Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/107

Rh above the eyes. This flattening was practiced to such a degree that the bones of the child's skull were often broken by the pressure of the bandages, and two out of the four skulls had false joints, which appear to be the result of fracture produced in this way.

The type of the race is extremely well marked, and, after one of the skulls had been examined, it was easy to see at a glance that the others belong to the same people, and their characteristics agree closely with the very short description of the Ceboynas which Columbus gives.

In his log-book, October 13th, he says: "At dawn many of these men came down to the shore. All are, as already said, youths of good size and very handsome; their hair not woolly, but loose and coarse like horses' hair. They have broader heads and foreheads than I have ever seen in any race of men, and the eyes very beautiful, not small. None of them are black, but of the complexion of the inhabitants of the Canaries. All, without exception, have very straight limbs, and no bellies, and very well formed."

This passage, and a few others in his log-book, contain nearly all that is known of the race, for the rapidity with which discovery followed discovery was unparalleled; and the simple Lucayans attracted little interest or attention after the Spaniards found the large fertile islands of the Antilles and the civilization of Mexico.

We know, however, that the statements in the histories to the effect that they were naked, weaponless, and without arts, are incorrect, as they are based upon the impressions which Columbus formed during his first day among them.

It is true that the men who welcomed Columbus were naked and without weapons, and that, as they sat in their canoes, with their stiff, black hair cut straight across their low foreheads and hanging down behind in a long scalp-lock, with their naked bodies painted, "some black and some white and some red, and some whatever they find," they must have seemed like thorough savages. He soon found, however, that they had gardens and neat, well-swept houses, and that they knew how to manufacture cotton cloth, and had such simple clothing as suits the climate. Their large canoes, hewed out of the trunks of single trees, were large enough to hold forty or fifty men each, and "wonderfully built according to the locality," and Columbus says they were skillful boatmen, paddling with wonderful speed, and managing them with great dexterity.

Fragments of pottery, household utensils of carved wood, and rude pictorial carvings have been found in the islands, and the occasional discovery of beautifully polished stone implements proves, like the piece of gold marked with letters, that they were