228 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



to this. In the shoe-shaped basket-cradle the infant occupied a sitting position 

 (vide pi., p. 195). The last-named cradle had handles, by which it could be carried 

 or swung. Subsequently, when communication with Asia was constant, other forms 

 of tho cradle came into use, "cradles similar to our own modern ones" (pp. 195, 

 196). The GTrapyava, used everywhere in Greece, except in Sparta, were designed to 

 preveut distortion. Besides the swaddling-clothes, however, there was in common 

 use a sufficient variety of bed-clothes to make any kind of resting place for the child 

 soft enough to insure safety against pressure, viz, the kVlvt) of Homer was covered 

 with hides (uvea), and over this lay the pyyea, blankets or mattress, perhaps. At 

 all events, the later tcvepal.ov was a sack of some kind of stuff filled with feathers, 

 picked wool, etc., and was laid across the straps of the Skfivia, or folding bed (cot). 

 There were also linen sheets, the blankets before mentioned, and some kind of a 

 heavier covering, presumably of wool, since it was rough on both sides — 7repicrpo)/j,aTa, 

 i~c,3/J/jLLaTa, etc.— together with stuffed pillows and bolsters. 



Professor Becker (Charicles, London, 1880 ; Excursus, pp. 221, 222) gives much the 

 same account of the Greek bed and bedding as Guhl and Koner, Life of the Greeks and 

 Romans (p. 136, et seq.). Cradles, he says, are first mentioned by Plutarch. "Plato 

 kuew nothing of them." No author of his age can be said to have mentioned "a 

 regular cradle." Mothers probably carried their children in their arms, and these 

 " were not encouraged to walk very early." Wet-nurses were commonly employed, 

 and among these the Spartan women were the most famous. 



Potter, Dr. J. (Archseologia Graeca. New York, 1825. 8vo. ) It appears that ob- 

 servation had taught the Greeks the effects of pressure on immature bones, since 

 everywhere, except in Sparta, where the end was otherwise secured, the infant was 

 wrapped "in swaddling-bands * * * lest its limbs * * * should happen to 

 be distorted" (p. 628). 



De Perthes, B. (Voyage en Russie. Paris, 1859. 12mo.) Remarks on nose-flat- 

 tening in Asiatic Russia, and probable cause of the custom (p. 288). 



Burton and Drake. (Unexplored Syria. London, 1872. 8vo.) Cranium said to 

 be Turanian, exhibiting "unilateral flattening * * * from use of the suckling- 

 board." (Appendix, vol. II, p. 277.) 



Burton and Drake. (Unexplored Syria. London, 1872. 8vo. Vol. n, Appendix.) 

 Distortion of cranial contour referred to "custom of swathing the child's head 

 tightly after birth" (vide Foville on the process). This distortion of the calvaria 

 was in the case of a Semitic (probably Jewish) skull (p. 346), (iMd., Appendix, 

 vol. II). Specimen of brachycephalous Grseco-Roman cranium, exhibiting asymmet- 

 rical parietal and supra-occipital flattening, partially due to " suckling-board" (pp. 

 356,357). 



Seebohm, H. (Siberia in Asia, London, 1882. 8vo), describes an Ost'-yak cradle as 

 " a wooden box, about 3 inches deep, with rounded ends, almost the shape of the 

 child." The oval bottom covered with sawdust. Infant wrapped in flannel and furs, 

 and lashed in the cradle. The child is nursed while in this position (pp. 62, 63). 



Prichard, J. C. (Researches into the Physical History of Mankiud. London, 1841. 

 4th ed. 8vo.) He quotes Pallas to the effect that the only deformity visible among 

 Kalmuks is "an outward bending of the arms and legs, resulting from the practice 

 of causing children to rest in their cradles on a kind of saddle" (vol. I, p. 263). 



Prejvalsky, Col. N. (Mongolia. London, 1876. 8vo. Vol. i.) Chapter ii, page 

 47 el seq., " is especially devoted to the ethnology of Mongolia." He says of the Mon- 

 gol, "his legs are bowed by constant equestrianism;" but nothing of any form of 

 cradle, or mode of carrying infants, or of malformations other than the above, is said 

 anywhere. 



In Pumpelly's Across America and Asia, La Farge (p. 199) has given fac-similes of 

 wood-cuts representing various deformities of the head, evidently artificial. Jap- 

 anese art, and especially genre art, is of a high order, not relatively, but positively, 

 and as it can not be supposed that such should be the case without a knowledge of 



