Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-11
THE ORIGIN OF TATTooING.

80 -. Il .,li =
Every one is familiar with the art Of :
tattooing, and We are always being
confronted with some fresh specimen
of the tattooer's art. Yet. few people
seem to know the origin or significance
of tattooing as it is often practiced
| among the savage races today. The
first idea of the process was, of course,
equivalent to the photograph of today
a record of some special art.
| For instance, a warrior would depart
on hunting quest. He would return
stained with blood and bearing on his
body wound that was as honorable
as it was eloquent of the danger
through which he had passed. But
this wound must sooner or later disap-
pear, and so an artificial cut was made
| to show his prowess, which was SO in
| flicted as to become a permanent scar.
| The idea for such scars having once
originated, the arrangement of them in
an ornamental fashion and the adop-
tion of colors would follow as a matter
of course, and in time the whole matter
would become simply question of or
nament or religious symbols, as we find
nowadays in the majority of cases.
| Among certain African tribes gashes
member of such tribe has perpen-
dicular scar from temple to chin, 1t
means that he has fought successfully
in this or that campaign; If the cuts
are oblique, it means that he not only
fought, but is singled out for some con-
| spicuous act of prowess; If the cash Is
| formed like parallelogram, 1t beto-
| kenS that the luckleSS warrior was
member of a vanquished army.
The cash of the Kaffir warrior is
worth describing. After an act of brav-
cry deep cut is made in the thigh of
the hero by the priest. When healed,
| this cash is of blue color and is as
much priced and sought after as the
| Victoria cross is by Tommy Atkins.
! And the Kaffir warrior has not the re-
hottest chance of selling his medal,
neither can it become a priced heirloom
in his family.
But the chief use of the cash is as
tribal mark, and to realize the full vail
ue of such scar you must take into
consideration the relation of the savage
man to the world outside his own inn
mediate vicinity. His place is that of
Ishmael OF old. So long as he remains
in his own tribal territory he is safe,
but on the land of another tribe he is
w
meets. To men whose relations are SO
precarious the tribal mark is the only
safeguard at home; without it he would
fall an unrecognized victim to the
slaughtering instincts of his own
tribesmen. In the Biblical instance, in
which a mark was set upon Cain, "lest
any one finding him should kill him."
we have the explanation of the tribal
mark.
Among savages, as indeed among civ
iliZed beings, the man who has done
something is at once consumed with
an idea to let the world know of his
prowess, to mark himself off from the
rest in visible and unmistakable man
ner. In our own country the opportuni-
ties for doing this and the methods of
doing it are varied enough, but the
savage only has one Way-self mutila-
ton, or self adornment, as he considers
it, So that after having slain an ele-
plant single handed he will paint his
face green and his legs red, and,so ex-
tensively advertise what he has done.
Then the law of limitation steps in, and
what was at first only the whim of the
individual becomes the custom of the
populace.
Among certain south sea islanders 1t
is the fashion to mark the fluctuations
of their life by the way in which the
hair is worn. Thus for instance, when
a man loses his mother or his father he
will plat his hair in a particular fash
ion and dye it white; when he is mar
ried, he will dye his hair red and sur
mount it with a metal crest; when he
wishes to let his friends and acquaint-
ances know that a son has been born to
him, his. locks will suddenly assume a
t1axen tint.