INDIAN AND MOUND-BUILDERS' ART COMPARED.


Turning from special illustrations of the artistic skill of the
Mound-Builders, brief attention may be paid to their art in its more
general features, and as compared with art as found among our Indian
tribes.

Among some of the latter the artistic instinct, while deriving its
characteristic features, as among the Mound-Builders, from animated
nature, exhibits a decided tendency towards the production of
conventional forms, and often finds expression in creations of the most
grotesque and imaginative character.

While this is true of some tribes it is by no means true of all, nor is
it true of all the art products of even those tribes most given to
conventional art. But even were it true in its broadest terms, it is
more than doubtful if the significance of the fact has not been greatly
overestimated. Some authors indeed seem to discern in the introduction
of the grotesque element and the substitution of conventional designs of
animals for a more natural portrayal, a difference sufficient to mark,
not distinct eras of art culture merely, but different races with very
different modes of art expression.

To trace the origin of art among primitive peoples, and to note the
successive steps by which decorative art grew from its probable origin
in the readily recognized adornments of nature and in the mere