ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 227 



ceptionally valuable. Of a certain tribe at Mbaevera he says: "The mothers put 

 their babies iu wicker baskets, and carry them on their shoulders." (Vol. I, p. 62.) 

 This is the first notice of any cradle but a sling in this region. 



Dobrizhoffer, M. (An Account of the Abi pones, London, 1822. 8vo.) The 

 mounted tribes — Indios bravos— of Paraguay "do not use stirrups, and most of them 

 are unfurnished with saddles, even." This fact accounts for the excessive curvature 

 of the legs noticed in previous references. (Vol. i, p. 236.) 



Dobrizhoffer remarks of the Abipoues of Chaco, also "an equestrian people," but 

 who are provided with saddles, though " stirrups are not in general use," that " you 

 never see an Abipone with * * * bandy legs." Like the Kirghiz, all these In- 

 dians ride more than they walk, and are placed on horseback at the earliest age. 

 Father Dobrizhoffer's statement is not in accordance with the facts of common obser- 

 vation in this regard; but, taken with some reservation, the greater symmetry of 

 limb among the tribes of Chaco is evidently due to the difference of position involved 

 in the use of a saddle. (Vol. n, p. 113.) 



King, Col. J. A. (Twenty-four Years in the Argentine Republic. London, 1846. 

 8vo.) The Chirivione Indians of Gran-Chaco would not eat mutton for fear " their 

 noses would become flat" (p. 109). 



Parrish, Sir W. (Buenos Ayres. London, 1852. 8vo.) Speaking ofthePehuen- 

 ches — "Pine Trees" — a Pampa branch, he says: "I have seen some of these Indians 

 who, from being so constantly on horseback, had become bow-legged to such an ex- 

 tent of deformity that the soles of their feet were turned inward, etc." (p. 173). 

 This points to the absence of a saddle, such as used, at least, by their congeners, the 

 Tehuelches-Patagonians. 



Harris, J. (Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca. London, 1744. Folio.) 

 Sebald de Weert speaks of the " crooked legs " of a certain Indian woman found in the 

 Straits of Magellan. (Vol. I, p. 42.) From what is said afterwards {Idem. p. 43) this 

 was evidently a Fuegian. 



There are several references to the distortion of limbs among the Fuegians, and to its 

 cause. As an example of the uncertainty attaching to reports of the early voyagers, 

 Harris', Navigantium, etc., quotes Jaques le Hermite, Voyage of Circumnavigation, 

 1623, to the effect that the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego were " as fair as any in 

 Europe ; * * * very strong and well proportioned, and generally about the 

 height of the people in Europe." (Vol. I, p. 71.) Of the same kind is Captain Cow- 

 ley's statement, made from personal observation, that the Hottentots " are born white, 

 but make themselves black with soot." (Harris's Bibliotheca, Vol. I, p. 83.) 



Cook, Captain. (Voyages, etc. London, 1773. 8vo.) Describing the beds of the 

 natives of Terra del Fuego, says that " a little grass * * * served both for bed 

 and chairs." (Vol. n, p. 55.) 



NOTES ON EUROPE. 



Rae, Ed. (The White Sea Peninsula. London, 1881. 8vo.) Bowed legs are men- 

 tioned as characteristic of the Norwegian Lapps. Not a pure race like those of South 

 Finmark and Terski Lapland. Distortion probably due to the skin-bag cradle (p. 

 232). 



Laing, S. (Journal of a Residence in Norway. London, 1836. 8vo.) He describes 

 as a characteristic the bowed legs of the Norwegian Lapps. " They form a curve 

 with the leg-bone down to the foot, so that in standing with their feet close together 

 all above is far apart" (p. 247). Pressure in the hood, etc., during infancy probably 

 causes this. 



Panofka, T. (Manners and Customs of the Greeks. London, 1849. 4to.) Descrip- 

 tion of the Alkvov, or wicker, shoe-shaped swinging cradle of Greece (Pt. n). 



Guhl and Koner. (Life of the Greeks and Romans. London, . 8vo.) "The 



antique cradle," i. e., the AUvov of the Heroic age, " consisted of a flat swing of bas- 

 ket-work." The child, enveloped in the cirdpyava, must necessarily have been bound 



