i 4 4 THE HUMAN SKULL 



natives of that part of the world, strange shapes 

 of head have been produced by these means. The 

 Natchez Indians, the Aymaras, the Toltecs and 

 the Chinchas have all adopted these means of 

 modifying the head, and have produced, now an 

 exceedingly flattened, now an unduly high, a 

 grooved or a trilobed cranium. The custom was 

 so prevalent as to have been actually forbidden by 

 the Synod of Lima in 1585, and again interdicted 

 by the Governor of the same place nearly two 

 hundred years later. These actions were dictated 

 by the supposed evil influences produced upon the 

 health by this treatment of the head, and it is 

 possible that it may have predisposed to some 

 complaints, though there does not seem much 

 evidence that it did so. But what effect had it 

 upon the mental powers ? None, so far as we know 

 from the records of the French examples, whilst 

 so far as regards the American cases, Topinard, 

 when considering this point, says that it is to be 

 remarked that the races of America which had the 

 least respect for their cranial form were those 

 who, like the Aymaras and the Toltecs, had attained 

 the maximum of prosperity in the new continent 

 and have left the most marvellous monuments 

 behind them. 



Turning now to the question of the oldest 

 known skulls, one is first confronted by the diffi- 

 culty of coming to a conclusion as to the real age 

 of any given example, of the time, that is even, 

 be it particularly observed, the relative time at 

 which its former owner lived upon the earth. For 

 collocation of objects does not always mean 



