118 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. ' 



Wo propose to examine in the next place, whether the pecnhar form of the 

 crania from the stone graves throws any light on the origin or tribal relations of 

 this extinct race. 



This singular custom of flattening the head by artificial means, when the bones 

 are young and in a plastic state, was not confined to the inhabitants of America, but 

 is of great antiquity. Thus Hippocrates, in his treatise on " Air, Water, and Situ- 

 ation," mentions the Macroceplmli amongst those people who were remarkable for 

 the length of their heads, in which respect they differed from all other races. Hip- 

 pocrates gives the following account of the mode in which the peculiar shape of the 

 head was produced, and advances the theory that, after the similar configuraticfn of 

 the skull was produced, the peculiarity was propagated, and that it was thence- 

 forth unnecessary to resort to artificial pressure. " At first the length of their 

 heads was owing to a law or custom ; it being an opinion among them, that those 

 who have the longest heads are the most noble. The custom stood thus : as 

 soon as the child was born, they immediately fashioned its soft and tender head 

 with their hands, and, by the use of bandages and proper arts, forced it to grow 

 lengthwise ; by which the spherical figure of the head was prevented and the length 

 increased. This at first was the eff'ect of custom, to make nature operate in this 

 way. In process of time, it became so far natural as to make the custom useless." 

 The exact situation of the Macrocephali has not been determined, but it is supposed 

 to have been not far from the Palus Maeotis, in the vicinitv of the Caucasus. 



According to Dr. Rathke, certain tumuli having been excavated at Kertsch in the 

 Crimea, there were found in them, besides diff'erent utensils and statues, several 

 skeletons ; and it is most remarkable that the form of the head was greatly elon- 

 gated, in the manner described by Hippocrates. With regard to the Macrocephali, 

 Pliny, in the fourth chapter of the seventh book of his Natural History, mentions 

 the Macrocephali in connection with nations dwelling upon the coast of Asia Minor; 

 and Strabo, alluding to these people (Book I, Chap, ii, § 35, and Book XI, Chap, 

 xi, § 7), locates them about Mount Caucasus, and describes them as practising 

 Persian customs. I have failed, after a careful search, to discover any descrip- 

 tion of these people in the works of Herodotus. 



In this connection it is also worthy of consideration, that numerous mounds, or 

 barrows of earth, and sun-dried bricks, resembling, in many respects, similar struc- 

 tures in North America, are found in the plains and valleys of Western and North- 

 western Europe, and in Central and Northern Asia. According to the testimony 

 of Arminius Vambery, the Turcomans of the present day erect mounds over their 

 distinguished men, at the time of burial, accompanied with ceremonies resembling, 

 in some respects, those practised by the North American Indians. This custom 

 existed among the Ancient Huns, and is in use in Hungary, even in our own time. 

 Vambery, in his " Travels in Central Asia," also describes other great mounds of 

 evident antiquity, the origin and uses of which are unknown to the natives ; and 

 Atkinson, in his " Narrative of Seven Years' Explorations in Siberia, Mongolia, and 

 Chinese Tartary," has in like manner described the barrows of Chinese Tartary, 

 one of which was one hundred and fifty feet in height, and steep, and regular in 

 Its form. According to the latter author, among the numerous tumuli scattered 



