ETHNOLOGY AND AECHJEOLOGT. 77 



along with an iron spear, and a quantity of Roman pottery, is figured in Wilson's 

 "Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," and its measurements giyen. 



Mr. Cull added several observations upon the types of the Anglo-Saxon and 

 Celtic skull, remarking that the round head which characterised the modern Irish 

 was not the type of the ancient Celtic skull, which latter was elongated like that 

 of the Anglo-Saxon. 



OPATE INDIAN GIRL. 



Considerable interest was excited some little time since, both in America and 

 Europe, oy the exhibition of a dwarf Indian boy and gul, about whom very mar- 

 vellous fictions were told, affirming their having been carried off frcm a city of 

 Central America, where the ancient Astec race and institutions still exist intact. 

 The success which attended this exhibition, and the interest taken in the subject 

 by some of the first scientific men, such as Latham, Owen, Burke, &c, have led 

 others to follow the example, and there has recently been exhibited in some of the 

 American cities a young female called an " Opate Indian," from her being affirmed 

 to be a representative of the Opate Tribe ; one of those occupying Sonora, a range 

 of country Irom 28° to 30° N. latitude, and about 33° of longitude W., from Wash- 

 ington. It appears, however, that whatever be the native place of this singular 

 female, she is no proper representative of her tribe, but presents, in the most re- 

 markable characteristics, an abnormal condition, peculiar to this individual 

 instance. A singular growth of hair on her face along with a remarkable formation 

 of her gums, giving to her face somewhat of the prognathous approximation to a 

 mussle, have led some to the conclusion that she was not purely of human origin ; 

 while others have equally hastily shown an inclination to look on her as a type of 

 the transitional stage by which theorists have been disposed to assume the develop- 

 ment of the ape into man. In the month of September last, the members of the 

 Natural History Society of Boston took advantage of her visit to that city, to 

 have her present at one of their meetings, for the purpose of examination, and 

 Dr. Kneeland read a communication in reference to her, from which we extract 

 the following notice : — 



This girl, who is 22 years of age, four feet six inches in height, and of the 

 weight of 112 lbs., is probably a member of some Indian tribe, inhabiting the 

 Sierra Madre Mountains. These mountains run, for the most part, parallel to the 

 Gulf of California, through the Mexican States of Sonora and Cinaloa ; their dis- 

 tance from the sea varies from 200 to 60 miles, and in the neighborhood of Mazat- 

 lan, they come still nearer to the coast. This girl has been called an Opate Indian. 

 The Opate Indians are described by Mr. Bartlett, in his Personal Narrative, as 

 a quiet agricultural people, living in thickly populated villages, noted for their 

 bravery against the Apache tribe, and altogether superior to their neighbors, the 

 Taquis. But, on the other hand, she is said to have been obtained from the Sierra 

 Madre Mountains in Cinaloa, in the neighborhood of Copala, which town is just on 

 the edge of the mountains, about midway between Mazatlan and Durango. The 

 girl, without doubt, belongs to some one of the Indian tribes between the Sierra 

 Madre Mountains and the Gulf of California, in the Mexican provinces of Sonora 

 and Cinaloa. 



It is affirmed that her tribe live in caves, in a naked state, on an equality 

 with brutes, and partake of their food. That would degrade her to a level with 

 l he Digger Indiana of California, but these, though very degraded, are yet far 



