

PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 



elongated craiiia,) and in the larger size of tlie hands and feet they also present 

 a noticeable difference. The remarkable narrowness and delicacy of the hands, 

 and the long and regularly-formed finger-nails of the former, are strong evidence 

 that they were unaccustomed to severe manual labor, such as must have been 

 required for the construction of the great works of which the ruins remain. In 

 all the cemeteries examined, where skulls of the rounded form have been found, 

 those which are elongated have also been obtained." Remembering, however, 

 that the sepulchral rites of the royal and noble Inca race were commonly ac- 

 companied by the same human sacrifices traceahle among so many semi- 

 civilized as well as barbarous nations, it is in no degree surprising that the 

 crania of the two distinct classes, noble and serf, should be found deposited 

 together in the same grave. After a minute comparison of all the brachy- 

 cephalic Peruvian crania in the Morton collection, it appears to me that these 

 also admit of subdivision into two classes distinguished by marked physiog- 

 nomical diversity. The bones of the face in the one arc small and delicate, 

 while the other exhibits the characteristic Mongol maxillary development and 

 prominent cheek-bones. The iollowing table of measurements ilhistrates the 

 proportions of the Peruvian dolichocephalic skull, as shown in examples brought 

 by Mr. Blake from Peru, and in others preserved in the collections of Boston 

 and Philadelphia: 



Table III.— PERUVIAN DOLICHOCEPHALIC CRANIA. 



In an inquiry into the physical characteristics of the Peruvian nation, we are 

 by no means limited to ihe cranial or the mere osteological remains recoverable 

 from its ancient cemeteries. Like the Egyptians, the Peruvians employed their 

 ingenious skill in rendering the bodies of their dead invulnerable to the assaults 

 of " decay's effacing fingers;" and, like the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, they 

 were able to do so under peculiarly favorable circumstances of soil and climate. 

 The colors on Egyptian paintings, and the texture of their finer handiwork, 

 which have shown no trace of decay through all the centuries during which 

 they have lain entombed in their native soil or catacombs, fade and perish 

 almost in a single generation when transferred to the humid climates of Paris 

 or London. The natural impediments to decay probably contributed, alike in 

 Egypt and Peru, to the origination of the practice of embalming. The ceme- 

 teries already referred to are situated in a region where rain seldom or never 

 falls ; and the dryness alike of the soil and atmosphere, when added to the 

 natural impregnation of the sand with nitrous salts, almost precludes the decay 



