by
forcing the occipital up and the frontal down, so that the skull at the
top in profile will show a breadth of not more than an inch and a half
or two inches, when in a front view it exhibits a great expansion on the
sides, making it at the top nearly the width of one and a half natural
heads. By this remarkable operation the brain is singularly changed from
its natural state, but in all probability not in the least diminished or
injured in its natural functions. This belief is drawn from the
testimony of many credible witnesses who have closely scrutinized them,
and ascertained that those who have the head flattened are in no way
inferior in intellectual powers to those whose heads are in their
natural shapes. This strange custom existed precisely the same until
recently among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, who occupied a large part of
the states of Mississippi and Alabama, where they have laid their bones,
and hundreds of their skulls have been procured, bearing marks of a
similar treatment, with similar results."--Catlin's _American Indians_,
vol. ii., p. 112.

With respect to the origin of this singular custom, Humboldt is inclined
to think that it may be traced from the natural inclination of each race
to look upon their own personal peculiarities as the standard of beauty.
He observes that the pointed form of the heads is very striking in the
Mexican drawings, and continues thus: "If we examine osteologically the
skulls of the natives of America, we see that there is no race on the
globe in which the frontal bone is more flattened or which have less
forehead.[267] (Blumenbach, _Decas Quinta Craniorum_, tab. xlvi., p. 14,
1808.) This extraordinary flattening exists among people of the
copper-colored race, who have never been acquainted with the custom of
producing artificial deformities, as is proved by the skulls of Mexican,
Peruvian, and Aztec Indians, which M. Bonpland and myself brought to
Europe, and several of which are deposited in the Museum of Natural
History at Paris. The negroes prefer the thickest and most prominent
lips, the Calmucks perceive the line of beauty in turned-up noses. M.
Cuvier observes (_Lecons d'Anatomie Comparee_, tom. ii., p. 6) that the
Grecian artists, in the statues of heroes, raised the facial line from
85 deg. to 100 deg., or beyond the natural form. I am led to think that the
barbarous custom, among certain savage tribes in America, of squeezing
the heads of children between two