"MANKIND IN THE MAKING" 37 



arose independently. It is possible that the idea started 

 with the unintentional deformations of the head which 

 follow the practice of carrying the child during early 

 infancy. It is well known that if a child be constantly 

 carried on one arm, so that one side of the head continu- 

 ously presses against the shoulder, a more or less marked 

 asymmetry of the skull results. It would be enough for 

 the head of one of the chief's children to show a rather 

 unusually marked asymmetry of this kind for every mother 

 to endeavour to copy the defect, for imitation ever was 

 the sincerest form of flattery ! 



To place these superficial, non-transmissible, artifi- 

 cially created features, such as deformed heads, mutilated 

 teeth and ears, and so on, in the same category as the 

 " secondary sexual characters " of the lower animals 

 which are physical, inherent and transmissible features, 

 is to ensure confusion of thought. The one represents 

 a physical, the other an emotional development. The per- 

 sistence of certain forms of mutilation esteemed beautiful 

 in human society is not to be attributed to Sexual selec- 

 tion, or to " preferential mating," for these things are 

 not only non-transmissible features, but outside the sway 

 of the amorous instincts, as is shown by the case of those 

 individuals who, living in a community where deformed 

 heads are de rigueur, have heads of normal shape. So 

 soon as such perversions become a part and parcel of every- 

 day life, they become essential to the general well-being 

 and comfort of their possessors, enabling them to follow 

 their normal avocations without exciting the dislike or 

 wounding the prejudices of their neighbours. The 

 absence of the " tribal sign " alienates the esteem and 

 comradeship of his neighbours and brings an unenviable 

 notoriety. In like manner albinos among birds, for 



