Page:The American Indian.djvu/361

Rh A few exceptions to straight hair have been found in South America under conditions that makes it unlikely that they are of European origin. However, a great deal more field-work will be necessary before this point can be made clear. If, however, it proves out that an element of wavy hair once entered the New World population, we shall have good ground for suspecting a non-Asiatic origin for at least one New World strain.

Skin color is rather an elusive matter, since its gradations do not admit of very precise definition. Some anthropologists see the basic color of the New World as yellow, others as brown. The yellow is clearly present in many tribes of Brazil and on the west coast of North America, but the remaining portions of both continents show populations ranging from dark chocolate to light brown. According to our own observation, this light color turns toward yellow, and the assumption of an original yellow race is fully justified. This, again, suggests Asiatic affinities, but just what may be the history of this dark strain in the yellow is not clear.

The nose has also been considered as Mongoloid, but as it presents great variety of form in both the North and the South and is not easily distinguished from the nose of the Pacific Islands and some other parts of the Old World, no great stress can be laid upon it, at least, until very carefully studied. Again, one of the most striking facial characters of Mongolian peoples is the eye-fold, or, in popular language, the "slanting eye." A number of observers claim to see faint traces of this in the Indian, but we should proceed with caution where the resemblances are so vague. Yet, a recent author asserts its positive identification in the Andean region and also in parts of the Amazon country. In North America, it is prominent among the Eskimo and appears in Siberia, which fact gives us continuity with Asia.

In popular belief, the aboriginal face is broad in respect to the width of the head, or "the cheek bones are prominent," resulting in what is sometimes characterized as a disharmonic