INHABITANTS OP PERU. 



269 



child is born, with the Hmbs distorted, or with any remark- 

 able defedl, instantly to deprive the infant of life, as an in- 

 auspicious birth. Their complexion is fairer than that of the 

 Peruvians, and some of them, the Conivos, for instance, 

 would even vie in that rcspe6t with the Europeans, if the er- 

 ratic life of the mountains, the unguents, and the pun6tures of 

 the sand-flies and mosquitoes, did not give them a swarthy 

 hue. All their attention is bestowed on preserving a firm tex- 

 ture of the body, and on flattening the forehead and hinder 

 part of the head, with a view of resembling, as they say, the, 

 full moon, and of becoming the strongest and most valiant 

 people in the world. To attain the former of these aims, they 

 bind the waist, and all the joints, of their male offspring, 

 from their tender infancy, with hempen bands. With a view 

 to the latter, they wrap the forehead in cotton, and lay on it 

 a small square board, applying another similar board to the 

 occiput, and adjusting them with cords until the intention has 

 been answered. Thus the head is elongated above, and flat- 

 tened both before and behind. This pra6lice cannot fail ta 

 alter the fundlions of the brain ; and, accordingly, the re- 

 proach of stupidity is attached to the bonzes, or Japanese 

 priests, at whose birth the head is, compressed, until it ac- 

 quires the shape of a sugar-loaf, to the end that it may serve 

 as an altar on which the minister may kindle the sacred fire, 

 as a token of their being admitted into the priesthood. In 

 reality, our Indians of the mountains are remarked to be the 

 people the most devoid of thought any where to be found. 



They go in a great measure naked, but with some dis- 

 tindlion. The men wear a short cotton shirt, painted with a 

 variety of colours, and provided with a half sleeve : this co- 

 vering,. 



