yah ae 
=. 
-l Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentario reales de los Incas, IX, cap. 85 
: del Inca, IV, cap. 15; Comentarios, IV, cap. 12. 
486 General Notes. | May, 
he speaks, as himself avows. As to Peru proper, he mentions 
the deformative process only among the Collas, saying nothing 
of Cuzco, Lima and other places in the empire. Moreover this 
author is one of the most credulous of his time. 
Finally, Garcilaso' reports that the Indians of Manta, by 
Quito, deform the heads of their children by means of two tab- 
lets which they tighten more and more every day during four or 
five years. He says that in Tula, or Florida, the same result was 
attained by means of certain ligatures which they used nine or 
ten years. But Garcilaso visited neither of these countries. 
Cabeza de Vaca lived ten years in Florida, describes many cus- 
toms of the Indians, but makes no mention of-deformation. As 
to Quito, Garcilaso evidently copies Cieza. 
It is with relation to Peru proper, where he was born and 
where he lived up to his twentieth year, that Garcilaso is an 
authority of the first order. He says not one word of deforma- 
tion among the Collas nor of any place in the empire of the 
Incas. It is improbable that he would have omitted an operation 
so common and one practiced on his own head, if it had existed. 
Moreover he describes what is done to infants at the moment 0 
birth and during lactation. Instead of the compression of the 
` head, either by the hands, or by bandages, or by tablets, the head 
is left entirely uncovered and is never touched, particularly near 
h 
the Lesser Antilles, we find other savages in the same islands, - 
regard to whom the voyagers of their time have repeated all t 
_ Stories, false or true, that the first Spanish conquerors told con- 
cerning various Indian populations. 
It has been said that this absurd practice endured long ner 
the conquest, and that it was forbidden by order of the Span of 
government, according to others by the decisions of a council 
_ Lima, according to others by a papal decree. The Marquis de 
Nadaillac affirms that the council in question was held in 1545; 
but M. Topinard believes that it took place in 1585, and tiaa 
1752 the governor of Lima published a new edict against defor- 
= mations. Now, there were no councils held in Lima in 154 6 ; 
1585. The five councils held there took place in 1551; 1507, 
La Florida 
ee ee aS A LE eee 
