Part 9
Fig. 25 represents a man. On his breast is the cod (kahatta) split from the head to the tail and laid open; on each thigh is the octopus (noo), and below each knee is the frog (flkamkostan).
Figure 26 represents a woman. On her breast is the head with forepaws of the beaver (tsching); on each shoulder is the head of the eagle or thunder-bird (skamskwin); on each arm, extending to and covering the back of the hand, is the halibut (hargo); on the right leg is the sculpin (kull); on the left leg is the frog (flkamkostan).
Figure 27 is a woman with the bear’s head (hoorts) on her breast. On each shoulder is the eagle’s head, and on her arms and legs are figures of the bear.
Figure 28 shows the back of a man with the wolf (wasko) split in halves and tattooed between his shoulders, which is shown enlarged in Figure 33. Wasko is a mythological being of the wolf species similar to the chu-chu-hmexl of the Makah Indians, an antediluvian demon supposed to live in the mountains.
The skulpin on the right leg of the woman in Figure 26 is shown enlarged in Figure 29; the frog on the left leg in Figure 30.
The codfish on the man in Figure 25 is shown enlarged in Figure 31, the octopus or squid in Figure 32.
As the Haidas, both men and women, are very light colored, some of the latter, full blooded Indians too, having their skins as fair as Europeans, the tattoo marks show very distinct. These sketches are not intended as portraits of persons, but simply to illustrate the positions of the various tattoo marks. To enter into a detailed description would require more space and study than is convenient at this time. Enough is given, it is hoped, to convey to you an idea of this interesting subject, which will require much study to properly elaborate, or understand.
This tattooing is not all done at one time nor is it every one who can tattoo. Certain ones, almost always men, have a natural gift which enables them to excel in this kind of work. One of the young chiefs, named Geneskelos, was the best designer I knew, and ranked among his tribe as a tattooer. He belonged to Laskeek village on the east side of Moresby’s Island, one of the Queen Charlotte group. I employed him to decorate the great canoe which I sent to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, for the National Museum. I was with him a great deal of the time both at Victoria and Port Townsend. He had a little sketch book in which he had traced designs for tattooing, which he gave to me. He subsequently died in Victoria of small-pox, soon after he had finished decorating the canoe.
He told me the plan he adopted was first to draw the design carefully on the person with some dark pigment, then prick it in with needles and then rub over the wound with some more coloring matter till it acquired the proper hue. He had a variety of instruments composed of needles tied neatly to sticks. His favorite one was a flat strip of ivory or bone, to which he had firmly tied five or six needles, with their points projecting beyond the end just far enough to raise the skin without inflicting a dangerous wound, but these needle points stuck out quite sufficiently to make the operation very painful, and although he applied some substance to deaden the sensation of the skin, yet the effect was on some to make them quite sick for a few days; consequently the whole process of tattooing was not done at one time. As this tattooing is a mark of honor, it is generally done at or just prior to a Tomanawos performance and at the time of raising the heraldic columns in front of the chief’s houses. The tattooing is done in open lodge and is witnessed by the company assembled. Sometimes it takes several years before all the tattooing is done, but when completed and the person well ornamented, then they are happy and can take their seats among the elders.
It is an interesting question, and one worthy of careful and patient investigation, Why is it that the Haida Nation alone of all the coast tribes tattoo their persons to such an extent, and how they acquire the art of carving columns which bear such striking similarity to carving in wood and stone by the ancient inhabitants of Central America, as shown by drawings in Bancroft’s fourth volume of Native Races and in Habel’s investigation in Central and South America?
Some of these idols in design, particularly on pages 40 to 58, and notably on pages 49-50 (Bancroft, _op. cit._), are very like some small carvings I have in Port Townsend which I received from Alaska, showing a similarity of idea which could not be the result of an accident.
The tattoo marks, the carvings, and heraldic designs of the Haida are an exceedingly interesting study, and I hope what I have thus hastily and imperfectly written may be the means of awakening an interest to have those questions scientifically discussed, for they seem to me to point to a key which may unlock the mystery which for so many ages has kept us from the knowledge of the origin of the Pacific tribes.
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TATTOOING IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.
The following quotations and illustrations of tattooing in the islands of the Pacific Ocean are presented for comparison, and in hopes that the discussion of the subject may afford further information upon the significance of tattoo marks. It is by no means probable that they were originally altogether or chiefly for ornamentation.
The accompanying illustration, Figure 34, is taken from a bone obtained from a mound in New Zealand, by Mr. I. C. Russell, of the United States Geological Survey, several years ago. Mr. Russell says that the Maori formerly tattooed the bones of enemies, though the custom now seems to have been abandoned. The work consists of sharp, shallow lines, as if made with a sharp-pointed steel instrument, into which some blackish pigment has been rubbed, filling up some of the markings, while in others scarcely a trace remains.
In connection with the use of the tattoo marks as reproduced on artificial objects see also, Figure 37, page 76, and Figure 116, page 200.
The following is extracted from Te Ika a Maui, or New Zealand and its inhabitants, by Rev. Richard Taylor, London, 1870, p. 320, etc.
Before they went to fight, the youth were accustomed to mark their countenance with charcoal in different lines, and their traditions state that this was the beginning of the tattoo, for their wars became so continuous, that to save the trouble of thus constantly painting the face, they made the lines permanent by the moko; it is however a question whether it did not arise from a different cause; formerly the grand mass of men who went to fight were the black slaves, and when they fought side by side with their lighter colored masters, the latter on those occasions used charcoal to make it appear they were all one.
Whilst the males had every part of the face tattooed, and the thighs as well, the females had chiefly the chin and the lips, although occasionally they also had their thighs and breasts, with a few smaller marks on different parts of the body as well. There were regular rules for tattooing, and the artist always went systematically to work, beginning at one spot and gradually proceeding to another, each particular part having its distinguishing name. Thus,
1. _Te kawe_, which are four lines on each side of the chin. 2. _Te pukawae_, six lines on the chin. 3. _Nga rere hupe_, the lines below the nostrils, six in number. 4. _Nga kohiri_, a curved line on the cheek-bone. 5. _Nga koroaha_, lines between the cheek-bone and ear. 6. _Nga wakarakau_, lines below the former. 7. _Nga pongiangia_, the lines on each side of the lower extremity of the nose. 8. _Nga pae tarewa_, the lines on the cheek-bone. 9. _Nga rerepi_, and _Nga ngatarewa_, lines on the bridge of the nose. 10. _Nga tiwana_, four lines on the forehead. 11. _Nga rewha_, three lines below the eyebrows. 12. _Nga titi_, lines on the center of the forehead. 13. _Ipu rangi_, lines above the former. 14. _Te tonokai_, the general names for the lines on the forehead. 15. _He ngutu pu rua_, both lips tattooed. 16. _Te rape_, the higher part of the thighs. 17. _Te paki paki_, the tattooing on the seat. 18. _Te paki turi_, the lower thigh. 19. _Nga tata_, the adjoining part.
The following are female tattoos:--
1. _Taki taki_, lines from the breast to the navel. 2. _Hope hope_, the lines on the thighs. 3. _Waka te he_, the lines on the chin.
Figure 35 is a copy of a tattooed head carved by Hongi, and also of the tattooing on a woman’s chin, taken from the work last quoted.
Figure 36 is a copy of a photograph obtained in New Zealand by Mr. Russell. It shows tattooing upon the chin.
Two beautifully tattooed heads are in the collection of the Army Medical Museum at Washington, D. C., of which illustrations are presented in the accompanying Plate, III. No history of these heads can be obtained. The skin is almost perfect, and has become much brighter in tint than the original color. The tattooing is a blue black, and in certain lights becomes almost bright indigo. In many of the markings there appear slight grooves, which add greatly to the general ornamentation, breaking the monotony of usually plain surfaces. Whether any mechanical work was performed upon the heads after death is not positively known, though from the general appearance of the work it would be suggested that the sharp creases or grooves was done subsequent to the death of the individual. The tattooing shows sub-cutaneous coloring, which indicates that at least part of the ornamentation was done in life.
Figure 37 is an illustration from Te Ika a Maui, etc., _op. cit._, facing page 378. It shows the “grave of an Australian native, with his name, rank, tribe, etc., cut in hieroglyphics on the trees,” which “hieroglyphics” are supposed to be connected with his tattoo marks.
Mr. I. C. Russell, in his sketch of New Zealand, published in the American Naturalist, Volume XIII, p. 72, February, 1879, remarks, that the desire of the Maori for ornament is so great that they covered their features with tattooing, transferring indelibly to their faces complicated patterns of curved and spiral lines, similar to the designs with which they decorated their canoes and their houses.
In Mangaia, of the Hervey Group, the tattoo is said to be in imitation of the stripes on the two kinds of fish, avini and paoro, the color of which is blue. The legend of this is kept in the song of Ina´. See Myths and songs from the South Pacific, London, 1876, p. 94.
Mr. Everard F. im Thurn, in his work previously cited, pages 195-’96 among the Indians of Guiana, says:
Painting the body is the simplest mode of adornment. Tattooing or any other permanent interference with the surface of the skin by way of ornament is practiced only to a very limited extent by the Indians; is used, in fact, only to produce the small distinctive tribal mark which many of them bear at the corners of their mouths or on their arms. It is true that an adult Indian is hardly to be found on whose thighs and arms, or on other parts of whose body, are not a greater or less number of indelibly incised straight lines; but these are scars originally made for surgical, not ornamental purposes.
The following extracts are taken from Samoa, by George Turner, LL.D., London, 1884:
Page 55. Taema and Tilafainga, or Tila the _sportive_, were the goddesses of the tattooers. They swam from Fiji to introduce the craft to Samoa, and on leaving Fiji were commissioned to sing all the way, “Tattoo the women, but not the men.” They got muddled over it in the long journey, and arrived at Samoa singing, “Tattoo the _men_ and not the women.” And hence the universal exercise of the blackening art on the men rather than the women.
Page 88. “Herodotus found among the Thracians that the barbarians could be exceedingly foppish after their fashion. The man who was not tattooed among them was not respected.” It was the same in Samoa. Until a young man was tattooed, he was considered in his minority. He could not think of marriage, and he was constantly exposed to taunts and ridicule, as being poor and of low birth, and as having no right to speak in the society of men. But as soon as he was tattooed he passed into his majority, and considered himself entitled to the respect and privileges of mature years. When a youth, therefore, reached the age of sixteen, he and his friends were all anxiety that he should be tattooed. He was then on the outlook for the tattooing of some young chief with whom he might unite. On these occasions, six or a dozen young men would be tattooed at one time; and for these there might be four or five tattooers employed.
Tattooing is still kept up to some extent, and is a regular profession, just as house-building, and well paid. The custom is traced to Taēmā and Tilafainga; and they were worshipped by the tattooers as the presiding deities of their craft.
The instrument used in the operation is an oblong piece of human bone (_os ilium_), about an inch and a half broad and two inches long. A time of war and slaughter was a harvest for the tattooers to get a supply of instruments. The one end is cut like a small-toothed comb, and the other is fastened to a piece of cane, and looks like a little serrated adze. They dip it into a mixture of candle-nut ashes and water, and, tapping it with a little mallet, it sinks into the skin, and in this way they puncture the whole surface over which the tattooing extends. The greater part of the body, from the waist down to the knee is covered with it, variegated here and there with neat regular stripes of the untattooed skin, which when they are well oiled, make them appear in the distance as if they had on black silk knee-breeches. Behrens, in describing these natives in his narrative of Roggewein’s voyage of 1772, says: “They were clothed from the waist downwards with fringes and a kind of silken stuff artificially wrought.” A nearer inspection would have shown that the fringes were a bunch of red _ti_ leaves (_Dracæna terminalis_) glistening with cocoa-nut oil, and the “kind of silken stuff,” the tattooing just described. As it extends over such a large surface the operation is a tedious and painful affair. After smarting and bleeding for awhile under the hands of the tattooers, the patience of the youth is exhausted. They then let him rest and heal for a time, and, before returning to him again, do a little piece on each of the party. In two or three months the whole is completed. The friends of the young men are all the while in attendance with food. They also bring quantities of fine mats and native cloth, as the hire of the tattooers; connected with them, too, are many waiting on for a share in the food and property.
Among the fellahs, as well as among the laboring people of the cities, the women tattoo their chin, their forehead, the middle of the breast, a portion of their hands and arms, as well as feet, with indelible marks of blue and green. In Upper Egypt most females puncture their lips to give them a dark bluish hue. See Featherman, Social Hist. of the Races of Mankind, V, 1881, p. 545.
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Professor Brauns, of Halle, reports (Science, III, No. 50, p. 69) that among the Ainos of Yazo the women tattoo their chins to imitate the beards of the men.
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The antiquity of tattooing in the eastern hemisphere is well established. With reference to the Hebrews, and the tribes surrounding them, the following Biblical texts may be in point:
“Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.” Lev., XIX, 28.
* * * “Though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair.” Jer., IV. 30.
ARTIFICIAL OBJECTS.
The objects of this character, on which pictographs are found, may be mentioned as follows:
1. Lances. 2. Arrows. 3. Shields. 4. Canoes. 5. Paddles. 6. Habitations. 7. Utensils. 8. Pottery. 9. Sinews or thread. 10. Artificial beads.
It is believed that examples showing the use of each of these objects are presented in various parts of the present paper, but the following do not appear under other headings:
Many of the California tribes are expert workers in grass and roots in the manufacture of baskets, upon which designs are frequently worked, other than mere ornamentation, in geometric forms. The Yokuts, at Tule River Agency, in the southeastern part of the State, frequently incorporate various forms of the human body, in which the arms are suspended at the sides of the body with the hands directed outward to either side. Above the head is a heavy horizontal line. In the manufacture of these vessels grass is taken, carefully cleaned, and soaked, so as to become smooth and uniform in size.
Among the Thlinkit, boats as well as paddles are ornamented with painted figures, and the family coat of arms. See Bancroft’s Native Races, etc., I, 106.
There is no need to give evidence concerning the designs upon pottery, after the numerous illustrations in the Second Annual Report of this Bureau, from Zuñi, etc.
MNEMONIC.
This has been the most apparent, and probably the most ancient, purpose for which pictographs have been made. It commenced by the use of material objects which afterwards were reproduced graphically in paintings, etchings, and carvings.
In the present paper many examples appear of objects known to have been so used, the graphic representations of which, made with the same purpose, are explained by knowledge of the fact. Other instances are mentioned as connected with the evolution of pictographs, and possibly to interpret some of the latter which are not yet understood.
The quipu of the Peruvians is one of the most instructive devices for the general aid of memory, and as applicable to a variety of subjects, also having value for comparison with and reference to all other objects of this character. A good account of the quipu, quoted from Travels in Peru, during the years 1838-1842, * * by Dr. J. J. von Tschudi [Wiley and Putnam’s Library, Vols. XCIII-XCIV.], New York, 1847, Pt. II, pp. 344, 345, is as follows:
THE QUIPU OF THE PERUVIANS.
The ancient Peruvians had no manuscript characters for single sounds; but they had a method by which they composed words and incorporated ideas. This method consisted in the dexterous intertwining of knots on strings, so as to render them auxiliaries to the memory. The instrument consisting of these strings and knots was called the QUIPU. It was composed of one thick head or top string, to which, at certain distances, thinner ones were fastened. The top string was much thicker than these pendent strings, and consisted of two doubly twisted threads, over which two single threads were wound. The branches, if I may apply the term to these pendent strings, were fastened to the top ones by a single loop; the knots were made in the pendent strings, and were either single or manifold. The length of the strings used in making the quipu were various. The transverse or top string often measures several yards, and sometimes only a foot long; the branches are seldom more than two feet long, and in general they are much shorter.
The strings were often of different colors; each having its own particular signification. The color for soldiers was red; for gold, yellow; for silver, white; for corn, green, &c. This writing by knots was especially employed for numerical and statistical tables; each single knot representing ten; each double knot stood for one hundred; each triple knot for one thousand, &c.; two single knots standing together made twenty; and two double knots, two hundred.
This method of calculation is still practiced by the shepherds of the Puna. They explained it to me, and I could, with very little trouble, construe their quipus. On the first branch or string they usually place the numbers of the bulls; on the second, that of the cows; the latter being classed into those which were milked, and those which were not milked; on the next string were numbered the calves, according to their ages and sizes. Then came the sheep, in several subdivisions. Next followed the number of foxes killed, the quantity of salt consumed, and, finally, the cattle that had been slaughtered. Other quipus showed the produce of the herds in milk, cheese, wool, &c. Each list was distinguished by a particular color, or by some peculiarity in the twisting of the string.
In this manner the ancient Peruvians kept the accounts of their army. On one string were numbered the soldiers armed with slings; on another, the spearmen; on a third, those who carried clubs, &c. In the same manner the military reports were prepared. In every town some expert men were appointed to tie the knots of the quipu, and to explain them. These men were called _quipucamayocuna_ (literally, officers of the knots). Imperfect as was this method, yet in the flourishing period of the Inca government the appointed officers had acquired great dexterity in unriddling the meaning of the knots. It, however, seldom happened that they had to read a quipu without some verbal commentary. Something was always required to be added if the quipu came from a distant province, to explain whether it related to the numbering of the population, to tributes, or to war, &c. Through long-continued practice, the officers who had charge of the quipus became so perfect in their duties that they could with facility communicate the laws and ordinances, and all the most important events of the kingdom, by their knots.
All attempts made in modern times to decipher Peruvian quipus have proved unsatisfactory in their results. The principal obstacle to deciphering those found in graves consists in the want of the oral communication requisite for pointing out the subjects to which they refer. Such communication was necessary, even in former times, to the most learned quipucamayocuna. Most of the quipus here alluded to seems to be accounts of the population of particular towns or provinces, tax-lists, and information relating to the property of the deceased. Some Indians in the southern provinces of Peru are understood to possess a perfect knowledge of some of the ancient quipus, from information transmitted to them from their ancestors. But they keep that knowledge profoundly secret, particularly from the whites.
That the general idea or invention for mnemonic purposes appearing in the quipus, was used pictorially is indicated in the illustrations given by Dr. S. Habel in The Sculptures of Santa Lucia Cosumalwhuapa in Guatemala, etc., Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, [No. 269], 1878, Vol. XXII, page 85. Upon these he remarks: