AMERICAN VARIETY. 325 



machine, wiicre it is kept for ten or twelve months; tliough 

 the females remain longer than the boys. The operation 

 is so gradual, that it is not attended with pain ; but the im- 

 pression is deep and permanent. The heads of the children, 

 when they are released from the bandage, are not more than 

 two inches thick about the upper edge of the forehead ; and 

 still thinner above : nor, witli all its efforts, can nature ever 

 restore its shape; the heads of grown persons being often in 

 a straight line from the nose to the top of the forehead*." 



Besides this general statement, applying to the western 

 tribes altogether, these enterprising travellers note the 

 existence of the practice on many particular occasions ; as 

 among the Skilloots (p. 389) ; the Wahkiacums (p. 392) ; 

 the Sokulks, where the head was so flattened, that the fore- 

 head runs straight from the nose to the crown (p. 351); 

 and the Chinnooks, whose heads they speak of as having 

 been flattened in a most disgusting manner. In one tribe 

 which they saw on the Pacific, they expressly mention that 

 the custom did not exist (p. 428). 



That nothing might be wanting to this part of the proof, 

 the very bandages employed by the Caribs have been brought 

 into Europe. A description and figures of them may be 

 seen in the Journal de Physique f. 



* Travels to the Source of the Missouri, chap, xxiii. See also Meares, 

 of the natives about Nootka Sound ; Voyages from China to the North 

 West Coast of America, p. 249. 



+ Aug. 1791, p. 132, tab. 1. & 2. The account is written by Dr. Amic, 

 a physician of Guadaloupe, who had seen and conversed w ith both Red and 

 Black Caribs in the West Indies. In mentioning the answers which they 

 gave to his enquiries, he says, " Contre mon attente elles se reduisirent tnutes 

 a m'assurer qu'ils ne devoient Tapplatisseinent de leur front qua la pression 

 d'une planche garni'' de coton, qu'on fixoit sur cette partie pour Tempecher 

 d'acquerir la convcxite, qui lui est naturelle. C'etoit-la me dirent ils le ca- 

 ract^re de leur nation. Pour rimprimcr on fait aux enfans porter cette 

 planche jusqu'a ce qu'ils soient assez grands, pour qu'il ne s'efTace pas. Je 

 remarquai parmi eux un jeunc homme de seize a dixsept ans, dont le front 

 dioit bomb6 comme celui d'un N^gre. II repondit a nion observation, que 

 pour ne pas !e dtfigurer comme les autres, son mhve n'avoit pas voulu le sou- 

 mettre a un vicil coutume." P. 133. 



