Artificial Dlsfignrcment of the Skull of Uie luilian Emccs. 347 



even now, when the brown Catholicized Peruvians have lost 

 none of their old superstitions, though they have abandoned 

 most of their former arts and customs, the dead committed to 

 the earth without further preparation^ present the same mum- 

 mified appearance when disinterred. I took away with me 

 the skull of an Indian, from the neighbourhood of Arica, 

 which was remarkable for the singular malformation resulting 

 from compression by circular bandages. 



This artificial disfigurement of the skull has its origin in 

 the peculiar customs of several Indian races of both North 

 and South America, of mechanically altering the form of the 

 cranium in the new-born infant. Of the difference in point 

 of beauty of the different Indian races along the west coast of 

 North America, a clear indication is afforded by the profile 

 of the head of a native of Puget Sound, Oregon territory, for 

 which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Hied of Valpa- 

 raiso, he having been presented with it in 1856, by the medi- 

 cal officer of an American man-of-war. Here, in strong con- 

 trast with the oblong form of the cranium of an Indian from 

 the neighbourhood of Arica, it appears that the skull has been 

 flattened transversely, by pressure between two boards. 



At first one is disposed to attribute the squeezed-in appear- 

 ance of the head, remarked in different Indian races, here 

 lengthened in an unsightly degree, there hideously flattened, 

 to some freak of nature ; but more accurate investigations 

 leave no doubt that the deformity in question, in whatever 

 form, is the result of pressure artificially applied, and that 



