284 



AX ANALYSIS OF THE 



In some parts of the world art may have arisen from the making of clay images, in 

 others from outline di'awings. 



Section IY. The Idealistic. Without entering into disputations of the origin 

 of the art-form, it is more to our purpose to analyze those designs which have origi- 

 nated from models found in nature. The art-record of an autocthonous race — 

 particularly that including the manner of representing animals and plants — is a fair 

 subject for study, entirely apart fi'om the origin or meaning of the outlines, or the 

 bearings they may have on ethnological questions. 



It will at once occur to the student that the natural productions of a country be- 

 ing given, we are in the best position possible to study its art. But such a proposition 

 can have a very limited application. It is true that with an isolated people the 

 images must of necessity be confined to the fauna and flora of the surrounding- 

 region ; but if we are correct in the statement that a race with whom the artistic 

 faculties are as yet dormant, who are driven (if we may so express it) to etchings or 

 paintings by the combined forces of superstition and hunger, will secure but very 

 general likenesses in their results. We may be satisfied, indeed, if we can assign even 

 as much as the class to which the animal represented may belong. A fish, a serpent, a 

 bii'd, a quadruped — these are seen, and was probably all that was intended. I^^^o dis- 

 tinction could be expected between serpents and sei'pent-like fishes, or between 

 cetaceans and fishes. But wdien the shape is especially striking we are enabled to 

 identify it more exactly. The kangaroo,* the manatee,f turtle,* shark,* trepang,* and 

 star fish,* have been repeatedly delineated by savages. Acquaintance with the 

 remains of more enlightened races, such as the Aztecs, Incarians, Egyptians and 

 Eastern Asians, yield numbers of highly specialized shapes which can with ease be 

 assigned to the genus and even to the species intended. In illustration of this remark 

 we may refer the student to the box-lid of Incarian designing figured by Dupaix.J 

 Hei'C can be I'ecognized, through the veil of convcutionalism shrouding many of the 

 representations, figures of the lizard, alligator, capuchin monkey, opossum (Fig. 

 20) and bustard (Fig. 2). The Aztecs|| although less noted for their exactness of 

 rendition, make the distinction between the tortoise and the turtle ; and are particular 

 in preserving the carination upon the scales of the rattlesnake. It must be remembered, 

 however, that this people used the same character to form the shaft of the feather in their 



* Lubbock, loc. cit., 347. 



f Prehistoiic Man, D;inl. Wilson, London, 1802. 



X King.sborough Coll., IV. See also Dupaix, 2, 1, 4 ; Voy. Pittoresque et Archaeologiqiie dans la Province 

 d'Yucatan pendant 1834 et 1836, F. de Waldeck, Paris, 1838, pi. xi. 



il Kingsborough, Ibid. IV, Fig. 33. 



