mallert.) TRIBAL AND GENTILE DESIGNATIONS. 167 



Mattoal, of California, differ from other tribes in that the men tattoo. 

 " Their distinctive mark is a round blue spot in the center of the fore- 

 head." 



He adds : Among the Mattoal — 



The women tattoo pretty much all over their faces. 



In respect to this matter of tattooing there is a theory entertained by some old 

 pioneers which may be worth the men1 ion. They bold that the reason why the women 

 alone tattoo in all other tribes is that in case they are taken captives their own peo- 

 ple may be able to recognize them when there comes an opportunity of ransom. 

 There are two facts which give some color of probability to this reasoning. One is 

 that the California Indians are rent into such infinitesimal divisions, any one of which 

 may be arrayed in deadly fend against another at any moment, that the slight differ- 

 ences in their dialects would not suffice to distinguish the captive squaws. A second 

 is that the squaws almost never attempt any ornamental tattooing, but adhere closely 

 to the plain regulation mark of the. tribe. 



Paul Marcoy, in Travels in South America, N. Y., 1875, Vol. II, page 

 353, says of the Passes, Yuris, Barrel, and Chumanas, of Brazil, that 

 they mark their faces (in tattoo) with the totem or emblem of the nation 

 to which they belong. It is possible at a few steps distant to distinguish 

 one nation from another. 



GENTILE OR CLAN DESIGNATIONS. 



Rev. J. Owen Dorsey reports of the Osages that all the old men who 

 have beeu distinguished in war are paiuted with the decorations of their 

 respective gentes. That of the Tsiou wactake is as follows : The face is 

 first whitened all over with white clay; then a red spot is made on the 

 forehead, and the lower part of the face is reddened ; then with the 

 Angers the man scrapes off the white clay, forming the dark figures, by 

 letting the natural color of the face show through. 



In Schoolcraft, V, 73, 74, it is stated that by totemic marks the various 

 families of the Ojibwa denote their affiliation. A guardian spirit has 

 been selected by the progenitor of a family from some object in the 

 zoological chain. The representative device of this is called the totem. 

 A warrior's totem never wants honors in their reminiscences, and the 

 mark is put on his grave-post, or adjedatig, when he is dead. In his 

 funeral pictograph he invariably sinks his personal name in that of his 

 totem or family name. These marks are, in one sense, the surname of 

 the clan. The personal name is not indicative of an Indian's totem. 



The same custom, according to Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, prevails among 

 the Omahas ; and with the exception of that portion which relates to 

 the drawing of the totemic mark upon the grave post the above remarks 

 apply also to the Dakotas, of Northern Dakota, according to the observa- 

 tions of Dr. Hoffman. The Pueblos, remarked Mr. James Stevenson in 

 a conversation with the writer, depict the gens totems upon their vari- 



