Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/113

Rh savage would comport himself similarly toward the image, the shadow, and the object. From his point of view the image and the object are in close relation, and an action upon one wonld operate in the same way upon the other. By this way of looking at things, as Sir John Lubbock says, the savage is convinced that an injury done to the image is inflicted upon the original; or, to use the words of Mr. Taylor, he thinks that by acting upon the copy he will reach the original. The evidences are many that demonstrate the importance attributed by savages to this mode of action on the original. Waitz relates, after Denghame, that in a tribe of western Africa it was dangerous to make a portrait of the natives, because they were afraid that by some kind of sorcery a part of their soul would pass into their image. Lubbock also speaks of the same fear as existing among savages; and the more like the portrait, the greater the danger to the original; for the more life there is in the copy, the less must be left in the person. One day, when some Indians were annoying Dr. Kane by their presence, he rid himself of them very quickly by telling them that he was going to make their portraits. Catlin tells a story, at once sober and comical, that when he was drawing the profile of a chief named Matochiga, the Indians around him seemed greatly moved, and asked him why he did not draw the other half of the chiefs face. "Matochiga was never ashamed to look a white man square in the face." Matochiga had not till then seemed offended at the matter, but one of the Indians said to him sportively: "The Yankee knows that you are only half a man, and he has only drawn half of your face, because the other half is not worth anything." A bloody fight followed this explanation, and Matochiga was killed by a bullet which struck him in the side of the face that had not been drawn. A still more characteristic incident is communicated by M. Brouck concerning a Laplander who had come to visit him from motives of curiosity. He having drunk a glass of wine and seeming very much at ease, M. Brouck took his pencil and began drawing his portrait. AlZ at once our subject's humor changed; he drew on his cap and started to run away. Explanations being had, the Laplander made the rash artist understand that, if he had let him copy his figure, the artist would have gained a dangerous influence over him.

Charlevoix said, in the last century, that the Illinois and Indians of some other tribes made little figures representing persons whose lives they wanted to shorten, and pierced them in the region of the heart. A custom still exists in Borneo that consists in making a figure in wax of the enemy whom one wishes to bewitch, and setting it before the fire to melt; it is assumed, according to Taylor, that the person aimed at is disorganized as fast as