PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OP PRE-HISTORIC MEN. 183 



on the other hand, short-headed races present occa- 

 sional long-headed specimens. These varieties some- 

 times depend on the presence of captives, or on 

 conquests and intermixture of tribes, but they show at 

 least a primitive identity with modifications. Further, 

 some of the short heads and flat occiputs seem to have 

 been at least aggravated by the use of the cradle- 

 board to which the " papoose " is strapped in infancy 

 among all the migratory tribes. Among some western 

 tribes, as well as among some now extinct peoples 

 of the south, the forehead was flattened by pressure 

 in infancy, a practice which obtained also among 

 some Turanian tribes of the Old World. It would 

 also seem that a remarkably short form of head was 

 characteristic of the ancient Alleghan race, and that 

 some of their heads were high in front, while others 

 had remarkably retreating foreheads.* It is curious 

 to notice this indication of low intellectual capacity 

 in this old semi-civilized race; but if it really indi- 

 cates the position of these people, it may readily be 

 accounted for. Living undisturbed for ages in a rich 

 alluvial region, with stationary and fixed institutions, 

 and with the energies of the individual cramped by a 

 system of tribal communism, their intellectual powers 

 may well have been reduced to a lower point than that 



* On the monuments of Central America we find represen- 

 tations of men with high, almost conical, heads. These resemble 

 in outline the form at present produced among some tribes on 

 the coast of British Columbia by artificial pressure, and were 

 probably of this character ; as were also the elongated Peru- 

 vian skulls, and perhaps also those of the old Alleghans. 



