ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 381 



But, courageous as they were, the novel terror of the flash and smoke 

 and thunder of the guns struck consternation into the daring canni- 

 bals, who turned and fled before the unexpected and alarming fire 

 and fury of the cannon. The Spaniards gave chase and captured 

 one -of the canoes; in it was only one Carib; his companion or com- 

 panions had escaped, but in the piragua lay a captive tied and bound, 

 who, with tears running down his cheeks, made the Spaniards under- 

 stand by gestures that six of his comrades had already been killed 

 and eaten, and that such was to have been his own fate on the fol- 

 lowing day. The Spaniards unbound the prisoner and 



gave him power over the cannibal to do with him what he would. Then, 

 with the cannibal's own club, he laid on him all that he might drive hand 

 and foot, grieving and fretting as it had been a wild boar, thinking that he 

 had not yet sufficiently revenged the death of his companions when he had 

 beaten out the brains and guts. 



Speaking of the Caribs of the mainland, the old writer says: 

 " That wild kind of men, dispersed through the large distance of 

 those coasts, hath sometimes slain whole armies of the Spaniards." 

 Indeed, the Caribs even mocked at their invaders, designating them 

 as women or children, in ridicule of their white teeth, those of the 

 Caribs " being black as coals, from a leaf they chewed." 



The Arrowauks were taller than the Caribs, but not so robust, in 

 color of a clear brown, their complexion, according to Columbus, not 

 being much darker than that of a Spanish peasant. Both Arrowauks 

 and Caribs flattened their heads, though each race had a different 

 fashion of doing so. 



By this practice [says Herrera] the crown was so strengthened that a 

 Spanish broadsword, instead of cleaving the skull at a stroke, would fre- 

 quently break short upon it. 



Various reasons have been assigned for the singular fashion of 

 flattening the head that obtained throughout the Antilles. It is said 

 that infants whose heads are so treated do not cry or moan as do 

 babies whose heads are left to Nature; but if, as some anatomists 

 affirm, the coronal sutures in the heads of infants born in the "West 

 Indies are exceptionally open, the strengthening of the skull was 

 probably the reason that had originally brought flattened foreheads 

 into fashion. The practice, it is believed, does not lessen the intelli- 

 gence of the bearer of the flattened head, and if it has any effect on 

 the brain it would be in the direction of subduing " speculative and 

 emotional energy," while developing activity of limb. Their hair, 

 like that of Indians in general, was straight, coarse, and black; their 

 features were hard and ugly; they had broad faces and flat noses, but 

 their eyes showed great good nature, and their countenances were 

 open and pleasing. 



