derivable from the carvings themselves, and is of too imaginative a
character to be entertained. By the above remarks as to the lack of
specific resemblances in the animal carvings it is not intended to deny
that some of them have been executed with a considerable degree of skill
and spirit as well as, within certain limitations heretofore expressed,
fidelity to nature. Taking them as a whole it can perhaps be asserted
that they have been carved with a skill considerably above the general
average of attainments in art of our Indian tribes, but not above the
best efforts of individual tribes.

That they will by no means bear the indiscriminate praise they have
received as works of art and as exact imitations of nature may be
asserted with all confidence.


PROBABLE TOTEMIC ORIGIN.

With reference to the origin of these animal sculptures many writers
appear inclined to the view that they are purely decorative and
ornamental in character, _i.e._, that they are attempts at close
imitations of nature in the sense demanded by high art, and that they
owe their origin to the artistic instinct alone. But there is much in
their general appearance that suggests they may have been totemic in
origin, and that whatever of ornamental character they may possess is of
secondary importance.

With, perhaps, no exceptions, the North American tribes practiced
totemism in one or other of its various forms, and, although it by no
means follows that all the carving and etchings of birds or animals by
these tribes are totems, yet it is undoubtedly true that the totemic