THE HUMAN BPECIES. 193 



the occiput flattened obliquely, with but little apparent artificial 

 anterior depression, evidently the effect of the back of the head 

 having been secured to a board during infancy, as is still a 

 practice in the north. The same form of the head is likewise 

 observed in the high-nosed bas-reliefs of gods and heroes, both 

 sculptured and tooled in the ancient temples and buildings of 

 Yucatan and southern Mexico ; the representations of a people 

 now likewise extinct, and by the indigenous tribes referred to 

 the Giants of their primeval ages. Tbe account is not without 

 some probability, since the profiles belong to a race entirely 

 distinct from the general population of the western hemis- 

 phere, and is only conformable to tip' high-statured races of 

 Asia; excepting some tribes of North America, who, by 

 their traditions, came from the north-west, are still of a lofty 

 growth, and bear the aquiline features which may prove 

 their descent from a kindred race. Several of these, like 

 the Osages, not uncommonly reaching the height of six feet 

 eight inches; but since the great disturbance of location, pro- 

 duced by the European influx, they have latterly intermingled 

 with other tribes, and are now fast effacing their particular 

 characteristics. Perhaps the Yucatan Giant master-race disap- 

 peared, when the Aztecs prevailed in Anahuac, from causes of 

 a similar nature. Upon the whole, the nations with depressed 

 foreheads, when under the guidance, perhaps, of Gomerian 

 masters, seem to have a community of other characters, such as 

 constructiveness, which distinguish the Paltas of South Amer- 

 ica, as well as the older Egyptians. 



REMAINS OF OTHER ABNORMAL TRIBES. 



From the occasional destruction of whole tribes and races, 

 which is sometimes caused, even in modern ages, by the sword, 

 by contagious diseases, or by new modes of life, and the intro- 

 duction of vices before unknown, it is evident, that numerous 

 populations of the human family have disappeared, without 

 17 



