Concerning Fig. 1232, Keam, in his MS., says:
Fig. 1232.—Crosses. Moki.
The Maltese cross is the emblem of a virgin; still so recognized by the Moki. It is a conventional development of a more common emblem of maidenhood, the form in which the maidens wear their hair arranged as a disk of 3 or 4 inches in diameter upon each side of the head. This discoidal arrangement of their hair is typical of the emblem of fructification worn by the virgin in the Muingwa festival, as exhibited in the head-dress illustration a. Sometimes the hair, instead of being worn in the complete discoid form, is dressed from two curving twigs and presents the form of two semicircles upon each side of the head. The partition of these is sometimes horizontal and sometimes vertical. A combination of both of these styles, b, presents the form from which the Maltese cross was conventionalized. The brim decorations are of ornamental locks of hair which a maiden trains to grow upon the sides of the forehead.
The ceremonial employment of the cross by the Pueblo is detailed in Mr. Stevenson’s paper entitled Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand-painting of the Navajo Indians, in the Eighth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 266, where it denotes the scalp-lock.
In the present paper the figure of the cross among the North American Indians is presented under other headings with many differing significations. Among other instances it appears on p. 383 as the tribal sign for Cheyenne; on p. 582 as Dakota lodges; on p. 613 as the character for trade or exchange; on p. 227 as the conventional sign for prisoner; on p. 438 for personal exploits; while elsewhere it is used in simple numeration.
But, although this device is used with a great variety of meanings, when it is employed ceremonially or in elaborate pictographs by the Indians both of North and South America, it represents the four winds. The view long ago suggested that such was the significance of the many Mexican crosses, is sustained by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in his Notes on Maya and Mexican MSS., Second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., p. 61, where strong confirmatory evidence is produced by the arms of the crosses having the appearance of conventionalized wings, similar to some representations of the thunder-bird by more northern tribes. Yet the same author, in his paper on the Study of the MS. Troano, Contrib. N. A. Ethn., V, 144, gives Fig. 1233 as the symbol for wood, thus further showing the manifold concepts attached to the general form.
Fig. 1233.—Crosses. Maya.
Bandelier (a) thinks that the crosses which were frequently used before the conquest by the aborigines of Mexico and Central America were merely ornaments and were not objects of worship, while the so-called crucifixes, like that on the “Palenque tablet,” were only the symbol of the “new fire” or close of a period of fifty-two years. He believes them to be merely representations of “fire-drills,” more or less ornamented.
Mr. W. H. Holmes (e) shows by a series representing steps in the simplification of animal characters that in Chiriqui a symmetrical cross was developed from the design of an alligator.
Fig. 1234.—Crosses. Nicaragua.
Carl Bovallius (a) gives an illustration, copied here as Fig. 1234, of pictographs in the island of Ceiba, Nicaragua.
Zamacois (a) says that “the cross figured in the religion of various tribes of the peninsula of Yucatan and that it represented the god of rain.”
Dr. S. Habel (f), describing Fig. 1235, says:
On it is a person in a reclining position, with a single band tied around his forehead, forming a knot with two pendent tassels. From his temple rises an ornament resembling the wing of a bird. The emaciated face, as well as the recumbent position of the body, indicates a state of sickness. The hair is interwoven behind with many ribbons forming loops, which are bound together by a clasp, and then spread out in the shape of a fan. The ear is ornamented with a circular disk, to the center of which are attached a plume and a twisted ornament similar to a queue. On the breast is a kind of brooch, which is hollow like a shell, and in which are imbedded seven pearls. Around the waist are three rows of a twisted fabric, which is knotted in front in a bow, the ends descending between the thighs. Another band, of a different texture, stretches out horizontally from the region of the above-mentioned knot. Attached to this girdle is another fabric, of a scaly texture, which surrounds the thighs. The right leg, below the knee, is encircled with a ribbon and a rosette. This would seem to be the undress substitute for the band and pendant. In front of the recumbent person stands the representation of a skeleton, quite well executed. Other points noticeable about this skeleton are the hair on the head and the fact that its hands are fleshy and the fingers and toes have nails. Like all representations by these sculptures, the skeleton is also embellished with ornaments.
From the back of the head emanate two objects similar to horns, which, if they were not differently ribbed, might represent flames. The ear is ornamented with a circular disk, with a pendant from its center. A double-ruffled collar surrounds the neck and a serpent encircles the loins. Both the shoulders and arms are enveloped in flames. From the mouth emanates a bent staff, touching the first of a row of ten circles. Beneath the second and third circles are five bars, three of which are horizontal. The lowest one is the longest, while the two upper ones are shorter and of different lengths. On the uppermost of these bars rest two others, crossing each other obliquely, and touching with their upper ends two of the aforesaid circles. From the last of these circles descend serpentine lines, which touch the ground behind the recumbent person.
Gustav Eisen, op. cit., describing Fig. 1236, says:
From near Santa Lucia, Guatemala, is a stone tablet, most likely a sepulchral tablet, having in its center a forced dead head, with outstretched tongue. Above the same are seen two crossed bars, perhaps meant to represent two crossed bones.
Fig. 1236.—Cross. Guatemala.
W. F. Wakeman (a) makes the following remarks:
A cross was used by the people of Erin as a symbol of some significance at a period long antecedent to the mission of St. Patrick or the introduction of Christianity to this island. It is found, not unfrequently, amongst the scribings picked or carved upon rock surfaces and associated with a class of archaic designs, to the meaning of which we possess no key. * * * It may be seen on prehistoric monuments in America, on objects of pottery found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik and at Mycenæ, and, in more than one form, on pagan Roman altars still preserved in Germany and Britain. With the Chinese it was for untold ages a symbol of the earth. The Rev. Samuel Beal, B. A., rector of Flastone, North Tyrone, professor of Chinese in University College, London, writes: “Now, the earliest symbol of the earth was a plain cross, denoting the four cardinal points; hence we have the word chaturanta, i. e., the four sides, both in Pâli and Sanscrit, for the earth; and on the Nestorian tablet, found at Siganfu some years ago, the mode of saying “God created the earth” is simply this: “God created the +.””
A writer in the Edinburgh Review in an article entitled “The Pre-Christian Cross,” January, 1870, p. 254, remarks: “The Buddhists and Brahmins who together constitute nearly half the population of the world, tell us that the decussated figure of the cross, whether in a simple or complex form, symbolizes the traditional happy abode of their primeval ancestors.”
Fig. 1237.—Crosses. Sword-maker’s marks.
Rudolf Cronau (c), describing Fig. 1237, says that in the Berlin Zeughause are swords of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, bearing the marks shown in a, b, c, and d, while those having the marks e and f are from swords in the Historical Museum at Dresden.
The remarkable resemblance of some of these characters to forms on petroglyphs in the three Americas, presented in this paper, will at once be noticed.
D’Alviella (c), remarks:
One of the most frequent forms of the cross is called the gamma cross, because its four arms are bent at a right angle so as to form a figure like that of four Greek gammas turned in the same direction and joined at the base. We meet it among all the peoples of the Old World, from Japan to Iceland, and it is found in the two Americas. There is nothing to prevent us from supposing that in the instance it was spontaneously conceived everywhere, like the equilateral crosses, circles, triangles, chevrons, and other geometrical ornaments so frequent in primitive decoration. But we see it, at least among the peoples of the Old Continent, invariably passing for talisman, appearing in the funeral scenes or on the tombstones of Greece, Scandinavia, Numidia, and Thibet, and adorning the breasts of divine personages—of Apollo and Buddha—without forgetting certain representations of the Good Shepherd in the Catacombs.
It is, however, impossible within the present limits, to attempt even a summary of the vast amount of literature on this topic. Perhaps one symbolic use of the form which is not commonly known is of sufficient interest to be noted. Travelers say that crosses are exhibited in the curtains of the monasteries of the Thibetan Buddhists, to mean peace and quietness. With the same conception the loopholes of the Japanese forts were in time of peace covered with curtains embroidered with crosses, which when war broke out were removed.
It is also impossible to refrain from quoting the following, translated with condensation, from de Mortillet (a). The illustration referred to is reproduced in the present paper by Fig. 1238, the right-hand figure being from the vase, and that on the left the recognized monogram of Christ:
Fig. 1238.—Cross. Golasecca.
There can no longer be any doubt as to the use of the cross as a religious symbol long before the advent of Christianity. The worship of the cross, extensive throughout Gaul before the conquest, already existed during the bronze age, more than a thousand years before Christ.
It is especially in the sepulchres of Golasecca that this worship is revealed in the most complete manner, and there, strange to say, has been found a vessel bearing the ancient monogram of Christ, designed perhaps 1,000 years before the coming of Jesus Christ. Is the isolated presence of this monogram of Christ in the midst of numerous crosses, an entirely accidental coincidence?
Another curious fact, very interesting to prove, is that this great development of the worship of the cross before the coming of Christ seems to coincide with the absence of idols and indeed of any representation of living objects. Whenever such objects appear, it may be said that the crosses become more rare and finally disappear altogether. The cross has then been, in remote antiquity, long before Christ, the sacred emblem of a religious sect which repudiated idolatry.
The author, with considerable naiveté, has evidently determined that the form of the cross was significant of a high state of religious culture, and that its being succeeded by effigies, which he calls idols, showed a lapse into idolatry. The fact is simply that, next after one straight line, the combination of two straight lines forming a cross is the easiest figure to draw, and its use before art could attain to the drawing of animal forms, or their representation in plastic material, is merely an evidence of crudeness or imperfection in designing. It is worthy of remark that Dr. Schliemann, in his “Troja,” page 107, presents as his Fig. 38 a much more distinct cross than that given by M. de Mortillet, with the simple remark that it is “a geometrical ornamentation.”
Probably no cause has more frequently produced archeologic and ethnologic blunders than the determination of Christian explorers and missionaries to find monograms of Christ in every monument or inscription where the cross figure appears. The early missionaries to America were obliged to explain the presence of this figure there by a miraculous visit of an apostle, St. Thomas being their favorite. Other generations of the same good people were worried in the same manner by the cross pattée or Thor hammer of the Scandinavians, and by the conventionalized clover leaf of the Druids. This figure often has been a symbol and as often an emblem or a mere sign, but it is so common in every variety of application that actual evidence is necessary to show in any special case what is its real significance.
Gen. G. P. Thruston (a) gives the following account of Pl. LI, which suggests several points of comparison with figures under other headings in this paper:
There has been discovered in Sumner county, Tennessee, near the stone graves and mounds of Castalian springs, a valuable pictograph, the ancient engraved stone which we have taken the liberty to entitle a Group of Tennessee Mound Builders.
This engraved stone, the property of the Tennessee Historical Society, is a flat, irregular slab of hard limestone, about 19 inches long and 15 inches wide. It bears every evidence of very great age. * * * The stone was found on Rocky creek, in Sumner county, and was presented, with other relics, to the Tennessee Historical Society about twelve years ago. * * *
It is evidently an ideograph of significance, graven with a steady and skillful hand, for a specific purpose, and probably records or commemorates some important treaty or public or tribal event. * * * Indian chiefs fully equipped with the insignia of office, are arrayed in fine apparel. Two leading characters are vigorously shaking hands in a confirmatory way. The banner or shield, ornamented with the double serpent emblem and other symbols, is, doubtless, an important feature of the occasion. Among the historic Indians, no treaty was made without the presence or presentation of the belt of wampum. This, the well-dressed female of the group appears to grasp in her hand, perhaps as a pledge of the contract. The dressing of the hair, the remarkable scalloped skirts, the implements used, the waistbands, the wristlets, the garters, the Indian leggings and moccasins, the necklace and breastplates, the two banners, the serpent emblem, the tattoo stripes, the ancient pipe, all invest this pictograph with unusual interest. * * * The double serpent emblem or ornament upon the banner may have been the badge or totem of the tribe, clan, or family that occupied the extensive earthworks at Castalian springs in Sumner county, near where the stone was found. The serpent was a favorite emblem or totem of the Stone Grave race of Tennessee, and is one of the common devices engraved on the shell gorgets taken from the ancient cemeteries. * * * The circles or sun symbol ornaments on the banners and dresses are the figures most frequently graven on the shell gorgets found near Nashville.
The following summary of the translation, kindly furnished by Mr. Pom K. Soh of an article, “Pictures of Dokatu or so-called bronze bell,” by Mr. K. Wakabayashi (a), in the Bulletin of the Tōkyō Anthropological Society, refers to Pl. LII. The author saw the bell described at the town of Takoka, Japan, in August, 1891. The “pictures” on it were fourteen in number, cast in the metal of the bell, each one occupying a separate compartment and running around the bell in several bands. The author took rubbings of the pictures, lithographs of which are published as illustrations of his article, and from these the eight pictures now presented in actual size are selected, the remainder being of the same general character, and some of them nearly identical with those selected. The information obtained is that the bell, which is iron and not bronze, was procured before, and perhaps long before, the present century from Jisei, in the village of Sasakura in the state of Yetsin, and had been excavated from a mountain at Samki. Copies of the markings upon it were taken in 1817 to a high authority at Yedo, now Tōkyō. It is believed that the markings illustrate or are related to a national story, “Kanden Ko Hitsu,” written by Ban Kokei. A few similar bells or fragments of them, some being bronze, have been found in various parts of the Japanese empire. One, which is bronze, height about 3½ feet, and diameter somewhat more than 1 foot, was dug up in Hanina in the year A. D. 821.
The interest of the drawings on Pl. LII, in the present connection, consists in their remarkable similarity, both in form and apparent motive, with several of those found in the western continent and figured in the present work. Thus, a is to be compared with characters on Figs. 437 and 1227 and others referring to the human form, the cross, and the dragon-fly; b with Figs. 57, 165 b and 1261 l; the two characters in c, respectively, with Fig. 1262; the mantis, and Fig. 1129, one form of star; d with a common turtle form, as in Fig. 50; e with Fig. 166, an Ojibwa human form, and also exhibiting gesture, and Fig. 113 a Brazilian petroglyph; and f with Fig. 657, a north-eastern Algonquian drawing. The three last-mentioned pictures, e and f and g, exhibit the peculiar internal life organ (often the conventionalized heart), noticed in Figs. 50, 700, and 701, and it is to be remarked that the largest quadruped in g has the life organ connected with the mouth, while the other quadrupeds, and those in h, show no depiction of internal organs. The human figure in g is noticeable for the American form of bow, and the upper character of h is to be compared with Figs. 104 and 148.
SECTION 3.
COMPOSITE FORMS.
The figures in this group are selected from a larger number in which the union of two animals of different kinds or that of an animal and another object indicates the union of the several qualities or attributes supposed to belong to those animals or objects. The form and use of such composite figures are familiar from the publication of the inscriptions on Egyptian monuments and papyri.
Fig. 1239.
Fig. 1239.—Eagle-Elk. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here are the branching antlers of the elk and the tail of the eagle.
Fig. 1240.
Fig. 1240.—Eagle-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. Eagle feathers replace the horse’s mane.
Fig. 1241.
Fig. 1241.—Eagle-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is a variant of the preceding, the change being shown in the tail.
Fig. 1242.
Fig. 1242.—Eagle-Swallow. Red-Cloud’s Census. The characteristics of the two birds are obvious.
Fig. 1243.
Fig. 1243.—Eagle-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census.
Fig. 1244.
Fig. 1244.—Weasel-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census. With only hasty view the really characteristic form of the weasel might be mistaken for a rudely drawn gun.
Fig. 1246.
Fig. 1246.—Bull-Lance. Red-Cloud’s Census. The object attached to the bull’s muzzle is the common ornamented lance of the Plains tribes.
Fig. 1247.
Fig. 1247.—Shield-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census. The ornamented shield is borne on the bear’s body.
Fig. 1248.
Fig. 1248.—Ring-Owl. Red-Cloud’s Census.
Fig. 1249.
Fig. 1249.—Sunka-wanbli, Dog-Eagle; from the Oglala Roster. The mingling of the attributes of the dog and the eagle with special reference to swiftness may be suggested.
Fig. 1250.
Fig. 1250.—Zintkala-wicasa, Bird-Man; also from the Oglala Roster. An indication of a bird gens is suggested without information, but perhaps it is only a representation of the usual vision required from and therefore obtained by boys before reaching manhood.
Fig. 1251.
Fig. 1251.—Sunkakan-heton, Horse-with-horns; also from the Oglala Roster. Perhaps this is not intended as a composite animal, but as a horse possessing special and mystic power, as is indicated by the gesture sign for wakan, and, as elsewhere in pictographs, by lines extending from each side of the head. The same sub-chief appears in Red-Cloud’s Census with the name translated into English as Horned-Horse.
This union of the human figure with that of other animals is of interest in comparison with the well-known forms of similar character in the art of Egypt and Assyria.
Fig. 1252.—Wolf-man. Haida.
The feet of the accompanying Fig. 1252, reproduced from Bastian (b) on the Northwest Coast of America, can not be seen, being hidden in the head of the figure beneath. It is squatting, with its hands on its knees, and has a wolf’s head. Arms, legs, mouth, jaws, nostrils, and ear-holes are scarlet; eyebrows, irises, and edges of the ears black.
Fig. 1253.—Panther-man. Haida.
The drawing Fig. 1253 was made by Mr. J. G. Swan while on a visit to the Prince of Wales archipelago, where he found two carved figures with panthers’ heads, and claws upon the fore feet, and human feet attached to the hind legs. These mythical animals were placed upon either side of a corpse which was lying in state, awaiting burial.
The Egyptians represented the evil Typhon by the hippopotamus, the most fierce and savage of their animals; the hawk was the symbol for power, and the serpent that for life. Plutarch, in Isis and Osiris, 50, says that in Hermopolis these symbols were united, a hawk fighting with a serpent being placed on the hippopotamus, thus accentuating the idea of the destroyer. The Greeks sometimes substituted the eagle for the hawk, and pictured it killing a hare, the most prolific of quadrupeds, or fighting a serpent, the same attribute of destruction being portrayed. But the eagle when alone meant simply power, as did the hawk in Egypt. The Scandinavians posited the eagle on the head of their god Thor and the bull on his breast to express a similar union of attributes.
SECTION 4.
ARTISTIC SKILL AND METHODS.
Dr. Andree (d), in Das Zeichnen bei den Naturvölkern, makes the following remarks, translated with condensation:
The great ability of the Eskimo and their southern neighbors, the natives of northwest America (Koliushes, Thlinkits, etc.), in representative art is well known and needs no further insisting. Among all primitive peoples they have made the greatest advances in the conventionalization of figures, which indicates long practice in painting. The totem figures, carved both in stone and in wood and tattooed on the body, show severe conventionalization and have perfect heraldic value. Ismailof, one of the earliest Russian explorers that came in contact with the Koliushes, relates that European paintings and drawings did not strike them with the least awe. When a chief was shown portraits of the Russian imperial family he manifested no astonishment. That chief was accompanied by his painter, who examined everything very closely, in order to paint it afterward. He was able in particular “to paint all manner of objects on wooden tablets and other material (leather),” using blue iron earth, iron ocher, colored clays, and other mineral colors. Among these peoples, too, painting is employed as a substitute for writing, in order to record memorable things.
Far below the artistic achievements of the Eskimo and of the natives of the American northwest (Haida, Thlinkit, etc.) are those of the redskins east of the Rocky mountains. They are, however, very productive in figure drawing; nay, that art has advanced to a kind of picture writing, which, it is true, is not distinguished by artistic finish. That “fling” which, depending on good observation of nature, appears in the drawings of Australians, Bushmen, etc., and the good characterization of the figures, are lacking among the Indians; and though, as is frequently the case, their animals are better represented than the men, yet they can not compare with the animal figures of the Eskimo or Bushmen. Dr. Capitan, who had drawings made by the Omahas shown in 1883 in the Jardin d’acclimatation of Paris, says concerning them: “It is singular to note that by the side of very rudimentary representations of human figures the pictures of horses are drawn with a certain degree of correctness. If the Indians take pains in anything it is in the painting of their buffalo skins, which are often worn as mantles. On red-brown ground are seen black figures, especially of animals; on others, on white ground, the heroic deeds and life events of distinguished Indians, represented in black or in other colors. You see the wounded enemies, the loss of blood, the killed and the captives, stolen horses, all executed in the peculiar manner of an art of painting still in the stage of infancy, with earth colors black, red, green, and yellow. Almost all the Missouri tribes practice painting on buffalo skins; the most skillful are the Pawnees, Mandans, Minitaris, and Crows. Among the Mandans, Wied met individuals who possessed “a very decided talent” for drawing.”
The same author, in the same connection, reasserts the old statement that there is an established difference in artistic capacity between the so-called mound-builders and the present Indians, so great that it either shows a genetic difference between them or that the Indians had degenerated in that respect. This statement is denied by the Bureau of Ethnology, but the point to be now considered is whether it is true that the historic North American Indians are as low in artistic skill as is alleged.
The French traveler Crevaux, as quoted by Marcano (g), says that he had the happy idea of giving pencils to the Indians, in order to see whether they were capable of producing the same drawings. The young Yumi rapidly drew for him sketches of man, dog, tiger; in brief, of all the animals of the country. Another Indian reproduced all sorts of arabesques, which he was wont to paint with genipa. Crevaux saw that these savages, who are accused of being absolutely ignorant of the fine arts, all drew with extraordinary facility.
The same idea, i. e., of testing the artistic ability of Indians in several tribes, occurred to the present writer and to many other travelers, who generally have been surprised at the skill in free-hand drawing and painting exhibited. It would seem that the Indians had about the same faults and decidedly more talent than the average uninstructed persons of European descent who make similar attempts. An instance of special skill in portrait painting is given by Lossing (a), where a northern tribe in 1812 made a bark picture of Joseph Barron, a fugitive, to obtain his identification by sending copies of it to various tribes. The portrait given as an illustration in the work cited is very distinct and lifelike. This, however, was a special task prompted by foreign influence. While the Indians had no more knowledge of perspective than the Japanese, they were unable or indisposed to attempt the accurate imitation of separate natural objects in which the Japanese excel. Before European instruction or example they probably never produced a true picture. Some illustrations in the present work, which show a continuous series of men, animals, and other objects, are no more pictures than are the consecutive words of a printed sentence, both forms, indeed, being alike in the fact that their significance is expressed by the relation between the separate parts. The illustration which at a first glance seems to be most distinctively picturesque is Fig. 659, but it will be noticed that the personages are repeated, the scene changed, and the time proceeds, so that there is no view of specified objects at any one time and place.
Fig. 1254 shows two drawings from Kejimkoojik, N. S., reduced to one-fourth, each supposed to represent a moose, though possibly one of them is a caribou, and the mode of execution vividly suggests some of the examples of prehistoric art found in Europe and familiar by repeatedly published illustrations.
Fig. 1255.—Hand, Kejimkoojik.
Fig. 1255 is the etching of a hand from the Kejimkoojik rocks, reduced one-half. Its peculiarity consists in the details by which the lines of the palm and markings on the balls of the thumb and fingers are shown. If this is the real object of the design it shows close observation, though it is not suggested that any connection with the pseudo-science of palmistry is to be inferred.
In connection with this drawing the following translated remarks in Verhandl. Berlin. Gesellsch. für Anthrop. (d), may be noted:
The frequency with which partial representations of the eye are met with appeared to me so striking that I requested Mr. Jacobson to ask the Bella Coola Indians whether they had any special idea in employing the eye so frequently. To my great surprise the person addressed pointed to the palmar surface of his finger tips and to the fine lineaments which the skin there presents; in his opinion a rounded or longitudinal field, such as appears between the converging or parallel lines, also means an eye, and the reason of this is that originally each part of the body terminated in an organ of sense, particularly an eye, and was only afterward made to retrovert into such rudimentary conditions.
The lower character in Pl. LIII is copied from Rudolph Cronau (c) Geschichte der Solinger Klingenindustrie, where it is presented as an illustration of the knights of the thirteenth century, after a sketch in a MS. of the year 1220, in the library of the University of Leipsig.
The upper character in the same plate is a copy of a drawing made in 1884 by an Apache Indian at Anadarko, although the insignia of the riders are more like those used by the Cheyenne than those of the Apache. A striking similarity will be noticed in the motive of the two sketches of the mounted warriors and their steeds as well as in their decorations, from which in Europe the devices called heraldic were differentiated. Doubtless still better examples could be obtained to compare the degree of artistic skill attained by the several draftsmen, but these are used as genuine, convenient, and typical. See also the Mexican representation of horses and riders under the heading of meteors, Fig. 1224.
These horses are far less skillfully portrayed than they are by the Plains tribes, which may be explained by the fact that the Mexicans had not yet become familiar with the animal.
A story told by Catlin to the general effect that the Siouan stock of Indians did not understand the drawing of human faces in profile has been repeated in various forms. The last is by Popoff (a):
When Catlin was drawing the profile of a chief named Matochiga, the Indians around him seemed greatly moved, and asked why he did not draw the other half of the chief’s face. “Matochiga was never ashamed to look a white man square in the face.” Matochiga had not till then seemed offended at the matter, but one of the Indians said to him sportively, “The Yankee knows that you are only half a man, and he has only drawn half of your face because the other half is not worth anything.”
Another variant of the story is that Catlin was accused of practicing magic, by which the half of the subject’s head should get into his power, and he was forced to stop his painting and flee for his life. The explorer and painter who tells the story is not considered to be altogether free from exaggeration, and he may have invented the tale to amuse his auditors in his lectures and afterwards his readers, or he may have been the victim of a practical joke by the Indians, who are fond of such banter, and the well-known superstitions about sorcerers gaining possession of anything attached to the person would have rendered their anger plausible. But certain it is that the people referred to, before and after and at the time of the visit of Catlin to them, were in the habit of drawing the human face in profile, and, indeed, much more frequently than the full or front face. This is abundantly proved by many pictures in existence at that time and place which have been seen by this writer, and a considerable number of them are copied in the present work. Thus much for one of the oft-cited fictions on which the allegation of the Indian’s stupidity in drawing has been founded.
Another false statement is copied over and over again by authors, to the effect that from a similar superstition the Indians are afraid to, and therefore do not, make delineations of the whole human figure. The present work shows their drawing of front, side, and rear views of the whole human figure, presenting as each view may allow, all the limbs and features. This, however, is rare, not from the fear charged, but because the artists directed their attention, not to iconography, but to ideography, seizing some special feature or characteristic for prominence and disregarding or intentionally omitting all that was unnecessary to their purpose.
On the other hand the Indians have sometimes been unduly praised for acumen in observation and for skill in their iconography. For instance, in the lectures of Mr. Edward Muybridge, explaining the highly interesting photographs of consecutive movements of animals from which he formulates the novel science of zoöpraxography, the lecturer attributes to the Indians a scientific and artistic method of drawing horses in motion which has excelled in that respect all the most famous painters and sculptors. But Mr. Muybridge bases his statement upon a small number of Indian drawings, apparently seen by him in Europe, the characteristics of which do not appear in the many drawings of horses in the possession of the present writer, a considerable number of which are published in this work. The position of the legs in the drawings praised is doubtless fortuitous. The Indian in his delineation of horses cared little more than to show an animal with the appropriate mane, tail, and hoofs, and the legs were extended without the slightest regard to natural motion. The drawing of the Indians closely resembles the masterly abstractions of the living forms devised by the early heraldic painters which later were corrupted by an attempt to compromise with zoölogy, resulting in a clumsy naturalism if not caricature.
A comparison of artistic rather than of pictographic skill may frequently be made, for instance the art of the Haida in carving, which shows remarkable similarity to that in Central and South America, and made public by Habel, op. cit., and H. H. Bancroft (i).
The style of drawing is strongly influenced by the material on which it is made. This topic must receive some consideration here, though too extensive for full treatment. The substances on which and the instruments by which pictographs are made in America are discussed in Chaps. VII and VIII of this work, and the remarks and illustrations there presented apply generally to other forms of drawing and painting. Examples of drawing on every kind of material known to the American aborigines appear in this work. Carving, pecking, and scratching of various kinds of rock are illustrated, also paintings on skins and on wood. The Innuit carving on walrus ivory, of which numerous illustrations are furnished, is notable for its minuteness as well as distinctness. The substance was precious, the working surface limited, and the workmanship required time and care. Birch bark, common in the whole of the northern Algonquian region, was an attractive material. It was used much more freely and was worked more easily than walrus ivory, and in two modes, one in which outlines are drawn by any hard-pointed substance on the inner side of the bark when it is soft and which remain permanent when dry, the other made by scraping on the rough outer surface, thus producing a difference in color. Many examples of the first-mentioned method are shown throughout this work, and of the latter in Pl. XVI and Fig. 659. Having before them this large collection of varied illustrations readers can judge for themselves of the effect of the material in determining the style among people who had substantially the same concepts.
It is universally admitted that the material used, whether papyrus or parchment, stone or wood, palm leaves or metal, wax or clay, and the appropriate instruments, hammer, knife, graver, brush or pen, decided the special style of incipient artists throughout the world. The Chinese at first worked with knives on bamboo and stone, and even after they had obtained paper, ink, and fine hair pencils, the influence of the old method continued. The cuneiform characters are due to the shape of the wooden style used to impress the figures on unbaked clay. It may generally be remarked that in materials having a decided “grain,” of which bamboo is the most obvious instance, the early stage of art with its rude implements was forced to work in lines running with the grain.