Chapter X: Front Matter (10)

Figure 115 is a native drawing of a village and neighboring
burial-ground, prepared by an Alaskan native in imitation of
originals seen by him among the natives of the mainland of Alaska,
especially the Aigalúqamut. Carvings are generally on walrus ivory;
sometimes on wooden slats. In the figure, No. 7 is a representation
of a grave-post in position, bearing an inscription similar in
general character to those in the last two preceding figures.

The details are explained as follows:

No. 1, 2, 3, 4. Various styles of habitations, representing a
settlement.

5. An elevated structure used for the storage of food.

6. A box with wrappings, containing the corpse of a child. The small
lines, with ball attached, are ornamented appendages consisting of
strips of cloth or skin, with charms, or, sometimes, tassels.

7. Grave-post, bearing rude illustrations of the weapons or
implements used by a person during his life.

8. A grave scaffold, containing adult. Besides the ornamental
appendages, as in the preceding, there is a “Shaman stick” erected
over the box containing the corpse as a mark of good wishes of a
sorrowing survivor. See object No. 1, in Figure 112.

The following extract from Schoolcraft (Hist. Indian Tribes of the
United States, 1851, Vol. I, p. 356, Fig. 46) relates to the burial
posts used by the Sioux and Chippewas. Plate LXXXIII is after the
illustration given by this author in connection with the account
quoted:

Among the Sioux and Western Chippewas, after the body has been
wrapped in its best clothes and ornaments, it is then placed on a
scafford, or in a tree, where it remains until the flesh is entirely
decayed; after which the bones are buried, and the grave-posts
fixed. At the head of the grave a tabular piece of cedar, or other
wood, called the adjedatig, is set. This grave-board contains the
symbolic or representative figure which records, if it be a warrior,
his totem; that is to say, the symbol of his family, or surname,
and such arithmetical or other devices as serve to denote how many
times the deceased has been in war parties, and how many scalps he
had taken from the enemy; two facts from which his reputation is
essentially to be derived. It is seldom that more is attempted in
the way of inscription. Often, however, distinguished chiefs have
their war-flag, or, in modern days, a small ensign of American
fabric, displayed on a standard at the head of their graves, which
is left to fly over the deceased till it is wasted by the elements.
Scalps of their enemies, feathers of the bald and black eagle,
the swallow-tailed falcon, or some carnivorous bird, are also
placed, in such instances, on the adjedatig, or suspended, with
offerings of various kinds, on a separate staff. But the latter are
super-additions of a religious character, and belong to the class of
the ke-ke-wa-o-win-an-tig. The building of a funeral fire on recent
graves, is also a rite which belongs to the consideration of their
religious faith.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXXIII

OJIBWA GRAVE-POSTS.]

The following quotations and illustrations are taken from Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter’s New Zealand, before cited. That author says on page 437 _et seq._:

The carved Maori-figures, which are met with on the road, are the
memorials of chiefs, who, while journeying to the restorative baths
of Rotorua, succumbed to their ills on the road. Some of the figures
are decked out with pieces of clothing or kerchiefs; and the most
remarkable feature in them is the close imitation of the tattooing of
the deceased, by which the Maoris are able to recognize for whom the
monument has been erected. Certain lines are peculiar to the tribe,
others to the family, and again others to the individual. A close
imitation of the tattooing of the face, therefore, is to the Maori
the same as to us a photographic likeness; it does not require any
description of name.

A representation of one of these carved posts is given in Figure 116.

Another carved post of like character is represented in Figure 117, concerning which the same author says, page 338:

“Beside my tent, at Tahuahu, on the right bank of the Mangapu, there stood an odd half decomposed figure carved of wood; it was designated to me by the natives as a Tiki, marking the tomb of a chief.”

The same author states, page 423: “The dwellings of the chiefs at Ohinemutu are surrounded with inclosures of pole-fences; and the Whares and Wharepunis, some of them exhibiting very fine specimens of the Maori order of architecture, are ornamented with grotesque wood-carvings. The annexed wood-cut [here reproduced as Figure 118] is intended as an illustration of some of them. The gable figure, with the lizard having six feet and two heads, is very remarkable. The human figures are not idols, but are intended to represent departed sires of the present generation.”

CHARMS AND FETICHES.

The use of objects as charms and fetiches is well known. Their graphic representation is not so well understood, although in the attempted interpretation of pictographs it is to be supposed that objects of this character would be pictorially represented. The following is an instance where the use in action of a charm or fetich was certainly portrayed in a pictograph.

Figure 119, drawn by the Dakota Indians near Fort Snelling, Minnesota, exhibits the use for a fetichistic purpose of an instrument which is usually included among war clubs, though this particular object is more adapted to defense than to offense.

The head of the fetich is a grooved stone hammer of moderate size, measuring from an inch and a half to as much as 5 inches in length. A withe is tied about the middle of the hammer in the groove provided for the purpose, having a handle of from 2 to 4 feet in length. The latter is frequently wrapped with buckskin or raw-hide to strengthen it, as well as for ornamental purposes. Feathers attached bear mnemonic marks or designs, indicating marks of distinction, perhaps fetichistic devices not understood.

These objects are believed to possess the peculiar charm of warding off an enemy’s missiles when held upright before the body. In the pictograph made by the Dakota Indian, the manner of holding it, as well as the act of shooting an arrow by an enemy, is shown with considerable clearness. The interpretation was explained by the draftsman himself.

Properties are attributed to this instrument similar to those of the small bags prepared by the Shaman, which are carried suspended from the neck by means of string or buckskin cords.

Subject-matter connected with this heading appears in several parts of this paper, _e. g._, Figure 46, on page 141, and the characters for 1824-’25 on plate XLII.

CUSTOMS.

Pictographs in the writer’s possession, to be classed under this very general heading, in addition to those that are more intimately connected with other headings, and therefore arranged in other parts of this paper, may be divided into those relating to Associations and those exhibiting details of daily life and habits.

ASSOCIATIONS.

It is well known that voluntary associations, generally of a religious character, have existed among the Indians, the members of which are designated by special paintings and marks entirely distinct from those relating to their clan-totems and name-totems. This topic requires too minute details to be entered upon in this paper after the space taken by other divisions. That it may become a feature in the interpretation of pictographs is shown by the following account:

Dr. W. J. Hoffman obtained a copy of drawings on a pipe-stem, which had been made and used by Ottawa Indians. Both of the flat surfaces bore incisions of figures, which are represented in Figure 120. On each side are four spaces, upon each of which are various characters, three spaces on one side being reserved for the delineation of human figures, each having diverging lines from the head upward, denoting their social status as chiefs or warriors and medicine-men.

Upon the space nearest the mouth is the drawing of a fire, the flames passing upward from the horizontal surface beneath them. The blue cross-bands are raised portions of the wood (ash) of which the pipe-stem is made; these show peculiarly shaped openings which pass entirely through the stem, though not interfering with the tube necessary for the passage of the smoke. This indicates considerable mechanical skill.

Upon each side of the stem are spaces corresponding in length and position to those upon the opposite side. In the lower space of the stem is a drawing of a bear, indicating that the two persons in the corresponding space on the opposite side belong to the Bear gens. The next upper figure is that of a beaver, showing the three human figures to belong to the Beaver gens, while the next to this, the eagle, indicates the opposite persons to be members of the Eagle gens. The upper figure is that of a lodge, the lodge containing a council fire, shown on the opposite side.

The signification of the whole is that two members of the Bear gens, three members of the Beaver gens, and three members of the Eagle gens have united and constitute a society living in one lodge, around one fire, and smoke through the same pipe.

DAILY LIFE AND HABITS.

Examples of daily life and habits are given in Figures 121 and 122:

Figure 121 represents an Alaskan native in the water killing a walrus. The illustration was obtained from a slab of walrus ivory in the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, of San Francisco, California, and interpreted by a native.

The carving, Figure 122, made of a piece of walrus tusk, was copied from the original in the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, San Francisco, California, during the summer of 1882. Interpretations were verified by Naumoff, a Kadiak half-breed, in San Francisco at the time. The special purport of some of the characters and etchings is not apparent.

In No. 1 is a native whose left hand is resting against the house, while the right hangs toward the ground. The character to his right represents a “Shaman stick” surmounted by the emblem of a bird, a “good spirit,” in memory of some departed friend. It was suggested that the grave stick had been erected to the memory of his wife.

No. 2. Represents a reindeer, but the special import in this drawing is unknown.

No. 3. Signifies that one man, the recorder, shot and killed another with an arrow.

No. 4. Denotes that the narrator has made trading expeditions with a dog-sledge.

No. 5. Is a sail-boat, although the elevated paddle signifies that that was the manner in which the voyage was best made.

No. 6. A dog-sled, with the animal hitched up for a journey. The radiating lines in the upper left hand corner, over the head of the man, is a representation of the sun.

No. 7. A sacred lodge. The four figures at the outer corners of the square represent the young men placed on guard, armed with bows and arrows, to keep away those not members of the band, who are depicted as holding a dance. The small square in the center of the lodge represents the fire-place. The angular lines extending from the right side of the lodge to the vertical partition line are an outline of the subterranean entrance to the lodge.

No. 8. A pine tree, upon which a porcupine is crawling upward.

No. 9. A pine tree, from which a bird (woodpecker) is extracting larvæ for food.

No. 10. A bear.

No. 11. The recorder in his boat, holding aloft his double-bladed paddle to drive fish into a net.

No. 12. An assistant fisherman driving fish into the net.

No. 13. The net.

The figure over the man (No. 12) represents a whale, with harpoon and line attached, caught by the narrator.

* * * * *

It will be understood that all personal customs, such, for instance, as the peculiar arrangement of hair in any tribe, are embodied in their pictorial designation by other tribes and perhaps by themselves. See in this connection, page 230.

Among the many customs susceptible of graphic portrayal which do not happen to be illustrated in this paper, an example may be given in the mode in several tribes (_e. g._, Apache, Muskoki, Dakota and Miztec), of punishing the infidelity of wives, namely, by cutting off the nose. The picture of a noseless woman would, therefore, when made by those tribes, have distinct meaning. The unfaithful wife mentioned on page 134 is drawn with a nose, but in her case the greater punishment of death was inflicted.

TRIBAL HISTORY.

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish in pictographs, or, indeed, orally, between historical and traditional accounts obtained from Indians, so that this heading may be connected with one before presented, having relation to Traditions as mnemonically pictured. See page 84.

The Walum-Olum, or Bark Record of the Lenni-Lenapè, before mentioned, as also some of Schoolcraft’s pictographic illustrations, may be, in accordance with the judgment of the reader, more or less properly connected with history. The Dakota Winter Counts, including the Corbusier Winter Counts, in the present paper, while having their chief value as calendars, contain some material that is absolute and veritable tribal history, though seldom of more than local and transient interest. An example from Battiste Good’s count for the year 1862-’63, is given in addition, explaining the origin of the title “Brulé” Dakota.

He calls the year “The-people-were-burnt winter,” and adds:

They were living somewhere east of their present country, when a prairie fire destroyed their entire village. Many of their children and a man and his wife, who were on foot some distance away from the village, were burned to death. Many of their horses were also burned to death. All the people that could get to a long lake which was near by saved themselves by jumping into it. Many of these were badly burned about the thighs and legs, and this circumstance gave rise to the name, _si-can gu_, translated as Burnt Thigh, and Brulé, by which they have since been known. Battiste Good’s character for the year is here given as Figure 123.

This is of later date than the mythical times, even among Indians, and, being verified as it is, must be accepted as historical.

BIOGRAPHIC.

The pictographs under this head that have come to the writer’s notice have been grouped as, _First_, a continuous account of the chief events in the life of the subject of the sketch; _Second_, separate accounts of some particular exploit or event in the life of the person referred to. Pictographs of both of these descriptions are very common.

CONTINUOUS RECORD OF EVENTS IN LIFE.

An example of a continuous record is the following “autobiography” of Running-Antelope:

The accompanying illustrations, Figures 124 to 134 are copied from a record of eleven drawings prepared by Running-Antelope, chief of the Uncpapa Dakota, at Grand River, Dakota, in 1873. The sketches were painted in a large drawing-book by means of water colors, and were made for Dr. W. J. Hoffman, to whom the following interpretations were given by the artist:

The record comprises the most important events in the life of Running-Antelope as a warrior. Although frequently more than one person is represented as slain, it is not to be inferred that all were killed in one day, but during the duration of one expedition, of which the recorder was a member or chief. The bird (_Falco cooperi?_) upon the shield refers to the clan or band totem, while the antelope drawn beneath the horses, in the act of running, signifies the personal name.

Figure 124. Killed two Arikara Indians in one day. The lance held in the hand, thrusting at the foremost of the enemy, signifies that he killed the person with that weapon; the left-hand figure was shot, as is shown, by the discharging gun, and afterwards struck with the lance. This occurred in 1853.

Figure 125. Shot and scalped an Arikara Indian in 1853. It appears that the Arikara attempted to inform Running-Antelope of his being unarmed, as the right hand is thrown outward with distended fingers, in imitation of making the gesture for _negation_, _having nothing_.

Figure 126. Shot and killed an Arikara in 1853.

Figure 127. Killed two warriors on one day in 1854.

Figure 128. Killed ten men and three squaws in 1856. The grouping of persons strongly resembles the ancient Egyptian method of drawing.

Figure 129. Killed two Arikara chiefs in 1856. Their rank is shown by the appendages to the sleeves, which consist of white weasel skins. The arrow in the left thigh of the recorder shows that he was wounded. The scars are still distinct upon the person of Running-Antelope, showing that the arrow passed through the thigh.

Figure 130. Killed one Arikara in 1857. Striking the enemy with a bow is considered the greatest insult that can be offered to another. The act of so doing also entitles the warrior to count one _coup_ when relating his exploits in the council chamber.

Figure 131. Killed an Arikara in 1859 and captured a horse.

Figure 132. Killed two Arikara hunters in 1859. Both were shot, as is indicated by the figure of a gun in contact with each Indian. The cluster of lines drawn across the body of each victim represents the discharge of the gun, and shows where the ball took effect. The upper one of the two figures was in the act of shooting an arrow when he was killed.

Figure 133. Killed five Arikara in one day in 1863. The dotted line indicates the trail which Running-Antelope followed, and when the Indians discovered that they were pursued, they took shelter in an isolated copse of shrubbery, where they were killed at leisure. The five guns within the inclosure represent the five persons armed.

Figure 134. An Arikara killed in 1865.

The Arikara are delineated in the above, in nearly all instances, wearing the top-knot of hair, a custom similar to that practiced by the Absaroka, though as the latter were the most inveterate enemies of the Sioux, and as the word Palláni for Arikara is applied to all enemies, the Crow custom may have been depicted as a generic mark. The practice of painting the forehead red, also an Absaroka custom, serves to distinguish the pictures as individuals of one of the two tribes.

PARTICULAR EXPLOITS AND EVENTS.

A record on ivory shown as Figure 135, was obtained by Dr. W. J. Hoffman in San Francisco, California, in 1882, and was interpreted to him by an Alaskan native. The story represents the success of a hunt; the animals desired are shown, as well as those which were secured.

The following is the explanation of the characters:

1, 2. Deer.

3. Porcupine.

4. Winter, or permanent, habitation. The cross-piece resting upon two vertical poles constitutes the rack, used for drying fish.

5. One of the natives occupying the same lodge with the recorder.

6. The hunter whose exploits are narrated.

7, 8, 9. Beavers.

10-14. Martens.

15. A weasel, according to the interpretation, although there are no specific characters to identify it as different from the preceding.

16. Land otter.

17. A bear.

18. A fox.

19. A walrus.

20. A seal.

21. A wolf.

By reference to the illustration it will be observed that all the animals secured are turned toward the house of the speaker, while the heads of those animals desired, but not captured, are turned away from it.

The following is the text in the Kiatexamut dialect of the Innuit language as dictated by the Alaskan, with his own literal translation into English:

Huí-nu-ná-ga huí-pu-qtú-a pi-cú-qu-lú-a mus´-qu-lí-qnut. Pa-mú-qtu-līt´
I, (from) my place. I went hunting (for) skins. martens
(settlement.) (animals)

ta-qí-mĕn, a-mí-da-duk´ a-xla-luk´, á-qui-á-muk pi-qú-a a-xla-luk´;
five, weasel one, land otter caught one;

ku-qú-lu-hú-nu-mŭk´
wolf

a-xla-luk´, tun´-du-muk tú-gu-qlí-u-gú me-lú-ga-nuk´, pé-luk
one, deer (I) killed two, beaver

pi-naí-u-nuk, nú-nuk pit´-qu-ní, ma-klak-muk´ pit´-qu-ní, a-cí-a-na-muk
three, porcupine (I) caught none, seal (I) caught none, walrus

pit´-qu-ni, ua-qí-la-muk pit´-qu-ní, ta-gú-xa-muk pit´-qu-ní.
(I) caught none, fox (I) caught none, bear (I) caught none.

The following narrative of personal exploit was given to Dr. W. J. Hoffman by “Pete,” a Shoshoni chief, during a visit of the latter to Washington, in 1880. The sketch, Figure 136, was drawn by the narrator, and the following explanation of characters will be sufficient interpretation to render the figures intelligible.

_a._ Pete, a Shoshoni chief.

_b._ A Nez Percés Indian, one of the party from whom the horses were stampeded, and who wounded Pete in the side with an arrow.

_c._ Hoof marks, showing course of stampede.

_d._ Lance, which was captured from the Nez Percés.

_e_, _e_, _e_. Saddles captured.

_f._ Bridle captured.

_g._ Lariat captured.

_h._ Saddle-blanket captured.

_i._ Body-blanket captured.

_j._ Pair of leggings captured.

_k._ Three single legs of leggings captured.

Figure 137, copied from Schoolcraft, IV, p. 253, Pl. 32, is taken from the shoulder-blade of a buffalo, found on the plains in the Comanche country of Texas. No. 5 is a symbol showing the strife for the buffalo existing between the Indian and white races. The Indian (1), presented on horseback, protected by his ornamented shield and armed with a lance, kills a Spaniard (3), the latter being armed with a gun, after a circuitous chase (6). His companion (4), armed with a lance, shares the same fate.

Figure 138 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1853-’54.

He calls the year Cross-Bear-died-on-the-hunt winter.

The “travail” means, they moved; the buffalo, to hunt buffalo; the bear with mouth open and paw advanced, cross-bear. The involute character frequently repeated in Battiste’s record signifies pain in the stomach and intestines, resulting in death. In this group of characters there is not only the brief story, an obituary notice, but an ideographic mark for a particular kind of death, a noticeable name-totem, and a presentation of the Indian mode of transportation.

The word “travail” appearing above, as given by the interpreter, requires explanation. It refers to the peculiar sledge which is used by many tribes of Indians for the purpose of transportation. It is used on the surface of the ground when not covered with snow, even more than when snow prevails. The word is more generally found in print in the plural, where it is spelled “travaux” and sometimes “travois.”

The etymology of this word, which has not yet been found in any Indian language, has been the subject of considerable discussion. The present writer considers it to be one of the class of words which descended in corrupted form from the language of the Canadian voyageurs, and that it was originally the French word “traineau,” with its meaning of sledge.

Figure 139 is taken from a roll of birch bark obtained from the Ojibwa Indians at Red Lake, Minnesota, in 1882, known to be more than seventy years old. The interpretation was given by an Indian from that reservation, although he did not know the author nor the history of the record. With one exception, all of the characters were understood and interpreted to Dr. Hoffman, in 1883 by Ottawa Indians at Harbor Springs, Michigan. This tribe at one time habitually used similar methods of recording historic and mythologic data.

No. 1. Represents the person who visited a country supposed to have been near one of the great lakes. He has a scalp in his hand which he obtained from the head of an enemy, after having killed him. The line from the head to the small circle denotes the name of the person, and the line from the mouth to the same circle signifies (in the Dakota method), “That is it,” having reference to proper names.

No. 2. The person killed. He was a man who held a position of some consequence in his tribe, as is indicated by the horns, marks used by the Ojibwas among themselves for Shaman, Wabeno, etc. It has been suggested that the object held in the hand of this figure is a rattle, though the Indians, to whom the record was submitted for examination, are in doubt, the character being indistinct.

No. 3. Three disks connected by short lines signify, in the present instance, three nights, _i. e._, three black suns. Three days from home was the distance the person in No. 1 traveled to reach the country for which started.

No. 4. Represents a shell, and denotes the primary object of the journey. Shells were needed for making ornaments and to trade.

No. 5. Two parallel lines are here inserted to mark the end of the present record and the beginning of another.

IDEOGRAPHS.

The number of instances in this paper in which the picture has been expressive of an idea, and not a mere portraiture of an object, and has amounted sometimes to a graphic representation of an abstract idea, is so great as to render cross-references superfluous. As examples, attention may be invited to Figure 72, page 166, for the idea of “voice,” Figure 179, page 241, for that of “war,” and the Corbusier winter counts for the year 1876-’77--No. I, page 146, for that of “support.” In addition to them, however, for convenience of grouping under this special heading, the following illustrations (some of which would as properly appear under the head of Conventionalizing) are presented.

ABSTRACT IDEAS.

Figure 140 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good, and is drawn to represent the sign for pipe, which it is intended to signify. The sign is made by placing the right hand near the upper portion of the breast, the left farther forward, and both held so that the index and thumb approximate a circle, as if holding a pipe-stem. The remaining fingers are closed.

The point of interest in this character is that instead of drawing a pipe the artist drew a human figure making the sign for pipe, showing the intimate connection between gesture-signs and pictographs. The pipe, in this instance, was the symbol of peace.

Figure 141, taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1703-’04, signifies plenty of buffalo meat.

The forked stick being one of the supports of a drying-pole or scaffold, indicates meat. The circle may represent a pit or “cache” in which buffalo meat was placed during the winter of 1703-’04, or it may mean “heap”--_i. e._, large quantity, buffalo having been very plentiful that year. The buffalo head denotes the kind of meat stored. This is an abbreviated form of the device immediately following, and being fully understood affords a suggestive comparison with some Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese letters, both in their full pictographic origin and in their abbreviation.

Figure 142 is taken from the same count for the year 1745-’46, in which the drying-pole is supported by two forked sticks or poles, only one of which, without the drying-pole, was indicated in the preceding figure, which is an abbreviated or conventionalized form of the objective representation in the pre-present figure, viz., a scaffold or pole upon which buffalo meat was placed for drying. Buffalo were very plentiful during the winter of 1745-’46, and the kind of meat is denoted by the buffalo head placed above the pole, from which meat appears suspended.

Figure 143 is taken from Prince Maximilian’s Travels, _op. cit._ p. 352. The cross signifies, I will barter or trade. Three animals are drawn on the right hand of the cross; one is a buffalo (probably albino); the two others, a weasel (_Mustela Canadensis_) and an otter. The pictographer offers in exchange for the skins of these animals the articles which he has drawn on the left side of the cross. He has there, in the first place, depicted a beaver very plainly, behind which there is a gun; to the left of the beaver are thirty strokes, each ten separated by a longer line; this means: I will give thirty beaver skins and a gun for the skins of the three animals on the right hand of the cross.

The ideographic character of the design consists in the use of the cross--being a drawing of the gesture-sign for “trade”--the arms being in position interchanged. Of the two things each one is put in the place before occupied by the other thing--the idea of exchange.

Figure 144, from the record of Battiste Good for the year 1720-’21, signifies starvation, denoted by the bare ribs.

This design survives among the Ottawa and Pottawatomi Indians of Northern Michigan, but among the latter a single line only is drawn across the breast, shown in Figure 145. This corresponds, also, with one of the gesture-signs for the same idea.

Figure 146, from the record of Battiste Good for the year 1826-’27, signifies “pain.” He calls the year “Ate-a-whistle-and-died winter,” and explains that six Dakotas, on the war path, had nearly perished with hunger when they found and ate the rotting carcass of an old buffalo, on which the wolves had been feeding. They were seized soon after with pains in the stomach, their bellies swelled, and gas poured from the mouth and the anus, and they died of a whistle, or from eating a whistle. The sound of gas escaping from the mouth is illustrated in the figure. The character on the abdomen and on its right may be considered to be the ideograph for pain in that part of the body.

SYMBOLISM.

The writer has, in a former publication, suggested the distinction to be made between a pictorial sign, an emblem, and a symbol; but it is not easy to preserve the discrimination in reference to ideographic characters which have often become conventionalized. To partly express the distinction, nearly all of the characters in the Dakota Winter Counts are regarded as pictorial signs, and the class represented by tribal signs, personal insignia, etc., is considered to belong to the category of emblems. There is no doubt, however, that true symbols exist among the Indians, as they must exist to some extent among all peoples not devoid of poetic imagination. Some of them are shown in this paper. The pipe is generally a symbol of peace, although in certain positions and connections it sometimes signifies preparation for war, and again subsequent victory. The hatchet is a common symbol for war, and closed hands or approaching palms denote friendship. The tortoise has been clearly used as a symbol for land, and many other examples can be admitted. If Schoolcraft is to be taken as uncontroverted authority, the symbolism of the Ojibwa rivalled that of the Egyptians, and the recent unpublished accounts of the Zuñi, Moki, and Navajo before mentioned indicate the frequent employment of symbolic devices by those tribes which are notably devoted to mystic ceremonies. Nevertheless, the writer’s personal experience is, that often when he has at first supposed a character to be a genuine symbol it has resulted, with better means of understanding, in being not even an ideograph but a mere objective representation. In this connection, the remarks on the circle on page 107, and those on Figure 206, on page 246, may be in point.

Another case for consideration occurs. The impression, real or represented, of a human hand is used in several regions in the world with symbolic significance. For instance, in Jerusalem a rough representation of a hand is reported by Lieutenant Conder (Palestine Exploration Fund, January, 1873, p. 16) to be marked on the wall of every house whilst in building by the native races. Some authorities connect it with the five names of God, and it is generally considered to avert the evil eye. The Moors generally, and especially the Arabs in Kairwan, employ the marks on their houses as prophylactics. Similar hand prints are found in the ruins of El Baird, near Petra. Some of the quaint symbolism connected with horns is supposed to originate from such hand marks. Among the North American Indians the mark so readily applied is of frequent occurrence, an instance, with its ascertained significance, being given on page 187, _supra_.

It has been recently ascertained that the figure of a hand, with extended fingers, is very common in the vicinity of ruins in Arizona as a rock-etching, and is also frequently seen daubed on the rocks with colored pigments or white clay. This coincidence would seem at first to assure symbolic significance and possibly to connect the symbolism of the two hemispheres. But Mr. Thomas V. Keam explains the Arizona etchings of hands, on the authority of the living Moki, as follows:

“These are vestiges of the test formerly practiced among young men who aspired for admission to the fraternity of Salyko. The Salyko is a trinity of two women and a woman from whom the Hopitus [Moki] first obtained corn. Only those were chosen as novices, the imprints of whose hands had dried on the instant.”

While the subject-matter is, therefore, ceremonial, there is absolutely no symbolism connected with it. The etchings either simply perpetuate the marks made in the several tests or imitate them.

In the present stage of the study no more can be suggested than that symbolic interpretations should be accepted with caution.

With regard to the symbolic use of material objects, which would probably be extended into graphic portrayal, the following remarks maybe given:

The Prince of Wied mentions (_op. cit._, Vol. I, p. 244) that in the Sac and Fox tribes the rattle of a rattlesnake attached to the end of the feather worn on the head signifies a good horse stealer. The stealthy approach of the serpent, accompanied with latent power, is here clearly indicated.

Mr. Schoolcraft says of the Dakotas that “some of the chiefs had the skins of skunks tied to their heels to symbolize that they never ran, as that animal is noted for its slow and self-possessed movements.” See Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontier, etc., Philadelphia, 1851, p. 214.

This is one of the many customs to be remembered in the attempted interpretations of pictographs. The present writer does not know that a skunk skin, or a strip of skin which might be supposed to be a skunk skin, attached to a human heel, has ever been used pictorially as the ideograph of courage or steadfastness, but with the knowledge of this objective use of the skins, if they were found so represented pictorially, as might well be expected, the interpretation would be suggested, without any direct explanation from Indians.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE PICTOGRAPHERS.

The first point in the examination of a pictograph is to determine by what body of people it was made. This is not only because the marks or devices made by the artists of one tribe, or perhaps of one linguistic stock if not disintegrated into separated divisions distant from each other, may have a different significance from figures virtually the same produced by another tribe or stock, but because the value of the record is greatly enhanced when the recorders are known. In arriving at the identification mentioned it is advisable to study: 1st. The general style or type. 2d. The presence of characteristic objects. 3d. The apparent subject-matter. 4th. The localities with reference to the known habitat of tribes.

GENERAL STYLE OR TYPE.

Although the collection of pictographs, particularly of petroglyphs, is not complete, and their study, therefore, is only commenced, it is possible to present some of the varieties in general style and type.

Figure 147 is presented as a type of the Eastern Algonkian pictographs. It was copied by Messrs. J. Sutton Wall and William Arison, in 1882, from a rock opposite Millsborough, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and is mentioned on page 20, _supra_, in connection with the local distribution of petroglyphs. The locality is within the area once occupied by the tribes of the Algonkian linguistic family, and there is apparent a general similarity to the well-known Dighton Rock inscription.

Mr. J. Sutton Wall, of Monongahela City, Pennsylvania, who has kindly furnished the drawing of the etchings, states that the outlines of figures are formed by grooves carved or cut in the rock from an inch to a mere trace in depth. The footprints are carved depressions. The character marked Z (near the lower left-hand corner) is a circular cavity 7 inches deep. The rock is sandstone, of the Waynesburg series.

Mr. Wall has also contributed a copy of the “Hamilton Picture Rock,” of which Figure 148 is an illustration. The etchings are on a sandstone rock, on the Hamilton farm, 6 miles southeast from Morgantown, West Virginia. The turnpike passes over the south edge of the rock.

Mr. Wall furnishes the following interpretation of the figures:

A. Outline of a turkey.

B. Outline of a panther.

C. Outline of a rattlesnake.

D. Outline of a human form.

E. A “spiral or volute.”

F. Impression of a horse foot.

G. Impression of a human foot.

H. Outline of the top portion of a tree or branch.

I. Impression of a human hand.

J. Impression of a bear’s forefoot, but lacks the proper number of toe marks.

K. Impression of two turkey tracks.

L. Has some appearance of a hare or rabbit, but lacks the corresponding length of ears.

M. Impression of a bear’s hindfoot, but lacks the proper number of toe marks.

N. Outline of infant human form, with two arrows in the right hand.

O, P. Two cup-shaped depressions.

Q. Outline of the hind part of an animal.

R. Might be taken to represent the impression of a horse’s foot were it not for the line bisecting the outer curved line.

S. Represent buffalo and deer tracks.

The turkey A, the rattlesnake C, the rabbit L, and the “footprints” J, M, and Q, are specially noticeable as typical characters in Algonkian pictography.

Mr. P. W. Sheafer furnishes in his Historical Map of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1875, a sketch of a pictograph on the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, below the dam at Safe Harbor, part of which is reproduced in Figure 149. This appears to be purely Algonkian, and has more resemblance to Ojibwa characters than any other petroglyph yet noted from the Eastern United States.

The best type of Western Algonkian petroglyphs known to the writer is reported as discovered by members of the party of Capt. William A. Jones, United States Army, in 1873, and published in his report on Northwestern Wyoming, including the Yellowstone National Park, Washington, 1875, p. 267, _et seq._, Fig. 50, reproduced in this paper by Figure 150, in which the greater number of the characters are shown about one-fifth of their size.

An abstract of his description is as follows:

* * Upon a nearly vertical wall of the yellow sandstones just back
of Murphy’s ranch, a number of rude figures had been chiseled,
apparently at a period not very recent, as they had become much worn.
* * * No certain clue to the connected meaning of this record was
obtained, although Pínatsi attempted to explain it when the sketch
was shown to him some days later by Mr. F. W. Bond, who copied the
inscriptions from the rocks. The figure on the left, in the upper
row, somewhat resembles the design commonly used to represent a
shield, with the greater part of the ornamental fringe omitted,
perhaps worn away in the inscription. We shall possibly be justified
in regarding the whole as an attempt to record the particulars of a
fight or battle which once occurred in this neighborhood. Pínatsi’s
remarks conveyed the idea to Mr. Bond that he understood the figure
[the second in the upper line] to signify cavalry, and the six
figures [three in the middle of the upper line, as also the three to
the left of the lower line,] to mean infantry, but he did not appear
to recognize the hieroglyphs as the copy of any record with which he
was familiar.

Several years ago Dr. W. J. Hoffman showed these (as well as other pictographs from the same locality) to several prominent Shoshoni Indians from near that locality, who at once pronounced them the work of the Pawkees (Satsika, or Blackfeet), who formerly occupied that country. The general resemblance of many of the drawings from this area of country is similar to many of the Eastern Algonkin records. The Satsika are part of the great Algonkian stock.

Throughout the Wind River country of Wyoming many pictographic records have been found, and others reported by the Shoshoni Indians. These are said, by the latter, to be the work of the “Pawkees,” as they call the Blackfeet, or more properly Satsika, and the general style of many of the figures bears strong resemblance to similar carvings found in the eastern portion of the United States, in regions known to have been occupied by other tribes of the same linguistic stock, viz., the Algonkian.

The four specimens of Algonkian petroglyphs presented above in Figures 147-150 show gradations in type. In connection with them reference may be made to the Ojibwa bark record, Figure 139, page 218; the Ojibwa grave-posts, Plate LXXXIII; the Ottawa pipe-stem, Figure 120, page 204, in this paper; and to Schoolcraft’s numerous Ojibwa pictographs; and they may be contrasted with the many Dakota and Innuit drawings in this paper.

Mr. G. K. Gilbert has furnished a small collection of drawings of Shoshonian petroglyphs, from Oneida, Idaho, shown in Figure 151. Some of them appear to be totemic characters, and to record the names of visitors to the locality.

Five miles northwest from this locality, and one-half mile east from Marsh Creek, is another group of characters, on basalt bowlders, apparently totemic, and by Shoshoni. A copy of these, also contributed by Mr. Gilbert, is given in Figure 152.

All of these drawings resemble the petroglyphs found at Partridge Creek, northern Arizona, and in Temple Creek Cañon, southeastern Utah, mentioned _ante_, pages 30 and 26 respectively.

Mr. I. C. Russell, of the United States Geological Survey, has furnished drawings of rude pictographs at Black Rock Spring, Utah, represented in Figure 153. Some of the other characters not represented in the figure consist of several horizontal lines, placed one above another, above which are a number of spots, the whole appearing like a numerical record having reference to the figure alongside, which resembles, to a slight extent, a melon with tortuous vines and stems. The left-hand upper figure suggests the masks shown on Plate LXXXI.

Mr. Gilbert Thompson, of the United States Geological Survey, has discovered pictographs at Fool Creek Cañon, Utah, shown in Figure 154, which strongly resemble those still made by the Moki of Arizona. Several characters are identical with those last mentioned, and represent human figures, one of which is drawn to represent a man, shown by a cross, the upper arm of which is attached to the perinæum. These are all drawn in red color and were executed at three different periods. Other neighboring pictographs are pecked and unpainted, while others are both pecked and painted.

Both of these pictographs from Utah may be compared with the Moki pictographs from Oakley Springs, Arizona, copied in Figure 1, page 30.

Dr. G. W. Barnes, of San Diego, California, has kindly furnished sketches of pictographs prepared for him by Mrs. F. A. Kimball, of National City, California, which were copied from records 25 miles northeast of the former city. Many of them found upon the faces of large rocks are almost obliterated, though sufficient remains to permit tracing. The only color used appears to be red ocher. Many of the characters, as noticed upon the drawings, closely resemble those in New Mexico, at Ojo de Benado, south of Zuñi, and in the cañon leading from the cañon at Stewart’s ranch, to the Kanab Creek Cañon, Utah. This is an indication of the habitat of the Shoshonian stock apart from the linguistic evidence with which it agrees.

The power of determining the authorship of pictographs made on materials other than rocks, by means of their general style and type, can be estimated by a comparison of those of the Ojibwa, Dakota, Haida, and Innuit of Alaska presented in various parts of this paper.

PRESENCE OF CHARACTERISTIC OBJECTS.

With regard to the study of the individual characters themselves to identify the delineators of pictographs, the various considerations of fauna, religion, customs, tribal signs, indeed, most of the headings of this paper will be applicable. It is impracticable now to give further details in this immediate connection, except to add to similar particulars before presented the following notes with regard to the arrangement of hair and display of paint in identification.

A custom obtains among the Absaroka, which, when depicted in pictographs, as is frequently done, serves greatly to facilitate identification of the principal actors in events recorded. This consists in wearing false hair, attached to the back of the head and allowed to hang down over the back. Horse hair, taken from the tail, is arranged in 8 or 10 strands, each about as thick as a finger, and laid parallel with spaces between them of the width of a single strand. Pine gum is then mixed with red ocher, or vermilion, when the individual can afford the expense, and by means of other hair, or fibers of any kind laid cross-wise, the strands are secured, and around each intersection of hair a ball of gum is plastered to hold it in place. About 4 inches further down, a similar row of gum balls and cross strings are placed, and so on down to the end. The top of the tail ornament is then secured to the hair on the back of the head. The Indians frequently incorporate the false hair with their own so as to lengthen the latter without any marked evidence of the deception. Nevertheless the transverse fastenings with their gum attachments are present. The Arikara have adopted this custom of late, and they have obtained it from the Hidatsa, who, in turn, learned it of the Absaroka.

In picture-writing this is shown upon the figure of a man by the presence of parallel lines drawn downward from the back of the head, with cross lines, the whole appearing like small squares or a piece of net.

Dr. George Gibbs mentions a pictograph made by one of the Northwestern tribes (of Oregon and Washington) upon which “the figure of a man, with a long queue, or scalp-lock, reached to his heels, denoted a Shoshonee, that tribe being in the habit of braiding horse- or other hair into their own in that manner.” See Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol., Vol. I, p. 222.

This may have reference to the Shoshoni Indians among the extreme Northwestern tribes, but it can by no means be positively affirmed that the mark of identification could be based upon the custom of braiding with their own hair that of animals to increase the length and appearance of the queue, as this custom also prevails among the Absaroka and Arikara Indians of Montana and Dakota, respectively, as above described.

Pictures drawn by some of the northern tribes of the Dakota, the Titon, for instance, show the characteristic and distinctive features for a Crow Indian to be the distribution of the red war paint, which covers the forehead. A Dakota upon the same picture is designated by painting the face red from the eyes down to the end of the chin. Again, the Crow is designated by a top-knot of hair extending upward from the forehead, that lock of hair being actually worn by that tribe and brushed upward and slightly backward. See the seated figure in the record of Running-Antelope in Fig. 127, page 210.

The Pueblos generally, when accurate and particular in delineation, designate the women of that tribe by a huge coil of hair over either ear. This custom prevails also among the Coyotèro Apaches, the women wearing the hair in a coil to denote a virgin or an unmarried person, while the coil is absent in the case of a married woman.

The following remarks are extracted from the unpublished “Catalogue of the Relics of the Ancient Builders of the Southwest Tablelands,” by Mr. Thomas V. Keam:

“The Maltese cross is the emblem of a virgin; still so recognized by the Mokis. It is a conventional development of a more common emblem of maidenhood, the form in which the maidens wear their hair arranged as a disk of three or four inches in diameter upon each side of the head. This discoidal arrangement of their hair is typical of the emblem of fructification, worn by the maiden in the Muingwa festival. Sometimes the hair, instead of being worn in the complete discoid form, is dressed from two curved twigs, and presents the form of two semi-circles upon each side of the head. The partition of these is sometimes horizontal and sometimes vertical. A combination of both of these styles presents the form from which the Maltese cross was conventionalized. The brim decorations are of ornamental locks of hair which a maiden trains to grow upon the sides of the forehead.”

This strongly marked form of Maltese cross, the origin of which is above explained, appears frequently in the pottery, and also in the petroglyphs of the Moki.

* * * * *

Regarding the apparent subject matter of pictographs an obvious distinction may be made between hunting and land scenes such as would be familiar to interior tribes and those showing fishing and water transportation common to seaboard and lacustrine peoples. Similar and more perspicuous modes of discrimination are available. The general scope of known history, traditions, and myths may also serve in identification.

* * * * *

Knowledge of the priscan homes and of the migrations of tribes necessary to ascertain their former habitat in connection with the probable age of rock-etchings or paintings is manifestly desirable.

MODES OF INTERPRETATION.

It is obvious that before attempting the interpretation of pictographs, concerning which no direct information is to be obtained, there should be a full collection of known characters, in order that through them the unknown may be learned. When any considerable number of objects in a pictograph are actually known, the remainder may be ascertained by the context, the relation, and the position of the several designs, and sometimes by the recognized principles of the art.

The Bureau of Ethnology has been engaged, therefore, for a considerable time in collating a large number of characters in a card-catalogue arranged primarily by similarity in forms, and in attaching to each character any significance ascertained or suggested. As before explained, the interpretation upon which reliance is mainly based is that which has been made known by direct information from Indians who themselves were actually makers of pictographs at the time of giving the interpretation. Apart from the comparisons obtained by this collation, the only mode of ascertaining the meaning of the characters, in other words, the only key yet discovered, is in the study of the gesture-sign included in many of them. The writer several years ago suggested that among people where a system of ideographic gesture-signs prevailed, it would be expected that their form would appear in any mode of artistic representation made by the same people with the object of conveying ideas or recording facts. When a gesture-sign had been established and it became necessary or desirable to draw a character or design to convey the same ideas, nothing could be more natural than to use the graphic form or delineation which was known and used in the gesture-sign. It was but one more step, and an easy one, to fasten upon bark, skins, or rocks the evanescent air pictures of the signs.

The industrious research of Dr. D. G. Brinton, whose recent work, The Lenâpé and their Legends, before mentioned, is received as this paper passes through the press, has discovered passages in Rafinesque’s generally neglected and perhaps unduly discredited volumes, by which that eccentric but acute writer seems to have announced the general proposition that the graphic signs of the Indians correspond to their manual signs. He also asserted that he had collected a large number of them, though the statement is not clear, for if all Indian pictographs are, in a very general sense, “based upon their language of signs,” all of those pictographs might be included in his alleged collection, without an ascertained specific relation between any pictograph and any sign. It is probable, however, that Rafinesque actually had at least valuable notes on the subject, the loss of which is greatly to be regretted.

In the paper “Sign Language among the North American Indians,” published in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, a large number of instances were given of the reproduction of gesture lines in the pictographs made by the North American Indians, and they appeared to be most frequent when there was an attempt to convey subjective ideas. These were beyond the range of an artistic skill limited to the rough presentation of objects in outline. It was suggested, therefore, that the part of pictographs which is the most difficult of interpretation in the absence of positive knowledge, was the one in the elucidation of which the study of sign-language would assist. Many pictographs in the present paper, the meaning of which is definitely known from direct sources, are noted in connection with the gesture-signs corresponding with the same idea, which signs are also understood from independent evidence.

So numerous and conclusive are these examples, that it is not necessary to add to them save by presenting the pictograph copied in Figure 155, as one of special importance in this connection.