Note 286 — Chapter III · COLUMBIANS.

At Valdes Island, 'the faces of some were made intirely white, some red, black, or lead colour.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 307, 341. At Nuñez Gaona Bay, 'se pintan de encarnado y negro.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 30. At Nootka Sound, 'Con esta grasa (de ballena) se untan todo el cuerpo, y despues se pintan con una especie de barniz compuesto de la misma grasa ó aceyte, y de almagre en términos que parece este su color natural.' Chiefs only may paint in varied colors, plebeians being restricted to one.' Id., pp. 125-7. 'Many of the females painting their faces on all occasions, but the men only at set periods.' Vermilion is obtained by barter. Black, their war and mourning color, is made by themselves. Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 442. 'Ces Indiens enduisent leur corps d'huile de baleine, et se peignent avec des ocres.' Chiefs only may wear different colors, and figures of animals. Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 344. 'Rub their bodies constantly with a red paint, of a clayey or coarse ochry substance, mixed with oil.... Their faces are often stained with a black, a brighter red, or a white colour, by way of ornament.... They also strew the brown martial mica upon the paint, which makes it glitter.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 305. 'A line of vermilion extends from the centre of the forehead to the tip of the nose, and from this "trunk line" others radiate over and under the eyes and across the cheeks. Between these red lines white and blue streaks alternately fill the interstices. A similar pattern ornaments chest, arms, and back, the frescoing being artistically arranged to give apparent width to the chest.' Lord's Nat., vol. i., p. 143. 'They paint the face in hideous designs of black and red (the only colours used), and the parting of the hair is also coloured red.' Mayne's B. C., p. 277. 'At great feasts the faces of the women are painted red with vermilion or berry-juice, and the men's faces are blackened with burnt wood. About the age of twenty-five the women cease to use paint.... Some of the young men streak their faces with red, but grown-up men seldom now use paint, unless on particular occasions.... The leader of a war expedition is distinguished by a streaked visage from his black-faced followers.' Sproat's Scenes, p. 27-8. The manner of painting is often a matter of whim. 'The most usual method is to paint the eye-brows black, in form of a half moon, and the face red in small squares, with the arms and legs and part of the body red; sometimes one half of the face is painted red in squares, and the other black; at others, dotted with red spots, or red and black instead of squares, with a variety of other devices, such as painting one half of the face and body red, and the other black.' Jewitt's Nar., p. 64; Meares' Voy., p. 252; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 46; Spark's Life of Ledyard, p. 71.