BDLL. 30] 



GRASS HOUSE 



505 





Graphic delineations are most exten- 

 sively eniploj'ed by the tribes in pictog- 

 raphy (q. V. ),exampIesof which, engraved 

 or painted on rock surfaces, are found in 

 nearly every section of the country. Sim- 

 ilar work was executed by many of the 

 tribes on dressed skins, on birch-bark, and 

 on objects of wood, ivory, bone, horn, and 

 shell. Thedelineationof life forms in dec- 

 orative and symbolicart is hardly less uni- 

 versal than in simple pictography, and is 

 especially exemplified in tlie work of the 

 more advanced peoples, as the pottery 

 of the mound builders and Pueblos, the 

 utensils and the carvings of the tribes 

 of the N. Pacific coast, and ceremonial 

 costumes, and walls and floors of sacred 

 chambers among various tribes. The 

 graphic work of the Eskimo has a pecu- 

 liar interest, since it seems to have been 

 somewhat recently superposed upon an 

 earlier system in which simple geometric 

 figures predominated, and is much more 

 prevalent where these people have been 

 for a long time 

 in contact with 

 the whites, and 

 more especially 

 with the Atha- 

 pascan and other 

 Indian tribes 

 skilled in graph- 

 ic work (Hoff- 

 man ). A special 

 feature of the art 

 of the Eskimo is 

 the engraving of 

 hunting scenes 

 and exploits of 

 various kinds 

 onobjectsof ivo- 

 ry and bone — 

 works paralleled 

 among the Indian tribes in the S. by 

 such examples as the Thruston tablet 

 (Thruston, Holmes), the Davenport tab- 

 let (Farquharson), and the battle and 

 hunting scenes of the Plains tribes (Mal- 

 lery, Mooney). 



Skill in graphic work was highly re- 

 garded among many of the tribes, and the 

 artist took particular pride in his work, 

 and when especially successful l)ecame in 

 a sense professional. Usually decorative 

 designs were executed without pattern or 

 copy, and with much directness. The 

 most intricate patterns, applied to earth- 

 enware vessels and other objects, were 

 not sketched out but were di'awn at once, 

 and often with remarkable skill. Among 

 the N. W. coast tribes, however, patterns 

 were often cut out of cedar bark and 

 the conventional life forms worked in 

 their handsome blankets and capes were 

 drawn out full size on a pattern board. 

 The native artist did not draw directly 

 from nature, but kept in view rather the 

 presentation of the idea, delineating it in 



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■jf.ii^^i.^jti''"'^ 



OMAHA GRASS HOUSE IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION. 



the conventional form common to his 

 tribe. He might have been able to jiro- 

 duce a portrait, for example, but the de- 

 sirability of portraiture does not seem to 

 have occurred to him. He might have 

 delineated a species of animal with accu- 

 racy, but was apparently content to sug- 

 gest the particular su])ject of his thought 

 in a striking and forcible though conven- 

 tional manner. See Art, Basketry, Oima- 

 rnent, Painting, Pottery. 



Among the numerous authorities to be 

 consulted on this topic are Boas, Gush- 

 ing, Fewkes, Holmes, Mallery, Mooney, 

 Murdoch, Nelson, J. and M. G. Stevenson, 

 and Turner in Reps. B. A. E. ; Boas, Hoff- 

 man, Mason, and Niblack in Reps. Nat. 

 Mus. ; Dixon, Kroeber, Matthews, Swan- 

 ton, Wissler, and others in Memoirs and 

 Bulletins Am. ]\Ius. Nat. Hist. ; Farquhar- 

 son in Proc. Davenport Acad. Sci., n,1877- 

 1880; Grosse, Beginnings of Art, 1897; 

 Haddon, Evolution in Art, 1895; Kroeber 

 in Am. Anthrop., n. s., in, 1901; Moore, 

 various memoirs 

 in Jour. Acad. 

 Xat. Sci. Phila., 

 1894-1 905; 

 Schoolcraft, Ind. 

 Tribes, i-vi, 

 1851-57; Thrus- 

 ton, Antiq. of 

 Tenn., 1897; va- 

 rious authors in 

 the ethnological 

 and archeologic- 

 al journals. 



(w. H. H.) 

 Grass house. 

 A dwelling hav- 

 ing the shape of 

 an old-fashioned 

 beehive, often 

 described by Spanish and French travel- 

 ers of the 16th and 17th centuries, which 

 was the typical habitation of the Gaddoan 

 tribes, except the Pawnee and Arikara. 

 Its construction was begun l)y drawing a 

 circle on the ground, and on the outline 

 setting a number of crotched posts, in 

 which beams were laid. Against these, 

 poles were set very closely in a row so as 

 to lean inward; these in turn were laced 

 with Avillow rods and their tops brought 

 together and securely fastened so as to 

 form a peak. Over this frame a heavy 

 thatch of grass was laid and bound down 

 by slender rods, and at each point where 

 the rods joined an ornamental tuft |0f 

 grass was tied. Two poles, laid at right 

 angles, jutting out in four projecting 

 points, were fastened to the apex of the 

 roof, and over the center, where they 

 crossed, rose a spire, 2 ft high or more, 

 made of bunches of grass. Four doors, 

 opening to each point of the compass, 

 were formerly made, but now, except 

 when the house is to be used for ceremo- 





