THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING. 105 



among some savage tribes. In these -writings by figures, the fact 

 tliat the man or animal represented is nnder the influence of an 

 evil lot is indicated by an arrow directed from the mouth toward 

 the heart. A sign of this kind is considered equivalent to a real 

 possession of the animal or person represented. 



"We could hardly give more convincing proofs of the special 

 significance attributed by the savage to drawing, regarded by him 

 as an instrument of power over another ; and while the examples 

 which we have just brought together relate chiefly to man, we 

 may assume logically that the same process — that is, a figured 

 representation of animals — plays a like part in the struggle of 

 the savage against his natural enemies. Other facts exist con- 

 firmatory of this hypothesis. 



According to Mr. Tanner, the North American Indians, to assure 

 success in their hunting expeditions, made rude drawings of the 

 animal they were pursuing, and stabbed them in the region of the 

 heart, under the conviction that they would thereby obtain power 

 over the desired game. Taylor relates, according to an old ob- 

 server among the Australians, that the natives, in one of their 

 festival dances, construct a figure of the kangaroo with plants, in 

 order that they may become masters of the real kangaroos of 

 the forest. An Algonkin Indian, going out to kill an animal, 

 hangs up a figure of it in his lodge ; then, after giving it due 

 warning, shoots an arrow at it. If the arrow hits, the animal will 

 be killed. If a hunter, having touched a sorcerer's rod with his 

 arrow, succeeded in hitting the track of the animal with the ar- 

 row, it would be stopped and held till the hunter could come up 

 to it. The same object could be attained by drawing the figure 

 of the animal on a piece of wood and addressing suitable prayers 

 to the image. 



Such was the function of drawing at its origin. An Indian 

 song admirably explains this function, in the words " My draw- 

 ing has made a god of me ! " Faith could hardly be more vigor- 

 ously expressed in the power of the art of drawing as an instru- 

 ment by the aid of which primitive man obtained a supernatural 

 power over his enemy or his game. Regarding the works of the 

 cave men in the light of these facts, we perceive that the purpose 

 that inspired them had few points in common with the sense of 

 the beautiful or the tendency to imitation ; and it is clear that if 

 there existed in the mind of the primitive man a material relation 

 between a being and its shadow or its image, that man thought 

 that the same relation was preserved between the being and its 

 image when transferred to any object whatever. The purpose to 

 be reached was to possess the shadow of the coveted object, and 

 the only means of accomplishing it was to fix upon something or 

 another the silhouette of that shadow. 



