is well known, often having designs properly to be considered among
pictographs, though in general not, at least in modern times, passing
beyond ornamentation.
GOURDS.
After gourds have dried the contents are removed and handles are
attached; they serve as rattles in dances, and in religious and
shamanistic rites. The representations of natural or mythical objects
for which the owner may have special reverence are often depicted upon
their surfaces. This custom prevails among the Pueblos generally, and,
also, among many other tribes, notably those constituting the Siouan
linguistic stock.
HORSE HAIR.
The Hidatsa, Arikara, Dakota, and several other tribes of the Northwest
plains, use horse hair dyed red as appendages to feathers worn as
personal marks of distinction. Its arrangement is significant.
SHELLS, INCLUDING WAMPUM.
The illustrated and exhaustive paper of Mr. W. H. Holmes, in the Second
Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, removes all necessity for
present extended mention under this head.
EARTH AND SAND.
Papers by Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. A., Dr. W. H. Corbusier, U. S.
A., and Mr. James Stevenson were read in the Anthropological Society
of Washington during the season of 1884-5, giving account of important
and entirely novel paintings by the Navajo, Yuman, and Zuni Indians.
These paintings were made upon the ground by means of sand, ashes,
and powdered vegetable matter of various colors. These were highly
elaborate, made immediately preceding certain ceremonies, at the close
of which they were obliterated.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman states that when the expedition under command of
Capt. G. M. Wheeler, U. S. A., passed through Southern Nevada in
1871, the encampment for one night was at Pai-Uta Charlie’s rancheria,
where it was visited by many of the Pai-Uta Indians of that vicinity.
On leaving camp the following morning representations of many mounted
men, the odometer cart and pack animals were found depicted upon the
hard, flat surface of the sand. The Indians had drawn the outlines in
life size with sticks of wood, and the work was very artistically done.
A mounted expedition was a new thing in that part of the country and
amused them not a little.
The well-known animal mounds, sometimes called effigy mounds, of
Wisconsin come in this category.
THE HUMAN PERSON.
Pictographs upon the human person may be divided into, 1st, paint on
the face; 2d, paint on the body; and, 3d, tattooing, which is also
divided into tattoo marks upon the head and tattoo marks upon the body.
PAINT.
Dr. Hoffman, who visited the Hualpai Indians of northern Arizona in
1871, gives an account (see _ante_, p. 52) of their habit of besmearing
their bodies and faces with the blood of game killed.
A colored plate, facing page 33 of the report of the Pacific Railroad
Expedition, 1856, pt. III, shows the designs adopted by the Mojave
Indians for painting the body. These designs consist of transverse
lines extending around the body, arms, and legs, or horizontal lines,
or different parts may partake of different designs. Clay is now
generally used, as was observed by Dr. Hoffman, who visited Camp Mojave
in 1871.
For other notices of paint on head and body and the significance of
color see _ante_, page 53 _et seq._
Everard F. im Thurn, in his work before cited, page 196, describes the
painting of the Indians of Guiana as follows:
The paint is applied either in large masses or in patterns. For
example, a man, when he wants to dress well, perhaps entirely coats
both his feet up to the ankles with a crust of red; his whole trunk
he sometimes stains uniformly with blue-black, more rarely with red,
or covers it with an intricate pattern of lines of either colour;
he puts a streak of red along the bridge of his nose; where his
eyebrows were till he pulled them out he puts two red lines; at the
top of the arch of his forehead he puts a big lump of red paint, and
probably he scatters other spots and lines somewhere on his face. The
women, especially among the Ackawoi, who use more body-paint than
other ornament, are more fond of blue-black than of red; and one very
favorite ornament with them is a broad band of this, which edges the
mouth, and passes from the corners of that to the ears. Some women
especially affect certain little figures, like Chinese characters,
which look as if some meaning were attached to them, but which the
Indians are either unable or unwilling to explain.
The Serranos, near Los Angeles, California, formerly cut lines upon the
trees and posts, marking boundaries of land, these lines corresponding
to those adopted by the owner as facial decorations. See page 182.
During his connection with the Yellowstone expedition of 1873, under
the command of General Stanley, Dr. Hoffman found elaborate narratives
of hostile encounters between the Absaroka and Dakota Indians incised
upon the bark of cotton-wood trees, in the valley of the Musselshell
River. The Absaroka were shown by having the bark in the forehead
removed, thus corresponding to their war custom of painting that
portion of the face red, while the Dakota were denoted by having only
the part of the face from the eyes down to the chin removed, referring
to their custom of painting that part of the face. The number of
individuals was shown by the outline of one individual of either tribe,
with added short lines. The total number of arms was shown by drawing
one gun and the requisite number of spots. The number of horses was
indicated in a similar manner.
See also with reference to paint on the human person, pages 165 and 167.
The present writer, when reading the magnificent work of Conte Giovanni
Gozzadini, Di Ulteriori Scoperte Nell’ Antica Necropoli a Marzabotto
nel Bolognese, Bologna, 1870, noticed in Plate XII, Figure 1, the
representation of a human head in bronze of great antiquity, and that
it shows incised lines over the superior malar region, below and
outward from the outer canthus of the eye. To any one recently familiar
with tattooing and the lines of face painting this gives a decided
suggestion, and is offered as such.
The head is reproduced in Figure 22.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Bronze head from the Necropolis of Marzabotto,
Italy.]
A less distinct suggestion arose from the representation of a “Fragment
of a lustrous black bowl, with an incised decoration filled with white
chalk,” pictured in Troja, etc., by Dr. Henry Schliemann, New York,
1884, p. 31, No. 1, and here presented, Figure 23. In the absence
of knowledge as to the connection of the two sets of parallel lines
on each side of the face, with the remainder of the bowl, it is not
possible to form any decision as to whether there was any intention to
portray face painting or tattooing, or whether the lines merely partook
of the general pattern of the bowl. The lines, however, instantly
caught the present writer’s eye as connected with the subject now under
consideration.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Fragment of bowl from Troja.]
TATTOOING.
Tattooing, a permanent marking of the skin as distinguished from
the temporary painting, and accomplished by the introduction of
coloring matter under the cutaneous epidermis, was formerly practiced
extensively among the Indians of North America. Some authorities for
this statement are here quoted, as also some descriptions of the custom
where still practiced.
Capt. John Smith, in “The True Travels, Adventures, etc.,” Richmond,
1819, Vol. I, page 130, is made to say of the Virginia Indians:
“They adorne themselues most with copper beads and paintings. Their
women, some haue their legs, hands, breasts and face cunningly
imbrodered with divers workes, as beasts, serpents, artificially
wrought into their flesh with blacke spots.”
The Innuit, according to Cook, practiced tattooing perpendicular lines
upon the chin of women, and sometimes similar lines extending backward
from near the outer portions of the eyes.
Mr. Gatschet reports that very few Klamath men now tattoo their faces,
but such as are still observed have but a single line of black running
from the middle of the lower lip to the chin. The women have three
lines, one from each corner of the mouth and one down over the center
of the chin.
The Modoc women tattoo three blue lines, extending perpendicularly
from the center and corners of the lower lip to the chin. See Bancroft,
Native Races, I, p. 332.
Stephen Powers says (Contrib. N. A. Ethnol., III, p. 20) that the
Karol, California, squaws tattoo in blue three narrow fern leaves
perpendicularly on the chin, one falling from each corner of the mouth
and one in the middle. For this purpose, they are said to employ soot
gathered from a stone, mingled with the juice of a certain plant.
The same author reports, page 76: “Nearly every (Hupâ, California) man
has ten lines tattooed across the inside of the left arm, about half
way between the wrist and the elbow; and in measuring shell-money,
he takes the string in his right hand, draws one end over his left
thumbnail, and if the other end reaches to the uppermost of the tattoo
lines, the five shells are worth $25 in gold or $5 a shell. Of course
it is only one in ten thousand that is long enough to reach this high
value.”
The same author, on page 96, says: The squaws (Pat´awāt, Cal.) tattoo
in blue three narrow pinnate leaves perpendicularly on their chins, and
also lines of small dots on the backs of their hands.
He reports, page 148, of the Kas´tel Pomo: The women of this and other
tribes of the Coast Range frequently tattoo a rude representation of a
tree or other object, covering nearly the whole abdomen and breast.
Of the Wintūns of California the same author says (page 233) that the
squaws all tattoo three narrow lines, one falling from each corner of
the mouth, and one between.
See also page 167 _infra_.
Rev. M. Eells says (Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, III, p. 75) of
the Twana Indians: A little of this tattooing is done, but much less
than formerly, and chiefly now among the children.
Blue marks tattooed upon a Mojave woman’s chin denotes that she is
married. See Pacific R. R. Exped., III, 1856, p. 33.
The only remarkable instance of tattooing now among the Hidatsa is that
of Lean-Wolf, the present second chief of the tribe. The ornamentation
consists of horizontal stripes, from one-third to one-half an inch
broad, running from the middle of the breast around the right side of
the body to the spinal column. The right arm and the right leg are
encircled by similar bands, between which there are spaces of equal
width. Lean-Wolf professed not to be able to give the origin and
history of this ornamentation, although, he represents himself with it
upon pictographs relating to personal events of warfare and the chase.
Bancroft (Native Races, Vol. I, p. 48) says of the Eskimo, that the
females tattoo lines on their chins; the plebeian female of certain
bands has one vertical line in the center and one parallel to it on
either side. The higher classes mark two vertical lines from each
corner of the mouth. On page 72 he says that young Kadiak wives tattoo
the breast and adorn the face with black lines. The Kuskoquim women
sew into their chin two parallel blue lines. This color is applied by
drawing a thread under the skin or pricking it with a needle. On page
117 he says that the Chippewyans have tattooed cheeks and foreheads.
Both sexes have blue or black bars or from one to four straight lines
to distinguish the tribe to which they belong; they tattoo by entering
an awl or needle under the skin and on drawing it out, immediately
rubbing powdered charcoal into the wounds. On page 127 he states that
on the Yukon River among the Kutchins, the men draw a black stripe down
the forehead and the nose, frequently crossing the forehead and cheeks
with red lines and streaking the chin, alternately with red and black,
and the women tattoo the chin with a black pigment.
It will be observed that these statements by Bancroft, about tattooing
among the Hyperboreans, seem to be confined to the face, except as is
mentioned among the Kadiak, where the women tattoo the breast, and that
these tattoo marks seem to be simple straight lines, either vertical or
horizontal.
* * * * *
In this place is properly inserted the following report of original
research among the Haidas on this subject, by Mr. James G. Swan, of
Port Townsend, Washington, for which the thanks of this Bureau are
tendered to him.
TATTOO MARKS OF THE HAIDA INDIANS OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, B. C.,
AND THE PRINCE OF WALES ARCHIPELAGO, ALASKA.
By JAMES G. SWAN.
H. H. Bancroft, in his “Native Races, Pacific States,” Vol. I, p.
155, includes in the Haida family the nations occupying the coast and
islands from the southern extremity of Prince of Wales Archipelago to
the Bentinck Arms in about 52° N.
Their territory is bounded on the north and east by the Thlinkeet and
Carrier nations of the Hyperboreans, and on the south by the Nootka
family of the Columbians.
Its chief nations, or, more correctly speaking, bands, whose
boundaries, however, can rarely be fixed with precision, are the
Massets, Skiddegates, Cumshawas, Laskeets, and the Skringwai, of Queen
Charlotte Islands: the Kaigani, Howkan, Klemakoan, and Kazan, of Prince
of Wales Archipelago; the Chimsyans, about Fort Simpson and on Chatham
Sound; the Nass and the Skenas, on the rivers of the same name; the
Sebasses, on Pitt Archipelago and the shores of Gardiner Channel, and
the Millbank Sound Indians, including the Hailtzas, Bella Bella, Bella
Coola, etc.
Among all the tribes or bands belonging to the Haida family, the
practice of tattooing the person in some manner is common; but the
most marked are the Haidas proper, or those living on Queen Charlotte
Islands, and the Kaiganis, of Prince of Wales Archipelago, Alaska.
Of the Haida tribe, H. H. Bancroft says (Works 1882, Vol. I, p.
159), “Besides the regular lip piece, ornaments various in shape and
material, of shell, bone, wood, or metal, are worn, stuck in the lips,
nose, and ears, apparently according to the caprice or taste of the
wearer, the skin being sometimes, though more rarely, tattooed to
correspond.” The authors quoted by Bancroft for this information are
Mayne’s British Columbia, p. 282; Barrett-Lennard’s Travels, pp. 45,
46; Poole’s Queen Charlotte Islands, pp. 75-311; Dunn’s Oregon, pp.
279, 285, and Reed, who says, “The men habitually go naked, but when
they go off on a journey they wear a blanket.”
How this latter writer, presuming he speaks from personal experience,
could have seen naked Haida men without noticing tattoo marks, I cannot
understand. On page 182 of the same volume of Bancroft, footnote, is
the following: “‘The habit of tattooing the legs and arms is common to
all the women of Vancouver’s Island; the men do not adopt it.’ Grant,
in Lond. Geog. Soc. Jour., Vol. XXVII, p. 307. ‘No such practice as
tattooing exists among these natives.’ Sproat’s Scenes, p. 27.”
What Grant says applies not to the women of Vancouver’s Island, but to
those of Queen Charlotte Islands. Sproat seems to have given more of
his attention to some fancied terminal in their language, upon which
he builds his theory of the “Aht” nation, than to the observance of
their personal peculiarities. I am of the opinion, judging from my own
observation of over twenty years among the coast tribes, that but few
females can be found among the Indians, not only on Vancouver’s Island,
but all along the coast to the Columbia River, and perhaps even to
California, that are _not_ marked with some device tattooed on their
hands, arms, or ankles, either dots or straight lines; but of all the
tribes mentioned, the Haidas stand pre-eminent for tattooing, and seem
to be excelled only by the natives of the Fiji Islands or the King’s
Mills Group in the South Seas. The tattoo marks of the Haidas are
heraldic designs or the family totem, or crests of the wearers, and are
similar to the carvings depicted on the pillars and monuments around
the homes of the chiefs, which casual observers have thought were idols.
In a memoir written by me on the Haida Indians, for the Smithsonian
Institution, and published as No. 267 of Contributions to Knowledge,
I have given illustrations of various tattoo designs and heraldic
carvings in wood and stone, but did not attempt to delineate the
position or appearance of those designs upon their bodies or limbs,
although all the tattoo marks represented in that memoir were copied
by me directly from the persons of the Haidas, as stated in the
illustrations.
The publication of this memoir, with its illustrations, which I showed
to the Haidas and Kaiganis in 1875, during my cruise to Alaska in the
United States revenue steamer Wolcott, gave them confidence in me that
I had not made the drawings from idle curiosity, and in February, 1879,
I was fortunate enough to meet a party of Haida men and women in Port
Townsend, Washington, who permitted me to copy their tattoo marks again.
These designs are invariably placed on the men between the shoulders,
just below the back of the neck, on the breast, on the front part of
both thighs, and on the legs below the knee. On the women they are
marked on the breast, on both shoulders, on both fore-arms, from the
elbow, down over the back of the hands, to the knuckles, and on both
legs below the knee to the ankle.
When the Haidas visit Victoria or the towns on Puget Sound they
are dressed in the garb of white people and present a respectable
appearance, in marked contrast with the Indians from the west coast
of Vancouver’s Island, or the vicinity of Cape Flattery, who dress in
a more primitive manner, and attract notice by their more picturesque
costumes than do the Haidas, about whom there is nothing outwardly of
unusual appearance, except the tattoo marks on the hands of the women,
which show their nationality at a glance of the most careless observer.
As I before remarked, almost all of the Indian women of the northwest
coast have tattoo marks on their hands and arms, and some on the face;
but as a general thing these marks are mere dots or straight lines,
having no particular significance. With the Haidas, however, every mark
has its meaning; those on the hands and arms of the women indicate
the family name, whether they belong to the bear, beaver, wolf, or
eagle totems, or any of the family of fishes. As one of them quaintly
remarked to me, “If you were tattooed with the design of a swan, the
Indians would know your family name.”
Although it is very easy to distinguish the Haida women from those of
other tribes by seeing the tattoo marks on the backs of their hands,
yet very few white persons have cared to know the meaning of these
designs, or are aware of the extent of the tattoo marks on the persons
of both sexes.
In order to illustrate this tattooing as correctly as possible, I
inclose herewith a view (Figure 24) taken at Massett, Queen Charlotte
Island, of the carved columns in front of the chief’s residence; and
also sketches of the tattoo marks on two women and their husbands taken
by me at Port Townsend.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Haida Totem Post.]
It should be borne in mind that during their festivals and masquerade
performances the men are entirely naked and the women have only a
short skirt reaching from the waist to the knee; the rest of their
persons are exposed, and it is at such times that the tattoo marks show
with the best effect, and the rank and family connection known by the
variety of designs.
Like all the other coast tribes, the Haidas are careful not to permit
the intrusion of white persons or strangers to their Tomanawos
ceremonies, and as a consequence but few white people, and certainly
none of those who have ever written about those Indians, have been
present at their opening ceremonies when the tattoo marks are shown.
My information was derived from the Haidas themselves, who explained
to me while I was making the drawings, and illustrated some of the
positions assumed in their dances by both sexes.
Fig. 25 represents a man. On his breast is the cod (kahatta) split from
the head to the tail and laid open; on each thigh is the octopus (noo),
and below each knee is the frog (flkamkostan).
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Haida man, tattooed.
FIG. 26.--Haida woman, tattooed.]
Figure 26 represents a woman. On her breast is the head with forepaws
of the beaver (tsching); on each shoulder is the head of the eagle
or thunder-bird (skamskwin); on each arm, extending to and covering
the back of the hand, is the halibut (hargo); on the right leg is the
sculpin (kull); on the left leg is the frog (flkamkostan).
Figure 27 is a woman with the bear’s head (hoorts) on her breast. On
each shoulder is the eagle’s head, and on her arms and legs are figures
of the bear.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Haida woman, tattooed.
FIG. 28.--Haida man, tattooed.]
Figure 28 shows the back of a man with the wolf (wasko) split in halves
and tattooed between his shoulders, which is shown enlarged in Figure
33. Wasko is a mythological being of the wolf species similar to the
chu-chu-hmexl of the Makah Indians, an antediluvian demon supposed to
live in the mountains.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Wolf.]
The skulpin on the right leg of the woman in Figure 26 is shown
enlarged in Figure 29; the frog on the left leg in Figure 30.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Skulpin.]
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Frog.]
The codfish on the man in Figure 25 is shown enlarged in Figure 31, the
octopus or squid in Figure 32.
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Cod.]
[Illustration: FIG 32.--Squid or octopus.]
As the Haidas, both men and women, are very light colored, some of
the latter, full blooded Indians too, having their skins as fair
as Europeans, the tattoo marks show very distinct. These sketches
are not intended as portraits of persons, but simply to illustrate
the positions of the various tattoo marks. To enter into a detailed
description would require more space and study than is convenient at
this time. Enough is given, it is hoped, to convey to you an idea of
this interesting subject, which will require much study to properly
elaborate, or understand.
This tattooing is not all done at one time nor is it every one who can
tattoo. Certain ones, almost always men, have a natural gift which
enables them to excel in this kind of work. One of the young chiefs,
named Geneskelos, was the best designer I knew, and ranked among his
tribe as a tattooer. He belonged to Laskeek village on the east side of
Moresby’s Island, one of the Queen Charlotte group. I employed him to
decorate the great canoe which I sent to the Centennial Exposition at
Philadelphia in 1876, for the National Museum. I was with him a great
deal of the time both at Victoria and Port Townsend. He had a little
sketch book in which he had traced designs for tattooing, which he gave
to me. He subsequently died in Victoria of small-pox, soon after he had
finished decorating the canoe.
He told me the plan he adopted was first to draw the design carefully
on the person with some dark pigment, then prick it in with needles and
then rub over the wound with some more coloring matter till it acquired
the proper hue. He had a variety of instruments composed of needles
tied neatly to sticks. His favorite one was a flat strip of ivory or
bone, to which he had firmly tied five or six needles, with their
points projecting beyond the end just far enough to raise the skin
without inflicting a dangerous wound, but these needle points stuck out
quite sufficiently to make the operation very painful, and although he
applied some substance to deaden the sensation of the skin, yet the
effect was on some to make them quite sick for a few days; consequently
the whole process of tattooing was not done at one time. As this
tattooing is a mark of honor, it is generally done at or just prior to
a Tomanawos performance and at the time of raising the heraldic columns
in front of the chief’s houses. The tattooing is done in open lodge and
is witnessed by the company assembled. Sometimes it takes several years
before all the tattooing is done, but when completed and the person
well ornamented, then they are happy and can take their seats among the
elders.