ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 221 



a state of savagery, both by the action of natural selection and by that of their 

 fellow-creatures. A very large body of proof could be readily brought forward to 

 support the view that Wrangell's statement concerning the Chnkchees held true of 

 roost peoples in a similar social phase, viz : "La mort attend l'enfant qui a le malheur 

 de naitre avec quelque difformite"." Le Nord de la Sibe"rie. Paris, 1843, vol. I, p. 267. 

 Kennan and Bush made like observations in the same region, and Capt. John G. 

 Bourke, U. S. Army, has pointed out that in the south this custom is mentioned by 

 Padre Gumilla (" Orinosc." Madrid, 1741, p. 344), and by Clavigero (Historia de la 

 Baja California. Mexico, 1852, p. 27). I do not recall any reference of the same kind 

 in Hennepin, Le Clerc, Charlevoix, etc.; but though the custom may have existed 

 among the uorthern tribes, despite Robertson's assertion that all the American Indians 

 killed the children who "appeared feeble or defective" (Hist. Dis. & Set. of America. 

 N. Y., 1856, p. 144), there is no doubt that in the literature of travel it is more fre- 

 quently mentioned as occurring among the southern tribes; and this may have been 

 one reason why the earlier discoverers, Columbus, Vespucci, Verrazzano, &c., have 

 spoken only of the fine appearance of the natives. The same contrasts, however, 

 are found in savage life in this as in other respects. Captain Bourke confirms from 

 personal observation the statement make in Emory's " Reconnoissance" (p. 61), that 

 among the Apaches the deformed are sometimes well cared for. He also refers to a 

 like mention in Francis Parkman (The Jesuits in North America. Boston, 1867, 

 Introductory, xl), and also to Peter Martyr's narrative (Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 5, 

 p. 357). 



In connection with head-flattening in America, Humboldt (Political Essay on New 

 Spain. London, 1814. 8vo, vol. i) asserts that the back-head is naturally flat (p. 

 155). Also that the American cranium is normally "depressed backwards * * * 

 among nations to whom the means of artificially producing deformity are * * * 

 unknown." The Aztecs " never disfigure the heads of their children." The Mexican, 

 Peruvian, and Aturean heads — all flattened ; those Bonpland and himself procured 

 were natural. "Certain hordes do compress the heads of children" (pp. 154, 155). 



Squier (The States of Central America. N. Y., 1858. 8vo) quotes Valenzuela to 

 the effect that among the Indians found by the Spanish at Lacandon (Dolores), Gua- 

 temala, "the cradles for their children were made of reeds" (p. 567). 



Under the heading Tete, Encyclopedic des Sciences, etc., Neufchatel, 1765, is the 

 following : "II est parle" dans les voyages et dans les geographies modernes, de cer- 

 tains peuples qui se rendent la tete plat que la main, et qui metteut la tete de leurs 

 enfans, des qu'ils sont nes, entre deux presses, ou planches, sur le front et le der- 

 riere de la tete pour l'applatir." 



NOTES ON AMERICA. 



Bancroft. (Native Races of the Pacific States, N. Y., 1873, vol. I.) Chichimec 

 women carried their infants on the back, "wrapped in a coarse cotton cloth, leaving 

 the head and arms free" (p. 633). The cradle was a wicker basket suspended from 

 a beam or bough (p. 633). 



Gomara (Con. Mex., fol. 318) states that the occiput was flattened among the Nahua 

 nations by an arrangement of the cradle, this form being considered becoming. (Ban- 

 croft, Native Races, etc., vol. II, p. 281.) 



Humboldt's statement that the Aztecs did not distort the head was, as Bancroft 

 remarks (Native Races, vol. II, p. 281), too sweeping. That the custom "was prac- 

 ticed to a considerable extent in remote times by people inhabiting the country seems 

 to be shown by the deformed skulls found in their graves, and by the sculptured 

 figures upon the ruins." Klemni states that "the cradle consisted of a hard board to 

 which the infant was bound iu such a manner as to cause the malformation." 



Sahagun, Torquemada, Clavigero, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Carbazal Espiuosa say 

 that when a Toochichimec child was born on a journey "the new-born babe was 

 placed in a wicker basket and thrown over the back of the mother." (Bancroft, 

 Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y., 1875, vol. n, p. 271, note.) 



