Pictorial Representations

The following creation story of the Luiseño of Pauma is only a fragment, sufficient, however, to add a new version to those already known, and sufficient to bring out the most important qualities of the origin traditions of this region. It is accompanied also by a feature of special ethnographic interest: a pictorial representation of the personified world. Crude as this is, it is enough to suggest the ritualistic and symbolic painting of the Southwest, and it is of particular importance on account of the absence of anything corresponding among the Indians of Central and northern California. Not only do

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these latter Indians not make use of such ceremonial representations, but their whole life is remarkably deficient in all forms of graphic or pictorial art and imitation. The idea of representing anything by a drawing is foreign to the make-up of their minds. Even to-day, after living in the midst of civilization for over half a century, the older people are utterly at a loss if called upon to execute a picture of any sort. In many cases this extends even to map-like representations of the country with which they are familiar. A Californian Indian asked to sketch upon the ground a representation of the river system with which he is acquainted, either professes himself unable to do so, or, as has been the experience of the author, in some cases draws a number of marks or scratches which upon inquiry turn out to be nothing but a sort of score or tally of the names given, without any idea of an indication of spatial relations. Simple and awkward as is the figure drawn by old Pachito of Pauma and here reproduced, it nevertheless reveals a trend of ideas and practices entirely foreign to the Indians of northern California. A step farther in the direction of resemblances to the Southwest is found in the colored earth paintings of ceremonial import, the occurrence of which among the Mission Indians has been noticed, and to which, fortunately, Miss Du Bois has recently been able to give special study. It is clear that the difference in this respect between the Indians of southern California and those of the larger northern part of the State is culturally, that is to say historically, very deep-going, for southern California, like the Southwest and the Great Basin, abounds in carved and painted rocks, whereas the whole northern part of the State from Shasta to Tehachapi, with scattering exceptions along the borders, is one of the few areas in North America which are free from any trace of petrographs. It is therefore clear that the bulk of the California Indians not only do not execute pictorial representations for religious purposes at the present time, but that their ancestors or predecessors in their present sites did not do so, whereas the Indians of southern California both make such representations now and have done so in the past.