232 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



at an angle from the head." (Spencer, Des. Soc. Negritto and Malayo-Polynesian 

 Races, pp. 20.) 



Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. London, 1887. 8vo.) 

 Among the Melville Island tribes " a roll of thin, silky bark serves as a pillow at 

 night and as a seat in the day-time." (Papuo-Melanesians, 2d divis., p. 120.) 



Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. London, 1887. 8vo.) 

 The aboriginal Tasmanian women (Papuans) "throw over their shoulders the skin of 

 an uutanned kangaroo or opossum," in which they place their children " when carry- 

 ing them on the back." (Papuo and Malayo Melanesians, 2d divis., p. 100.) 



Cook, Captain. (Voyage towards the South Pole, etc., n, p. 34.) Natives of Mal- 

 licollo wear a belt which "they tie so tight over the belly that the shape of their 

 bodies is not unlike that of an overgrown pismire." (Spencer, Des. Soc. Negritto 

 and Malayo-Polynesian Races, p. 20.) 



Busk, George (Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, Jan., 1877) speaks 

 of the "extreme flattening * * * of the frontal region" in certain Mallicollo 

 skulls as " artificial." 



Cheever, H. T. "The unnatural flattening of the occiput" (in the Hawaiian head) 

 " is thought to be owing to the way the mother holds her babe, which is by the left 

 hand supporting the back of its head." (Spencer, Des. Soc. Negritto and Malayo- 

 Polynesian Races; pp. 20, 21.) Occipital flattening also promoted by the use of a 

 mat pillow or one of wood. 



D'Albertis, L. M. (New Guinea. London, 1881. 8vo). On Yule Island "children 

 were carried * * * in netted bags, resting on the backs of their mothers, suspended 

 by a cord that passed round the women's heads. * * * Their legs were small in 

 proportion to their bodies." (Vol. I, p. 262.) Both on the coast and in the interior 

 of Yule Islahd the natives wear a tight, broad belt, "sometimes woven on the body." 

 Compression from this results in distortion, giving the figure a " very peculiar appear- 

 ance." (Vol. ii, p. 302.) 



Featherman, A. (Social History of the Races of Mankind. London, 1887. 8vo). 

 State that the Riara women (Papuo-Melanesian group) carry their children "on their 

 backs in a bag of net-work * * * suspended from the forehead by a band" (p. 51). 

 Other Papuans carry their infants in the "flap" of a cloak made of cocoa-nut fiber 

 (p. 21). The Tasmanians carried them " wrapped in a kangaroo-skin, which hung 

 behind the back " (p. 21). 



United States Exploring Expedition (Wilkes). (4to. Vol. vi. "Ethnography." 

 Horatio Hale. Philadelphia, 1846.) General remarks on prevalent occipital flatten- 

 ing among Polynesians (p. 10). 



In connection with the references to occipital flattening among the Polynesians (a 

 fact variously explained), but not in any case, so far, referred to the general custom 

 of laying infants on hard mats in warm" countries, and especially so in Oceanica, thus 

 undesignedly compressing the head by its own weight, the following statements are 

 made: Sir J. Bowring (Philippine Islands, London, 1859, 8vo) quotes the ethnolog- 

 ical tables of Buzeta to the effect that the "pure Indians " (Tagals) of the Philippines 

 have this characteristic, whereas among the Mestizos and Negrittos it is not mentioned 

 (p. 176). Wood (Uncivilized Races of Men ; Hartford, 1871 ; 8vo) states that in child- 

 hood the Bushman skull exhibits excessive occipital projection, and this naturally 

 (p. 249). Further, that the same is the case with the Ovambo at all ages (p. 316). 

 Finally, that marked convexity of the front as well as the back head distinguishes the 

 Wahuma (p. 400). These facts, by themselves, cancel any inferences from the excep- 

 tional contour of a single cranial bone unsupported by evidence of abnormal growth 

 or mechanical interference. Hard mats and a wooden pillow explain the fact of occip- 

 ital flattening, where a vertical occiput is not a decided race feature. 



Wallace, A. R. (Australasia, London, 1879, 12mo) quotes Captain Erskine to the 

 effect that .among the Polynesian or Mahori race it is the custom to flatten the nose 

 during infancy (p. 493). He remarks that the occipital flattening may be artificial 



