CERTAIN ANCIENT BRITISH SKULL FORMS. 155 
Jow designed for the neck, and not the head, to rest upon. Such 
pillows are found of miniature sizes, indicating that the Egyptian 
passed from earliest infancy without his head being subjected even 
to so slight a pressure as the pillow, while he rested recumbent, 
The Egyptian skull is long, with great breadth and fulness in the 
posterior region. In its prominent, rounded parieto-cecipital con- 
formation, an equally striking contrast is presented to the British 
brachycephalic skull with truncated occiput, and to the opposite 
extreme characteristic of the primitive dolichocephalic skull ; though 
exceptional examples are not rare. This characteristic did not escape 
Dr. Morton’s observant eye; and is repeatedly indicated in the 
Crania Aigyptiaca under the designation, “‘tumid occiput.” It 
also appeared to me after careful examination of the fine collection 
formed by him, and now in the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, that the Egyptian crania are generally characterised by 
considerable symmetrical uniformity: as was to be anticipated, if 
there is any truth in the idea of undesigned artificial compression 
and deformation resulting from such simple causes as accompany 
the mode of nurture in infancy. 
The heads of the Fiji Islanders supply a means of testing the 
same cause, operating on a brachycephalic form of cranium ; as most 
of the Islanders of the Fiji group employ a neck pillow nearly 
similar to that of the ancient Egyptians, and with the same purpose 
in view: that of preserving their elaborately dressed hair from 
disshevelment. In their case, judging from an example in the collec- 
tion of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, the occipital region 
is broad, and presents in profile a uniform, rounded conformation pas- 
sing almost imperceptibly into the coronal region. Indeed the broad, 
well rounded occiput is considered by the Fijians a great beauty. 
The bearing of this, however, in relation to the present argument 
depends on whether or not the Fiji neck-pillow is used in infancy, of 
which I am uncertain. The necessity which suggests its use at a 
later period, does not then exist; but the prevalent use of any 
special form of pillow for adults is likely to lead to its adoption 
from the first. In one male Fiji skull brought home by the United 
States Exploring Expedition (No. 4581), the occiput exhibits the 
characteristic full, rounded form, with a large and well defined 
“supra-occipital bone. But in another skull in the same collection, 
that of Veindovi, Chief of Kantavu, who was taken prisoner by the 
