AMERICAN VARIETY. 315 



the cataracts of the Orinoco in New Andalusia, exemplifies 

 the low slanting forehead, as well as other points of the Ame- 

 rican formation. The entrance of the nose and the whole 

 apparatus of smelling are very large. The heads of a Brasi- 

 lian man and woman* have the low forehead, broad face, 

 and large nose of the American variety. In a general 

 roundness of figure they agree with the descriptions of the 

 natives of Brasil. 



The head of the man is very ingeniously and perfectly 

 preserved entire, in the state of a mummy. It is not sepa- 

 rated from an entire embalmed body, but must have been 

 cut off immediately after death, as the skin of the neck is 

 equally drawn in all directions towards the foramen mag- 

 num, and fixed there by the bituminous matter employed in 

 the process. The skin preserves that copper colour verging 

 to black which distinguishes the Brasilians. The hair is 

 shaved round the vertex : what is left on the top of the 

 head, and about the ears, is short, strong, and of the deepest 

 black. A thin beard appears on the upper lip and part of 

 the chin. The orbits and mouth are filled with a bituminous 

 mass : it hangs by a cotton string fixed to the mouth. The 

 slit in the external ear is filled with portions of cotton. A 

 splendid ornament, composed of the finest feathers of the 

 red tantalus, the toucan, and the most brilliant parrots, 

 covered the forehead f. 



There is no American, nor indeed any other race, in 

 which the forehead is so low as in the Caribs. And in 

 order to exaggerate a character, which they deemed beauti- 

 ful, they have had recourse to artificial means of flattening 

 this region, at the time when the bones are soft and capable 

 of yielding to artificial pressure. As the same character of 

 a low forehead characterizes all the Americans in a greater 

 or less degree, similar attempts to increase this natural 

 defect have been made by other tribes, as well as the 

 Caribs, in both North and South America. 



♦ Blumenbach, tab. 47 and 48. 

 + Dec. quinia, p, 15 and 16. 



