Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/21

 On the drefs of the Indians of America. 9

jfition, his head bends back into a hole, made on purpofe to receive it, where he bears the chief part of his weight on the crown of the head, upon a fmall bag of fand, without being in the leaft able to move himfelf. The fkull refembling a fine cartilaginous fubftance, in its infant flate, is ca pable of taking any imprefiion. By this preflure, and their thus flatten ing the crown of the head, they confequently make their heads thick, and their faces broad : for, when the fmooth channel of nature is flopped in one place, if a deftruclion of the whole fyftem doth not thereby en- fue, it breaks out in a proportional redundancy, in another. May we not to this cuftom, and as a neceflary effect of this caufe, attribute their fickle, wild, and cruel tempers? efpecially, when we connect therewith, both a falfe education, and great exercife to agitate their animal fpirits. When the brain, in cooler people, is dillurbed, it neither reafons, nor determines, with proper judgment ? The Indians thus look OH every thing around them, through their own falfe medium ; and vilify our heads, becaufe they have given a wrong turn to their own.

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