"MANKIND IN THE MAKING" 35 



patterns which adorn the tattooed face of the Maori pre- 

 sent a result more nearly pleasing. Many of the natives 

 of East Africa pierce the lobes of the ear and hang orna- 

 ments therein so heavy, that in due course a hole large 

 enough to run the arm through results. These are 

 mutilations of a purely ornamental character. Curiously 

 enough, precisely similar forms of mutilation occur 

 among people dwelling in different continents, as in the 

 case of the lip and ear ornaments worn by natives of 

 Africa and South America. There can have been no 

 means of communication between these races, and hence 

 we must conclude they were independently derived. 



More striking still is the practice of' deforming the 

 head which prevailed among the Peruvians, the Caribs 

 of the West Indies, and the natives of Vancouver, and 

 the Chinook Indians, wherein it attained its maximum. 

 Among some tribes, the head was depressed from 

 above downwards, giving the skull a cone-shape, the 

 apex pointing backwards ; among others the pressure 

 was applied to the back and front of the head, giving a 

 more or less globular shape, and causing the sides of the 

 head to bulge ominously. Now these distortions are 

 to be attributed solely to the whim of Fashion. But 

 how could this have arisen ? No adult could have started 

 it, for the form of the skull cannot be altered once 

 its growth is completed. The conception of this dia- 

 bolical custom apparently then arose in the brain of 

 some fiendishly ingenious person, who realized that to 

 effect its realization pressure must be applied to the head 

 of the infant at its birth and for some considerable time 

 after, by squeezing the head between boards, or tying it 

 round with thongs of hide. That disastrous results would 

 follow from this tampering with the brain would seem an 



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