131 
the pointy and ornamented with the amphibsena, 
or mysterious double-headed serpent. It is 
possible, that this extraordinary physiognomy 
might indicate a race of men very dilferent from 
that which now inhabits these countries, whose 
noses are broad, flat, and of a moderate size ; 
but it is also possible, that the Mexican people 
might have thought, with the prince of philo- 
sophers that there was something majestic 
and royal ((ioc<Tihxov) in a large nose, and might 
have considered it in their reliefs and in their 
paintings, as the symbol of power and moral 
worth. 
The pointed form of the heads is not less . 
striking in the Mexican drawings, than the size 
of the noses. If we examine osteologically the 
skulls of the natives of America, we see, as I 
have elsewhere remarked, that there is no race 
on the Globe in which the frontal bone is more 
flattened, or which have less forehead 'f. This 
extraordinary flattening exists among people of 
the coppeivcoloured race, who have never been 
acquainted with the custom of producing arti- 
ficial deformities, as is proved by the skulls of 
Mexican, Peruvian, and Azteck Indians, which 
M. Bonpland and myself brought to Europe, 
* Plato, de Hepul^lica, lib, 5. 
t Blumenbach, Decas quinta Craniorum, 1808, p. 14, 
tab. 46. 
K 2 
