Mort.
O
on’s Opania Americana. Pl.64.
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but they were soon after subdued, and have since been kept in check without
much difficult® They are still, however, a numerous people, for Humboldt states
that those of the pure race who yet inhabit the banks of the Corone and Cayuni,
and the mountains west of Cayenne and Pacaraymo, are not less than forty thousand
in number.* The same traveller observes that the Charibs of Chari, in Venezuela,
and those,of the lower Orinoco, differ from the other Indians by being taller, and
having more regular features. “ Their nose is not so large, and less flattened; the
cheek-bones are not so high, and their physiognomy has less of the Mongol cast.”
Their heads are naturally rounded, as in the other tribes; but many of the Charib
nations long practised the flattening process, in such manner as to depress the os
frontis, and thus elongate the head from front to back. Let us now glance
separately at the Continental and the Insular Charibs.
PLATE LXIV.
CHARIB OP VENEZUELA.
When Humboldt visited the continental Charibs, towards the close of the
last century, he saw no remains of the custom of distorting the head, which was
once so common among them, and even existed in recent times.t Speaking of
the Indians of Cumana, Gomara says, “ They compress the heads of their children
gradually, and for a long time, between two little cushions made of cotton, in
order to render the^ace broad, which they esteem a beauty.”t A stronger
evidence on this subject, however, is derived from the annexed drawing, which
was taken from a skull sent me by that distinguished gentleman and scholar, Don
Joseph Maria Vargas, of Caraccas. It was found in a terra cotta vessel, wherein
it had probably been preserved for centuries. It is much dilapidated, and admits
of but a part of the usual
MEASUREMENTS.
Longitudinal diameter, 7. inches.
Parietal diameter, 5.3 inches.
Frontal diameter, 4.8 inches.
* Person. Narr. VI, p. 11.—IV, p. 466. t B a b k m e , p. 239.
% Hist, de las Indias, cap. LXXIX.
60