PHTSIOGXOMIC CURIOSITIES. 819 



savage disposition/' Who is not at once reminded of the timid, flax- 

 en-haired inmates of our infirmaries and orphan asylums, and, on the 

 other hand, of the "black, frizzled hair," BO often combined with a 

 bowie-knife and horse-pistol in the make-up of a prominent border- 

 ruffian ? And is it not confirmed by national as well as individual 

 characteristics, that prominence of the canine teeth indicates pugnacity, 

 or. as Dr. Cams terms it, u the love of overcoming ? The Bedouin 

 Arabs and the Arizona Apaches have such teeth, and the physiogno- 

 mies of Western hunters and teamsters and West Indian smuggl- 

 show that they are developed by adventurous pursuits. 



If the experience of mankind is competent to interpret facial indi- 

 cations, some of the "propensit: ra " and '' pereeptives * ? which Spurz- 

 heim lodges in the back rooms of his pan-sensorium must have a 

 penchant for changing their quarters. "Firmnv-s ." for instance, 

 which he locates in the posterior part of the upper head, undoubte- 

 manifests itself in the prominence of the chin. ; - Draw a face in pro- 

 file," Bays Winckelmann, and observe how timidity or its opposite can 

 be expressed by the shape of the lower jaw. Let the chin be receding, 

 and vour profile can be made to express pusillanimity and feebleness 

 of character, even to the degree of imbecility. Then, without chang- 

 ing: anv upper line of the profile, combine it with a pro mi nent chin, 

 and it will exhibit firmness. Exaggerate the prominence, and you can 

 intensify that expression to one of obstinacy and ferocity. That such 

 contrasts are less striking: in living: fa owing to the eireumsta: 



that we take in the expression of all features at a single glance, with- 

 out analyzing the complex effect." 



Have we not here a positive criterion, a rule without an exception ? 

 Does it not occur to us, on after-thought, that aU warlike, aggressive 

 nations have such projecting chins, while the weak or degenerate ones 

 are more or less chin-less ? In their classification of the Xorth Ameri- 

 can aborigines the Spaniards distinguish between Tndios mango* and 

 Ihdiosl 1 (tame and savage Indians). The former comprise the 



different agricultural tribes of Central and South America, ignorant 

 but harmless creatures, who subsist on a vegetable diet ; the latter the 

 earnivorou- - Bges f theXorth, who divided their time between hunt- 

 ing and warfare. In their physical characteristics these various trr 

 of the American autochthones could hardly be distinguished, if it were 

 not for a slight variation in the color of their skins and a verv mark 

 difference in the shape of their eh ins. Our redskins have chins, thor 

 thev can not emulate those of the Indo-Germanic race : the Indians of 

 Mexico and South America have none. In the profile of a vegetarian 

 Indio from the neighborhood of Vera Cruz, the lower jaw recedes in 

 a sharp line from the mouth to the throat, so that his nose, though not 

 excessive in size, becomes ridiculously prominent. Obstinacy with a 

 projecting chin and shrinking timidity with a receding one are here 

 strongly contrasted, and the study of individual faces proves TTinckel- 



