CRADLES OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 



173 



Inhabiting the lower parts of the Columbia are a small tribe who cor- 

 rectly come under the name of Flat Heads, as they are almost the only 

 people who strictly adhere to the custom of squeezing and flattening the 

 head. 



The process of flattening consists in placing the infant on a board, 

 to which it is lashed by means of thongs to a position from which 

 it can not escape, and the back of the head supported by a sort of 

 pillow, made of moss or rabbit-skins, with an inclined piece (as seen 

 in the drawing), resting on the forehead of the child, being every 

 day drawn down a little tighter by means of a cord, which holds it in 

 its place until it at length touches the nose, thus forming a straight 

 line from the crown of the head to the end of the nose. This process 

 is seemingly a very cruel one, though I doubt if it causes much pain, 

 as it is done in earliest infancy, while the bones are soft and easily de- 

 pressed into this distorted shape, by forcing the occipital up and the 

 frontal down. 



Fig. 8. 

 Flat Head Woman and Child. 



(Showing the manner in which the heads of the children are flattened. ) 



. The skull at the top in profile will show a breadth of not more than 1£ 

 or 2 inches, when in front view it exhibits a great expansion on the 

 sides, making it at the top nearly the width of one and a half natural 

 heads. 



By this remarkable operation the brain is singularly changed from 

 its natural shape, but in all probability not in the least diminished 

 or injured in its natural functions. This belief is drawn from the tes- 

 timony of many credible witnesses who have closely scrutinized them 

 and ascertained that those who have the head flattened are in no way 

 inferior in intellectual powers to those whose heads are in their natural 

 shape. 



