Oil, A TREATISE ON P1LK. V 63 



Among the hair is found a fragment of a feather, of a yellow color, and considerable 

 lustre ; in length, -fa ; diameter, ^ 7 , gradually tapering to r T of an inch the beard 

 upon which varies in length from ^\ to 5 ^ T of an inch, and diameter, ^ T . 



There is also found among the hair an insect. 



Peculiarities and Affinities. The peculiarities of this hair are its cylindrical shape, its 

 straight and lank direction, its inclination at an acute angle, to the epidermis, its coloring 

 matter in the cortex, and as these constitute its affinities with the hair of the Choctaw, 

 Cherokee and other tribes of existing American Indians, they determine all these nations 

 to belong to one species, viz: "xuii CYLINURICAL-IIAIKEU MAN." 



From the uniformity of brown color in these six specimens, in their present faded con- 

 dition, and the black color of the seventh, it is probable that they were all originally black) 

 like the hair of the present Indians. The want of the usual ductility, elasticity and 

 tenacity is attributable to their partial state of decay ; and their discrepancy in this respect 

 is probably owing to the different periods that they have been inhumed. The total 

 absence of sheath, and the distorted and disrupted state of the button, show that those parts 

 are most liable to decay, and even the membranous intermediate fibres which are found 

 more perfect, have parted with a portion of their essential properties by lapse of time. 



The pointed apices to many of the filaments, are due to the constant supply of new 

 hairs to make up the deficiency of those that are continually falling, and the abrupt termi- 

 nation of others, show that it was the practice then, as it is now, to cut the hair, The nit 

 which is found on one of these hairs, is proof of the antiquity of the Aptera, of which they 

 are the embryo. It is probable that the white centre, which is noticed in the disk of Nos-. 

 2, 4 and 5, is common to them all ; but, being interrupted, is not seen in the rest. 



OF CHINESE PILE. Our collection of Chinese pile, although very respectable, is not 

 equal to that of the American Indians; it is, however, ample for the determination that 

 this numerous people belong to the cylindrical-haired species; and it is worthy of remark 

 that the Chinese, in their earliest records, describe those who belong to this category by 

 the term " le min," or "black-haired people," as contfadistinguished from the "Yeechi,'' 

 or foreign races with red or fair hair. 



OF THE OVAL-HAIRED SPECIES. We have examined and measured countless numbers 

 of hairs of the heads of Americans and Europeans, and have found them to be oval or 

 ovoidal, with as few exceptions as are encountered to any other general rule in natural 

 history. And here again, we invoke the description of the flowing and curling locks of 

 our ancestors, with which history and poetry are overflowing. 



Hair, which was the chief riches of mythology, was one of the attributes of Heathen 

 Divinity. Phidias being asked by whom he had been inspired to make his statue of 

 Jupiter Olympus, replied "that it was Homer;" and it requires one to be acquainted 

 with the poet to "understand the sculptor. That terrible head of curling hair, the single 

 movement of which made Olympus tremble. 



T H,?cai, xvavsyaiv en btyi-Gi vsixss KpomjK 

 dfifipoGiau 6' ctpa XaiTcu JTta'p'paKTavTo dvaxrog 

 16 xparos an 'dSavdrow (ifyav fretehit-ev 'OXi^Tiov. Homeri llias, Book I , line 528. 



