This union of the human figure with that of other animals is of interest in comparison with the well-known forms of similar character in the art of Egypt and Assyria.
Fig. 1252.—Wolf-man. Haida.
The feet of the accompanying Fig. 1252, reproduced from Bastian (b) on the Northwest Coast of America, can not be seen, being hidden in the head of the figure beneath. It is squatting, with its hands on its knees, and has a wolf’s head. Arms, legs, mouth, jaws, nostrils, and ear-holes are scarlet; eyebrows, irises, and edges of the ears black.
Fig. 1253.—Panther-man. Haida.
The drawing Fig. 1253 was made by Mr. J. G. Swan while on a visit to the Prince of Wales archipelago, where he found two carved figures with panthers’ heads, and claws upon the fore feet, and human feet attached to the hind legs. These mythical animals were placed upon either side of a corpse which was lying in state, awaiting burial.
The Egyptians represented the evil Typhon by the hippopotamus, the most fierce and savage of their animals; the hawk was the symbol for power, and the serpent that for life. Plutarch, in Isis and Osiris, 50, says that in Hermopolis these symbols were united, a hawk fighting with a serpent being placed on the hippopotamus, thus accentuating the idea of the destroyer. The Greeks sometimes substituted the eagle for the hawk, and pictured it killing a hare, the most prolific of quadrupeds, or fighting a serpent, the same attribute of destruction being portrayed. But the eagle when alone meant simply power, as did the hawk in Egypt. The Scandinavians posited the eagle on the head of their god Thor and the bull on his breast to express a similar union of attributes.
SECTION 4.
ARTISTIC SKILL AND METHODS.
Dr. Andree (d), in Das Zeichnen bei den Naturvölkern, makes the following remarks, translated with condensation: