436 



ETHNICAL FORMS AND UNDESIGNED ARTIFICIAL 



similar circumstances, and conforming to the same elongated type.* 

 Of the more abundant brachycephalic crania of the ordinary barrows, 

 Table II. furnishes sufficient materials for comparison with the 

 previous one. 



TABLE II.— CRANIA FEGM BRITISH BARROWS AND CISTS. 



The relative mean length and breadth of the two classes of crania, 

 as shown thus far, is : Crania of the Megalithic Tombs, 7-58 by 5.35 ; 

 Crania of the Barrows, 7-30 by 5.68. Supposing that further research 

 should tend to confirm the idea that the chambered barrows, and 

 others of the most ancient tombs, appear to be the work of a long- 

 headed-race : it does not therefore follow that we are to look for a 

 stereotyped kumbecephalic form, or any more absolute uniformity 

 than is implied in the craniological postulate that the ethnical forms 

 of the skull are permanent, and not transmutable in the different 

 races. We may anticipate the occurrence of the same variety within 

 certain limits as is observed in the heads of all nations, tribes, and 

 even families ; and if Dr. Thurnam's idea is correct that the kumbe- 

 cephalic shape is the artificial exaggeration of a naturally lengthened 

 skull, an additional element of variation will tend to increase the 

 divergence from the typical form. As, moreover, the megalithic tombs 

 are apparently sepulchral monuments of distinguished families, and not 

 common places of sepulture, other examples of the elongated head 

 may be expected to occur ; and the race itself may have lingered long 

 after the intrusion of its supplanters. But if the antiquity of this 



* In reality, taking all the crania of this type, including those in too imperfect a state to 

 supply more than indications of their correspondence to the accompanying perfect crania, 

 as referred to by Hcare, Bateman,Thurnam, and Davis, they amount to little short of sixty 

 in number; while those of an opposite type are rare and exceptional. 



