His uncle, Homovi, who has never been to school, and is unacquainted with the English language, drew some of the best pictures, the technique of which is so like his nephew's that it is safe to conclude that the drawings of the latter are aboriginal in character. A few of the pictures wore drawn by Winuta, whose work, like that of Homovi, is unmodified by white influence. A boy who had attended Government school in Lawrence, Kansas, also made a few paintings, but as they show the influence of instruction in this school they are not valuable for the purpose had in mind in publishing this collection, and they have not been reproduced here.
While, then, their character has possibly been somewhat influenced by foreign art, the pictures here reproduced and described may be regarded as pure Hopi, and as works little affected by the white teachers with whom of late these people have come into more intimate contact than ever before.
To facilitate the painting the author provided the artists with paper, pencils, brushes, and pigments; he left the execution of the work wholly to the Indians, no suggestion being made save the name of the god whose representation was desired. They carried the materials to the mesa, and in a few days returned with a half-dozen paintings, which were found to be so good that they were encouraged to continue the work. In some instances, the artists painted pictures of gods which the author had never seen personated.
When the paintings were delivered, the author wrote under them the names of the beings represented, with such information as could be gathered concerning the special symbolism upon them. Later other Hopis were asked to identify the pictures, which they readily did, the names they gave being nearly always the same as those given by the artists. This independent identification was repeated many times with different persons, and the replies verified one another almost without exception. The talks about the paintings elicited new facts regarding the symbolism and the nature of the beings represented which could not have been acquired in other ways. Several men made critical suggestions which were of great value regarding the fidelity of the work and embodied information which is incorporated in the exposition of the collection. At one time the reputation of these pictures was so noised about in the pueblos that visitors came from neighboring villages to see them. At first the collection was freely offered to all comers for inspection, on account of the possibility that new information might be thus gathered, until some person circulated a report that it was sorcery to make these pictures, and this gossip sorely troubled the painters and seriously hampered them in their work, but the author was able to persuade the artists and the more intelligent visitors that no harm would come to them on account of the collection.
