306 Dr. Scouler on the form of the 



" appear to have entertained such ideas, wisely allowed their own heads 

 " to grow as nature directed, and flattened only those of their idols." 



All the tribes on the North West Coast, whether insular or continental, 

 from the banks of the Columbia river to the northern extremity of 

 Quadra andVancouver's Island, flatten the heads of their children. These 

 tribes have a great similarity in their habits, language, and appearance ; 

 and their method of flattening the head is extremely simple, and does not 

 appear to be attended with any disagreeable circumstances to the health of 

 the child. As soon as the infant is born, the head is frequently and gently 

 compressed with the hand, and this is continued for three or four days. 

 The child is then placed in a box or cradle, which is rendered comfortable 

 by spreading moss or a kind of tow, made from the bark of the cypress, 

 over it. The occiput of the child rests on a board at the upper part of 

 the box and supported by tow or moss ; another board is then brought 

 over the forehead, and tied firmly down on the head of the infant. The 

 child is seldom taken from the cradle, and the compression is continued 

 till it is able to walk. A child about three years old presents a most 

 hideous appearance : the compression operating chiefly on the forehead 

 and occiput reverses the natural proportion of the head, and causes it to 

 assume the form of a wedge. The eye-balls project very much, and the 

 individual ever after has the eyes directed upwards. The head of a child 

 about four years old in my possession measures four inches from the 

 OS frontis to the middle of the occiput, while it measures six inches from 

 the centre of the two parietal bones at the greatest transverse measurement 

 of the head. This head is represented Tab. ix, Fig. 1, and gives a very good 

 idea of the form of the head in Indian children when they begin to walk. 

 Nature however, alarmed at such an attempt to deface her works, attempts 

 to repair the injury; hence the skulls of adults are less flat than when they 

 were infants, although still sufficiently deformed. The two accompany- 

 ing figures. Tab. x, give an accurate representation of an adult head. In 

 an adult skull, the measurement from the os frontis above the nose to the 

 occiput at the superior transverse ridge, is six inches and eight lines, while 

 the distance between the parietal bones is six inches and three lines. The 

 same measurements in a European skull, were 5^ inches to 7^. From 

 the pressure being applied to the forehead and occiput, the two parietal 

 bones bilge out very much, and from the inequality of the pressure, the 



