270 PRESENT STATE OF ETHNOLOGY, ETC. 



artificial means which had been found at a more recent epoch in 

 Lower Austria. In 1854 I received from M. Troy on, of Switzerland, 

 two ancient skulls of like shape derived from Switzerland and Savoy, 

 respecting which I made a report to the Academy of Stockholm in 

 1854. From the account given by Ameclee Thierry, in his History of 

 Attila, I had learned that the custom of artificially deforming the 

 head proceeded of old from the Mongols, from whom it was borrowed 

 by the Huns, and that it was employed as the means of conferring a 

 certain aristocratic distinction, just as Hippocrates reports it to have 

 been practiced for the same purpose by the Scythians, and as is still 

 the case among the Indians of Oregon. At the same time I was 

 enabled to show that this custom still exists in France, where it has 

 without doubt been perpetuated since the time when the Huns were 

 masters of the country. This custom, still existing in certain parts of 

 France, has been mentioned and described by Dr. Foville in his work 

 on the anatomy of the head, though the author seems scarcely to 

 have perceived the historical significance of the fact. Shortly after 

 the date last referred to I received from Professor Geffroy, of Mar- 

 seilles, a confirmation of the fact that this custom is still persisted in 

 in the south of France, not far from Marseilles. From a passage in 

 the works of Vesalius we are led to infer that it exists also in several 

 parts of Turkey. 



We can no longer doubt, then, that this practice of giving an arti- 

 ficial form to the skull has subsisted from a remote epoch among the 

 Oriental nations. As Thierry, moreover, pronounces it to be a Mon- 

 gol usage, I have submitted the question, in the memoir before spoken 

 of, whether this fact does not speak in favor of an ancient communi- 

 cation between the Old and the New World? Such a communication 

 seems, indeed, to be now placed beyond doubt by the proofs which 

 have been accumulated, from time to time, through the efforts of 

 numerous and zealous inquirers. It would seem likely that the usage 

 in question has been introduced by the Mongols into America, where 

 it has become diffused even among tribes not of the Mongol stock. 

 Among the greater part of these the compression seems to have been 

 effected on the occiput with the view of rendering this fiat and short'. 

 The compression of the top of the head among the Indians of Oregon 

 (Flat-heads) has no doubt sprung from their proximity to the Esqui- 

 maux, whose heads are full and large. The frontal compression 

 (Huanchas, Caribs) seems to have been designed to render the head 

 more dolichocephalic, and was exclusively practiced by dolicho- 

 cephahe, for whom I propose, in analogy with the term used by Dr. 

 Latham, as mentioned above, the name of American Semites. 



