Some distinctive features of these arts and crafts.

The tribal arts of the British Columbia Indians differed from
those of other primitive peoples in that during the process of
conventionalization the subjects employed did not become formal
geometrical patterns. They used the animals of their surroundings,
familiar in the sea or air or in the forests, for decorative pur-
poses, but the translation into symbolic, balanced and symmetrical
designs did not. destroy the vitality of the subject portrayed
though certain conventions were introduced. The fact that the sub-
ject was bird, fish or animal persisted whatever the diversified
contours of the objects decorated or the displacement of anatomical
parts in the course of adaptation to varied decorative requirements.
Boas (1927) is of the opinion that "in early times geometric ornaments

were probably more widely used...... and may be recognized even in their
highly developed symbolic art...... wherein the dissection and dis-
tortion of animal forms is, in many cases, a fitting of animal motives
into fixed ornamental patterns"; these survivals being reminders

of an older method of decoration.

So fertile was the imagination of these people that of the hun-
dreds of designs which have been recovered very few if any are
repetitions, although the same subject was utilized over and over
_ again. Admiration for the skill displayed is intensified by the
fact that until the coming of Europeans few metal tools were
available. Knives and chisels were made from stone, a few from
highly valued jadeite; the point of an antler or the incisor tooth
of a beaver being used for the finest details.

Right angles were avoided and almost without exception designs
fill the whole surface to be decorated, awkward rectangular corners
being filled with the subtle double curves of the oval figure often
called an "eye." This possibly was symbolical of a ball and socket
joint though another suggestion is that it signified the r= Wo}sll bal on at Oi
each part of the body to look after itself or to control its own
movements. A peculiar method often employed shows the selected
creature split through head and body, usually down the Spine, less
often down the breast bone. The two divisions are then opened out
showing two profiles and all four limbs. Sometimes in order to adapt
a design to a special countour accurate anatomical relation is dis-—
regarded and fins or limbs or wings may appear in unexpected positions.
Nevertheless, in all cases the effects are harmonious and satisfying;
symmetry, balance and "livingness" being maintained.

Another favorite form of representation has been described as
foreshadowing modern "X-ray" photography when the skeleton only or
possibly parts of the outline of internal organs are included, sug-
gesting that to the artist the internal and unseen are as beautiful
as those more familiar to our eyes.

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