Such an artificial selection is peculiarly liable to play havoc with facial features, for which reason these latter are rendered quite unreliable for purposes of racial identification. And yet, because they are entirely superficial, they are first noted by the traveler and used as a basis of classification. A case in point is offered by the eastern Eskimos, who possess in marked degree not only the almond eye, so characteristic of the Mongolian peoples, but also the broad face, high cheek bones, and other features common among the people of Asia. Yet, notwithstanding this superficial resemblance, inspection of our world map of the head form shows that they stand at the farthest remove from the Asiatic type. They are even longer-headed than most of the African negroes. Equally erroneous is it to assume, because the Asiatic physiognomy is quite common among all the aborigines of the Americas, even to the tip of Cape Horn, that this constitutes a powerful argument for a derivation of the American Indian from the Asiatic stock. We shall have occasion to point out from time to time the occurrence of local facial types in various parts of Europe. On the principle we have indicated above, these are highly interesting as indications of a local sense of individuality, but they mean but little, so far as racial origin and derivation are concerned.
Happily for us, racial differences in head form are too slight to suggest any such social selection as has been suggested; moreover, they are generally concealed by the headdress, which assumes prominence in proportion as we return toward barbarism. Obviously, a Psyche knot or savage peruke suffices to conceal all slight natural differences of this kind; so that Nature is left free to follow her own bent without interference from man. The color of skin peculiar to a people may be heightened readily by the use of a little pigment. Such practices are not infrequent. To modify the shape of the cranium itself, even supposing any peculiarity were detected, is quite a different matter. It is far easier to rest content with a modification of the headdress, which may be rendered socially distinctive by the application of infinite pains and expense. It is well known that in many parts of the world the head is artificially deformed by compression during infancy. This was notably the case in the Americas. Such practices have obtained and prevail to-day in parts of Europe. For example, the people about Toulouse in the Pyrenees are accustomed to distort the head by the application of bandages during the formative period of life. This deformation[1] is sometimes so extreme
- ↑ For a-full account of such deformation, vide L'Anthropologie, Paris, vol. iv, p. 11, seq. The illustrations of such deformation, of the processes employed, and of the effect upon the brain development, are worthy of note.
