THE MEXICANS, 



145 



In fact, these features are so decided that they appear to result in part from 

 the application of mechanical pressure. This drawing has great interest from the 

 circumstance of its being an authentic copy from an antique Toltecan bas-relief, 

 and probably represents the configuration of the head in that nation ; for it is 

 obvious from the symmetry and accuracy of the figure, that the artist accomplished 

 his task with a skull before him. 



With respect to the many heads figured by Del Rio, they present a striking 

 resemblance to each other. They have a conical form, very narrow from front to 

 back, and consequently very broad from side to side. The forehead retreats, the 

 brow is low, the nose large and aquiline, the mouth wide and the lips somewhat 

 tumid. There can be no question that some of these features are exaggerated ; 

 but they no doubt preserve the leading traits in the physiognomy of the people 

 they represent. The two following illustrations are faithfully transcribed from 

 the work of Del Rio, merely omitting such parts of the elaborate head-dresses as 

 are unnecessary to the present purpose. 



Were it not for the evidence of undeniable facts, such configuration of the 

 head would be pronounced altogether ideal. But when the reader has examined 

 the real skulls figured in this work, and especially those of the Natchez tribe 

 (who appear to have been of the Toltecan stock,) he will perceive in them a 

 distortion similar in kind to that represented in the bas-reliefs of Palenque, but 

 in a much more exaggerated degree. With respect to the extravagantly dispro- 

 portioned noses of the Toltecan sculpture, Humboldt observes that they might at 

 first sight appear to indicate a race very different from that which now inhabits 

 these countries ; but, he adds, " it is possible that the Mexican people might have 

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