[Illustration: TOUCAN OF SQUIER AND DAVIS, REALLY A CROW] CHAPTER VII CARVING, MODELLING, SCULPTURE The shaping of objects in clay, wood, or stone, or other material, known as carving, modelling, etc., constitutes sculpture. Some form of these methods was in use in very primitive times for the production of weapons or tools of wood, bone, or stone. But the greatest schools of sculpture were basketry and pottery, for in the practice of these arts a sense of form and proportion could not be dispensed with. Thus sculpture finds its birth in several arts, but particularly in basketry, stone-shaping, and pottery. Taken all in all, the Mayas of Yucatan seem to have been the greatest artists and sculptors, and as we travel northward from there the skill in art gradually diminishes till, on passing the old Aztec realm, it drops off rapidly. Far to the northward the “Moundbuilders” exhibited a moderate skill and in some objects a similarity to Mexican work, and still farther to the north-westward the Haidas, Kwakiutls, etc., in their totem poles, canoes, etc., show not only a singular proficiency in carving in wood, but also similarities to some of the Mexican work. Masks, pipes, rattles, and other ceremonial paraphernalia gave the Amerind sculptor much to do. It must not be supposed, though, that all members of a tribe possessed the sculptor’s power. There was as much variation as we now find among ourselves. It is not everyone of our people who can model a statue, or even carve the rudest shape imitating man. So it was with the Amerind. He had his arrow-makers, his skilful potters, his great carvers, who were employed by the less skilful to do their work. To-day, among the Amerinds of the North-west coast, there are specialists who carve the totem poles, and obtain high prices. The totem poles and house-posts are often elaborate, being covered almost from top to bottom with figures of totemic animals. The carving is often on a large scale, as the totem poles are frequently more than fifty feet in height. They are planted several feet in the ground, then there are several feet plain, and from that on to near the top they may be covered with carving, while surmounting the whole is a figure—bird, fish, or bear, or other animal—of large proportions. These poles stand in front of the house,[143] and are an indication of the clan or clans to which the person or persons who erected it belong. The Haidas and the Tlinkits specially excel in totem poles. The execution of the figures is often extremely good in a barbaric way. Besides the carved poles there are often the carved columns or posts inside the houses. These posts serve to support the two great rafters on which the jack-rafters rest, and are often elaborate. At a deserted village in south-east Alaska (Cape Fox), I saw two of these columns, each representing a huge bird, the wings being split out of cedar, quite