THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING. 103 



savage would comport himself similarly toward the image, the 

 shadow, and the object. From his point of view the image and 

 the object are in close relation, and an action upon one wonld 

 operate in the same way upon the other. By this way of looking 

 at things, as Sir John Lubbock says, the savage is convinced that 

 an injury done to the image is inflicted upon the original ; or, to 

 use the words of Mr. Taylor, he thinks that by acting upon the 

 copy he will reach the original. The evidences are many that 

 demonstrate the importance attributed by savages to this mode 

 of action on the original. Waitz relates, after Denghame, that in 

 a tribe of western Africa it was dangerous to make a portrait of 

 the natives, because they were afraid that by some kind of sor- 

 cery a part of their soul would pass into their image. Lubbock 

 also speaks of the same fear as existing among savages ; and the 

 more like the portrait, the greater the danger to the original ; for 

 the more life there is in the copy, the less must be left in the per- 

 son. One day, when some Indians were annoying Dr. Kane by 

 their presence, he rid himself of them very quickly by telling 

 them that he was going to make their portraits. Catlin tells a 

 story, at once sober and comical, that when he was drawing the 

 profile of a chief named Matochiga, the Indians around him 

 seemed greatly moved, and asked him why he did not draw the 

 other half of the chiefs 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." A bloody fight followed this ex- 

 planation, and Matochiga was killed by a bullet which struck him 

 in the side of the face that had not been drawn. A still more 

 characteristic incident is communicated by M. Brouck concerning 

 a Laplander who had come to visit him from motives of curiosity. 

 He having drunk a glass of wine and seeming very much at ease, 

 M. Brouck took his pencil and began drawing his portrait. AlZ 

 at once our subject's humor changed; he drew on his cap and 

 started to run away. Explanations being had, the Laplander 

 made the rash artist understand that, if he had let him copy his 

 figure, the artist would have gained a dangerous influence over 

 him. 



Charlevoix said, in the last century, that the Illinois and In- 

 dians of some other tribes made little figures representing persons 

 whose lives they wanted to shorten, and pierced them in the 

 region of the heart. A custom still exists in Borneo that consists 

 in making a figure in wax of the enemy whom one wishes to be- 

 witch, and setting it before the fire to melt ; it is assumed, accord- 

 ing to Taylor, that the person aimed at is disorganized as fast as 



