Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/65



along the Rivers, the ghost of his own, nobleman's canoe, for a vile slave: lest, in the fair land of spirits, his free-born shade might be, through mistake, compelled to bare such like ignoble spirit burthens, and toil, and sweat, and tremble, at the will of a vile creature of the Great High Chief of Spirits, whom he before had been accustomed to command: Lest such misfortunes might come upon him, by the too great natural resemblance, between himself and his slave, it is probable that he was more strongly induced to lay aside the servile-looking head, which silly nature gave him, and put on a more beautiful one of his own wise fashioning. If this be not correct, it is at least surely very much in the character of man; and if it be, it is not confined to the Flatheads, alone, nor is it peculiar to the ignorant and uncultivated barbarian. The actions of civilized and enlightened barbarians, speak with the same import. This operation of flattening the head, is performed when the child is very young: while the cranium is yet soft, and somewhat pliable. It nevertheless requires a long time to complete it. It must be effected very gradually, and the pressure must be continued upon the skull, until it has acquired a degree of hardness, sufficient to retain the shape which has been given. The object is to press back the forehead; which, when the operation is completed, is generally about parallel with the nose. In effecting this, the back part of the head is also somewhat compressed. This object is accomplished by binding a small board, or any other hard plane substance, closely upon the forehead; so as to press in the required direction. The child itself is lashed to a board, in such a manner, as to favor the securing of the flattening plane, in the necessary position, and to prevent the child from strangling. This operation, although so unnatural, so confining, and affecting an organ so delicate as the brain; and though performed upon such tender years, does not, however, appear to produce pain. Mortality does not appear to be greater among the Flathead children than among the adults, in comparison with that of other Indian Tribes. Neither does the flattening of the head appear, in the least degree, to affect the mind. Slaves, born among them, whose heads are not flattened, are the same, in every respect, pertaining to the mind, as far as it is possible to determine. In disposition, passion, intellect, and in their whole character, as far as different individuals are alike, they are alike. But it is probable that this practice will soon become extinct, if not from the abandonment of the custom, at least from the extinction of the race.