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Show 60 compressed. We do not hesitate to express this opinion, although it appears from Welcker's. extensive investigations* that brachycephaiic skulls are mostly ortbognathous, while those described above are all more or less prognathous. Now the question arises, was the deformation to be found among the ancient inhabitants of the ruins generally, or only in some instances? Was it practiced as a rule, or is the compression only more or less accidental? As the five skulls before us show the most unmistakable signs of deformation, it is more than probable that the compression of the skull cannot have been of rar$ occurrence, for it is scarcely possible that, by a mere accident only, the deformed crania should have been found by the collectors, while others, showing normal features, should have escaped their observation. If deformations of this kind are practiced, as a rule, among savages or civilized people, there is always a guiding idea, t either emanating from aesthetical feelings or with reference to some practical purpose. For instance, among the ancieut Peruvians the flattened skulls were considered a sign of aristocracy and high breeding, while in other cases, as among the inhabitants of the northwestern corner of Europe,! the skulls of the children were deformed in early yoqth in snch a manner as to produce a more or less straight line of profile, which we are accustomed to admire in the Greek ideal of human beauty. That the idea of the b autiful was developed to an uncommon extent among the inhabitants of the ruins is borne out by the fact that the fragments of pottery found show simple but tasteful ornamentation, that great regularity prevails in the structure of their buildings, both in the square and round ones, and that other pieces of their handiwork would even gratify our own a& sthetical feelings. As symmetry is found everywhere among their buildings, even where an educated eye would require it, there is no reason whatever to suppose that the taste should comply with these requirements in one instance aud not in the other. Why should people who bestow so much care upou a door, in order to make it symmetrical, or upon a piece of pottery, to make it perfect in shape, try, in case they practice deformation of the skull, to produce an asymmetrical form, such as is found in the greater number of oar crania 1 § Wherever deformation of the skull is made a practice, the mother, or whoever may be in charge of the child, performs this operation with the utmost care, in order to produce the conventional shape, which is almost symmetrical in every iustance; and some time ago, when we had occasion to examine about 200 flatheads, we found but few that were not symmetrical. Under such circumstances we are justified in believing that the deformation of the skulls in question is more or less accidental, and, taking the mode of depression into consideration, there canuot remain any doubt in regard to the way the skulls were distorted. Evidently the ancient inhabitants of the ruins were in the habit of strapping their children against cradle- boards, as a great many modern Indians do, and hence resulted the flattening of the occiput.|| • Untersuchungen ueber Wacbsthum und Baa des weuscblichen Schadels von Hermann Welcker. Erater Theil. Leipzig, Wilbelm Engelmana, 1862, p. 63 and 90. t Andre © Vesalii Opera Omnia Anatomic* et Chirorgioa, cnra Hermanni Boerhaave et Bernhardii Siegfried Albini. Lugdini Batavorum, MDCCXXV, Tom. I, p. 16. X Hippocrates: Toe. cit., De acre aquis et locis, p. 289. $ As it seems, asymmetry is not met with very seldom among the ancient Peruvian skulls. Compare Morton Crania Americana, PL X. | j As Major Powell kindly informs me, tbe different Indian tribes he is familiar with keep their children strapped to the cradle- board from between one and a half to two years. |