222 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



" Torquemada (Book xiv, cli. 24) states that the Indians," in Mexico, "used to de- 

 form their beads with a view to appear more formidable." (Spencer, Des. Soc. An- 

 cient Mexicans, Central Americans, etc., p. 27.) 



Lauda (6 xx). "The Indians of Yucatan are, * * * as a rule, * * * bow- 

 legged, for in their infancy their mothers carry them about suspended at their haunch- 

 bones. They were made 'squint-eyed,' 7 ' and their heads were flattened artiticially. 

 (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancieut Mexicans, Central Americans, etc., p. 27.) 



Landa ($ xxx) describes the process: "Four or five days after birth the child was 

 put on a small bed made of rods, and there, the face being underneath, the head was 

 put between two boards, in front and behind. Between these they compressed it 

 * * * until the head was flattened and shaped like their own." (Idem, p. 27.) 



Brancroft. (Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y., 1873, vol. I.) The Quiche" 

 woman (Central America) carries her baby on her back "in a cloth passed around 

 her body" (p. 704). 



Bancroft. (Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y r ., 1875, vol. ii, 8vo.) The Nica- 

 ragua and Yucatan infants' heads were compressed and permanently flattened be- 

 tween two boards as a sign of noble birth. Squier asserts that occipital flattening 

 was effected by the cradle-board among the Quiche's, Cakchiquels, and Zutugils 

 (pp. 731, 732). Don Horatio Guzmiin, minister from Nicaragua, informs me that no 

 compression of the head and no swathing of the infant is now practiced in any part 

 of that couuTry. 



Bancroft. (Native Races of the Pacific States. N. Y., 1873, vol. i.) The Smoos 

 Indians of the Mosquito Group flatten the forehead by a process like that in use 

 among the Columbians (p. 717). 



Faentes. (Palacio, p. 106.) In Guatemala children were fastened "to a board by 

 means of straps wound round the body * * * from the feet to the shoulders, in 

 consequence of which all the Indians have the backs of their heads smooth and flat." 

 (Spencer, Des. Soc. Ancient Mexicans, Central Americans, etc., p. 28.) 



Jefferys, T. (Nat. and Civil Hist, of French Domiuiousin North and South America. 

 London, 1760, fol.) Among the aborigines of Hispaniola "the singular conformation 

 of the head * * * is effected by art." Mothers pressed their infant's skull, either 

 by hand or with boards, until it was distorted, "and in a manner bent back upon 

 itself" (Part n, p. 8). 



Oviedo. (Historia General y Natural de Indias, book 11, chap. 5.) His statement 

 of head-flattening is rather vague. "Porque al tiempo que uacen los niilos les aprie- 

 tan las cabezas," etc. The width of the front head, which he remarks as the result of 

 artificial interference, points to the same form, and like appliances, noticed by Porto- 

 Seguro, and others, in Brazil. (Idem, book 42, chap. 3.) Gomara is cited as giving 

 the same evidence concerning the natives of San Domingo. He says they flattened 

 the head with cotton compresses for the purpose of enlarging the face. " Aprietan 

 & los niiios la cabeza muy blaudo, pero mucho entre dos almohadillas de algodon, para 

 ensancharles la cara," etc. 



There seems to have been some confusion in Gomara's mind on this subject — Bernal 

 Diaz says there was on all subjects. At all events he gives another account of the 

 manner in which the infant's head was distorted, which amounts to this: that it was 

 done by the midwife at the moment of birth, or shortly after. In this case, a very 

 common one among 'different tribes, the fact apparently indicates gradual extinction 

 of the custom, since the effect of simple manipulation would be temporary, and where 

 distortion implies as much as it sometimes does, its absence exposes the individual to 

 the greatest misfortunes. 



Topinard. (Elements d' Anthropologic Ge"nerale. Paris, 1885. 8vo.) Remarks of 

 forms of distortion by manipulation alone that they must be impermanent — "incapa- 

 bles de produire une d6formation soutenue" (p. 756). Prof. William H. Flower holds 

 the same views, and, indeed, the fact is physiologically self-evident unless the ma- 

 nipulation were of an unprecedented kind. 



