DB3SS AND ADORNMENT. 



495 



have been described from Peru alone. All the important types 

 may also be found within a very limited area surrounding Van- 

 couver Island. Several questions arise in connection with this 

 practice. Is the operation painful ? Are the effects harmful ? 

 Is the result hereditable ? " It might be supposed," says Mr. 

 Kane, " that the operation would be attended with great suffering, 

 but I never heard the infants crying or moaning, although I have 

 seen their eyes seemingly start out of their sockets from the great 

 pressure ; but, on the contrary, when the thongs were loosened 

 and the pads removed I have noticed them cry till they were re- 

 placed. From the apparent dullness of the children while under 

 the pressure I should imagine that a state of torpor or insensibility 

 is induced, and that the return to conscious- 

 ness caused by its removal must be natural- 

 ly followed by a sense of pain " (Fig. 7) 

 (Flower). Are the effects of such alteration 

 of the skull hurtful to the brain? Most au- 

 thors agree that in savage or barbarous life 

 little or no harmful result comes. This be- 

 lief is founded upon two facts : (1) the indi- 

 viduals deformed appear quite as intelligent 

 as their neighbors ; (2) in such tribes as hold 

 slaves the deformation exists only among 

 the free population. Were the masters se- 

 riously affected by it in mind, they would 

 ere now have become themselves the slaves. 



In civilization sad results follow. Dr. Foville proves that it causes 

 headache, deafness, cerebral congestion, epilepsy, and worse brain 

 troubles (Flower). As to heredity, Hippocrates claimed that the 

 tendency to abnormal form of head did become hereditary ; recent 

 authors, as a rule, do not agree with him. 



The third group of deformations or bodily alterations is color 

 decoration, and under this we shall class body-painting, tattooing, 

 and gashing. 



Body-painting and face-painting are universal. The Gani wear 

 no dress, but paint the whole body. Thus : " Two messengers were 

 painted their faces were white ; the bodies were painted in two 

 coats of purple and ashen-gray ; the latter was scraped off so as 

 to show the former in patterns below. Some men paint the body 

 in horizontal stripes like the zebra, or in vertical stripes down 

 the back, or with zigzags of a lighter color." 



All our North American Indians paint, and the patterns vary 

 with the individual, with the family, and with the occasion. From 

 notes made upon Sacs and Foxes painted for the dance we will 

 give but one or two cases. One man's face was painted black, 

 except around the eyes and mouth, which were scarlet. Upon 



Fig. 7. Flathead Child. 



