[Illustration: Fig. 61. Upper row, pictographs of Ojibwa Indians; lower row, of Dakota Indians.] A third example is found among the North American Indians of the Great Plains. Their representative art, in the strict sense of the term, is almost entirely confined to a crude form of picture writing. They have not developed a high technique of painting and the forms of horses, men, buffaloes and tents are merely reminders of incidents in the life of the people. The figures (fig. 61) are in no way ornamental and bear no relation to the object on which they are depicted. They are made for the purpose of representation only. They are not art in the rigid sense of the term. Judging from the character of the figures and their use we may safely say that the artistic interest is entirely absent. We may even apply this observation to the picture writing of the ancient Mexicans (fig. 62), which, as compared to their sculpture, is of inferior value. The importance of communicating ideas outweighs the artistic interest. We shall see later on that nevertheless there is a definite relation between artistic style and the forms of inartistic painting (see p. 164). [Illustration: Fig. 62. Mexican painting from Codex Borbonicus.] Incidentally it may be remarked here that the difference in interest sometimes leads to contrasting art styles, provided the representative work is also executed in a perfectly controlled technique. Thus the Northwest Americans who have a very characteristic style of art sometimes make carvings that are intended to deceive by their realism. In one of their ceremonies a person is apparently decapitated and after the decapitation the head is shown held by the hair. This head is carved in wood and done with great care in a most realistic fashion. It is entirely free of the stylistic characteristics of Northwest coast carving and painting (see fig. 156, p. 185). We revert now to a consideration of the simple, crude representative drawings. The most important inference that may be drawn from the study of such representations, graphic as well as plastic, is that the problem of representation is first of all solved by the use of symbolic forms. There is no attempt at accurate delineation. Neither primitive man nor the child believes that the design or the figure he produces is actually an accurate picture of the object to be represented. A round knob on an elongated cylinder may represent head and body; two pairs of thin, straight strips of rounded cross section, arms and legs; or in a drawing a circle over a rectangle may suggest head and body; straight lines, arms and legs; short diverging lines at the ends of arms and legs, hand and feet. [Illustration: Fig. 63. _a_, Carved figure, Philippine Islands; _b_, Marble figure representing harpist, Thera.]