The man, facing half-right, is shown in a dancing posture with the left leg raised behind, the right arm lifted, and the left arm above his head. He has a girdle of skin (or string) around the waist from which hang his breech-clout and bag. The former is a reddish skin reaching nearly to the knees and folded over the girdle to leave the animal's mask hanging down in front. The bag of greyish-white colour at his right side is also made of pieces of skin sewn together, the ends of which make a long fringe hanging down below his knee. Little of his hair is visible but a small roach can be seen. To the right of his head is attached a bird, seen from beneath, with wings outspread, a long bill and plumage of dark brownish-grey, possibly a small woodpecker.
Inscribed in dark brown ink, in the upper left-hand corner, "The flyer. "
John White (c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape & the native Algonkin peoples. White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World & their surroundings. During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape & native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard. They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers.
