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Show 5 2 PICTOGRAPHS OP THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. from pictographs in Santa Barbara County, California, proved to be a hydrous oxide of manganese. For black color in tattooing the Yuki, of California, use soot. The juice of certain plants is also nsed by the Earok, of California, to color the face. The Yoknts, of Tule River Agency, California, employ the roots of the cedar ( red) and willow ( white) split and rendered uniform in caliber. During work the materials are kept moistened, so as to permit of easy manipulation and to prevent fracture of the vegetal fibers. Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reports regarding the Osages that one mode of obtaining black color for the face consists in burning a quantity of small willows. When these are charred they are broken in small pieces and placed in pans, with a little water in each. The hands are then dipped into the pan and rubbed together, and finally rubbed over the parts to be colored. Formerly tattooing was more frequently practiced among the Hidatsa thau at present, the marks being caused by pricking the skin with a sharp splinter of bone and the application of a paste consisting of finely- powdered charcoal and water. The Hualpais, living on the western border of the Colorado Plateau, Arizona Territory, were found by Dr. Hoffman, in 1871, to decorate their persons by a disgusting process. Various individuals were observed who appeared as if their persons had been tattooed in vertical bands from the forehead to the waist, but upon closer examination it was found that dark and light bands of the natural skin are produced in the following manner: When a deer or an antelope has been killed, the blood is rubbed over the face and breast, after which the spread and curved fingers- to resemble claws- are scratched downward from the forehead over the face and over the breast, thus removing some of the blood; that remaining soon dries, and gives the appearance of black stripes. The exposed portion of the skin retains the natural dark- tanned color, while that under the coating of coagulated blood naturally becomes paler by being protected against the light and air. These individuals do not wash off such marks of success in the chase, and after a while the blood begins to drop off by desquamation, leaving lighter spots and lines, which for a short period of a week or two appear like tattoo marks. The Mojave pigments are ocher, clay, and probably charcoal, mingled with oil. See Pac, R. R. Exped., Vol. Ill, Pt. Ill, p. 33. The colors, at present used by the Indians and obtained from the traders, consist generally of the following compounds, viz.: vermilion, red lead, chromate of lead ( yellow), Prussian blue, chrome green, ivory black and lamp black, Chinese white, and oxide of zinc. All of these are in the form of powder or in crude masses, and are subsequently prepared for use as required. |