Jiemarks on the Ancient Peruvians. 



337 



and covered with bas reliefs ; colossal statues of basalt ; and 

 large square tombs, wholly above ground, and in such num- 

 bers that they are compared to towns and villages. 



My published observations go to shew that the internal ca- 

 pacity of the cranium, as indicative of the size of the brain, is 

 nearly the same in the ancient and modern Peruvians, viz., 

 about seventy-six cubic inches — a smallness of size which is 

 without a parallel among existing nations, excepting only the 

 Hindoos. 



M. D'Orbigny even supposes the ancient Peruvians to have 

 been the lineal progenitors of the Inca family ; a question 

 which is not yet decided. Supposing this to be the fact, we 

 may inquire how it happens that the Incas should have so en- 

 tirely abandoned the practice of distorting the cranium ; espe- 

 cially as this, among the Aymaras, was an aristocratic privi- 

 lege % 



I was at first at a loss to imagine how this singular elonga- 

 tion of the head was effected ; for when pressure is applied 

 to a spheroidal 'head, as in the instance of the Chenouks and 

 other tribes of the Columbia river, the skull expands lateralltj 

 in proportion as it is depressed above ; whereas, in these 

 people, the head is narrow from the face to the occiput. It 

 seems probable that this conformation was produced by 

 placing splints or compresses on each side of the head from 

 the cheek bones to the parietal protuberances, and another on 

 the forehead, and confining them by rotary bandages. In this 

 way the face, in the process of growth, would be protruded 

 in front, and the head elongated backwards; while the skull, 



