290 PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 



examining the Mortouian and other American collections have satisfied me of 

 the occurrence of both dolichocephalic and brachycephalic crania, not only as the 

 characteristics of distinct tribes, but also among the contents of the same Peru- 

 vian cemeteries, not as examples of extreme latitudes of form in a common race, 

 but as the results of the admixture cither of conquering and subject races, or 

 of distinct classes of nobles and serfs, most generally resulting from the pre- 

 dominance of conquerors. Among the Peruvians the elongated cranium per- 

 tained to the dominant race; and some of the results of later researches in 

 primitive British cemeteries, and especially the disclosures of the remarkable 

 class of chambered barrows, seem to point to au analogous condition of races. 

 That the Uley and West Kennet skulls may have been laterally compressed, 

 while the Codford barrow and other brachycephalic skulls have been affected 

 in the opposite direction, appears equally probable. But such artificial influences 

 only very partially account for the great diversity of type ; and no such causes, 

 (^ven if brought to bear in infancy, could possibly convert the one into the other 

 form. 



But as the cranial forms, both of the Old and New World, betray evidences 

 of modification by such artificial means, so also we find in ancient Africa a 

 diverse form of head, to which art may have contributed, solely by leaving it 

 more than usually free from all exti'aneous influences. Such at least is a con- 

 clusion suggested to my mind from the examination of a considerable number 

 uf Egyptian skulls. Among familiar relics of domestic usages of the ancient 

 Egyptians is the pillow designed for the neck, and not the head, to rest upon. 

 Such pillows are found of miniature sizes, indicating that the Egyptian passed 

 from earliest infancy Avithout his head being subjected even to so slight a pres- 

 sure as the pillow, while he rested recumbent. The Egyptian skull is long, 

 with great breadth and fulness in the posterior region. In its prominent, 

 rounded parieto-occipital conformation, an equally striking contrast is presented 

 to the British brachycephalic skull, with truncated occiput, and to the opposite 

 extreme characteristic of the primitive dolichocephalic skull ; though exceptional 

 examples are not rare. This characteristic did not escape Dr. Morton's observ- 

 ant eye ; and is repeatedly indicated in the Crania jEgyiitiaca under the designa- 

 tion, "tumid occiput." It also appeared to me, after careful examination of the 

 fine collection formed by him, and now in the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, that the Egyptian crania are generally characterized by considera- 

 ble symmetrical uniformity : as was to be anticipated, if there is any truth in 

 the idea of undesigned artificial compression and deformation resulting from such 

 simple causes as accompany the mode of nurture in infancy. 



The heads of the Eiji Islanders supply a means of testing the same cause, 

 operating on a brachycephalic form of cranium ; as most of the islanders of the 

 Eiji group employ a neck pillow nearly similar to that of the ancient Egyptians, 

 and with the same purpose in view : that of preserving their elaborately dressed 

 hair from disshevelment. In their case, judging from an example in the collec- 

 tion of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, the occipital region is broad, 

 and presents in profile a uniform, rounded conformation passing almost imper- 

 ceptibly into the coronal region. Indeed, the broad, well-rounded occiput is 

 considered by the Eijians a great beauty. The bearing of this, however, in 

 relation to the present argument, depends on whether or not the Fiji neck-pilloAV 

 is used in infancy, of which I am uncertain. The necessity which suggests its 

 use at a later period does not then exist; but the prevalent use of any special 

 form of pillow for adults is likely to lead to its adoption from the fiftt. In one 

 male Fiji skull brought home by the United States Exploring Expedition (No. 

 4-581) the occiput exhibits the characteristic full, rounded form, with a large and 

 Avell-defined supra-occipital bone. But in another skull in the same collection — 

 that of Vendovi, Chief of Kautavu, who was taken prisoner by the United 

 States ship Peacock, in 1840, and died at New York in 1842 — the occiput, 



