New Ulm weekly review., 1879-06-25
TATTOOING AS a FINE ART.

MAN in his primitive state exhibits
many instincts and customs which civ
ilization modifes, if not entirely dissi-
pates. One of the curious customs
which obtain among savage people, is
the habit of tattooing, or marking the
person, generally out of vanity, partly
in case of mourning.
Those very remarkable people, the
Jews, seem to have been very fond of
marking themselves. Moses distinctly
tells them they shall not do this. Le-
viticus may be said to be q consolidated
act, and the ritual is so strict that he
lays down laws even for individual
dress, thus: eye shall not round the
corners of your heads, neither shalt
thou mar the corners of thy beard; ye
shall not make any cuttings in your
flesh for the dead, nor print any marks
upon you.' From this, therefore, it
seems probable that some custom re-
sembling tattooing was practiced in
the time of Moses, at the time of the
Exodus, 1890 B. c., or 3,368 years ago.
/ don't think the Jews could have
learned this from the Egyptians. Mr..
Douglas Murray. who has been to
Egypt many times, and given great at
tention to the drawings of the sculp-
lures, thinks that the Egyptian priests,
in carrying out their splendid ritual,
would never think of cutting them
selves.
am induced to make these remarks
on the ornamentation of the human
body, being requested by Mr.. Jamrach
to describe q magnificent specimen of
head of New Zealander which had
lately come into his possession. The
head is dried up so that the skin ap-
pears like piece of parchment taken
from an illustrated missal. The hair
is rusty black, had been worn in
curls, and is still curly. A mark ap-
pears round the front of the head as
though tillet had at one time been
tied on. The nose has been stuffed out
of its natural dimensions, but yet it
looks somewhat shrunk in. The lips
in process of drying have been 80 ar
ranged as to show the teeth, which
are exceedingly white, very regular
and quite perfect. The ears are much
shrunk, but they are perforated with q
round hole big enough to admit the
pointed end of cedar pencil. The
face is tattOoed in most beautiful
manner. "A straight line runs from
the middle of the forehead to the
middle of the nose; toward this the
lines on the nose converge either in q
zigzag or straight direction. The
same pattern, however, obtains on each
temple.
Upon the cheeks the marking some-
what resembles the figure eight; round
the mouth we observe rings. A dark
line is taken from each angle of the
cheek, and this line gives off other lines
upward toward the nose and downward
toward the chin. At each angle of the
nose there is an elegant marking, rep
resenting very much an ordinary watch
spring. Even in its present state these
tattoo marks give the face q particu-
larly ferocious appearance. In life
they must have made the c0untenance
Of this savage very terrific, if not
diabolical in appearance.
OF late years the tattooed heads 0;
New Zealanders have been very scarce.
The influence Of civilization seems to
have almost done away with the native
customs Of the New Zealanders. / do
not think that the tattooed heads Of the
New Zealanders were at all known in
this country before Capt. Cooks time.
Ny authority for saying this is that the
late DR.. Kidd, regius professor of
anatomy in the University Of Oxford,
told me so when attending his lectures
in the anatomy school at Christ Church.
In this museum there used to be two
very fine heads Of New Zealanders, and
DR.. Kidd pointed out to this class that
one Of these heads had been tattooed
after death. The reason for his COM
ing to this conclusion was that in the
case where the markings had been
done before death the lines showed as
distinct hollow grooves; IN the case
where the marking had been done after
death they did not appear as grooves,
but as patterns in the skin itself. The
reason Of this Is. Of course, that the
cuticle, or scarf skin, In the live man
had grown over the cuts, and, as it
Wero, vanished them over. ss=
The word tattoo is first mentioned In
Capt. Cooks account Of the South Sea
Islanders. Capt. Cook began his voy-
ages in 1868, and finished them ii It'll.
The operation is called tattooing, and
appears 70 Be formed ii the duplica-
ltion of the Polynesian verb ssta. .
meaning tosstrik This may possibly
he the origin of the word !. tattoo @
lappied 20 the peculiar beating Of .
drum. Capt. Cook writes The prac-
lstice OF tattooing, or puncturing the