154 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



also in children, over the point of the nose, occasionally also along the 

 groove under the nasal septum and about the nasal ahe. Sweating 

 hands are met with much more rarely than among whites. 



The hair on the head attains in the Indian adult, male or female, the 

 length of fi'om 1 to 3 feet (30 to 90 cm.) . In certain tribes, as the 

 Navaho, fine long hair is rare; in others, for example, the Pima, it is 

 quite common. The beard, as mentioned before (see chapter on Chil- 

 dren) , if allowed to grow, reaches the maxinuim length of from about 

 1^ to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm.) (pi. xxi). In many of the adults who go 

 bareheaded the hair on the head becomes more or less brownish or 

 rusty in color. This discoloration is usually somewhat irregidar and 

 most pronounced superficially. In those tribes in which only the 

 women commonly go bareheaded the discoloration is nearly restricted 

 to this sex. 



The nails, generally strong and healthy, presented no special features. 

 In old age the toe nails are occasionally left to grow until they look like 

 deformed, dull claws. 



SPECIAL SENSES 



Sight, hearing, smell, and taste in the adult Indian, so far as could 

 be ascertained by the writer's own observations, differ but little, if any, 

 fi'om the same functions in the whites. In the uneducated Indian with 

 healthy eyes and ears sight and hearing are generally very good, but 

 in no way phenomenal. Among the educated glasses are often neces- 

 sary; and in some of the older persons the sense of hearing is more or 

 less defective. 



Smell, though not naturally obtuse, is in no way especially exercised, 

 and through habit the people become rather indifferent to bad odors, 

 appearing to lack the faculty of perceiving them. 



A few observations were made with an sesthesiometer on the sensi- 

 bility of the skin, but owing to numerous difficulties the tests had to be 

 abandoned. So far as they went they showed no marked difference 

 from the condition ordinarily obtaining among laboring wliites. The 

 beard region was found to be less sensitive than the neighboring i)arts 

 of the face. 



SLEEP AND DREAMS 



The adult Indian passes ordinarily somewhat more time in sleep 

 than the civilized white man ; but the writer is well satisfied by numer- 

 ous observations that the Indian shows greater capacity than the aver- 

 age white man for enduring loss of sleep without ill effects. It is 

 almost a rule in ail the tribes to prolong ceremonies, dances, gambling 

 parties, and other meetings tliroughout the night, and sometimes 

 through several nights, or several nights and days. On such occasions 

 some sleep is taken during the day, but it generally amounts to little; 



