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Show MALLiRY. j INSTRUMENTS FOE PAINTING AND TATTOOING. 49 INSTRUMENTS FOE TATTOOING. The Hidatsa say that formerly, when tattooing was practiced, sharp pieces of bone were used for pricking the skin. The tribes of Oregon, Washington, and northern California used sharp pieces of bone, thorns, and the dorsal spines of fish, though at present needles are employed, as they are more effective and less painful, and are readily procured by purchase. Needles are used by the Klamath Indians, according to Mr. Oatschet. Rev. M. Eells reports ( Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey II, p. 75) that for tattooing the Twana Indians use a needle and thread, blackening the thread with charcoal and drawing it under the skin as deeply as they can bear it. Stephen Powers says ( Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol. III., p. 130) that tattooing among the Yuki is done with pitch- pine soot, and a sharp- pointed bone. After the designs have been traced on the skin the soot is rubbed in dry. Paul Marcoy mentions in his Travels in South America, N. Y., 1875, Vol. II, 353, that the Passes, Yuris, Barr£ s and Chumanas, of Brazil, use a needle for tattooing. The following quotation is from Te lka a Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants, by Rev. Richard Taylor, London, 1870, pp. 320, 321: The substance generally used as coloring matter is the resin of the kauri or rimu, which, when burnt, is pounded and converted into a fine powder. The uhi or instrument used was a small chisel, made of the bone of an albatross, very narrow and sharp, which was driven by means of a little mallet, he mahoe, quite through the skin, and sometimes completely through the cheek as well, in which case when the person undergoing the operaiion took his pipe, the smoke found its way out through the cuttings; the pain was excruciating, especially in the more tender parts, and caused dreadful swellings, only a small piece could be done at a time; the operator held in his hand a piece of muka, flax, dipped in the pigment, which he drew over the incision immediately it was made ; the blood which flowed freely from the wound was constantly wiped away with a bit of flax; the pattern was first drawn either with charcoal or scratched in with a sharp- pointed instrument. To tattoo a person fully was therefore a work of time, and to atten. pt to do too much at once endangered life.. I remember a poor porangi, or insane person, who, during the war, was tattooed most unmercifully by some young scoundrels; the poor man's wounds were so dreadfully inflamed, as to occasion his death; whilst any one was being operated upon, all persons in the pa were tapu, until the termination of the work, lest any evil should befall him; to have fine tattooed faces, was the gTeat ambition of young men, both to render themselves attractive to the ladies, and conspicuous in war: for even if killed by the enemy, whilst the heads of the untattooed were treated with indignity and kicked on one side, those which were conspicuous by their beautiful moko, were carefully cut off, stuck on the turuturu, a pole with a cross on it, and then preserved; all which was highly gratifying to the survivors, and the spirits of their late possessors. The person operated upon was stretched all his length on the ground, and to encourage him manfully to endure the pain, songs were continually sung to him. 4ETH 1 |