CARVING, MODELLING, SCULPTURE
The shaping of objects in clay, wood, or stone, or other material,
known as carving, modelling, etc., constitutes sculpture. Some form of
these methods was in use in very primitive times for the production
of weapons or tools of wood, bone, or stone. But the greatest schools
of sculpture were basketry and pottery, for in the practice of these
arts a sense of form and proportion could not be dispensed with.
Thus sculpture finds its birth in several arts, but particularly in
basketry, stone-shaping, and pottery. Taken all in all, the Mayas of
Yucatan seem to have been the greatest artists and sculptors, and as
we travel northward from there the skill in art gradually diminishes
till, on passing the old Aztec realm, it drops off rapidly. Far to
the northward the “Moundbuilders” exhibited a moderate skill and in
some objects a similarity to Mexican work, and still farther to the
north-westward the Haidas, Kwakiutls, etc., in their totem poles,
canoes, etc., show not only a singular proficiency in carving in wood,
but also similarities to some of the Mexican work.
Masks, pipes, rattles, and other ceremonial paraphernalia gave the
Amerind sculptor much to do. It must not be supposed, though, that
all members of a tribe possessed the sculptor’s power. There was as
much variation as we now find among ourselves. It is not everyone of
our people who can model a statue, or even carve the rudest shape
imitating man. So it was with the Amerind. He had his arrow-makers,
his skilful potters, his great carvers, who were employed by the less
skilful to do their work. To-day, among the Amerinds of the North-west
coast, there are specialists who carve the totem poles, and obtain high
prices. The totem poles and house-posts are often elaborate, being
covered almost from top to bottom with figures of totemic animals. The
carving is often on a large scale, as the totem poles are frequently
more than fifty feet in height. They are planted several feet in the
ground, then there are several feet plain, and from that on to near the
top they may be covered with carving, while surmounting the whole is a
figure—bird, fish, or bear, or other animal—of large proportions. These
poles stand in front of the house,[143] and are an indication of the
clan or clans to which the person or persons who erected it belong. The
Haidas and the Tlinkits specially excel in totem poles. The execution
of the figures is often extremely good in a barbaric way. Besides the
carved poles there are often the carved columns or posts inside the
houses. These posts serve to support the two great rafters on which
the jack-rafters rest, and are often elaborate. At a deserted village
in south-east Alaska (Cape Fox), I saw two of these columns, each
representing a huge bird, the wings being split out of cedar, quite
thin, and attached to the post with a diagonally forward direction,
the rest of the bird being erect and facing the room, the posts being
within about six feet of the rear of the structure. Its tail was carved
out of the post in a sort of bas-relief the remainder of the post being
squared up both below and above, and on the sides of the figure, except
where the head was. The latter had a huge beak, of the carnivorous
type. On the breast was a singular round face. The whole was brightly
painted in reds, yellows, and blacks. The accompanying figure
represents another of the house-posts of this village which is now at
Michigan University. It was similarly painted. The carving of these
tribes is done almost entirely in wood, so that had they disappeared a
century or so before our coming there would have been found scarcely
a trace of their work. In like manner the work of the tribes of the
Mississippi valley may have disappeared—that is, supposing that they
carved in wood, which is probable. There is a great similarity between
the carving of the Haida and the Tlinkit totem poles, yet these tribes
are of different stocks. An animal resembling a frog seems to be very
common as a totem in both stocks. Human figures are also carved on the
poles, and strange heads are frequent.
[Illustration: DESERTED VILLAGE NEAR CAPE FOX, ALASKA
Showing arrangement of totem poles and houses along the shore
Photograph by the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899
]
[Illustration: INTERIOR HOUSE-COLUMN
Sketch by author from post at Cape Fox Village, Alaska
]
[Illustration: MAJOR PART OF INTERIOR HOUSE-POST FROM CAPE FOX VILLAGE,
S. E. ALASKA
Presented to University of Michigan by E. H. Harriman. Height, 11
ft. 2 in.; width, 3 ft.; thickness, 12 to 15 in.; one piece of
spruce. Painted in several colours. Photograph by Professor Cole,
University of Michigan
]
[Illustration: TOTEM POLE WITH BEAR ON THE TOP WRANGELL
Sketch by the author
]
The Haidas have become famous for their gigantic canoes carved from
single logs and elaborately decorated.[144] The other Amerinds of
this region also dig out fine boats from the huge logs they obtain
so easily in the forest, but there are none equal to those of the
Haida, who, indeed, require specially good boats for navigating the
waters around their island, Queen Charlotte’s. They are the best
carvers of all the tribes now living north of Mexico. Their work is
grotesque, corresponding with the singular mythology of the artists and
their inability to render accurately the forms they see about them.
Combinations of human and animal forms are often seen, such as the
panther-man found by Swan in this region—a crouching figure with an
attempt at a panther’s head and forelegs, with the hind legs human. One
of the most remarkable of all the Haida works from an artistic point of
view is the group called the “Bear-mother,”[145] now in the National
Museum at Washington, and made by _Skaowskeav_, one of the tribe. It
apparently shows European influence. The lines are more flowing and
soft than the ordinary Amerind method of execution, and the conception
is more in range with European ideas. This may be accidental, however,
and merely in the line of the sculptor’s development. The material is
slate. The subject is a child at the breast of the “Bear-mother.” The
story of the bear-mother, as told by J. G. Swan, is that “a number of
Indian squaws were in the woods gathering berries when one of them,
the daughter of a chief, spoke in terms of ridicule of the whole bear
species. The bears descended on them and killed all but the chief’s
daughter, whom the king of the bears took to wife. She bore him a
child, half human and half bear. The carving represents the agony of
the mother in suckling this rough and uncouth offspring.” From an
art standpoint, one failure in the execution of this conception is
that the child does not suggest sufficiently its half-bear character.
Nevertheless, it is an extraordinary work for an Amerind.
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA STATUETTE, CHIRIQUI.]
[Illustration: THE BEAR-MOTHER, HAIDA, N. W. COAST]
All the Amerinds of the North-west coast carve wooden masks, but here
again, the Haidas excel, though the Tlinkits are not far behind. It is
the same with the other work, boxes, rattles, etc. Some of the bowls,
hollowed from a single piece of wood, and carved on the exterior with
their strange figures, and polished, have a decided artistic merit. The
Innuit also make wooden masks, but they are crude when compared with
those of Queen Charlotte Island, or the mainland in that vicinity. One
feature of all these North-west masks, specially noted by Dall,[146]
which resembles Mexican carvings, is the protruding tongue touching an
animal. The protruding tongue is an index of life if firmly held forth,
according to Squier, while if it is loose and dangling at one side it
signifies death or captivity. Dall concludes that the touch of the
tongue symbolises the “transmission of spiritual qualities or powers.”
In the totem poles this protruding tongue touching an animal is common,
while frequently the tongue protrudes without touching any other person
or thing. A totem represents the guardian spirit of the individual or
clan, and therefore the closer the association with it the better;
hence the idea of placing the tongue upon it.
[Illustration: WOODEN MASKS, N. W. COAST]
“A person,” says Boas, “may have the general crest of his clan and,
besides, use as his personal crest such guardian spirits as he
has acquired. This accounts partly for the great multiplicity of
combinations of crests which we observe on the carvings of these
people.... The crest is used for ornamenting objects belonging to a
member of the clan; they are carved on columns intended to perpetuate
the memory of a deceased relative, painted on the house front or carved
on a column which is placed in front of the house, and are also shown
as masks in festivals of the clan.”[147] Some of the grave monuments
of the Kwakiutls, the Chimmesyans, the Tlinkits, and others of the
region are ambitious carvings and represent considerable labour on the
part of the sculptor. One grave I saw at Cape Fox was presided over by
two huge wooden bears, the whole sheltered by a neat roof on posts and
surrounded by a balustrade. The animals must have been at least four
and a half feet high. Boas describes a grave-monument bird carved out
of cedar bark, which is six feet high and about twelve feet from tip
to tip of the extended wings. This bird is upright like the one carved
on the house-post mentioned above, and, like that, has on its stomach
the carved representation of a face. This bird’s wings were originally
painted black to represent feathers, but this decoration has worn off.
It is now in the American Museum. The Kwakiutls also have carved some
statues in wood representing chiefs in a state of nature. These are
extremely crude, but are superior to much of the Moundbuilder work as
shown in the pipes and other carvings that have been preserved, and
not greatly behind the Mexican. Double-headed birds and animals figure
prominently among the carvings and drawings of the North-west coast
tribes, such as the double-headed “thunder-bird,” the double-headed
snake, etc. Boas obtained one of the latter among the Kwakiutls which
he describes as having a head at each end and a human head in the
middle. It is forty-two inches in length and about six inches wide.
It is “worn in front of the stomach and secured with cords passing
around the waist.” The fabulous animal this affair represents has “the
power to assume the shape of a fish. To eat it and even to touch or to
see it is sure death, as all the joints of the unfortunate one become
dislocated, the head being turned backward. But to those who enjoy
supernatural help it may bring power.”[148] These North-west tribes
seem to love to carve, and decorate almost everything that will admit
of it in this manner. In the vicinity of Fort Rupert there are on the
beach a number of rock carvings. These represent faces of sea monsters,
and also some of them human faces.
[Illustration: KWAKIUTL CARVING, N. W. COAST]
[Illustration: ESKIMO CARVED IVORY DRUM-HANDLES.]
Amongst the Eskimos carving is limited, generally, to a sort of
engraving on bone and ivory, except in the matter of masks, which
are rudely shaped out of wood without any of the elaborate finish
that is observed in the work of Amerinds farther south. The wood they
have had to work with is not the kind that promotes carving, and
ivory is a rather difficult material to shape. Nevertheless, they
occasionally, form some attractive little heads from it, to adorn
the end of a harpoon line or something of that sort. They also shape
their drill bows and other implements to some extent and decorate them
with neat engraving. Some of these decorations are very pleasing, and
exhibit the same taste for symmetrical ornamentation that is found
throughout the continent. When they attempt to represent form they are
generally successful in giving it the proper character with less of
the childish grotesqueness that is seen in most Amerind work. How much
the long intercourse with Europeans on whalers has modified the art
efforts of the Eskimo it is not possible to judge. Murdoch[149] gives
illustrations of seals and whales shaped by the Point Barrow Eskimo,
but aside from the _character_ of the animal being generally fairly
well rendered, there is little that is artistically interesting in the
work. What I mean by character is that you can generally tell what is
intended by an Eskimo carving, which is not always the case with the
sculptured efforts of other Amerinds, though the finish may be better.
Boas gives illustrations of the carved work of the Central Eskimo,[150]
which show the same characteristics as the Western.
The Far Northern tribes, as a rule, are inferior to the other
Amerinds, in sculptural work, yet the Eskimo, mechanically, were, in
many respects, apparently in advance of all others. They possessed
the lamp, the only stock on the continent who did, but, after all,
this shows only the adaptability that saved them from destruction. In
a world without fuel and with plenty of seal oil, they would never
have survived if they had not invented a way to secure heat from the
oil. The Amerind of the forested regions had no need for a lamp. The
possession of the lamp, therefore, is no indication of higher mental
powers, but of a more severe environment. Nor, on the other hand, is
the limited amount of their carving an indication on their part of
inferior mental endowment. It is, again, the result of circumstances,
as pointed out above. In a region without suitable material or climate
for extensive carving, they did not carve, that is all. Place them for
a few generations in the region of the Haidas, and they would begin to
develop many different habits and traits.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF MOUNDBUILDER SCULPTURAL SKILL WITH HUMAN
FIGURE
_Height of jar, 10½ in.; width of shoulders, 8 in._
]
On the Atlantic coast, few specimens of sculpture have, thus far, been
found, nor has any carving of consequence been disclosed. In New Jersey
some rude heads in stone have come to light, but such finds are rare.
As the bounds of the Mississippi valley are entered, however, the art
remains immediately increase in importance, but not to the exaggerated
extent claimed by many writers. The carvings and sculptures of the
Mississippi valley are, like all Amerind products in this line, crude,
and there is no warrant for the claims that the occupants of the region
were not “Indians,” so far as these remains testify. The most striking
work found up to the present is that of the head-shaped vases from
Pecan Point, Arkansas, but as I have pointed out before,[151] these
vases were not modelled free-hand, but were the result of a process,
are in fact death-masks, built into the vases. While it was a clever
thing to accomplish these in that way, yet it is a mechanical method,
and has little to do with artistic skill. Thomas Wilson says of these
vases that they “divide themselves into two distinct groups. The
specimens forming the first group are death-masks, as becomes more
and more evident the more the objects are studied; the other group,
while of the same general form as the first, the human head being
represented, has the face and features wrought upon it free-hand, as in
sculpturing, without the aid of mould or cast.”[152] It may be added
that the second group is far inferior to the first, and is quite in
line with the rest of the remains of this district.
The tobacco pipes of the region were lauded as perfect examples of
the sculptor’s art, but if one gives them critical examination, it is
at once plain that they are not out of the Amerind line, and, what is
more, that as specimens of sculpture they are pretty bad, because it
is difficult to decide just what they represent. Even the Eskimo give
their work character enough to distinguish it, yet the Moundbuilder did
much of his carving so poorly that there has been frequent diversity
of opinion as to what it was intended to depict. Henshaw took up the
matter, and has shown that the degree of excellence of representation
in the carving of the Moundbuilder pipes, so long extolled, has been
overrated.
[Illustration: STONE PIPE FROM NORTH CAROLINA MOUND]
The tobacco pipe, bearing, as it did, a peculiar relation to the sacred
paraphernalia and ceremonies of the Amerinds, received much attention
from them and was frequently elaborate, from the Amerind standpoint,
in its details. The earliest form of pipe was a straight tube seen in
Mexican carvings and also found in various parts of North America.
In the Eastern United States one is found which is designated as the
“Monitor.” I suppose this name came from a resemblance to the famous
first turret man-of-war, the United States ship _Monitor_. The base of
these pipes was slightly curved downwards, the bowl rising from about
the centre of the platform, on the convex side. Many of these show
marks of steel tools.[153] Squier and Davis, who published their work
in 1848, discerned wonderful artistic skill in the Moundbuilder pipes,
and they discovered an intimate acquaintance between the Moundbuilder
artists and far-off tropical birds and animals, probably because in
those days it was thought that an “Indian” was absolutely incapable
of producing anything. Especially was great stress laid by Squier and
Davis upon certain pipes said to delineate the manatee. Theories of
origin and migration were founded on this supposed knowledge, and other
writers accepting these deductions founded yet other theories upon
them; and they were _all_ wrong. The trouble seems to lie in the fact
that the archæologists of some years ago not only were not naturalists,
but they were not accurate and drew their conclusions from insufficient
data. The attitude of the archæologist of to-day is exceedingly
cautious, and before pronouncing a pipe carving a manatee, or any other
animal, he would surely institute cautious and careful comparisons.
This Messrs. Squier and Davis seem not to have done, nor did any of
their followers or successors, being content, as Henshaw points out,
to accept Squier and Davis’s statement as absolute. Henshaw demolishes
their claims and shows that no manatee is represented and that all the
pipe carvings are of birds and animals that had their range in the
country of the Moundbuilders or not far from its borders. What they
called a toucan he identifies as a crow, or raven, and in this decision
several other ornithologists fully agree. The nasal features are
plainly shown, and the “general contour of the bill is truly corvine.”
See figure page 161. Thus is this supposed tropical acquaintance easily
disposed of and the crow, certainly not a rare bird in that locality,
substituted. A turkey buzzard is shown to be a hawk, and other foreign
types claimed by Squier and Davis are disproved with ease. Out of
forty-five carvings on pipes figured by them only five, by Henshaw’s
tests, are correctly named. Some carvings, which they were unable to
identify, Henshaw places without any effort. As for the so-called
manatees, he believes they were intended for otter. The manatee is an
earless animal with many peculiar features which do not appear in the
Moundbuilder carvings, while ears do appear. This is what I mean by not
giving “character” to carvings. It is a matter, largely, of perception.
The Eskimo appears to have this perception developed to a considerable
degree, and when he delineates an animal he knows he marks strongly its
peculiar features, whatever else he may do. The element of imagination
also comes in, for Amerinds often produce drawings or carvings of
animals they think they have seen, or as they appeared to them in a
sudden and fleeting glimpse, or vision.
[Illustration: SO-CALLED ELEPHANT PIPE, IOWA
Only two of the “elephant” pipes have been found and both by the
same person. There is a doubt as to their genuineness. Even if
genuine they are far from depicting the mastodon
]
[Illustration: TOUCAN OF SQUIER AND DAVIS, POSSIBLY MEANT FOR A YOUNG
EAGLE]
[Illustration: TRIPOD VASE, CHIRIQUI. ⅓. LEGS MODELLED TO IMITATE FISH]
It was a lack of ability to reproduce accurately the lines and
character of _any_ object which caused some of the Moundbuilder pipes
intended to represent the common otter to look like something else.
As a matter of fact, these Moundbuilder pipe carvings, about which so
much that is unwarranted has been written, are not superior to the
carvings of the Haidas, or other stocks, and indeed, if anything, are
not equal to them. They certainly do not compare for a moment with
most of the work of the Mexican tribes. A further important conclusion
of Henshaw’s is that “there is no reason for believing that the masks
and sculptures of human faces are more correct likenesses than are the
animal carvings,”[154] which is exactly in accord with my own opinion,
not only as concerns the work of the Moundbuilders, but of every other
Amerind tribe. They were not sculptors of a kind that could reproduce a
likeness to an individual. Their work was always _general_; they seldom
drew or painted _from the object_, as an artist or sculptor of our race
does, but they accomplished their result by memory, imagination, and
“rule of thumb.” The surprise of the Europeans at finding anything at
all in the art line, coupled with a wide ignorance on art matters, has
awarded all the Amerind carvings and sculptures, as is well illustrated
in the Moundbuilder case, a false degree of excellence. The Amerinds
of the Mississippi valley probably also carved wood, but their work
in this material has, of course, long ago decayed. They worked other
things, like shell, and some of the shell carvings are strikingly
like Aztec drawings. In this shellwork there are a great many discs
and gorgets, engraved with figures of spiders, rattlesnakes, birds,
geometrical designs, and representations of the human figure. There
are also rude shell masks of the human face, but these are primitive
in the extreme. It must be borne in mind that this region was occupied
for long ages, and _by many different tribes_, so that the work found
is probably from different sources, though all Amerind. A class of
singularly shaped stones is found in the Mississippi valley and
northward, mainly north of the Ohio, to which the name “bird-stones”
has been applied because of their resemblance to avian forms. No
satisfactory explanation of their use has been advanced.[155]
[Illustration: SHELL GORGET, MISSOURI.]
A number of stone statues of the human figure have been unearthed from
Georgia to Tennessee, varying in height from three or four inches
to something over twenty. They are all of the crudest description,
and so far as any resemblance to the type of man who made them is
concerned are absolutely valueless. They are undoubtedly human forms,
that is all; not another characteristic, except sex, indicated by
breasts, is presented. They are mostly in a squatting posture and on
one or two there seems to be a suggestion of the hair dressed behind.
Effigy bottles of earthenware from Tennessee are similarly crude and
primitive. There is little, therefore, in the whole Mississippi valley
or on the Atlantic coast, in the line of carving or sculpture, that
could not have been executed by Amerinds that have been known to our
race, many of them living in the same localities where the art remains
have been found. The superlative rank awarded Moundbuilder art is
unwarranted.
[Illustration: BIRD-SHAPED EARTHEN BOWL, ARKANSAS.]
Directing our attention now to still another region, we find in the
South-west a vast deal that is absorbingly interesting. Fortunately
the people were, many of them, still there when the first Spaniards
came into the country in 1540, so that we have data to prevent the
attributing the works found there to some mysterious race. It has been
attempted in the case of the “Cliff-dwellers,” but the investigations
of competent ethnologists have effectually settled that matter, and
checked the romantic tendency except in the case of a few who will not
learn. The ethnographic condition of the South-west since we have known
it probably represents also what prevailed in the Mississippi region,
that is, _a number of different stocks existing in different stages of
culture_, distributed in patches, not uniformly.
[Illustration: SHELL MASK, VIRGINIA.]
All of them pitched their camps or built their houses as expediency
dictated, and when cause arose to render them dissatisfied with their
site, whether cliff-house, village, or camp, they moved to a more
desirable place, leaving behind what they could not easily carry,
as well as their houses. Thus in the course of a long time the area
presented the appearance from the numerous remains of having a
larger population than was really the case; though I may add that
I believe the population was at one time somewhat greater than has
usually been admitted by the best ethnologists. These various stocks
carried on their daily avocations, and when the results were in some
indestructible material, many of them were preserved to us, which,
taken in connection with the productions of the modern tribes, give an
excellent and correct impression of the life and occupations of the
inhabitants extending far back into the past.
[Illustration: MOKI SCULPTURAL SKILL WITH THE HUMAN FIGURE
Terra cotta
Wood
Terra cotta
]
The Shoshonean is one of the stocks still extant in that and more
northerly regions, and spreads far south to the lakes of Mexico. It
exists to-day in several stages, the Mexican or Nahuatl, the Moki or
Hopi, and the numerous bands of Utes.[156] Other stocks probably had
equal variation in culture within their ranks, this variation being
sometimes due to the absorption, as in the case of the Navajos, of
a more cultured tribe. Many of these tribes did no carving whatever,
and the region of our South-west is poor in this sort of remains. The
Pueblos, while possessing other artistic talents of a high order, do
not seem to have done much in the line of carving. They execute the
ordinary fetiches with little or no shape, and they also produce a kind
of small doll for the children and some that are used in ceremonies,
figure page 178, but all these, and all the masks in ceremonies, are
fearful things to look upon, bearing little or no resemblance to
anything human; shapeless, botched up masses of hideousness, usually
not carved or modelled, but built up out of various stuffs. Some of
them model effigies in earthenware, but these attempts do not amount
to much. I have never seen any wood carving, from this region, worth
mentioning. A. M. Stephen made a sketch of two figures in wood with
small knots or horns called the Alosaka, which I copied, but they are
primitive to the last degree. These figures were about four feet high,
and were of cottonwood, apparently very old. Figures above. They were
discovered by accident in a cave near the ruins of Awatuwi and removed.
When the loss was learned by the Moki they requested the return of the
images, which was granted, and they have not been seen since, nor does
anyone outside of the custodians, or at least no white man, know where
they are. Around the Moki towns I saw not a single attempt at rock
carving, nor do I remember in extensive journeys over the South-western
region ever seeing any relief carving whatever. Rock scratchings,
erroneously termed “etchings” by many writers on these subjects, I
have seen in great abundance, but not an attempt at sculpture worth
noticing. There may, however, in some of the villages, be carvings
nevertheless. Governor Prince found at a ruin near Cochiti a number
of rudely formed stone figures of human shape. Nearby there are two
panthers carved life size in the tufa which forms the surface rock of
the locality. They “lie side by side,” says Bandelier, “representing
the animals as crouching with tails extended, and their heads pointing
to the east.”[157] Their length is six feet, one third of this being
tail. The height is two feet and the breadth across the shoulders
fourteen inches, and across the rump seventeen inches. They are about
twenty-two inches apart. Around them is an irregular pentagonal
enclosure, “made of large blocks, flags, and slabs of volcanic rock,
some of which are set in the ground like posts, while the majority
are piled on each other so as to connect the upright pillars.... When
I last saw the monument it looked like a diminutive and dilapidated
Stonehenge.”[158] Another pair of similar panthers occurs at not a
great distance off at a place now called the _Potrero de los Idolos_.
The size is about the same as the others. “One of them is completely
destroyed by treasure hunters, who loosened both from the rock by a
blast of powder, and then heaved the ponderous blocks out by means of
crowbars. After breaking one of the figures to pieces they satisfied
themselves that nothing was buried underneath.... The imperfections of
the sculpture are very apparent; were it not for the statements of the
Indians, who positively assert that the intention of the makers was to
represent a puma, it would be considered to be a gigantic lizard.”[159]
[Illustration: THE ALOSAKA (MOKI)
After drawing by A. M. Stephen
]
[Illustration: SCULPTURAL ART OF CHIRIQUI
Fragmentary figure in grey basaltic rock.
]
[Illustration: SHELL GORGET, TENNESSEE.
Apparently a human figure, with face in profile to the left of the
circle near the top. The nose is cut away by a perforation
]
The metates or mealing stones, abundant in modern and ancient villages,
and which in the Far South are elaborately carved oftentimes, are, in
the South-west, so far as I have observed in the field and in reports
of investigators, never decorated in the faintest degree. Articles,
also, of various kinds that among the Haidas or Tlinkits would be
covered with carving, have here not a vestige of it. Nor is there any
carving about the house timbers or the stones that enter into the
wall construction, places where the Aztecs, and especially the Mayas,
lavished their skill. The Mokis make little clay images which they fire
for the children, but they are without merit. Nor do the Navajo, the
Pima, the Apache, Yuma, or any of the other stocks attempt anything
in the direction of carving, so that it seems safe to say that the
South-west has not produced any carving worthy of note, either in
modern or ancient times. The ruins so far as known are as barren of
carved articles as the modern occupied houses.
Proceeding southward, however, when we approach the vicinity of the
City of Mexico, examples of carving appear, and it is quickly evident
that the Aztecs gave great attention to this form of art. One of the
most remarkable specimens is the so-called Calendar Stone dug up under
the present city, and now in the Mexican National Museum. It has been
called a sacrificial stone, but Bandelier thinks it may have served
rather as the base for another stone, holding the rope of a captive
doomed to the “gladiatorial” sacrifice. For my part I incline to the
opinion that it is an astronomical affair. The date carved on the
top is the 13th Acatl or +A.D.+ 1479 of our time, according to the
accepted calculations. In the centre is a head, supposed to represent
the sun, and around it are twenty figures, standing for the twenty days
of the Mexican month. Then come eight divisions by what appear to be
arrow-heads, four being extended farther toward the centre than the
others and also curled up at the ends or flukes, and one of these four
ending in an elaborate sort of bow-knot ornament which covers a wide
space at what is now the lower edge as it stands. Each of the eight
divisions is again divided by a kind of crown which is smaller than the
smaller arrow-heads, and then there is a still further subdivision
made by a dot, on a line with the base of the crown. This gives
thirty-two points, or exactly the number of points on our mariner’s
compass card, so that this carving can be “boxed” as any compass card
can be. The N., E., and W., are more prominent than any other points
but the S., which has the decoration referred to. Then come the N.E.,
S.E., S.W., and N.W., with each set of intermediate points diminishing
in importance.[160] It looks as if our ancient Aztecs had found a
mariner’s compass washed ashore and perpetuated it by thus carving
it with mythological significance.[161] Stranger things than this
have occurred among Amerinds. But I prefer to believe that the Aztec
astronomer worked out the points of the compass for himself, for these
directions exist of course in every land independent of the compass,
and the moment the Amerind began to work in astronomy he was forced
to recognise the thirty-two natural directions that were open to him.
No doubt the Mayan and Mexican observatories were somewhat similar to
that of the Shah Jahan at Jeypore in India, where circular stones of
different sizes formed a part of the observing apparatus. The Mayan and
Mexican astronomical knowledge was probably equal to any extant in the
fourteenth century.
[Illustration: THE AZTEC “CALENDAR” STONE
From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America
]
[Illustration: AZTEC SCULPTURE, THE INDIO TRISTE
From Bandelier’s _Archæological Tour_, published by the
Archæological Institute of America
]
Another type of Mexican carving is seen in the statue of Teoyaomiqui,
the god of war and death, of which the two faces are different.
Bandelier believes this to be a statue of the war-god Huitzilopochtli.
Another remarkable statue given mention by Bandelier is the “Indio
Triste.” This is a squatting figure of an Amerind executed with more
simplicity than is usual with Amerind work in this region. Bandelier
considers it a torch-bearer, a supposition borne out by evidence he
advances, and also by the arrangement of the hands and arms, which
are brought out forward of the chest as if clasping something in the
empty space between the fingers. This statue is forty inches high and
two feet wide. A comparatively small number of Aztec sculptures have
been found. Almost all were destroyed or buried by the zeal of the
early priests. Under the City of Mexico and in other places there are
probably many lying intact, and some day they may come to the light.
“The art of sculpture in aboriginal Mexico,” says Bandelier, “while
considerably above that of the Northern Village-Indians, is still not
superior to the remarkable carvings on ivory and wood of the tribes of
the North-west Coast and often bears a marked resemblance to them.”[162]
Proceeding on southward, the next great group of carvings is that
ascribed to the Mayas, and extending, in a general way, from the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the borders of Honduras and somewhat beyond.
The people formerly occupying this area were extremely active in the
line of carving, and there are preserved to us tablets, figures in
bass-relief, statues, monoliths, and other stone- and wood-work that,
taken together, easily bring this people in the very front place among
Amerind artists. Their buildings were most elaborately ornamented with
carving in stone, or wood, and with modelling in stucco, and there
were many tablets bearing carved inscriptions. One of the most famous
of these tablets adorned a beautiful building called in modern times
“The Temple of the Cross.”[163] It stands at Palenque. The tablet was
affixed to the rear wall of an inner chamber, termed by Europeans
the “Adoratorio,” and was in three sections, the total dimensions of
which were ten feet eight inches wide, by six feet four inches high.
One section of this tablet remained in place at the time of Charnay’s
last visit, one was in Las Playas, and the other, the third, is in the
Smithsonian Institution. At each extreme end of the whole composition
was a mass of the calculiform writing; next came two figures separated
by a peculiar design in the centre, which somewhat resembles a cross,
and it was this design that gave the name to the tablet. While the
execution is remarkable it is nevertheless primitive, and similar to
other Amerind art in quality and conception. It is a high development
of Amerindian sculptural ideas. Another similar tablet exists in the
so-called “Temple of the Sun.” A cast of this was made by Charnay and a
photograph from this cast is given in figure on page 185.[164]
[Illustration: SANCTUARY TABLET, TEMPLE (TEOCALLI) OF THE SUN,
PALENQUE]
[Illustration: “ALTAR” IN FRONT OF STELA D, COPAN]
At Copan twenty-three stelæ, or monolithic monuments, elaborately
carved with human figures and hieroglyphs, have been found. Each had
in front a sculptured block designated as an altar. Their average
height is twelve feet, and their breadth and their thickness each
about three feet. Stelæ and so called idols have been exhumed around
Lake Nicaragua, but all remains grow less important towards the south
except in Chiriqui, as well as towards the north. Indeed, here in
Yucatan seems to have sprung the living fountain that watered all the
desolation of the Western world.
[Illustration: STELA NO. 6, COPAN]
[Illustration: BACK OF STELA NO. 6]
[Illustration: PUMA-SHAPED STOOL OF GREY ANDESITE, CHIRIQUI.]
The stelæ at Copan are some of the most artistic and altogether
remarkable sculptures found on the continent. They are highly
decorative, and the execution of the intricate designs with the poor
stone tools at their command is extraordinary. But all the productions
of the Mayas pass easily beyond those of any other stock on this
continent. Some of the conventionalised animal heads used as gargoyles
are exceedingly well done and so also are several works called
“singing-girls” (see figures pages 19 and 79). There are no geometric
patterns at Copan, and the designs and execution are of a high order,
yet at the same time thoroughly Amerindian. The rattlesnake enters into
many of the designs and is represented by itself frequently. It was
an animal of great importance to all Amerinds from the thirty-eighth
parallel down. Charnay gives an illustration of what he calls votive
stones, that are apparently the representation of the rattle of the
revered reptile. The segments are clearly indicated and altogether the
design seems to me unmistakable. The region of the South-west and
Mexico is also the richest in species of any part of America, no less
than “eight out of a total of seventeen species occurring at or near
the boundary between the United States and the Mexican Republic.” In
southern Arizona seven different species are found. “Their centre of
distribution appears to be the tableland of Mexico with its extension
northward into the south-western United States.”[165]
[Illustration: HEAD SCULPTURED IN STONE, CHULTUNES OF LABNA, YUCATAN]
One of the “Temples of the Cross” at Palenque is flanked at the
entrance by two well-constructed figures, one on either side, supposed
to represent the Mayan war and rain gods.[166] These figures are in low
relief, covered with the customary Amerind trappings and head-dresses
of this region. On each tablet there are some calculiform characters.
Many of the ruined buildings still exhibit a wealth of ornamentation
either carved in stone, modelled in stucco, or constructed out of
rubble and stucco. Some of the carvings, notably certain heads at
Uxmal, have formed the basis for much discussion. The latter were
supposed by Waldeck to be representations of elephants’ trunks, but
there is no foundation for this supposition. They more likely represent
ceremonial masks with long noses. Something similar, though lacking
the curve, is seen in some of the remarkable funeral urns found in the
Zapotecan tombs.
The statue of Chac-Mool, found at Chichen Itza by Le Plongeon, is
an example of what was accomplished when the figure was attempted
without any of the accessories of masks, draperies, etc.[167] It is
a large reclining figure, crude and primitive. Some of the work at
other places is more symmetrical, as, for instance, the Lacandon idol
described by Charnay. “This idol is very beautiful and unique of its
kind, for nothing like it has been found either in Tabasco or Yucatan.
It represents a figure sitting cross-legged, the hands resting on the
knees ... the face now mutilated is crowned by an enormous head-dress
of a peculiar style, presenting a fantastic head with a diadem and
medallions, topped by huge feathers, like those on the columns at Tula
and Chichen-Itza.”[168] This idol was found at Menché, where there is
a lot of excellent work in the line of carving, some of the wooden
lintels being particularly interesting. It is impossible in a brief
chapter to convey more than a slight impression of all this elaborate
carving. The reader who desires to obtain a full comprehension of the
work should study Maudsley’s text and illustrations in the _Biologia
Centrali Americana_.
Where modelling was accomplished by the building-up process with stones
and mortar the results were sometimes gigantic. Stephens found an
enormous head made in this way at Izamal at the base of the palace of
Hunpictok. He described it as being seven feet eight inches high. “The
features,” he says, “were first rudely formed by small rough stones,
fixed in the side of the mound by means of mortar, and afterwards
perfected with stucco so hard that it has resisted the action of air
and water for centuries.” The stone composing the chin alone measures
one foot and six inches. The face had an extremely large mustache. This
singular specimen of the Yucatan Amerinds’ modelling skill has, since
the visit of Stephens, completely disappeared. At the same place is
another, however, still intact.
[Illustration: LARGE BUILT-UP HEAD AT IZAMAL
From Stephens
]
This one is thirteen feet high and is constructed in the same manner as
the one that is gone.
Everywhere throughout Yucatan and the contiguous region the
architecture is overloaded with ornamentation which many large volumes
would barely be sufficient to describe. In Nicaragua, as well as in
Honduras, there are found many carvings and sculptures, statues, stelæ,
etc., but they are rarely equal to those found in the Maya ruins. It
must be said, however, that the examination of these states has been
even less thorough than that of the Maya region. Tribes of Nahuatl
stock built and laboured in the country below the Maya, and in Costa
Rica there are indications that the remains belong to Amerinds who
differed from both Maya and Nahuatl.
Some of the supposed metates or mealing stones found in Nicaragua are
carved with legs and artistically decorated. One figured by Squier is
a particularly beautiful specimen. It is a thin curved slab, concave
side up, and has four legs. One end projects considerably beyond the
legs, apparently forming the head or end where the operator sat or
kneeled, and is carved in a wide band all the way across. In Chiriqui
there are similar stones. Another class of carved remains found in
Chiriqui is apparently a sort of metate, but it differs from the latter
in being round, and Holmes designates them as stools, for want of a
more exact term.[169] Some wooden stools have recently been obtained in
Central America which are so nearly like the affair described by Squier
as a metate, that it is probable the latter was also a stool. The
figure on page 188 illustrates this class. They have a depressed upper
surface and are carved basalt in one piece. An example of the round is
given above. To carve an object like this from solid basalt must have
been a work of great duration. It is in their metal- and claywork,
however, that the Chiriqui Amerinds specially excelled.
[Illustration: STOOL OF GREY BASALT, CHIRIQUI.]
All works are dominated by the customs and religious ideas of the
Amerind race, which were practically the same everywhere in different
stages of development. Nowhere do we find a touch of idealism, which
is such a marked characteristic of the work of the European race.
The highest of it marks a development in art below the Egyptian. As
in picture-writing we trace the growth of letters, so by the aid of
the Amerind sculpture and carving we have a line of art progress from
infancy to the present time.
[Illustration: COPPER BELL FROM TENNESSEE]
[Illustration: PUEBLO MEALING STONES]