It was said that Laura was able to articulate two words—“Doctor” and “Grandmother”—and I asked her to say them. “Doctor,” was pronounced in a distinct manner giving the sound “Dok-tá.” The word “Grandmother” was not so clearly spoken and she gave the sound very rapidly. It was however sufficiently expressed to be understood. I was told that these words had in some manner been learnt by feeling the throats of other people who pronounced them, and finding that certain expansions of the muscles occurred when the sounds were made. She conversed by holding out one hand and moving the fingers. Mrs. Howe held her wrist and communicated her remarks by touch upon it. In this manner an intelligent conversation was carried on. Laura evidently enjoyed the excitement caused by this interchange of ideas, for when thus engaged she looked very happy. She was blind, deaf and dumb. CHAPTER II. Professor Wyman. — Indian Antiquities. — Concord. — Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson. — Margaret Fuller. — Note upon a visit to Mr. Longfellow. — Saturday Club. — Dinner at Harvard University.— Shell Mounds at Concord and Damariscotta. — Note upon the Ancient Inscription upon the Dighton Rock. Upon the day arranged for my visit to Cambridge, I found Professor Wyman prepared to employ several hours in examining the Indian collections. He proposed that we should begin by looking carefully over the contents of a case within which was placed everything that had been discovered in a burial mound in Illinois. The mound had contained the bones of nine adults, several fragments of rude stone implements, and some arrowheads. The skulls had been flattened and shaped by pressure. We then examined the collections of human skulls that had been received from all parts of the continent. Amongst these, were several of an important character, obtained by Mr. Squier in Central America. They were long and flattened upon the top, and were supposed to have belonged to the race that built the stone temples in Yucatan. Other groups were then compared. It was observable that some tribes had the custom of pressing in the back of the head to such an extent as to make it nearly perpendicular. Others pressed the skulls so as to give them great length. In a few instances, they were given a tall, oval form. The Californian Indians appear to have given their children a high, receding forehead. This method of shaping the head is still followed by the Flathead Indians in the West. It is done by the pressure of boards tied together in such a manner that the infant gets its skull shaped when it is in the cradle.