May io, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



365 



own slaves, and have owned them since the memory of man run- 

 neth not to the contrary. The original stock of slaves generally 

 consisted of children captured in warfare, whose posterity remain 

 in a condition of bondage. Slaves have been sold by these more 

 northern tribes to the Indians of Puget Sound ; and the power over 

 such chattels has been so complete that they have been killed out 

 of compliment to or regard for a dying master, and the women 

 have been leased out for even worse purposes. When a chief dies, 

 it is supposed he will need servants in the felicitous fishing-fields, 

 and that the best way to secure them is to take them with him. 



" The records of the Hudson Bay Company at Post Simpson show 

 that in 1842, on one occasion, the agent visited a dying man of 

 some note, and entered the place where he lay just in time to find 

 him engaged in an attempt to strangle his nephew. The agent 

 rescued the boy, and took him into the post, where he was kept 

 till after the departure of the spirit of his kingly uncle. Then the 

 mother of the lad demanded compensation of the company for the 

 annoyance and inconvenience to which her departed brother would 

 be put in the other world by reason of not having the attendance 

 of the spirit of her son, murdered, upon his ghostly majesty. The 

 company paid for that interference in a strictly family affair." 



The writer also witnessed a cremation, which he describes as 

 follows : " We were hardly at anchor yesterday [at Sitka] before 

 we were informed that a body was to be cremated. The funeral 

 pyre consisted of a crib of dried logs, about six inches in diameter 

 and six feet in length, arranged four on the ground and three upon 

 each side, supported by green stakes. 



" The arrangements were very simple. The body of a woman 

 who had died three days previous was hoisted out of the smoke- 

 hole in the centre of the house. Dead bodies are never permitted 

 to go out through the doorway among these Indians. The body 

 was wrapped in a common bark mat, such as these Indians make, 

 and laid in the crib, the top and ends being closed with logs laid 

 crosswise. The fire was then started ; and the mourners, who 

 consisted of female relatives, sat around upon the ground to the 

 windward, and slightly to the right of the burning pile. Their hair 

 had been cut short, their faces were all blackened, and, as the 

 tears from their weeping eyes cut channels through the lamp- 

 black, the effect was rather ludicrous, if grief can be ludicrous un- 

 der any circumstances. The women, who numbered fifteen or 

 twenty, sobbed, sniffled, and whined with every evidence of gen- 

 uine grief. This is mentioned because it is the custom here for 

 Indians to hire professional mourners who officiate at the ' wake,' — 

 an important affair among the natives. 



" To the left of the women, a number of male relatives of the 

 deceased put in the time chanting continually, and keeping time 

 with staffs about five feet long, which they raised and dropped 

 upon pieces of board so as to produce a rapping noise. The men 

 stood erect all this time, and were led by an old man who held a 

 crow-frog totem in one hand, which, being shaken, produced a 

 rattling noise, owing to pebbles being within the hollow instru- 

 ment. 



" The ceremony continued for about three hours and a half, 

 when the remains were consumed, with the exception of some of 

 the larger leg and arm bones and a portion of the skull. As soon 

 as the residuum was cool enough to be taken up, the mass, along 

 with some wood-ashes, was placed in a box, which was deposited 

 in a small sort of hencoop on stakes, scores of which dot the hill 

 behind the village. After the cremation, the tired Indians turned 

 in and slept during the afternoon, and at night had their customary 

 dance in honor of the successful issue of the enterprise." 



Deformation of Heads in British Columbia.— It is well 

 known that many tribes of the north-west coast of America are in 

 the habit of deforming the heads of their children. It is an inter- 

 esting fact that the " fashion " of deformation is distinct in various 

 localities. Thus it becomes possible to distinguish natives from 

 different parts of the country readily by the artificially acquired 

 shape of their heads. In British Columbia three methods of head- 

 deformation are in use. The tnbes inhabiting the north point of 

 Vancouver Island compress their heads, particularly those of fe- 

 male children, by means of bandages, the head thus acquiring an 

 extremely long, almost conical shape, the vertex being pushed far 

 back. Farther south the head is compressed between cushions of 



cedar-bark. The remarkable form resulting from this procedure is 

 shown in Fig. i. The marked depression behind the coronal sut- 

 ure indicates the place where a bandage passes over the head. In 

 many instances the heads of adults, by this procedure, attain an 

 enormous width, being wider than they are long. The third shape 

 of head results from the application of a strong pressure on the 

 forehead and occiput, which are compressed between boards. 

 Fig. 2 shows the head of a male adult. It will be seen that the 

 forehead and occiput are perfectly flat. The second method fre- 



FiG. 2.— orthogonal views of skull of an adult male, 



COWICHAN, B.C. 



quently results in extremely asymmetric forms, the parietal bones 

 bulging out very strongly. It is a noteworthy fact that in the 

 majority of cases the left side of the head is more prominent than. 

 the right side. Presumably this is due to the fact that the child 

 mostly lies on his right side when in the cradle. In Fig. i, a well- 

 developed Wormian bone is seen. These are of frequent occur-- 

 rence in the deformed crania, while the true Os Incs is observed 

 not rarely. Anomalies of persistence or premature synosteosis of 

 suture are characteristic of these crania. The frontal suture is 

 often persistent, while in a few instances the sagittal suture was 

 found closed at an early age. 



ELECTRICAL NEWS. 



A New Alternating-Current Electro-Motor. 



Probably the two things most needed in the field of electrical 

 engineering are a good storage-battery and a successful alternating- 

 current electro-motor. A year ago, Mr. Tesla described an alternat- 

 ing-current motor before the Institute of Electrical Engineers, — 

 a motor which it was promised would overcome all the defects and 



