Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/610

 representation of some animal form. This is confirmed, I think, by referring to Fig. 4, which represents another specimen of gorget of most interesting character. The difference between the two is very decided, and yet the relationship is not lost. What, indeed, the figure depicted on this circular gorget is intended for is problematical. That it is animal-like no one will dispute. And with the two gorgets described, both of which are very old and made of stone, compare the illustration here given (Fig. 5) of the handle of a wooden spoon, of very recent date. Here we see the same ornamentation or representation of the same idea. It is scarcely probable that this should have been accidental, and is, further, an exemplification of the expression of an idea by symmetrically arranged lines, and not an effort merely to relieve the monotony of a plain surface.

We are now brought to consider realistic representations of familiar objects. The human face is one of these; and whether the Indian first made a few lines and dots to express it, or correctly depicted it, is difficult to determine. It can be made to appear very forcibly, upon a smooth surface, by two dots and two lines, thus: •|• ; but did the Indian ever adopt such means? I have never seen it, but Fig. 6 is certainly an approach to