738 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
struction being portrayed. But the eagle when alone meant simply 
power, as did the hawk in Egypt. The Scandinavians posited the 
eagle on the head of their god Thor and the bull on his breast to ex- 
press a similar union of attributes. 
SECTION 4. 
ARTISTIC SKILL AND METHODS. 
Dr. Andree (d), in Das Zeichnen bei den Naturvolkern, makes the 
following remarks, translated with condensation : 
The great ability of the Eskimo and their southern neighbors, the natives of north- 
west America (Koliushes, Thlinkits, etc.), in representative art is well known and 
needs no further insisting. Among all primitive peoples they have made the greatest 
advances in the conventionalization of figures, which indicates long practice in paint- 
ing. The totem figures, carved both in stone and in wood and tattooed on the body, 
show severe conventionalization and have perfect heraldic value. Ismailof, one of 
the earliest Russian explorers that came in contact with the Koliushes, relates that 
European paintings and drawings did not strike them with the least awe. Whena 
chief was shown portraits of the Russian imperial family he manifested no aston- 
ishment. That chief was accompanied by his painter, who examined everything 
very closely, in order to paint it afterward. He was able in particular ‘to paint 
all manner of objects on wooden tablets and other material (leather),” using blue 
iron earth, iron ocher, colored clays, and other mineral colors. Among these peo-_ 
ples, too, painting is employed as a substitute for writing, in order to record mem- 
orable things. 
Far below the artistic achievements of the Eskimo and of the natives of the 
American northwest (Haida, Thlinkit, etc.) are those of the redskins east of the Rocky 
mountains. They are, however, very productive in figure drawing; nay, that art 
has advanced to a kind of picture writing, which, it is true, is not distinguished by 
artistic finish. That “fling” which, depending on good observation of nature, ap- 
pears in the drawings of Australians, Bushmen, ete., and the good characterization of 
the figures, are lacking among the Indians; and though, as is frequently the case, 
their animals are better represented than the men, yet they can not compare with 
the animal figures of the Eskimo or Bushmen. Dr. Capitan, who had drawings 
made by the Omahas shown in 1883 in the Jardin d’acclimatation of Paris, says con- 
cerning them: ‘It is singular to note that by the side of very rudimentary repre- 
sentations of human figures the pictures of horses are drawn with a certain degree 
of correctness. If the Indians take pains in anything it is in the painting of their 
bufialo skins, which are often worn as mantles. On red-brown ground are seen 
black figures, especially of animals; on others, on white ground, the heroic deeds 
and life events of distinguished Indians, represented in black or in other colors. 
You see the wounded enemies, the loss of blood, the killed and the captives, stolen 
horses, all executed in the peculiar manner of an art of painting still in the stage of 
infaney, with earth colors black, red, green, and yellow. Almost all the Missouri 
tribes practice painting on buffalo skins; the most skillful are the Pawnees, Man- 
dans, Minitaris, and Crows. Among the Mandans, Wied met individuals who pos- 
sessed ‘‘a very decided talent” for drawing. : 
The same author, in the same connection, reasserts the old statement 
that there is an established difference in artistic capacity between the 
so-called mound-builders and the present Indians, so great that it 
either shows a genetic difference between them or that the Indians had 
degenerated in that respect. This statement is denied by the Bureau 
