RACE CHARACTERISTICS. XXXvii 



itself, but it is the result of the mother's manipulation on the baby's eyes, 

 and causes them to look sleepy, the opening of the eyelids becoming' nar- 

 rower. (Cf. Texts 91, 5-8.) 



These Indians have a piercing look and their eyeballs are of the deepest 

 black, a circumstance which accounts for their gi-eat power of vision. In 

 many Indians, namely in children, the white of the eye shows a blue tinge, 

 perhaps the result of head flattening. The mouth is small and the teeth 

 good; but with many Indians the thyroid cartilage, or Adam's apple, is very 

 prominent. The hair upon the head is straight and dark. I did not find 

 it very coarse, but with many Modoc women it is said to be so and to 

 grow to an extreme length. On other portions of the body the hair is short 

 and scarce, the natives doing their best to weed it out, the beard especially, 

 with metallic pincers or tweezers (hushmoklo'tkish), which they always 

 carry with them. As among most American aborigines, the beard is of 

 scanty growth. The late chief Lelekash wore a beard, liut I never saw any 

 Indian wearing one except Charles Preston, the Yaneks interpreter. The 

 contents of the song 185; 44 should also be noticed in this connection. 

 Baldness is rare, and in fact it appears that the dearth of hairy covering of 

 the skin is full}" compensated in the Indian race by a more exuberant 

 growth of hair upon the head, to protect them against excessive colds and 

 the heat of the sun. 



Among the Lake people the complexion is decidedly lighter than among 

 the cinnamon-hued Modocs, and a difference between the sexes is hardly 

 perceptible in this respect. Blushing is easily perceptible, though the 

 change in color is not great. Those most approaching a white complexion 

 like ours are numerous, but their skin is always of a yellowish lurid white. 

 Owing to their outdoor life in the free and healthy mountain air, these 

 Indians are well proportioned as to their bodily fivime, and apparently 

 robust; but their extremities, hands and feet, are rather small, as the 

 extremities ai'e of the majority of the North American Indians. 



The average of Modoc men appear to be of a smaller stature than 

 that of the Klamath Lake men, but in both tribes a notable difference 

 exists between the length of body in the two sexes, most men being lank. 



