516 THE PEOPLING OF THE PHILIPPINES. 



nium, including the face, is covered with a thick layer of sinter, which 

 gives it the appearance of belonging to the class of skulls with Leon- 

 tiasis ossea. It is, in fact, of good size, but through the incrustation 

 it is increased to gigantic proportions. It is true, likewise, that it has 

 a much flattened, broad and compressed form. The cleaning of another 

 skull has shown that artificial deform-.ition has taken place, which 

 obviously was completed before the incrustation was laid on by the 

 mineral water of the cave. I will here add that on the testimony of 

 travelers no Negritos were on Samar. The island lies in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Visayas. Although no description of the position of the 

 skull is at hand and of the skeleton to which it apparently belonged, it 

 must be assumed that the dead man was not laid awa}' in a cofiin, but 

 placed on the ground; that, in fact, he belonged to an earlier "period." 

 How long ago that was can not be known, unfortunately, since no data 

 are at hand; however, the bones are in a nearh' fossilized condition, 

 which allows the conclusion that they were deposited long ago. 



The deformation itself furnishes no clue to a chronological conclu- 

 sion. In Thevenot^ is found the statement that, according to the 

 account of a priest, probably in the 16th century, the custom prevails 

 in some of the islands to pres.s the heads of new-born babes ])etween 

 two boards, also to flatten the forehead, "since they believed that this 

 form was a special mark of beauty." A similar deformation, Avith 

 more pronounced flattening and backward pressure of the forehead, is 

 shown on the crania which Jagor produced from a cave at Caramuan 

 in Luzon. There are modes of flattening which remind one of Peru. 

 When they came into our hands it was indeed an immense surprise, 

 since no knowk^dge of such deformation in the South Sea was at hand. 

 First our information led to more thorough investigations; so we are 

 aware of several examples of it from Indonesia and, indeed, from the 

 South Sea (Mallicolo). However, this deformation furnishes no clue 

 to the antiquity of the graves. 



[Chinese and Korean pottery are said to have been found with the 

 deformed crania. Similar deformations exist in the Celebes, New 

 Britain, etc. Head-shaping has been universal, cf . A. B. Meyer, tjber 

 Kunstliche deformirte Schadel von Borneo und Mindanao and iiber 

 die Verbreitung der Sitte der Kunstlichen Schiideldeformirung, 1881, 

 36 pp., 4". — Traxslator.] 



I have sawed one of these skulls in two along the sagittal suture. 

 The illustration gives a good idea of the amount of compression and 

 of the violence which this skull endured when quite young. The 

 cranial cavity is inclined backward and lengthened, and curves out 

 above, while the occiput is pressed downward and the region of the 

 front fontanelle is correspondingly lacking. Likewise, a considerable 



^ Relations des diverses voyages curieux. Paris, 1591 (1663). 



