GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. 767 



incision is made when about the age of puberty, and is at first the size 

 of a quill. As they grow older, the natives enlarge the orifl<;e, and 

 increase the size of the ornament accordingly, that it may hold its 

 place. In adults this orifice is about half an inch in diameter, and will, 

 if required, distend to three-quarters of an inch." The same practice 

 in every respect is also observed at Chamisso Island,' a short distance 

 from the above locality, and further reference concerning the natives is 

 quoted from the same authority as follows : " They readily disengaged 

 these lip ornaments from their lips, sold them, without minding the 

 least inconvenience of the saliva that flowed through the badly cica- 

 triced orifice over the chin; but rather laughed when some of us 

 betrayed disgust at the spectacle, thrusting their tongues through the 

 hole and winking their eyes." 



ART FACILITY. 



Mr. Alfred C. Haddon, in his admirable work on " Evolution in Art,''^ 

 remarks of the early methods of conveying information between one 

 man and another, where oral or gesture language are impossible, that 

 pictorial delineation must be resorted to; and further, that "probably 

 one of the earliest of this needs was that of indicating ownership, and 

 it maybe that many devices in primitive implements and utensils have 

 this as one reason for their existence, although the nature of tlie orna- 

 mentation may be owing to quite a different reason," 



It is not of rare occurrence to find upon the arrows and other i)os- 

 sessions of our native Indian tribes various marks by means of which 

 individual property may be identified; and among some of the pueblo 

 Indians decorated pottery bears "maker's marks" in such manner that, 

 although the tribe at large may not recognize the maker of any par- 

 ticular decorated vessel, yet such a specimen will at once be identified 

 as originating in, or with, a certain family, and when application is 

 made at the designated abode, the individual will there be pointed 

 out, or named if absent. 



It seems possible that the various markings upon the weapons from 

 the Alaskan shell heaps may have served as " property marks," and it 

 would appear, also, to have been found expedient for the native sea- 

 going hunters to devise and adopt some sort of a system by means of 

 which they might be enabled to identify and recover any stray or float- 

 ing weapon, or the animal in which such weapon might be found, or 

 possibly both. 



Mr. Haddon remarks that " the beautifying of any object is due to 

 impulses which are common to all men, and have existed as far back as 

 the period when men inhabited caves and hunted the reindeer and 

 mammoth in western Europe." ' Apparently the oldest markings thus 



~ ' Father Petitot, Monogniphie, ji. 250. 



2 " Evolution in Art," London, 1895, p. 203. 



3 Idem, pp. 3, 4, 



