malleky.J INSTRUMENTS FOR PAINTING AND TATTOOING. 49 



INSTRUMENTS FOR TATTOOING 



The Hidatsa say that formerly, when tattooing was practiced, sharp 

 pieces of bone were used for pricking' the skin. 



Tlic tribes of Oregon, Washington, and northern California used sharp 

 pieces of bone, thorns, and the dorsal spines of fish, though at present 

 needles are employed, as they are more effective and less painful, and 

 arc readily procured by purchase. 



Needles are used by the Klamath Indians, according to Mr. Gatschet. 



Rev. M. Hells reports (Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey II, p. 75) 

 that for tattooing tbe.Twana Indians use a needle and thread, blacken- 

 ing the thread with charcoal and drawing it under the skin as deeply 

 as they can bear it. 



Stephen Powers says (Coutrib. to N. A. Ethnol. III., p. 130) that tat- 

 tooing among the Yuki is done with pitch-pine soot, and a sharp-pointed 

 bone. After the designs have been traced on the skin the soot is rubbed 

 in dry. 



Paul Marcoy mentions iu his Travels in South America, N. Y., 1875, 

 Vol. II, 353, that the Passes, Yuris, Banes and Chumanas, of Brazil, 

 use a needle for tattooing. 



The following quotation is from Te lka a Maui, or New Zealand and 

 its Inhabitants, by Rev. Richard Taylor, London, 1870, pp. 320, 321: 



The substance generally used as coloring matter is the resin of the kauri or rimu, 

 which, when burut, is pounded and converted into a fine powder. 



The ahi or instrument used was a small chisel, made of the bone of an albatross, 

 very narrow and sharp, which was driven by means of a little mallet, lie mahoe, quite 

 through the skin, and sometimes completely through the cheek as well, in which case 

 when the person undergoing the operation took his pipe, the smoke found its way out 

 through the cuttings; the pain was excruciating, especially iu the more tender parts, 

 and caused dreadful swellings, only a small piece could be done at a time: the op- 

 erator held in his hand a piece of muka, tlax. dipped iu the pigment, which he drew 

 over the incision immediately it was made : the blood which flowed freely from the 

 wound was constantly wiped away with a bit of tlax; the pattern was first drawn 

 either with charcoal or scratched in with a sharp-pointed instrument. To tattoo a 

 person fully was therefore a work of time, and to atten pt to do too much at once en- 

 dangered life. I remember a poor porangi, or insane person, who, during the war, was 

 tattooed most unmercifully by some young scoundrels; the poor man's wounds were 

 so dreadfully inflamed, as to occasion his death : whilst any one was being operated 

 upon, all persons in the pa were tapn, until the termination of" the work, lest any evil 

 should befall him; to have fine tattooed faces, was the great ambition of young men. 

 both to render themselves attractive to the ladies, and conspicuous in war: for even if 

 killed by the enemy, whilst the heads of the untattooed were treated with indignity 

 and kicked on one side, those which were conspicuous by their beautiful nioko, were 

 carefully cut off, stuck on the turuturu, a pole with a cross on it, and then preserved: 

 all which was highly gratifying to the survivors, and the spirits of their late pos- 

 sessors. 



The person operated upon was stretched all his length on the ground, and to en- 

 courage him manfully to eudme the pain, songs were continually sung to him. 



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