42 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the fingers, their general plan being unaffected by the presence 

 of the wrinkles. By a more careful study of the papillary 

 ridges it will be seen that they are often discontinued, reinforced by 

 new ones, forked or, in a few cases, looped, and that in certain spots 

 the usual course is interrupted by the insertion of a figure or ' pattern, ' 

 as it is technically called, in the form of a spiral, a whorl or a loop. 

 Such patterns are of constant occurrence in the balls of the fingers, 

 while the palm usually, though not always, possesses from one to four 

 or five of them, located in certain definite localities, as at the base of the 

 fingers or upon the raised, pad-like outer side of the palm, the 

 hypothenar area. In rare cases such a pattern is met with upon the 

 thenar area, at the base of the thumb (Fig. 6, a) but the fine parallel 

 wrinkles almost always found in this region render it difficult to see. 



It will be seen, now, by turning to the figure, that each of the above 

 details has been indicated by the Micmac artist, not literally, as we 

 should do it, but symbolically, that is, by something to suggest each 

 detail. Thus in the drawing there are two sets of palmar lines; the 

 foundation or background, consisting of fine lines approximately 

 parallel, and evidently indicative of the papillary ridges, and the super- 

 imposed angular ones with little or no system, which represent the 

 wrinkles. As for patterns, it is possible that the little curve near the 

 outer margin may represent the hypothenar pattern, which, though not 

 a constant element, is of frequent occurrence; and, at all events, the 

 patterns at the finger tips are well indicated save in the case of the 

 index finger where the omission is probably accidental. Here also the 

 difference in the form of the separate patterns is well shown; that of 

 the thumb is a spiral, a usual form for that digit, those of the third 

 and fourth fingers are whorls and the curious cross or mark like the 

 Arabic number four, found upon the little finger, may represent certain 

 of the components of that form known as a loop. 



Turning from Indian anatomy to Indian morphology, from the 

 observation of facts to the construction of explanatory theories, we have 

 the followng remarkable passage in one of the reports of the Berliner 

 Gesellschaft fur Anthropologic as cited by Col. Mallory, in connection 

 with the figure of the hand and representing a conversation with one 

 of the Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia. 



The frequency with which partial representation of the eye are met with 

 appeared to me so striking that I requested Mr. Jacobsen 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 pre- 

 sents; 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, particu- 



