"gak an ii ^itcittr Mux ^rnpljii from 



CONSISTING OF A HUMAN SCALP ANT) PACE. 



By EDWARD WILLIAM PHIBBS. 



PROBABLY not more tlian three or four specimens of 

 this exhibit have been seen in this country, — at least 

 not more than three are recorded, two of which, however, 

 are open to the saspicion of being identical,— a rarity whicli 

 may be attributed to their being regarded as sacred, and 

 therefore only obtainable under something like false pre- 

 tence or cajolery. 



The first public reference to ono of these strange heads 



appears m a paper m 



' The Transactions of the Ethno- 



logical Society " of London, vol. ii. 1863, consisting of a 

 translation of a document written by Don Perro, Chilian 

 Consul from Ecuador, by Mr. W. Bollacrt, F.R.G.S., in 

 which it is stated the natives of Ecuador after a war select 

 the heads of their bravest victims, empty the skulls of their 

 contents, and thou by inserting a hot stone the skin be- 

 comes dessicated, and the whole equally reduced to minia- 

 ture dimension. That, however, is only as he understood 

 it and he admits he may have misunderstood the process. 



1S3 



