150 Mr. Ranking on tfie Ruins of Palenque, 



are a good-humoured race, and some of the women are fair, 

 affable, and so handsome, and have such regular features, that 

 they would find numerous admirers in all the cities of Europe." 

 — Pallas, 5 vols. 4to, torn. i. p. 496, et seq. If, in conse- 

 quence of the Spanish decree in 1585, these deformations were 

 no longer practised, nature would resume her true features, and 

 we accordingly find that *' the inhabitants of Guatemala are 

 celebrated for personal beauty and sweetness of disposition, the 

 women being reputed the handsomest in Spanish America." — 

 Rees'^s Cyc, Guat, It was from the Oighours, in the part 

 of Tartary in question, that the Emperor Kublai procured four 

 or five hundred beautiful concubines annually. — Marco Poloy 

 Note, 527. — IVars and Sports, p. 62. 



If we seek the cause of the Tartars and Americans forming 

 their skulls in different shapes, it may fairly be conjectured, that 

 in the manner of the negro afore-mentioned, it became a custom, 

 in order to enable the warrior to prove that he had exhibited 

 an enemy^s head, his own nation being distinguished by some 

 other peculiarity. It is remarkable, that the Turks and Cal- 

 mucs are of the same region. — See Humboldt on this subject. 

 Researches, i. p. 126. 



VII. — Two men, in highly decorated dresses mutually holding 

 a jointed bent staff, about six feet long, (perhaps a bow) with a 

 small human head at one end of it, and a head at the feet of each. 

 They appear to be chiefs in earnest conference, as if pledging 

 fidelity. They have long heads. 



VIII. — Six large objects of border-writing, in which nothing 

 is explicable, except a human eye and the cyphers which denote 

 so many in number. 



IX. — Two round brass medallic representations. The first is a 

 large tree, with a huge serpent twined round it, and eleven 

 objects, perhaps meant for fruit, among the leaves. A smaller 

 tree, with six such objects. Another tree, with a bird perched 

 above it, and four small trees, making seven trees. The second 

 represents a man, with a cap, or turban, upon his head, naked, 

 and kneeling upon a flight of several steps. A monstrous beast's 

 head, with the jaws open, is seen before him, and another behind 

 him, as if threatening to devour him. There are two trees, each 

 with six of the fruit upon it, and four small trees, with part of 

 another tree at tlie edge, making eeyeji. The medal, sayi Djj, 



