Head Compressor

Head compressor. Tadal. "There is a certain tribe, - the Malanaus, - among whom the custom obtains of flattening the foreheads of female children; the practice is begun about the fifteenth day after birth, and continues for several months, until the bones of the skull begin the harden." "The padded board which is bound on the child's head is kept in place only while the child is asleep or lying quietly in its mother's lap. The pressure exerted by twisting the cord running over the head-board is never very severe, and the flattening of the forehead is barely perceptible in an adult." (Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters) "Malanau head compresser," No. 20 on Furness's Collection List. Rectangular piece of wood with a pad in the center, light colored cloth is attached at either end of the wood and over the top of the pad. A single coin is attached.