PETROGLYPHS— STEWARD 



415 



Animals, too, are extremely variable in realism and accuracy (figs. 

 2 and 3). Although none have the easy grace and faithful portrayal 

 achieved in the Bushman and Cro-Magnon paintings, some are fair 

 likenesses of different species. Others are so crude or so greatly 

 conventionalized that it is possible only to know that they are quad- 

 rupeds ; lizards cannot be distinguished from mountain lions, rabbits 

 from bear. Quadrupeds are, in fact, generally identifiable only 

 when they possess some salient and unmistakable characteristic, such 

 as the long, curved horns of the mountain sheep, the branching 

 antlers of the deer or elk, or the large head and short horns of the 



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Figure 1. — Petroglyphs of human beings, a, from near Keeler, eastern Calif. ; 6, from 

 near Yerington, Nev. ; c, from tlie lower Gila River, southern Ariz. ; d, the "hunch back 

 flute player" from near a Pueblo cliff dwelling, Kayenta, northern Ariz. ; e, man and 

 horse from southern Nev., probably made by modern Southern Paiute Indians ; t, in 

 Va. ; g, birdlike being from Pa. ; /(, from Little Indian Rock, Pa. ; %, at Pipestone, 

 INIinn. ; ;, Wyo. All are carved or "pecked". 



bison. Often, a distinctive part of an animal suffices for the whole. 

 An antler may indicate a deer; a track may stand for a bear. 



In some areas unreal and probably mythical creatures, whose like- 

 ness is unlmown in the world of nature, defy identification. The 

 amoebalike sketches and many-legged creatures of the southern San 

 Joaquin Valley of California, the club-handed and other grotesque 

 men of the Great Basin, certain ghostlike figures from the Columbia 

 Valley, many composite creatures from all areas, and others probably 

 represent imaginary beings, the identity of which it is futile to guess 

 (fig. 4). Perhaps some complex groups, having several of these 

 fantastic figures, are myth stories ; others, as suggested by the Western 

 Mono Indians of California, may be doctor's marks ; still others are 

 undoubtedly creatures seen in visions. But it is rare that a par- 

 ticular figure can be identified with certainty. 



