THE HUMAN SPECIES. 233 



America), that the stock is fast passing away. It has 

 been supplanted for ages, by the Guarany and other 

 nations, in Brazil, whose Malay aspect countenances the 

 supposition of their original arrival in the New World 

 somewhere about the Californian coast, whither they 

 seem to have transported, along with legends already 

 pointed out, the practices of boring the septem of the 

 nostrils, the lobes of the ears, and even the lips and 

 cheek bones, for the purpose of inserting therein bits of 

 bone, of shells, wood, feather, or leaves.* These, and 

 other fashions before described, they have in common 

 with many islanders of the South Seas and coasts of the 

 Northern Pacific ; and if they are not of foreign origin, 

 they most assuredly are startling coincidences. But 

 that these, and nearly all other invaders of the west 

 coast, intermixed with the flat-headed aboriginals, is 

 shown in the artificial means employed by the former 

 to obtain the resemblance of the flathead conforma- 

 tion ; inflicting for this purpose daily torture upon their 

 infants, till the desired effect is produced. 



Torture, self-imposed, is indeed a part of the educa- 

 tion of most American tribes, and the habit is suffi- 

 ciently indicative of the small irritability of fibre they 

 possess, in common with the Mongolic and Indo-Papua 

 races of Asia. 



If the typical Flatheads were not a distinct species 



* Dr. Burchell, Prince Maximilian of Wied, and many 

 other travellers, entertain similar ideas with ourselves. The 

 present physiologists who draw other inferences, are not 

 always reconcileable to each other when their argument 1 * 

 are generalized. 



