528 



REPORT— 1895. 



It appears that the three groups are quite uniform. Possibly the breadth 

 of face of the most northern group, the Nak'oart6k, is a little larger than 

 that of the others, but the number of cases is so small that it remains 

 doubtful if there is any real difference bet-ween the types. It will be 

 seen that the three tribes differ very considerably from the Nass River 

 Indians, their faces being much higher and narrower. 



In order to prove properly the uniformity of the material collected 

 among the Kwakiutl, it is necessary to take into consideration their habit 

 of deforming the head by means of a pressure brought to bear upon the 

 front and sides of the head. Possibly the practice might have an effect 

 upon the development of the face, which differs much from the form found 

 among all the neighbouring tribes. In order to decide if the artificial 

 deformation has any influence upon the form of the face, I have divided 

 the material into three groups : — Heads not deformed or slightly deformed 

 only, moderately deformed heads, and strongly deformed heads. As will 

 be seen from the tables showing the measurements of individuals, I made 

 finer distinctions when recording the original observations, namely : — Not 

 deformed, slightly deformed, moderately deformed, considerably deformed, 

 strongly deformed, and very strongly deformed. The first two classes 

 embrace children and young persons only, the practice of deformation 

 being gradually abandoned. Lea-ving these out of consideration, we find 

 the following numbers of individuals in each class : — 



This table shows that the heads of female children were much more 

 strongly deformed than those of male children, and that the deformation 

 represented in each group is stronger among women than among men. 



The differences exhibited in this table show clearly that a strong 

 deformation of the kind practised by the Kwakiutl increases the length 

 of head and diminishes the breadth of head ; but that moderate degrees 

 of deformation do not influence materially the lower portion of the skull, 

 in which the greatest breadth of the head is found. The table does not 

 reveal any influence upon the dimensions of the face, so that, so far as the 

 latter is concerned, we may consider all the measured individuals together, 

 without regard to the degree of deformation of the head. 



While the preceding discussion has shown that the tribes of the 



