230 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



As Grieve says be only mentions facts concerning the Koriaks and Kurile Islanders, 

 which are not true of Kanitchatdales, it may be true that in Kamtchatka and the Ku- 

 riles cradles are used. 



Both among the Ainos and Tartars, Rollin's descriptions point to distortions. The 

 following are bis cranial measurements in Saghalieu and at the Baie de Castries: 

 Island of Tcboka (Saghalien), circumference of head, 1 foot, 10 inches, 4 lines; long 

 diameter, 9 inches, 8 lines; short diameter, 5 inches, 8 lines. Baie de Castries, cir- 

 cumference of head, 1 foot, 9 inches, 4 lines; long diameter, 9 inches; short diameter, 

 5 inches, 4 lines. 



Bush, R. J. (Reindeer, Dogs, and Snow-Shoes. N. Y., 1871. 8vo.) In October Bush 

 saw among the Gilaks, on the Amoor, " a babe tightly bandaged in a wooden box or 

 cradle, something like that used by our American Indians, but with its legs from the 

 knee downwards unfettered." This cradle was hung vertically to the " ridge-pole " 

 of a "lean-to" shelter, and, the child's feet touching the ground, it "swung itself" 

 (p. 123). In northeast Siberia in Jauuary, Bush saw "two little boys," belonging to 

 the nomad Tungusians, "lashed together and thrown over a pack-saddle, the one 

 balancing the other. * * * They were each sew r ed up in single garment * * * 

 made of heavy reindeer fur." Only the eyes and nose were visible (pp. 240,241). 



A. E. Nordenskiold (Voyage of the Vega, London, 1881, 8vo, Vol. n) describes 

 "a wide skin covering with the legs and arms sewed together downwards" as the 

 substitute for the cradle among the Chukchis. Similar devices used by most polar 

 tribes apparently. No visible cause for distortion (p. 102). 



NOTES ON AFRICA. 



Wood, J. G. (Uncivilized Races of Men. Hartford, 1871. 8vo.) The Abyssinian 

 mid wives mold the features of infants "to make them handsome" (p. 658). 



Wood, J. G. (Uncivilized Races of Men. Hartford, 1871. 8vo.) Among the Fans 

 the child is carried astride of a bark belt (p. 530). The "paingkoont" or circular 

 mat cloak of Australians serves to carry the child, vertically placed. The Australian 

 form is exceptionally fine (p. 699). The cradle of the New Zealand infant is a mat 

 wrap (p. 817). In New Guinea the child lies "in a sort of sling" of leaves or bark, 

 and is so carried (p. 901). 



Alexander, Captain (Jour. Royal Geogr. Soc, London, 1835, Vol. v, p. 318, note) 

 says of the Fingoes (or Wanderers) of South Africa, that their "children are carried 

 behind wrapped in the kaross." 



Little, H. (Madagascar. Edinburgh and London, 1884. 12mo.) The Magalasy 

 "mother carries her infant npon her back, and not in her arms " (p. 64). No descrip- 

 tion of the means used to support the child. 



On page 193 of M. C. Buet's Madagascar la Reine des lies Africaines, there is a 

 plate of a woman carrying a child, placed in a sort of hood formed of a fold of the 

 outer garment, which may explain Little's statement. 



Wilkinson, Sir J. G. (Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, New York, 

 1879) states that the head-rest, or according to Porphyry "a half-cylinder of wood 

 iu lieu of a pillow," was in general use in Egypt. (Vol. I, pp. 185, 186.) 



Wilkinson adds that the same kind of a pillow is found in China, Japan, and among 

 the Ashantees and Kaffirs. This is a very incomplete statement of the peoples who 

 use the head-rest; but there is a slight incongruity between his assertion of the uni- 

 versal use of this kind of pillow, and that made (Vol. I, p. 417) to the effect that the 

 Egyptians commonly slept on couches, because mauy of those depicted in his plates 

 would not have permitted the head-rest to be used on account of their form. He 

 says also that the Egyptian bed was often a skin placed on the ground or a frame of 

 palm wicker-work like the modern caffass, and in these cases a wooden pillow, cush- 

 ioned as in Japan and China, for the rich, might have been employed. 



The Madi women carry their infants in skins which have been dried in the sun 

 and scraped clean and smooth with a stone and softened with butter. The skins of 



