122 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



natural configuration of the head by binding the tender and flexible skull of the 

 child, immediately after birth, between two small pieces of wood, which, applied 

 before and behind, and firmly bound together on each side, elevated the forehead, 

 and occasioned the back part of the skull to resemble two sides of a square. The 

 great difterence in language and characters between these savage cannibals and 

 the more civilized inhabitants of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, gave 

 birth, at an early day, to the opinion that their origin also Avas difi"erent. Roche- 

 fort is evidently in error when he refers the origin of the Caribs to Florida. 

 It is true (as can be shown by the accounts of the early explorers) that these 

 savages occupied the shores of Florida, but they extended also along the shores 

 of tlie Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Yucatan, down along the shores 

 of Central America and the Isthmus of Panama, all around the borders of the 

 Caribbean Sea, throughout the whole province of Surinam, and even to Brazil. It 

 would appear that even as late as 1719, a fragment of this powerful race of 

 savages inhabited the coast of Louisiana, for Du Pratz' states that along the coast 

 on the west of the mouth of the Mississippi, " inhabit the nation called Atacapoa, 

 that is, man-eaters, being so called by the other nations on account of their detest- 

 able custom of eating their enemies." 



It would appear from the numbers and power of this maritime nation, as well 

 as the perfection to which they had brought their arts of war and navigation at 

 the time of their discovery by Columbus in 1492, that they had existed for ages, 

 and were probably equal in antiquity to the aboriginal inhabitants of Mexico, 

 Central America, and Peru. 



The ancient natives of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, spoke the 

 same language, possessed the same institutions, practised the same religious rites, 

 arose from one common origin, and emigrated anciently from the Mexican empire. 

 In common with the Caribs, they altered the natural configuration of the head 

 in infancy, but after a dift'crent mode. The sinciput, from the eyebrows to the 

 coronal suture, was depressed, which gave an unnatural thickness and elevation to 

 the occiput. " By this practice," says Herrera, " the crown was so strengthened 

 that a Spanish broad-sword, instead of cleaving the skull at a stroke, would 

 frequently break short upon it." 



According to James Adair," " the Choctaws (Choktah) flatten their foreheads 

 with a bag of sand, Avhich, with great care, they keep fastened to the skull of the 

 infant, while it is in its tender and imperfect state." The testimony of Bartram' 

 is to the same efl"ect. John Lawson,' in 1700, described the powerful tribe of 

 Waxhaws, as resorting to tlie compression of the cranium by artificial means. 

 And in like manner, the Osage' Indians, who have been described as the tallest 

 race of men in North America, either red or white, alter the shape of the head 

 during infancy by gentle compression. 



3 



' History of Louisiana, vol. ii, p. 152. » History of the American Indi.nns, p. 284. 



' Travels through North and South Carolina, East and West Florida, etc., bv William Bartrara. 

 Phila. 1791, p. 519. 



* A New Voyage to Carolina, etc., p. 33. 



' Catlin's North American Iudian.s, vol. ii, pp. 40-41. 



