TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 793 



sky, or resting on the mountains, and the ability shown in map-drawing, the 

 course of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, the lake expansions, and the tributary 

 streams being properly indicated. These Indians readily recognise on a map the 

 chief topographical features of their country. Of 1 88 figures of animals, birds, 

 reptiles, lish, &c., all but two (both owls) are in profile, while of thirty-five human 

 figures, seven only are in profile, and of these four are by one Indian and three by 

 another. Of the animal figures eighty-three distinctly face the right, ninety-two 

 the leit ; of the seven human profiles two are right, five left. The characteristic 

 attitudes of such creatures as the buffalo, the bear, tlie coyote, the rabbit, the otter, 

 the beaver, the horse, squirrel, salmon, swallow, humming-bird, woodpecker, owl, 

 are represented, and the distinctive marks of the male and female horned animals, 

 tails and beaks of birds, and the like denoted. The same is the case with the 

 figures representing men and women of various Indian tribes. 



As the drawings represent the eflbrts of Indians of various ages from eighteen 

 to sixty, there is a great range of difference in the merit of the productions, some, 

 especially those of the oldest artist, being made almost to caricature, while some 

 drawings of buffaloes, bears, horses, and especially steamboats by the younger 

 Indians evidence marked ability, and compare favourably with the efibrts of very 

 many adult whites. In complexity the drawings range from the simple delinea- 

 tion of a fish-hook or an arrow-point to the depicting of a steamboat at anchor in 

 the river, or a buflalo hunt — this last a remarkable piece of work — and a gambling- 

 scene, in the delineation of which conventionalising appears. Another interesting 

 picture is that of a war-dance ; and it may be worth noting here that when the 

 old Indian artist who drew it had concluded his work the force of association 

 was too much for him, and holding the paper aloft in his hand he exemplified for 

 a few moments what the picture represents. 



The marked abilities of the Kootenays in drawing go with their noticeably 

 high mental character, which has been noted by all observers from De Smet to the 

 present time. As compared with the drawings of children these Indian pictures 

 emphasise the difi"erence between the art of primitive races, with their sharp 

 observation gift, and the self-scribblings, imperfect copj'ings, and crude imagininga. 

 With the savage art is beginning to be an art; with tbe child it lingers long as an 

 amusement. 



A Rock Inscription on Great Central Lake, Vancouver Island. 

 By J. W. MacKay. 



7. Blackfoot Womanhood, By Rev. John Maclean, M.A., Ph.D. 



The imperfection of woman and her position of inferiority are emphasised in 

 the legends of the Blackfeet. Girls are trained by the women in the duties of 

 camp life. The loose style of dress worn begets freedom of motion, and intiuences 

 the physical form. The outdoor life induces health, yet early marriage, harsh 

 treatment, the use of tobacco, the smoke of the lodges, and the lack of ambition 

 bring premature physical and mental decay. The women prepared the hides of 

 the bufialo for sale, pitched the lodges and took them down, and the first wife 

 retained supremacy in the lodge. The internal arrangements of all the lodges are 

 similar. Log houses have replaced the lodges of buflalo-skin since the people 

 settled on reservations and the buffalo has disappeared. Civilisation has intro- 

 duced cooking utensils and modified methods of coolcing materially affecting the 

 health of the people. The women gather the berries, pound them between stones, 

 and put them up in skin-bags for winter use. They wash themselves by filling 

 their mouths with water, squirting it into their hands, and rubbing their faces 

 and hair with their hands. Striking the hair with the hands supplies the place 

 of a comb. The artistic skill of the women is shown in making moccasins, tire- 

 bags, leggings, and leather shirts, the designs being wrought with beads, dyed 

 porcupine quills, and silk thread of various colours. The Blackfoot women are 



