326 



BIMANA. 



234 



Skull of Carib. 



malar bone, large; the superior maxillary bone is long from the orbit 

 to the alveolar margin, having a regular slope forward ; the lower jaw 

 is large and strong; the osseous structure of the whole is compact 

 and hard. In Blumenbach's Decades, tab. x., in the skull of a 



Carib (male) from St. Vincent's, 

 remarkable for the great depres- 

 sion of the forehead, and the large 

 patulous opening of the orbits, 

 which are directed upward (sur- 

 sum quasi spectantes), the pa- 

 rietal bones are protuberant ; the 

 nasal, long. In tab. xx. a second 

 skull (female) of a Carib of St. 

 Vincent's is figured, in which 

 the forehead is still more de- 

 pressed. 



In these instances the great depression of the forehead is, doubtless, to 

 be ascribed to artificial pressure ; a mode, by which the ordinary flatness 

 of the forehead, esteemed becoming (such is the force of habit in modi- 

 fying ideas of beauty), is rendered more flat, and, therefore, more ap- 

 proximating to the American notions of the ** beau ideal." According 

 to Labat, the Caribs are well made, and with agreeable features, except- 

 ing that the forehead appears extraordinary, from its flatness and depres- 

 sion. These people, he adds, " are not born so ; but they force the head 

 to assume that form, by placing on the forehead of the newly-born child 

 a small plate, which they tie firmly behind. This remains until the bones 

 have acquired their consistence ; so that the forehead is flattened to that 

 degree, that they can see almost perpendicularly above them, without 

 elevating the head." It would appear that this custom has been adopted 

 by the Negro Caribs of St. Vincent's. In the narrative of the journey 

 to the source of the Missouri, performed by Messrs. Lewis and Clark, 

 we are informed, that the practice of flattening the forehead, by pressure, 

 during early infancy, is almost universal among the tribes situated on 

 the west of the Rocky Mountains, a great range, running nearly parallel 

 with the western coast of North America, whence the Missouri on the 

 east, and the Columbia on the west, derive their sources. 



The most distinguishing part of their physiognomy (according to 

 these travellers) is the singular flatness and width of the forehead ; a 

 peculiarity, which they owe to the above-described custom, which pre- 

 vails among all the nations west of the Rocky Mountains. To the east 

 of that barrier, the fashion is so perfectly unknown, that there the Western 

 Indians, with the exception of the Alliatan, or Snake Nation, are desig- 

 nated by the common name of Flatheads. 



