by Ernest Thompson Seton
Zuni Eagles 23 Am. Rep. B.A.E.
Paints for ornamenting robes are mixed with water. (Clark: Sign Language.)
Paints for the body are mixed with grease or tallow from some animal.
Paints for lodges, totem poles, etc., were made durable by slowly melting or mixing into the grease enough rosin to make it sticky. This formed their paint oil.
Red. Before the Indian had the white man's vermilion he used a certain stiff yellow clay (brick clay) which, when burnt, turned dull red--i. e., brick color. This he powdered and mixed with the grease oil.
In some parts of the country there are springs strongly impregnated with iron. A log of wood dug out of this--or failing that an armful of chips long soaked in it--when taken out, dried and burnt, yielded ashes of a beautiful rosy color. These worked up into a very pretty red.
Yellow. Yellow clay or ochres are common in clay regions and furnish a dull yellow. Clark says that the flower of the prairie goldenrod yields a good yellow; also the bright yellow moss one sees on the trunks of pine trees in the Rockies. When dried and powdered this makes a sort of chrome yellow, and is also used as a dye.
"The Sioux use bull-berries" for yellow. (Clark.)
Blue. They had no good blue. Blue clays come nearest to the color. Sometimes black and white mixed were used.
Black. Soot and charcoal, ground into the paint oil, made a good black.
White. For white they used white clays, which are common in some regions, or burnt shells, finely powdered.
"Generally speaking, Black means joy; White, mourning; Red, beauty; and an excessive use of any of these or other colors, excitement."
Painting or greasing was universal among Indians. They did it to beautify themselves and also to protect the skins from the weather. Though we condemn them for the practice, most of our women and a great many of our men do the same thing for the same reason.
