Chapter XCVI: Section 3: Composite Forms

The figures in this group are selected from a larger number in which the union of two animals of different kinds or that of an animal and another object indicates the union of the several qualities or attributes supposed to belong to those animals or objects. The form and use of such composite figures are familiar from the publication of the inscriptions on Egyptian monuments and papyri.

Fig. 1239.--Eagle-Elk. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here are the branching antlers of the elk and the tail of the eagle.

Fig. 1240.--Eagle-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. Eagle feathers replace the horse’s mane.

Fig. 1241.--Eagle-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is a variant of the preceding, the change being shown in the tail.

Fig. 1242.--Eagle-Swallow. Red-Cloud’s Census. The characteristics of the two birds are obvious.

Fig. 1243.--Eagle-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census.

Fig. 1244.--Weasel-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census. With only hasty view the really characteristic form of the weasel might be mistaken for a rudely drawn gun.

Fig. 1245.--Horned-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census.

Fig. 1246.--Bull-Lance. Red-Cloud’s Census. The object attached to the bull’s muzzle is the common ornamented lance of the Plains tribes.

Fig. 1247.--Shield-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census. The ornamented shield is borne on the bear’s body.

Fig. 1248.--Ring-Owl. Red-Cloud’s Census.

Fig. 1249.--Sunka-wanbli, Dog-Eagle; from the Oglala Roster. The mingling of the attributes of the dog and the eagle with special reference to swiftness may be suggested.

Fig. 1250.--Zintkala-wicasa, Bird-Man; also from the Oglala Roster. An indication of a bird gens is suggested without information, but perhaps it is only a representation of the usual vision required from and therefore obtained by boys before reaching manhood.

Fig. 1251.--Sunkakan-heton, Horse-with-horns; also from the Oglala Roster. Perhaps this is not intended as a composite animal, but as a horse possessing special and mystic power, as is indicated by the gesture sign for wakan, and, as elsewhere in pictographs, by lines extending from each side of the head. The same sub-chief appears in Red-Cloud’s Census with the name translated into English as Horned-Horse.

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.

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.

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.