334 FASHION IN DEFORMITY xx 



for it. In one island alone, Mallicollo, in the New Hebrides, 

 the practice of permanently depressing the forehead is almost 

 universal, and skulls are even found constricted and elongated 

 exactly after the manner of the Aymaras of ancient Peru. The 

 extraordinary flatness of the forehead, by which the inhabitants 

 of this island differ from those of all around, was noticed by 

 Captain Cook and the two Forsters, who accompanied him as 

 naturalists, but they were not able to ascertain whether it was 

 a natural conformation or due to art. It is only within the 

 last few years that crania have been sent to England which 

 abundantly confirm the old description of the great navigator, 

 and also prove the artificial character of the deformity. 

 A B C 



FIG. 20. Skulls artificially deformed according to similar fashions. 

 A, from an ancient tomb at Tiflis ; B, from Titicaca, Peru. C, from 

 the island of Mallicollo, New Hebrides. (From specimens in the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. ) 



Though the Chinese usually allow the head to assume its 

 natural form, confining their attentions to the feet, a certain 

 class of mendicant devotees appear to have succeeded to a 

 remarkable extent in getting their skulls elongated into a 

 conical form, if the figure in Picart's Histoire des Religions, 

 vol. iv. plate 131, is to be trusted. 



America is, however, or rather has been, the headquarters 

 of all these fantastic practices, and especially along the 

 western coast, and mainly in two regions, near the mouth of 

 the Columbia Eiver in the north and in Peru in the south. 

 The practice also existed among the Indians of the southern 

 parts of what are now the United States, and among the 

 Caribs of the "West India Islands. In ancient Peru, before 

 the time of the Spanish conquest, it was almost universal. 

 In an edict of the ecclesiastical authorities of Lima, issued 



