CONFOHMATION OF CAKIB SKULLS K5 



skulls shaped by having been pressed between planks. They 

 have belonged to Zambos (black Caribs), who are descended 

 from Negroes and true Caribs.* The barbarous habit of 

 flattening the forehead is practised by several nations,f ot 

 people not of the same race ; and it has been observed 

 recently in North America ; but nothing is more vague than 

 the conclusion, that some degree of conformity in customs 

 and manners proves identity of origin. On observing the 

 spirit of order and submission which prevails in the Carib 

 missions, the traveller can scarcely persuade himself that 

 he is among cannibals. This American word, of somewhat 

 doubtful signification, is probably derived from the language 

 of Hayti, or that of Porto Rico ; and it has passed into the 

 languages of Europe, since the end of the fifteenth century, 

 as synonymous with that of anthropophagi. " These newly 

 discovered man-eaters, so greedy of human flesh, are called 

 Caribes or Cannibals," J says Anghiera, in the third decade of 

 his " Oceanica," dedicated to Pope Leo X. There can be 

 little doubt that the Caribs of the islands, when a conquer- 

 ing people, exercised cruelties upon the Ygneris, or ancient 

 inhabitants of the West Indies, who were weak aud not very 



* These unfortunate remnants of a nation heretofore powerful were 

 banished, in 1795, to the Island of Rattam, in the Bay of Honduras, 

 because they were accused by the English Government of having con- 

 nexions with the French. In 1760, an able minister, M. Lescallier, 

 proposed to the Court of Versailles to invite the Red and Black Caribs 

 from St. Vincent to Guiana, and to employ them as free men in the 

 cultivation of the land. I doubt whether their number at that period 

 Amounted to six thousand, as the island of St. Vincent contained in 1787 

 not more than fourteen thousand inhabitants of all colours. 



f For instance, the Tapoyranas of Guiana (Ban ere, p. 239), the 

 Solkeeks of Upper Louisiana (Walckenaer, Cosmos, p. 583). " Los 

 Indies de Cumana," says Gomara (Hist, de Ind.), " aprietan alos niflos ia 

 cabefa muy blando, pero mucho, entre dos almohadillas de algodon para 

 ensancharlos la cara, que lo tienen por hermosura. Las donzellas traen 

 iles muy apretados por debaxo y encima de las rodillas, para que los 

 inn-Ins y pantorillas engorden mucho." [The Indians of Cumana presg 

 down the heads of young infants tightly between cushions stuffed with cotton, 

 lor the purpose of giving width to their faces, which they regard as a beauty. 

 The young girls wear very tight bandages round their knees, in order to 

 give thickness to the thighs and calves of the legs.] 



' Edaces humanarum carnium novi hellnones anthrop.jpb.Hgi, Caribe* 

 Canibales appellati." 



