THE GRAVES. 83 



latch. Cranial growth within the circumscribed area was greatly retarded, though not 

 entirely checked, with the result that the girth of an adult skull measured along the lines of 

 constriction may not exceed a similar measurement taken from an undeformed five-year old 

 child taken from the same race. Compensatory growth could of course take place only 

 in an upward and backward direction. With such favor was this style of cranial deforma- 

 tion regarded by the Peruvian highlanders, if we may believe the older writers, that the 

 young woman whose enlongated skull was found in this grave was probably considered 

 most attractive by the Machu Picchuans. The profile of her skull should be contrasted with 

 that of the equally bizarre cranium recovered from Cave 72, showing extreme deformation 

 of the coastal type (Plate XXV, figures 4-6). The two skulls represent the most dissimilar 

 ideals of beauty imaginable. It is known that the Spanish conquerors forbade the practise 

 of cranial deformation, but with what immediate success has not yet been learned. It would 

 therefore be quite wrong to assume that every deformed skull dates from before the Con- 

 quest. On the other hand, extreme voluntary cranial deformity, either of the coastal or the 

 Aymara type, furnishes satisfactory evidence that the person whose head was thus distorted 

 was reared in a part of the country essentially free and independent from Spanish rule — 

 in other words, in a district where pre-Columbian culture prevailed. By all accounts, the 

 functions of the brain were not seriously impaired by these deformations, which are supposed 

 to have been inflicted through constant though not extremely severe pressure, at a very early 

 age, when bones are yielding and sutures patent. Probably no part of the human skeleton 

 can be artifically deformed with less harmful results than the skull. In the light of modern 

 experience, it even seems possible that distinct social advantages may have been enjoyed 

 by the young women possessing the most rigorously moulded heads. Minor sufferings of 

 childhood are usually forgotten in the heyday of youth, and "il faut toujours souffrir pour 

 etre belle." The modern feminine horror of being condemned for life to an absolutely 

 unchangeable fashion probably never entered the minds of these aboriginal, though by no 

 means unsophisticated, American women. As for the men, some of whom appear to have 

 been subjected to like practises during infancy, if their physical powers were likely to be 

 greatly impaired thereby, it is difficult to understand how the custom came into vogue. 



The third individual is represented by a few badly decayed fragments of a small adult 

 skeleton. Sex and racial type are alike unrecognizable. This person seems to have been 

 completely interred, as the bones are all equally discolored by earth and affected by decay, 

 while the two other individuals appear to have been placed in the contracted position on the 

 floor of the cave. 



Burials within the City. 



Burial within the city does not appear to have been the usual practise, at least during the 

 later time of occupation, from which period alone it .is probable that human skeletal remains 

 would be preserved. One stone-built bottle-shaped grave was located beneath the surface of 

 the ground, a few rods southeast of the Three-Window Temple, in an area that Professor 

 Bingham has named the Sacred Plaza. This grave may or may never have been occupied. 

 There is nothing to show. When opened by our party, it contained no human remains. If 

 formerly used for burial, the remains had long since been removed, but whether this was 

 done by pious hands or by ruthless treasure-hunters we were unable to learn. Besides 

 calling attention to the fact that the native treasure-hunter rarely burdens himself with bones, 

 I may state here that an empty grave is not necessarily a plundered grave, as was most 



