shell figures, in which the semilunar marks on the wing feathers had been simply incised, were thus coated with thin, soft copper, it will be seen that these marks would show in the metal as semi lunar grooves. If a shell figure in which the feather marks had been represented by perforations were thus coated, then the sheetmetal would sink abruptly a short way into these open spaces and show as clear-cut half-round indentations, as though punched in with a flat-faced die. It is probable, then, that this inappropriate, though characteristic and conventional way of representing feather flutings in the wings of copper figures, so natural when worked in shell, originated in the copying of such copper sheathings when severed from shells having similarly shaped incisions or perforations. The origin of yet other characteristics of the copper figures not easily accounted for otherwise, may thus be readily enough explained. FIG. 11. Shell gorget engraved and carved to represent Man-Eagle of Was. It is a fact that on all winged figures in sheet-copper thus far found, the semilunar wing marks invariably present one or the other of these forms of indentation, either grooved outlines corresponding, as it were, to incisions on shells, or else flat depressions representing, so to say, perforations in shells. The inference is that, as to design, the copper art of the moundbuilders was to a great extent derived directly from their shell art, and therefore that it was as probably indigenous. This inference is strengthened by an analysis of certain symbolic tokens, or signs of special mythic concepts, to be seen in the figures as portrayed on both copper and shell. By examining Figs. 3, 9, 10, and 11, it may be seen that they all represent one thing, the Eagle God, either in his simple or animal form, but with the mark of 66 doom" or "war" on his face (Fig. 3); or else as the Giant "Man-Eagle of War" (Figs. 9, 10, and 11). In all of these figures of the Eagle War God, whether as Eagle Man (Fig. 3, Illinois) or as Man-Eagle (Fig. 10, Georgia),* or again, as ManEagle-Priest (see again figure in January ARCHEOLOGIST above referred to), the "strong feather or "thumbnail plume"-which "cuts the breaths" of the fiercest demons or "cleaves the strongest storm wind" this plume is as prominently represented at the shoulders or outer bends of the wings as it is over the wings of the comparatively modern shield-painting of the Zuñi sky-god A-tchi-a-lá-to-pa or the "flint-winged " Man-Eagle of War and the Thunder-bolt. (Fig. 13.) This, then, is a distinctive Indian characteristic, since it may be observed in the paintings or other delineations of eagles (but rarely of other birds), made also. by members of several other Indian tribes; hence it serves to identify the composite human-eagle figures in the mound-builder specimens with the simpler eagle figure of the same series. In the latter also (Fig. 3) is an equally characteristic representation, that of the "umbilical" or "anal mark" (or sign of the "power of the bowels," as it would be called by the Zuñis). By this the figure was made not merely an effigy of the eagle, but also an amulet or FIG. 12. Shell engraving probably representing God of the Two Winds. fetich of him as being a god, for it was supposed (for obvious reasons) that his figure was thereby endowed with the power of continuing the life it gained from the food of sacrifice and slain enemies.† In the semi-anthropomorphic man-eagle figures, however, this mark is invariably replaced by the loin-cloth, the equivalent human symbol of virility or manhood, as in Figs. 9, 10, 11, and * My authority for the use of these terms "Man-Eagle" and "Eagle-Man," has been called in question as possibly un-Indian-"outside of Zuñi." My colleague, the Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, assures me, as does my friend, Miss Alice C. Fletcher, that both terms are in common use as sacred personal names and as names of mythic characters amongst the Omahas and other Siouan tribes, and I find that, as I had supposed, a similar usage prevailing amongst many other tribes, including some even to the east of the Mississippi. Thus Zuñi effigies of the animal gods- the fetiches of war and the chase-are supplied with this mark or with the symbol of the heart, or with both, to make them potent or open for them their " passage-way of life." The ornamental bands encircling the tops and bases of their food and water vessels are also left slightly open or spaced, on account of a similar animistic conception of them. 12. This also accords with the idea and usage of the present Zuñi and other Indian tribes. But perhaps the most pronounced, certainly the most conclusive evidence of the mythic and sacred character of these man-eagle figures is found in the fact that each is represented with a mask, the symbol of "transformation," held in the hand (Figs. 10 and 11), to symbolize the act of transformation from eagle form into human form or vice versa, the mystic power of which these gods were regarded as possessing. In further proof that this was the meaning intended by the portrayal of these masks in the figures, reference may be made to the simpler eagle form (Fig. 3). Although his cheek is painted with the zigzag "swift line of tears," denoting the sudden doom he as a god of war is able to cause, and although the line of "detachment" crosses his neck to signify his power to change, yet he bears no mask, being as yet untransformed; nor are the contending man-eagles (Fig.9)shown as carrying masks in their hands, but would be found represented as wearing them, were we able to see their faces (unfortunately destroyed), since they were depicted as already transformed for mortal conflict.* The bearing of these observations on the question as to whether or not the copper and shell arts of the mound-builders, both in de sign and workmanship, were indigenous; is important. They show conclusively, I think, that both arts were Indian, and that both were North American Indian. Thus, some of the copper works may be as ancient as the fondest romanticist could wish, or on the contrary (and some of them probably are), as modern as the days of De Soto; but, whether ancient or recent, they are of Indian origin and neither Oriental, as some have claimed, nor European, as others have naturally been led to infer by the very high degree of workmanship they exhibit and by certain supposedly analogous art traits. I think it has been shown by the foregoing "experimental study" that the beauty and finish of the finest of these specimens might readily have been produced by the mound-builders. I also believe that the designs themselves have been accounted for as pertaining equally to a native, very old, as well as to a more recent indigenous technical art, and as being specifically Indian in respect to both mythic motive and the conventional or artistic expression thereof. The only figure in the series which seemingly exhibits marked European traits is that of the eagle; but this also exhibits, as I have shown, very significant characteristics of North American Indian art, and, as indicated by the scallops of the wing feathers, belongs to the very old, native *I would call attention to the fact that these interpretations, while due to the exercise of "imagination," are not fanciful. They represent real Indian concepts, well known to me through having myself been required to perform, according to elaborate ritual and formulæ of the Zuñis, the ceremonial of transformation (or exchange of my spirit person) and other like symbolic acts founded upon identical concepts; for it is held by these and other advanced Indians that the dancer in the sacred dramas, after having his face properly painted (see Figs. 10, 11, 12, and 13), can change or transform his personality by simply putting on or taking off his mask, usually with the left or non-combative hand, as in these. the composite human-eagle figures which raises the latter, artistically, but not conceptionally, above anything else of the kind in native American art. The Man-Eagles are provided with arms as well as wings, as were those of Assyria, Egypt, and Europe; but this does not prove the designs of them to have been either Oriental or European in origin. It simply demonstrates the artistic capacity of those who fashioned them. The conception was a well-established Indian idea.† family of Man-Eagles. The bi- There is one characteristic of lateral symmetry of this specimen, so suggestive of the heraldic "eagle displayed" (l'aigle éployé), is readily enough explained as a technologic feature, the result of pattern tracing; while the "regard" of the bird, the turn of his beak toward the left, is decidedly unheraldic; for all charges, on or off of European armorial shields, must "regard the dexter side." Finally, the treatment of the legs and claws of this and other copper eagles also appears heraldic; but while unusual as an Indian mode of treatment in painted figures, it is nevertheless Indian; for example, the Zuñis, the ancient Saladeños and the modern Haidas, managed the legs and claws of eagle and composite eagle figures made "in the flat" (or cut out of hide, thin wood or slate) in almost precisely the same manner. * The presence of certain ornate designs in the Moorehead collection, which seem at first "too good" to be Indian, are in form neither different from nor better than excised plates of mica of undoubted antiquity from the mines of the Carolinas. The presence in the same collection of certain * Several questions arise in this connection, among them being: 1. If the hammered or sheet copper articles found almost universally in the mounds were of European origin, why is it that cast-copper objects, being cheaper, more readily made and duplicated by European artisans, and more suitable for certain purposes than if made in the flimsy sheet-copper form, are never, so far as I know, found in the mounds-even heavier work, celts, etc., being hammered, not, apparently, cast? 2. Was there a European artisan of the sixteenth or seventeenth century who could or would have grasped so thoroughly the special Indian spirit of art as displayed in these composite specimens? I find that I cannot reproduce them faithfully unless I recognize just what they expressed, and at least finish them with primitive tools. I can copy them otherwise, but my copies are easily distinguishable by marks that only the greatest care can eliminate. 3. The mound-builders had already waned when De Soto reached the Mississippi. He and others saw descendants of them who were still building mounds, it is true, but they were comparatively few. Hence we can expect to find only in comparatively few of the typical mounds any trace of European art, whereas these shell and copper figures are found far and wide. I am here, be it understood, considering evidence as to the date and character of these works in copper and shell rather than as to the date of the decadence of the typical mound-builders, which latter event, I believe, may not necessarily have taken place very long prior to the discovery. For example, Zuñis have certainly not borrowed their idea of the Whirlwind God; yet they clearly conceive of him as a being who wears the face of an eagle, has the body, arms, hands, and legs of a man, the claw-feet, wings and tail of a vulture, the feathers of which are filled with "flint sand." Yet when a native artist paints this composite monster, he gives him wings and tail, but no arms and hands (as in Fig. 13). He will tell you that the god, when flying (in which characteristic act he is always depicted), "has to use his hands and arms to help flap his wings withal;" but the plain fact of it is that the Zuñi is not so good an artist as was the mound-builder. One of their best decorators once attempted to draw for my edification an angel like the cherubim belonging to the old Franciscan church of his pueblo. He strove hard to separate the arms from the wings (as he remembered having seen them separated in the statue), but ended by depicting them laid along the tops of the outspread wings. seemingly Oriental symbolic figures may be explained as designs of perfectly natural indigenous growth. Such is the decorated Swastica cross, which, in cruder form among the Sioux, Havasupais, Pimas, ancient Pueblos, and Mexicans, at first simply symbolized the four winds and direcions in one as the "all-wind " FIG. 13.-Zuñi shield painted with representation of the flint-plumed God of War and the Thunderbolt. sign. It was derived from the earlier symbol of the cross of the four directions, inclosed by a circle or square, which in turn sym bolized the horizon, or the four horizons. When this latter form was made open at the four terminii or quarters "to let the winds in" it became the Swastica or, first, the world-wind symbol; hence, and second, the sign of the four seasons or year, and finally, as with the Mexicans, of the "year cycle," or time itself! The art displayed in these mound-builder specimens certainly resembles that of Mexico and Central America. This resemblance is not often detailed and even when so, may be adventitious, or it may, to a slight extent, indicate derivation from one or the other of these countries by the mound-builders themselves. There is no inherent improbability in this. Mayas and other Central American peoples were waning when Hernandez de Cordova first penetrated their territory, as the mound-builders were waning when De Soto crossed the Mississippi: yet in Central America, in the sixteenth century, city-builders still lived, as decendants of the mound-building peoples were still building mounds in the time of De Soto; and whilst * An illustration of this may be seen in the engraving on a shell gorget from Missouri (Fig. 12), which represents, apparently, a God of the Winds - perhaps of the Two Winds, or good and evil breath--and is more or less like a Mexican figure; but this resemblance is merely superficial. As would be the case in a Zuñi representation of the Dawn-God blowing the wind of the morning dew through a flute with a flaring gourd-shell mouth, so this personage is shown as if blowing through a somewhat similar instrument. In the mouth of his mask, or "double," is seen another of these, on the tube of which is cut the zigzag line of swiftness; while in his hand he carries as a baton or perhaps a thunder-mace, what appears to be a third, with the stem marked diagonally, or twisted as if to represent force or violence. If this were a Mexican or Central American figure the wind would be shown by comma-, flame-, or cloud-shaped marks issuing from the mouth of the individual. Again, unlike the Mexican and Central American figures, but typical of other delineations of the mound-builders (Fig. 10,, this character wears at his hip a pouch, decked with bosses and plates of copper. All of his other accoutrements, too- copper ear-buttons, the copper crest or comb over his mask, etc - are crude, but characteristic representations of articles found buried and similarly associated with the dead, in mounds from Ohio to the Gulf, articles as distinctive of the mound-builder Indians as the elaborate plume-dresses, obsidian-spiked warclubs, dirks and the throwing-sticks of Mexican figures are of the Aztecs. On the whole, this art of the mound-builders seems sufficiently self-centered to stand by itself as well as better-known arts of other ethnic areas of the continent. |