For] AND SYMBOLS. 127 



Forewarned is Forearmed. 



The negroes of Martinique, who of necessity are assiduous 

 reptile- hunters, state as an incontrovertible axiom, confirmed 

 by immemorial experience, that "a serpent seen is a serpent 

 dead." The Trigonocephalus or lance-headed viper (a most 

 poisonous reptile) is only formidable to man when not per- 

 ceived, and when one treads upon it accidentally in the 

 countries which it inhabits. If the wayfarer be prudent and 

 beat the herbs and bushes as he advances with a switch, the 

 reptile, which is too large to glide away unseen, will reveal 

 itself and take flight. In the open field its defeat and death 

 are inevitable, however little coolness or skill its assailant may 

 possess. D. 



The Formalists. 



The formalists devote all their energies to modifying or 

 altering the external appearances of things. There are civilised 

 formalists and uncivilised formalists. Amongst the latter it 

 is in point to refer to those who give their attention to the 

 appearance of the head. ISTow it is possible to modify the 

 shape of the head very considerably, without inflicting any 

 great or abiding injury on the mental faculties, by applying 

 compression in a particular way, so as to make the skull assume 

 a different shape from the natural one without lessening its 

 volume or the mass of its contents. Dr. Graves tells us that 

 some of the Indian tribes -called Flatlieads compress the skull 

 laterally, and by this means the head is made to assume a 

 flattened and elongated shape, so that a line passing from be- 

 neath the chin to the vertex, instead of measuring seven or 

 eight inches, is nearly twice that length. The origin of this 

 disfigurement is to be traced to that all-prevailing principle, 

 vanity, a flat and elongated head being looked upon by the 

 Indians as an unequivocal mark of nobility and beauty. Other 

 tribes compress the head backwards and downwards so as to 

 make it project posteriorily in a very curious manner. Which 

 of these modes is the most physiological it is not necessary to 

 pronounce, but they certainly succeed in altering the shape of 

 the skull and brain to a very considerable extent ; and what is 



