66 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



to be moderately curved outwards, wide at the occipital protuberances, and full 

 from those points to the opening of the ear. From the parietal protuberances 

 there is a slightly curved slope to the vertex, producing a conical, or rather a 

 wedge-shaped outline. 



Humboldt has remarked that " there is no race on the globe in which the 

 frontal bone is so much pressed backwards, and in which the forehead is so 

 small/'* It must be observed, however, that the lowness of the forehead is in 

 some measure compensated by its breadth, which is generally considerable. The 

 flat forehead was esteemed beautiful among a vast number of tribes ; and this 

 fancy has been the principal incentive to the moulding of the head by art. 



Although the orbital cavities are large, the eyes themselves are smaller than 

 in Europeans ,• and Fresier asserts that the Puelche women he saw in Chili were 

 absolutely hideous from the smallness of the eyes.f The latter are also deeply set 

 or sunk in the head ; an appearance which is much increased by the low and 

 prominent frontal ridges. 



Among the North American Indians there is rarely any decided obliquity in 

 the position of the eyes which is so universal among the Malays and Mongols ; 

 but Spix and Martins have observed it in some Brazilian tribes, and Humboldt in 

 those of the Orinoco : and among the Pourys, the Prince de Wied describes a 

 man who bore, in this and other respects, a marked resemblance to a Calmuck. 



What has been said of the bony orbits obtains with surprising uniformity : 

 thus the superior margin is but slightly curved, while the inferior may be com- 

 pared to an inverted arch. The lateral margins form curves rather mediate 

 between the other two. This fact is the more interesting on account of the 

 contrast it presents to the oblong orbit and parallel margins observable in the 

 Malay. The latter conformation, however, is sometimes seen in the American, 

 but chiefly in those skulls which have been altered by pressure to the frontal 

 bone. 



The nose constitutes one of the strongest and most uniform features of the 

 Indian countenance : it mostly presents the decidedly arched form, without being 

 strictly aquiline, and still more rarely flat. 



The nasal cavities correspond to the size of the nose itself; and the remark- 

 able acuteness of smell possessed by the American Indian has been attributed to 

 the great expansion of the olfactory membrane.^ But the perfection of this sense, 



* Monuments, T. I, p. 158. f Voy. p. 64. 



t Blumenbach, Dec. Cran. p. 25. 



