Fig. 518.—Haida tattoo, thunder-bird.
In Fig. 518 two forms of the thunderbird are presented, copied from the right and left forearms and hands, respectively, of a Haida woman. The right hand device is complete, but that on the left, copied from the opposite forearm and hand, is incomplete, and it was expected that the design would be entirely finished at the “potlatch” which was to be held in the autumn of 1884. In the completed design the transverse curve in the body of the tail was red, as also the three diagonal lines upon the body of the bird running outward from the central vertical toward the radial side of the hand. The brace-shaped lines within the head ornament had also been tattooed in red.
Fig. 519.—Haida tattoo, thunder-bird and tshimō's.
In some instances the totem and mythic character are shown upon the same member, as is represented in Fig. 519. This tattooing was copied from the left arm of a woman, the complete figure upon the forearm and hand being that of a thunder bird, while the four heads upon the fingers represent that of the tshimō's, a mythic animal. The thunder-bird had been tattooed upon the arms a number of years before the heads were added, probably because the protracted and painful operation of tattooing so large a figure deterred the sufferer from further sitting. Sometimes, however, such, postponement or noncompletion of an operation is the result of inability on the part of the subject to defray the expense.
Fig. 520.—Haida tattoo, bear.
Another instance of the interrupted condition of tattooed designs is presented in Fig. 520. The figure upon the forearm and hand is that of the bear totem, and was made first. At a subsequent festival the bear heads were tattooed upon the fingers, and, last of all, the body was tattoed upon the middle finger, leaving three yet to be completed.