\ 



150 ANIMAL CAEVIN6S. 



To carry tlie imitative idea farther and to suggest, as has been done by 

 writers, that the carver of the Mound-Building epoch sat down to his 

 woi'k with the animal or a model of it before him, as does the accurate 

 zoological artist of our own day, is wholly insupported by evidence de- 

 rivable from the carvings themselves, and is of too imaginative a char- 

 acter to be entertained. By the above remarks as to the lack of spe- 

 cific resembliiuces in the animal carvings it is not intended to denj' that 

 some of them have been executed with a considerable degree of skill 

 and spirit as well as, within certain limitations heretofore expressed, 

 fidelity to nature. Taking them as a whole it can perhaps be asserted 

 that they have been carved with a skill considerably above the general 

 average of attainments in art of our Indian tribes, but not above the 

 best efforts of individual tribes. 



That they will by no means bear the indiscriminate praise they have 

 received as works of art and as exact imitations of nature may be as- 

 serted with all confidence. 



PROBABLE TOXEMIC ORIGIN. 



With reference to the origin of these animal sculptures many writers 

 appear inclined to the view that they are purely decorative and orna- 

 mental in character, i. e., that they are attempts at close imitations of 

 nature in the sense demanded by high art, and that they owe their 

 origin to the artistic instinct alone. But there is much in their general 

 appearance that suggests they may have been totemic in origin, and 

 that whatever of ornamental character they may possess is of secondary 

 importance. 



With, perhaps, no exceptions, the JSorth American tribes practiced 

 totemism in one or other of its various forms, and, although it by no 

 means follows that all the carving and etchings of birds or animals by 

 these tribes are totems, yet it is undoubtedlj' true that the totemic idea 

 js traceable in no small majority of their artistic representations, what- 

 ever their form. As rather favoring the idea of the totemic meaning 

 of the carvings, it may be pointed out that a considerable number of 

 the recognizable birds and animals are precisely the ones known to 

 have beea used as totems by many tribes of Indians. The hawk, heron, 

 woodpecker, crow, beaver, otter, wild cat, squirrel, rattlesnake, and 

 others, have all figured largely in the totemic divisions of our North 

 American Indians. Their sacred nature too would enable us to under- 

 stand how naturally iiii)es would be selected as the medium for totemic 

 reiiresentations. It is also known to be a custom among Indian tribes 

 for individuals to carve out or etch their totems upon weapons and im- 

 plements of the more important and highly prized class, and a variety 

 of ideas, superstitious and other, are associated with the usage ; as, 



