“The Cliff Dwellers,” said Professor Windsor, “present a most interesting study to the anthropologist. I have examined the collection of relics on Larimer street, and I have here the skull I examined Tuesday evening, as well as two others kindly loaned to me by the proprietors of that collection.”
“Can you tell anything of the mental characteristics of the wearers of these skulls, Professor?”
“Oh, yes,” said the phrenologist, smiling. “The skull is an absolute index of the character, and, as long as it holds together, is a better monument than ‘storied urn or animated bust’ to those who have the skill to read it. The skulls of these Cliff Dwellers furnish us with much more accurate information than the other relics, concerning their habits and character.
“For example, one of their striking peculiarities is a decided talent for music. Nearly every skull in the collection shows it. After I had remarked this fact to the proprietor of the exhibit, Mr. McLoyd, showed me a very well-preserved fragment of a flute which is in the collection. The skulls of these people, however, bear a more eloquent testimonial to their musical genius than this fragment of their musical instrument.
“The peculiar form of the Cliff Dweller’s skull is produced by some custom of the tribe in binding the infant upon a board or other substance. This is proved by the fact that the flatness of the back head is uniformly at the same angle, and that the upper tables of the skull give evidence of abnormal pressure. There is also in this collection one skull which is an exception, and shows exactly the development we would expect to find in a normal form when such pressure was not applied. The skull is that of a young female, and in outline it is strikingly like that of the ordinary Caucasian skull. In fact, I would pronounce it a Caucasian skull were it not for the structure of the superior maxillary bone, which shows a radical departure from the type of either of the five present races. The Cliff Dwellers are more like the Caucasian than the Indian, and more like the Hindoo than either. That they possessed a higher order of intellect than any Indian tribe of which we have knowledge does not admit of doubt.
“The most striking peculiarity of these skulls is their delicate and yet strong quality. The grain or texture of the bone is much more delicate and fine than the average of Caucasian skulls that belong to the uneducated classes. The illumination of the skull discloses some interesting facts. It is well known to phrenologists that the skull is thinner in those regions that are most constantly used in the mental habits of the individual. The illumination of the skulls of these two youths (here Professor Windsor inserted a lighted taper in each) discloses a nearly uniform thinness of the entire skull, showing that they exercised all the faculties of the mind. The skull of this old warrior, however, presents a different appearance under the same test. You will notice that the illumination is confined to that portion of the skull lying around the base of the brain, and running highest in the forehead. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that the individual who once wore this skull was a man of very practical intellect. The perceptive organs, the knowing and reasoning faculties, executive ability and the social organs of amativeness and friendship, particularly the latter, are all bright and particularly well developed.
“The abnormal width of the Cliff Dweller’s skull through the middle section, and the massive, dome-like forehead, is due in a measure to the crowding forward of the brain from the pressure which produced the flattening of the occiput. Any normal head with such a development would show a thinness of the bone in that region, whereas the opacity of the warrior’s skull is remarkable in that region. If we may take the skull of this female, which has not been subjected to this pressure, as a type of the race, we are justified in considering the Cliff Dwellers as a people remarkably agreeable in traits of character. All the domestic propensities which form the basis of the family relation, the love of offspring, of friends and neighbors, are remarkably well developed. There is a magnificent moral influence shown in the development of conscientiousness, approbativeness and caution. The latter organ is so large as to suggest cowardice, but these people undoubtedly lived in an age when circumspection and eternal vigilance was the price of existence as well as of liberty.
“I notice that the writer of the article on the Cliff Dwellers in last Sunday’s Republican makes the statement that they apparently had neither literature nor religion. He bases his assertions on the fact that he does not find altars or writings among their possessions. But appearances are against him. They apparently had both, from the structure of their skulls. The Cliff Dweller is largely endowed with the artistic and constructive organs of the brain with an unlimited capacity for invention and designing. Savage races far below him in these qualities have literature, and it is unreasonable to suppose that having these qualities both large and active, he did not use them. As to his religion, the single exception to the uniform opacity of the warrior’s skull above mentioned in the crown of the head is in the organ of veneration. He did not have enough of spirituality and faith to supply a Methodist camp meeting, but he undoubtedly reverenced the Great Spirit and invoked the patronage of the god which he could comprehend. The other two skulls show as good a development of the religious organs as you will find in a general average of any Sunday-school in Denver. The Cliff Dwellers were undoubtedly religious.
“In physical structure the Cliff Dweller presents a greater variety than is found in any race except the Caucasian. Their warriors were undoubtedly men of great endurance and strong physique with a good size of body. There were also among them types of character delicate in the extreme and possessing but little endurance. As a race they depended on prudence rather than strength for safety. They were shrewd, circumspect and diplomatic. In complexion they were darker than the Caucasian and much lighter than the American Indian. In diet they were almost if not quite exclusively graminivorous, living on grain and eating that raw.”
“How do you tell that? Professor,” asked the scribe. “Isn’t that getting things down very fine for so long a lapse of time?”