THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS. 105 



PLATE I. 



EMBALMED HEAD, FROM THE PERUVIAN CEMETERY AT ARICA. 



This head, though ohvioiisly a relic of antiquity, has not all the characters of 

 the Ancient Peruvian, nor is it introduced as an unequivocal example of that race. 

 The forehead is extremely retreating, and at least partially moulded by artificial 

 means; but the whole cranium is broader, both in its frontal and parietal diameters, 

 than is usual in the people now^ under consideration. It is carefully and effectually 

 embalmed : the flesh of the neck and face has been removed and its place supplied 

 by Lama wool, and the whole head appears to have subsequently undergone the 

 process of tanning and drying. The skin is almost black, the sockets filled, the 

 external appendages of the eye admirably preserved, and the hair, which is long, is 

 elaborately plaited, and disposed with great apparent care. The sharpness of the 

 superciliary ridges indicates the effect of a board or bandage, which has compressed 

 the OS frontis and widened the whole head. This is the most perfect instance of 

 embalming, among the American nations, that has come under my notice. The 

 head was found separate from the body, and enveloped in a sack of corresponding 

 size, made of coarse thread or twine. It was disinterred in the vicinity of Arica, 

 and politely lent me for insertion among the illustrations of this work, by Mr. 

 James Blake, of Boston, Massachusetts. 



The inhabitants of Port Mulgrave, on the northwest coast, and some other 

 tribes, decapitate their dead chiefs, and place the head in a box by itself ;* from 

 which and other circumstances it is probable that the present relic was not that 

 of an enemy, but a person of distinction. 



* Dixon, Voy. p. 176, 181.— This singular custom also prevails in some of the South Sea Islands, 

 as the Ladrone and Society Islands, and the Gambler Group. — Hawksworth, Voy. II, p. 236. — 

 Beechey, Voy. I. p. 121. 



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