216 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



Mongol race appear in their forms and features. They are short and 

 square-framed, with broad faces, flat noses, and eyes turned obliquely 

 upward at the outer corner. The resemblance is accidentally height- 

 ened by the conical cap which they wear, similar to that of the Chi- 

 nese, and which they have probably adopted as a defence against the 

 heavy and frequent rains. 



It is among this people, also, that the compression of the skull is 

 carried to the greatest extent. The child, soon after birth, is laid 

 upon an oblong piece of wood, sometimes a little hollowed like a 

 trough, which serves for a cradle. A small pad or cushion, stuffed 

 with moss, is then placed upon its forehead, arid fastened tightly, at 

 each side, to the board, so that the infant is unable to move its head. 

 In this way, partly by actual compression, and partly by preventing 

 the growth of the skull except towards the sides, the desired deformity 

 is produced. A profile which presents a straight line from the crown 

 of the head to the top of the nose is considered by them the acme of 

 beauty. The appearance of the child when just released from this 

 confinement is truly hideous. The transverse diameter of the head 

 above the ears, is then nearly twice as great as the longitudinal, from 

 the forehead to the occiput. The eyes, which are naturally deep-set, 

 become protruding, and appear as if squeezed partially out of the 

 head. In after years the skull, as it increases, returns, in some degree, 

 to its natural shape, and the deformity, though always sufficiently 

 remarkable, is less shocking than at first. The children of slaves are 

 not considered of sufficient importance to undergo this operation, and 

 their heads, therefore, retain their natural form. If the alteration of 

 shape produced any important effect on the intellectual or moral 

 characteristics of the people, it would be perceptible in the difference 

 between the slaves and the freemen, which is found, however, to be 

 very slight, and only such as would naturally arise from the distinc- 

 tion of classes. The slaves, who are mostly descendants of prisoners 

 taken in war, are of a tamer and less quarrelsome disposition than 

 their masters, whose natural pride and arrogance is increased by the 

 habit of domineering over them. 



The Chinooks are less ingenious than the natives of the Northwest 

 Coast, but are far superior to those of California. They make houses 

 of wide and thick planks, which they chip with much labor from the 

 large pines with which their country abounds. A single trunk makes 

 one, or, at the most, two planks. The houses are of an oblong shape, 

 with two rows of bunks or sleeping-places on each side, one above 



