FACULTY IN ABORIGINAL RACKS. 105 



rahi/a/onhs, " au engraver ; " ahyekonteke, " to paint ; " rakorUeks, " a jiainter ; " shakoi/a/arha, 

 " an artist ;" ralikarafalikwas, " a carver;" raleanakcrahlha, " a modeller," or " one who models 

 figures in clay." In the Iroquois version of the " G-osjjel of St. John," Chap. VIII. verse 6, 

 reads thus : Nok (anon ne lesos rvdthadsake eh/ake nok rasmmsake (more correctly rnsnonkeiili) 

 wurate waliiaton oniuentsiake, lit. " But instead Jesns bent low^ and with hand tised, wrote," or 

 " engraved, on the earth." The version of the second commandment in the Mohawk Prayer 

 Book affords another illustration, in the holophrasm axadutyaghdoenihseroen/jea. It is com- 

 pounded OÎ nhsonnhjon, "make;" ahsadadonnyen, "to make for yourself;" kayadonnihsera, 

 "an image" or "doll." Toghsa asadati/aghdoeniliseroenyea, shekonh othenouh taoesakyalayerea 

 nene enekea karotihyakouh, neteas eghtake oiighweatsyukonh, etc., lit. " Do not make au image or 

 idol for yourself, even anything like above in the sky, nor below in the earth," etc. 



The word kaiaia, or oiata, as already noted, signifies "a living thing, person," or 

 " body ;" kakonsd or okoma, is the " face" or " visage ;" and from those come many derivatives. 

 Bruyas gives ^'■rt«/^«, "a living thing ;" gai<dare [or kaùUare) "image," and as a verb, "to 

 paint." There is also gaiaionni, " a doll" or " puppet," i.e. " a made person," from o?ato"and 

 konnis, " to make." From tlie same root we may probably derive kialon, " to write," as in 

 the Iroquois gospels, wahaiatun, " wrote ;" knhia/.on, " it is written," etc. The original mean- 

 ing was, no doubt, picture-writing, i.e. making images of things. lu the old Onondaga 

 dictionary of the Jesuit Fathers is the word kiatoimion, " I keep writing." The same 

 authority also gives guianatonh, {kianatonh) " I paint," apparently from another root, oiana 

 (kai(mn) " track, walk, gait," etc., which has many deriAi-atives. In previous remarks on 

 the main subject of this paper, the development of the artistic faculty has been noted as. 

 in many cases, an exceptional manifestation of intellectual activity, alike in ancient and 

 modern barbarous races. The striking contrast between the richly fluent forms of the 

 language, and the infantile condition of this people in relation to so much else, including 

 metallurgy, and the application of the arts generally to the practical requirements of life, 

 furuih^hes a no less interesting illustration of intellectual development fostered by special 

 influences in another direction. The habitual practice of oratory made the Iroc^uois acute 

 reasoners ; and their language aboiinds in abstract terms to a degree altogether surprising 

 in an uncivilized race. The purposes of the rhetorician also encouraged the tropical use 

 of literal terms. It is not, therefore, difficult to understand how the primary sense of the 

 verb "to track" or "trace out" should ultimately yield the meaning of "drawing" or 

 " sketching," and so finally of "painting." 



Knyndareh, or kyadareh, signifies "a body or form m," e.g. " in a frame" or "group ;" 

 kyadiirastmdi, on the other hand, implies "a body" or " form transferred on to something," 

 e.g., a board or canvas. The latter is therefore the more expressive and correct term to use 

 for drawing or painting, and is here given as an example of the Mohawk verb, " to draw." 

 It affords some illustration of the power of the language to express, with grammatical 

 nicety of detail, the requisite distinctive forms of variation, in I'elation to the practice of 

 drawing or painting as an art. 



Sec. II., 18H5. 14. 



