861 



great man. It was palisadoed round, and covered with a kedjang roof, while, in the interior, 

 over the grave was a faded canopy of silk. In the course of our scrutiny a large and hand- 

 some snake was espied among the rafters, and an animated hunt ensued, which ended, how- 

 ever, in the escape of the serpent. In our eagerness to obtain the specimen the shed was 

 unroofed, and, as I was anxious to ascertain the mode of sepulture among the Malays, I ob- 

 tained permission to disinter the rajah and examine the grave. Some men being placed at 

 my disposal, we proceeded in our unholy work, and at about four feet from the surface, came 

 to a board placed in a diagonal manner across the shaft ; on removing which we perceived a 

 square lateral chamber or cavity, where the remains of the -deceased ' Orang Kaya ' were re- 

 posing. The skeleton was that of a very old man, and is now in the Museum of the College 

 of Surgeons. Not a vestige of clothing, not even the wrapper of white cloth which is said to 

 be generally employed, nor any ornaments of any kind, were found in the grave. The body 

 was laid on the right side, with the knees in a bent position, and the flesh was mummified and 

 adhering firmly to the bone ; the ligament connecting the hyoid bone to the styloid process, 

 and also the thyroid and cricoid cartilages were completely ossified : the hair was thin, and 

 the alveolar processes of the jaws absorbed, thus proving the extreme old age of the 

 exhumed." 



5531. The skull of an aboriginal native of one of the Philippine Islands. 



The cranium is short, moderately broad, rather low, with a narrow and receding forehead. 

 The glabella is prominent through the development of the frontal sinuses ; the nasals are 

 moderately prominent, as are likewise the malars and upper jaw. The chin is well developed. 

 The entire skull is rather small. The chief individual peculiarity is seen in the development 

 of the right paroccipital, which is longer than the mastoid, and presents an articular surface 

 for joining its homotype, the diapophysis, of the atlas. The left paroccipital tubercle is 

 also well marked. The deviation from the Human type here presented, if compared with the 

 skull of an inferior mammal, e. g. the Bear, or the Dog, will be perceived to be, a return to a 

 more general type, which is manifested by the more constant development in the Mammalian 

 series, of the paroccipitals or transverse processes of the occipital vertebra. The resemblance 

 which the present Human skull presents to that of the Bear, in the size and shape of the par- 

 occipital and mastoid processes of the right side, is very striking ; and, if we compare the 

 descriptions by Cuvier and De Blainville, of the skulls of the Carnivorous Quadrupeds, with 

 nature, and especially with the aid of the comparison of such a variety of the Human skull as 

 the one under description, we cannot but be impressed with the advantage and necessity of a 

 particular name for a definite part, traceable aud constant throughout a great part of the 

 Mammalian series. In the skull of the~Dog, for example, Cuvier figures (' Ossemens Fossiles,' 

 torn. iv. plate xvi. figs. 20, 21 d) and describes (page 268) the process answering to the par- 

 occipital in Man, as the 'mastoid' : " et derriere cette caisse une apophyse mastoule comprimee 

 et crochue, d." The true homologue of the mastoid process in Man, being comparatively 

 feebly developed in the Dog, is neither described nor indicated in the figures, although it is 

 correctly delineated in fig. 21, between n, the squamosal, and d, the paroccipital, to which 

 Cuvier has transferred its name in this species of quadruped. But, in describing the skull of a 



