Boas, Franz: Primitive art (Oslo , Leipzig [u.a.], 1927)

Art of the North Pacific Coast of North America

225

fig. 223, which also represents the bear. It is the painting on
the front of a Tsimshian house, the circular hole in the middle of
the design being the door of the house. The animal is cut from
back to front, so that only the front part of the head coheres. The
two halves of the lower jaw do not touch each other. The back
is represented by the black outline on which the hair is indicated


Fig. 223. Painting from a house-front
representing a bear, Tsimshian.


Fig. 224. Wooden hat painted with the
design of a sculpin, Haida.

by fine lines. The Tsimshian call such a design “bears meeting",
as though two bears had been represented.
In a number of cases the designs painted on hats must also be
explained as formed by the junction of two profiles. This is the
case in the painted wooden hat (fig. 224), on which the design of
a sculpin is shown. It will be noticed that only the mouth of the
animal coheres, while the eyes are widely separated. The spines
rise immediately over the mouth. The flippers are attached to the
corners of the face, while the dorsal fin is split into halves, each
half being joined to an eye.
15 — Kulturforskning. B. VIII.