ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF CHILDREN. 229 



the fact that all caricature depends for its effect upon an exaggeration of well-known 

 characteristics to the degree of grotesqueness, it would be well to inquire if now or 

 formerly any custom, etc., justified these contours. 



From Dr. W. W. Rockhill the information is received that in China and Mongolia 

 children are carried in the same way as described by Mr. Akabane" in Japan, except 

 that the crossed bands to secure the child on the mother's back are not made use of. 

 Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Army, states that the Navajos use a cradle-board similar 

 to that described by Major Powell on the Colorado, viz, a buckskin sack fastened to 

 a board, into which the infant is put without being swathed. No cradles are used 

 by the Japanese, Chinese, or in Mongolia. 



NOTES ON ASIA. 



The Emperor of China, Kien-hing (1736-1796), in his work Mandchou-yuen-Uon-kas, 

 says: "The ancient Mandchoussome clays after the birth of a child prepared for it a 

 little hard bed, and laid it thereon face up. Little by little the back of the head was 

 flattened, and became larger. The Chinese have a custom opposite to this. They lay 

 the new born upon its side, first right, then left, wherefore the head is made nar- 

 rower." This would make the Mandchousbrachycephalsandthe Chinese dolicocephals. 



Busk, George (Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, Nov., 1873, "Notes 

 on a skull termed Nabathsean") says that regarding the norma lateralis, its outlines 

 " almost suggest that the skull has been constricted by a bandage." 



Spencer, H. (Descriptive Sociology, N. Y. Asiatic Races among the Nomadic 

 Arabs.) "Noble families used to alter the shape of children's heads." (Table xxxi.) 

 This was done in the age of Abou-Zeyd. (Bastian. Mensch. n, 229. Id., p. 21.) 



Vambery, A. (Sketches of Central Asia. London, 1863. 8vo.) The Turkoman 

 head is "proportionally small" and oblong. This form "is, ascribed to the circum- 

 stance" that infants are not cradled, but " placed * * * in a swing made of linen 

 cloth" (p. 296). The Turkomans commonly have "their feet bent inwardly ; proba- 

 bly the consequence of their continually riding on horseback " (p. 296). 



Pallas, (i, 98, etseq.) The Kalmucks " are well made, with the exception of the legs, 

 which are generally bent (arising from being so much on horseback), and slender, 

 like the arms." (Spencer, Des. Sociol. Asiatic Races, p. 3.) 



Feathermau, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind, 2d division. London, 

 18-*7. 8vo.) The women among the Ne"asesa, "who are accustomed to bear heavy 

 burdens, have their knees turned inward, and their hips are more or less deformed" 

 (p. 347). 



Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind, 2d division. London, 

 1887. 8vo.) Among the Nicobar Islanders "the skull is depressed by art" (p. 239). 

 "A block of wood answers the purpose of a pillow" (p. 240). 



Langsdorf, G. H. von (Voyages and Travels, London, 1813. 4to) describes the 

 A'inos (Japan) as having "compressed noses" (vol. I, p. 328). He says the same of 

 the people of Oonalashka (vol. n, p. 31). It is not stated that this peculiarity is 

 produced by artificial moans. In this, as in a great number of other instances, noth- 

 ing is said of the appliances used ; but the inference is that such must have existed in 

 the case of infants. The following information, communicated by Mr. Shiro Akaban6, 

 secretary of the Japanese legation at Washington, exhibits a \ r ery simple mode of 

 carrying infants on the back. No cradles of any kind are used in Japan. The child 

 is never bandaged. It is wrapped loosely in a cloth of some kind, and placed on a 

 soft mattress on the floor. There it remains, except when nursed, until it is old enough 

 to clasp the body of its parent with its legs, when it is placed on the back beneath 

 the outer garment, and supported by two bands passing over its back like cross-belts. 



History of Kamtchatka( translated and abridged from official Russian account, based 

 on all voyages and travels to Kamtchatka and Kurile Islands, by Dr. James Grieve. 

 Glocester, 1764. 4to). The Koreki (Koriaks) "use neither cradle nor swaddling- 

 cloths." No mention of any kind of bodily malformation (p. 233). 



