Discoverfj of Human SJiulls — yiode of Interment. 393 



of digging up and examining the graves. At various points, 

 especially close to the hill on which stands what probably 

 was once a fort, we found a great number of skulls lying 

 about. Most of those we picked up had been artificially 

 compressed, though they did not all seem to have had the 

 pressure applied at the same place, thus affording unmis- 

 takeable proof that artificial pressure had been resorted to 

 here. Many of the skulls, though they had been interred for 

 centuries, were still thickly covered with hair. There cannot 

 be a doubt that most of those buried here belonged to the 

 race which occupied this part of the country when the 

 Spaniards first visited it, for after the occupation and the sub- 

 sequent wholesale baptisms which the proselytizing monks 

 performed upon the ignorant brown natives in droves, it is 

 improbable that any of the Christianized Indians would 

 thereafter be interred in unconsecrated earth. 



The Peruvian Indians, as is well known, were accustomed 

 to envelope their dead in coarse cloths, after which they were 

 buried in basket or sack-shaped straw-plait work, certain ob- 

 jects and utensils being placed by their side, preference being 

 given to those the deceased had most used in life. Thus, fish- 

 nets, baskets, &c., were placed in the grave, and in the case 

 of a chief, weapons, staffs with golden knobs, pots of wood or 

 bm'nt earth, and so forth. The head usually reposes on a 

 sort of pillow of grass or cotton. I brought away with me 

 from Pachacamdc about half a dozen of the most remarkably 

 shaped of these skulls, as also some portions of mummified 



