FACULTY IN ABORIGINAL EAOES. 81 



interesting to note the diflln-ent phases of this imitative faeulty. Some tribes, such as the 

 Algoukius, coufiue their art mainly to literal reproductions of natural objects ; while others, 

 such as the Chimpseyaus or Babeens, the Tawatins, and the Clalam Indians of Vancouver 

 Island, have developed a conventional style of art, often exhibiting much ingenious fancy 

 in its grotesque ornamentation. This is specially apparent in the claystone pipes of the 

 Chimpseyaus, in carving which they rival the ingenious Ilaidas of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands in exuberance of detail. But while the art has become conventional, where it is not 

 displaced by imitations of the novel objects brought under their notice in their intercourse 

 with Europeans, its native combinations are in most cases referable to Indian myths. 



In manv of the elaborately carved Chimpseyau pipes, their special purpose seems to 

 be lost sight of in the whimsical profusion of ornament, embracing every uativew foreign 

 object that has chanced to attract the notice of the sculptor. Nevertheless, it may help us 

 to do justice to the true aim of the Indian artist, if we call to remembrance how much of 

 Christian symbolism was embodied in many a medieval sculpturing of what, to the 

 unsympathetic observer, seem now only conventional vines and lilies, or a mere fanciful 

 grouping of dragons and snakes, with apples, figs, grapes and thorns. This has to be 

 kept in view while noting in the pipe-sculptures human figures in strangest varieties of 

 posture, intertwined with zoomorphic devices, in which the bear and the frog have a 

 prominent place, and, as will be seen, a mythic significance. It is no less suggestive to 

 note, alike in the Chimpseyan and in the Tawatin and Haida carvings, curious analogies 

 to the sculptures of Mexico, Yucatan and Central America. This resemblance has been 

 noticed, independently, by many observers. 



Marchand, a French navigator who visited the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1*791, after 

 having recently seen the Mexican sculpture and paintings, formed the opinion that the 

 Haida works of art could be distinctly traced to Aztec origin.' He remarks of their paintings 

 and carvings : " The taste for ornament prevails in all the works of their hands ; their 

 canoes, their chests, and difierent little articles of furniture in use among them, are covered 

 with figures which might be taken for a species of hieroglyphics ; fishes and other animals, 

 heads of men, and various whimsical designs, are mingled and confounded in order to 

 compose a subject. It undoubtedly will not be expected that these figures should be per- 

 fectly regular and the proportions in them exactly observed, for here every man is a painter 

 and sculptor ; yet they are not deficient in a sort of elegance and perfection." 



The imitative faculty thus manifested so generally among a people still in the con- 

 dition of savage life, shows itself no less strikingly in the modern clay-stone carvmgs 

 of objects of foreign introduction. The collection formed by the United States Exploring 

 Expedition, and largely augmented since, includes numerous carvings in which represen- 

 tations of log and frame houses, forts, boats, horses and firearms, are introduced ; and where 

 cords, pulleys, anchors, and other details copied from the shipping which freqixent the 

 coasts, furnish evidence of a practised eye, and considerable powers of imitation. To the 

 unfamiliar observer, the result presents, in many cases, a very arbitrary and even incongru- 

 ous jumble of miscellaneous details. But, most probably, the native designer had, in 

 every case, a special meaning, and even some specific incident in view. 



The interest awakened by such manifestations of observant accuracy and artistic skill 



' Marcband's Voyages, ii. 282. 



Sec. II., 18S5. 11. 



