of a race, half human and half brute. 



The girl is modest, playful in her disposition, pleased with playthings, like 

 a child, and at times rather hard to manage from her obstinacy and impulsive 

 character. She is quite intelligent, understands perfectly every thing said to 

 her, can converse in English, and also in Spanish ; she has a good ear for 

 music, and can sing tolerably well ; she can also sew remarkably well ; she is 

 very fond of ornament and dress. Her appearance is far less disgusting than 

 the representations of her ; the enormous growth of hair on the face, and the 

 prominence of the lips from diseased gums, give her a brutish appearance. 

 Her hair is long, very thick, black and straight, like that of the American 

 Indian; the hair, of the same color and character, grows on the forehead 

 quite to the eyebrows, varying from one half to an inch in length, having 

 been partially cut oft' in the middle of the forehead: the eye-brows are very 

 thick and shaggy, and the lashes remarkably long: the hair also grows along 

 the sides and alee of the nose, upper lip, cheeks and about the ears, which 

 are large and with very large lobes: the chin is also well supplied with a 

 black fine beard or goatee, two or three inches long: the arms are hairy for a 



