148 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



company with bones of different species of extinct 

 animals ; proving both the remote age when this form 

 of Man already existed in America, and the extent of 

 surface it is now known to have occupied. As the 

 Budha, and several other idols of India, constantly re- 

 present Man with profiles taken from a very low type ; 

 so, in America, the Flathead form appears to have had 

 a commanding influence in the ideal divine of the 

 human head ; for the depression of forehead and occiput 

 is found artificially reproduced by many tribes in both 

 the southern and northern continents ; and specimens 

 of these are observed among human remains, buried in 

 the high sea sands of Peru itself; but these last men- 

 tioned have, in general, the occiput flattened obliquely, 

 with but little apparent artificial anterior depression, 

 evidently the effect of the back of the head having 

 been secured to a board during infancy, as is still a 

 practice in the north. The same form of the head is 

 likewise observed in the high nosed bas reliefs of gods 

 and heroes, both sculptured and tooled in the ancient 

 temples and buildings of Yucatan and Southern Mexico ; 

 the representations of a people now likewise extinct, 

 and by the indigenous tribes referred to the Giants of 

 their primeval ages. The account is not without some 

 probability, since the profiles belong to a race entirely 

 distinct from the general population of the western 

 hemisphere, and is only conformable to the high 

 statured races of Asia ; excepting some tribes of North 

 America, who, by their traditions, came from the north- 

 west, are still of a lofty growth, and bear the aquiline 



