209 
of Euroiiean craftsmen or of Indians thoroughly trained in the tradi- 
tional arts of Frencli Canadad 
The old painting of the eastern Indians is as little known as their 
sculpture, although some early writers refer to it casually. “ They 
often curry both sides of elk skin, like our buff skin, then vai'iegate 
it very prettily with paint put on in a lace-like pattern.’’- Another 
author speaks of “ a mixture of different colours which they use for 
daubing the face, or for representing upon their garments certain 
figures of wild beasts, birds, and other animals such as are supplied 
by their imaginations.”'^ CJeometric designs were apparently no less 
common than realistic, and both were often deeply tinged with 
religious symbolism. The Indians of the Maritime Provinces, per- 
haps also of eastern Quebec and Labrador, seem to have jireferred 
curved lines in their paintings, like tlieir Algonkian neighbours to the 
south, whereas the Ojibwa and Cree employefl the angular patterns 
so characteristic of the tribes on the plains. All these Indians have 
now practically abandoned the ancient styles, employing European 
designs in what little painting still survives. 
On the plains there was no sculpture worthy of mention, and 
the realistic paintings on rol)es aiul tents were pictorial recoixls rather 
than expressions of an artistic impulse. Geometric figures on rawhide 
bags (parfieches) showed considerable skill in line-drawing and often 
jn’oduced pleasing effects, but their unceasing repetition of straight 
lines, zigzags, triangles, anti rectangles hatl the taint of monotony. 
The only Indians, indeed, who excelled in either sculi^ture or painting 
were the natives on the Pacific coast, where both these arts attained 
an unexpected brilliance. 
The newly awakened interest in the handicrafts of primitive 
peoples has directed considerable attention to this coast, partly 
because of the high quality of the carving and painting, still more, 
perhaps, because of its bizarreness and originality. While it is quite 
common to find a high conv^entionalization of realistic art in different 
parts of the world, these conventionalizations have nowhere taken 
exactly the same form, or developed the same peculiar style, as 
among the Indians of British Columbia. It was a style that origin- 
1 .Some of these cradle-l'oanls were mriniifaetin'ed for the Indians at St. Rejris. Beaueliamp, W. m.: 
*' .\bontrinal Use of Wood in New York”; Bull. 89, N.Y. St. Mus., p, 168 (.Albany, 1905). 
2 “ Jesuit Relations,’’ vol. iii, p. 75. 
3 Le Clereq ■ Op. cit., p. 95. 
