Old Time Indians. 65 
for pearl-fishing. Itis quite possible that some individuals or parties from among 
these Indians, most of whom belonged to scalping tr.bes, given their liberty, and 
joing some of the natives, introduced the custom of scalping among them. 
When the Spaniards landed in the West Indian Islands, they gazed with aston- 
ishment and horror on what they were pleased to call fantastic diabolical images 
of demons tattooed on the naked bodies of the natives. And early Spanish 
historians speak of it as a common practice all over Spanish America. Oviedo, 
the first, and perhaps the best of the early Spanish historians, in several places 
speaks of Nicaragua, Venezuela and the mainland generally and asserts that 
tattooing was practised everywhere in Spanish America. Even in the Pomeroon 
District I have seen old Indians, both male and female, other than Arawak, 
tattooed on the forehead, cheeks, lips and chin. (It is a singular thing that vertical 
lines on the chin which indicated a married woman among the Eskimo and the 
Indians of the Pacific Coast are found with the same meaning in Syria, Egypt, 
Tunis, in New Zealand, etc.) Among the ancient natives in the West Indies, 
tattooing was general, if not almost, universal ; many things point to this con- 
clusion. The Indian did not look upon tattooing as a disfigurement as do so 
many civilised people. They took pride in enduring the pain. They regarded it 
as enhancing the beauty of the fair sex, and the good looks of the braves, just 
as they did their body-painting, to us so hideous. Certain devices could be worn 
only for valiant deeds, other designs marked all slaves or subjects. A long 
study of the subject in other parts of the world discloses the fact that tattooing 
was and is in so many countries much more common than is supposed ; it may 
be said that boys and girls, too, for themselves and for one another prick in little 
dots and patterns for “ beauty, ” to ““ show nerve” and to imitate. It must 
have been so among the Indians. The slightest mark is tattooing. It is a 
subject which many writers did not care for or notice, and it was only the 
striking, extensive, startling figures that usually attracted their attention and 
were recorded. 
Deformations of the human head have been known since the writings of 
Herodotus. One or other of the varieties of mechanical deformation has been 
found among numerous primitive peoples, as the ancient Avars and Krimeans, 
some Turkomans, Malays, Africans, etc., as well as among some civilised peoples 
(as the French and Wends) in different parts of the old world. It also existed 
from pre-historic, though historic time to the present, among a number of 
Indian tribes throughout the Western Hemisphere. 
Such artificial “ flat-heads,” so to speak, once extended over most of the 
United States, and it having been pointed out that their geographical distribution 
suggested a comparatively late introduction from more southerly peoples, | 
have made a search of all available literature for records of its presence in the 
Guianas, but so far without success. On the other hand, in the account of 
Father d’Acugna’s travels on the Amazon, during the early part of the 17th 
century, I came across the following description of the custom as practised by the 
Anoguas :—“ As soon as their children are born, they put them in a kind of press ; 
forcing Nature after this manner with one little board which they hold upon the 
forehead, and another much larger which they put behind the head ; and which 
serves them for a cradle ; and all the rest of the body of the new-born infant is as 
