Chapter XI: Front Matter (11)

During the summer of 1882 Dr. W. J. Hoffman visited the Tule River Agency, California, where he found a large rock painting, of which Figure 155 is a copy made by him, the following being his description:

The agency is located upon the western side of the Sierra Nevada in the headwater cañons of the branches of the south fork of Tule River. The country is at present occupied by several tribes of the Yokuts linguistic stock, and the only answer received to inquiries respecting the age or origin of the record was, that it was found there when the ancestors of the present tribes arrived. The local migrations of the various Indian tribes of this part of California are not yet known with sufficient certainty to determine to whom the records may be credited, but all appearances with respect to the weathering and disintegration of the rock upon which the record is etched, the appearance of the coloring matter subsequently applied, and the condition of the small depressions made at the time for mixing the pigments with a viscous substance would indicate that the work had been performed about a century ago.

The Tulare Indians have been residents of that part of the State for at least one hundred years, and the oldest now living state that the records were found by their ancestors, though whether more than two generations ago could not be ascertained.

The drawings were outlined by pecking with a piece of quartz or other silicious rock, to the depth of from a mere visible depression to a third of an inch. Having thus satisfactorily depicted the several ideas, colors were applied which upon examination appear to have penetrated the slight interstices between the crystalline particles of the rock, which had been bruised and slightly fractured by hammering with a piece of stone. It appears probable, too, that the hammering was repeated after application of the colors to insure better results.

Upon a small bowlder, under the natural archway formed by the breaking of the large rock, small depressions were found which had been used as mortars for grinding and mixing the colors. These depressions average 2 inches in diameter and about 1 inch in depth. Traces of color still remain, mixed with a thin layer of a shining substance resembling a coating of varnish, though of a flinty hardness.

This coating is so thin that it cannot be removed with a steel instrument, and appears to have become part of the rock itself.

From the animals depicted upon the ceiling it seems that both beaver and deer were found in the country, and as the beaver tail and the hoofs of deer and antelope are boiled to procure glue, it is probable that the tribe which made these pictographs was as far advanced in respect to the making of glue and preparing of paints as other tribes throughout the United States.

Examination shows that the dull red color is red ocher, found in various places in the valley, while the yellow was an ocherous clay, also found there. The white color was probably obtained there, and is evidently earthy, though of what nature can only be surmised, not sufficient being obtainable from the rock picture to make satisfactory analysis with the blow pipe. The composition of the black is not known, unless it was made by mixing clay and powdered charcoal from the embers. The latter is a preparation common at this day among other tribes.

An immense granite bowlder, about 20 feet in thickness and 30 in length, is so broken that a lower quarter is removed, leaving a large square passageway through its entire diameter almost northwest and southeast. Upon the western wall of this passageway is a collection of the colored sketches of which Figure 155 is a reduced copy. The entire face of the rock upon which the pictograph occurs measures about 12 or 15 feet in width and 8 in height. The ceiling also contains many characters of birds, quadrupeds, etc. No. 1 in the figure measures 6 feet in height, from the end of the toes to the top of the head, the others being in proportion as represented.

The attempt at reproducing gestures is admirably portrayed, and the following explanations are based upon such natural gestures as are almost universally in use:

No. 1 represents a person weeping. The eyes have lines running down to the breast, below the ends of which are three short lines on either side. The arms and hands are in the exact position for making the gesture for rain. It was evidently the intention of the artist to show that the hands in this gesture should be passed downward over the face, as probably suggested by the short lines upon the lower end of the tears. This is a noticeable illustration of the general term used by Indians when making the gesture for weeping; _i. e._, “eye-rain.” It is evident that sorrow is portrayed in this illustration, grief based upon the sufferings of others who are shown in connection therewith.

Nos. 2, 3, 4. Six individuals apparently making the gesture for “hunger,” by passing the hands towards and backward from the sides of the body, denoting a “gnawing sensation,” as expressed by Indians. No. 4 occupying a horizontal position, may possibly denote a “dead man,” dead of starvation, this position being adopted by the Ojibwa, Blackfeet, and others as a common way of representing a dead person. The varying lengths of head ornaments denote different degrees of position as warriors or chiefs.

Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are individuals in various shapes making gestures for negation, or more specifically _nothing_, _nothing here_, a natural and universal gesture made by throwing one or both hands outward toward either side of the body. The hands are extended also, and, to make the action apparently more emphatic, the extended toes are also shown on Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 9. The several lines upon the leg of No. 9 refer evidently to trimmings upon the leggings.

No. 10 is strikingly similar to the Alaskan pictographs (see No. 1 of Figure 55, page 153) indicating _self_ with the right hand, and the left pointing away, signifying _to go_.

No. 11 is an ornamented head with body and legs, and is unintelligible. This may probably refer to a Shaman, the head being similar to like personages as represented by the Ojibwa and Iroquois.

Similar drawings occur at a distance of about 10 miles southeast of this locality, as well as at other places toward the northwest, and it appears probable that the present record was made by a portion of a tribe which had advanced for the purpose of selecting a new camping place, but failing to find the necessary quantities of food for sustenance, this notice was erected to advise their successors of their misfortune and ultimate departure toward the northwest. It is noticeable, also, that the picture is so placed upon the rock that the extended arm of No. 10 points toward the north.

The foregoing description is substantially the same as published by Dr. Hoffman in Transactions of the Anthropological Society, Washington, II, 1883, pages 128-132.

The limits of this paper do not allow of presenting a list of the characters in the pictographs which have become known. It may be properly demanded, however, that some of the characters in the petroglyph, Figure 1, should be explained. The following is a list of those which were interpreted to Mr. Gilbert, as mentioned on page 29 _supra_.

Figure 156 is an inclosure, or pen, in which ceremonial dances are performed. Figure 157 is a head-dress used in ceremonial dances.

Figure 158 shows different representations of houses.

Figure 159 sketches the frames or sticks used in carrying wood on the back. Figure 160 shows different forms of arrows.

Figure 161 represents the blossoms of melons, squashes, etc.

Figure 162 shows three ways in which lightning is represented. Figure 163 represents clouds.

Figure 164 represents clouds with rain descending.

Figure 165 shows various forms of stars.

Figure 166 shows various representations of the sun.

Figure 167 shows various representations of sunrise.

It is of interest in this connection that in the pictorial notation of the Laplanders the sun bears its usual figure of a man’s head, rayed, as reported in Schoolcraft, _op. cit._ I, 426. See drawings in Scheffer’s Hist. of Lapland, London ed., 1704.

It may be desirable also to note, to avoid misconception, that where, through this paper, mention is made of particulars under the headings of Customs, Religious, etc., which might be made the subject of graphic illustration in pictographs, and for that reason should be known as preliminary to the attempted interpretation of the latter, the suggestion is not given as a mere hypothesis. Such objective marks and conceptions of the character indicated which can readily be made objective, are in fact frequently found in pictographs and have been understood by means of the preliminary information to which reference is made. When interpretations obtained through this line of study are properly verified they can take places in the card-catalogue little inferior to those of interpretations derived directly from aboriginal pictographers.

HOMOMORPHS AND SYMMORPHS.

It has been already mentioned that characters substantially the same, or homomorphs, made by one set of people, have a different signification among others. Differing forms for the same general conception or idea are also noticed. These may be termed symmorphs. Some examples under these titles are noted as follows, not for the purpose of giving an even approximately complete list, but merely to show the manner in which they may be compared and sometimes confused with similar characters, some of which appear in other parts of this paper.

Figure 168 represents Dakota lodges as drawn by the Hidatsa. These characters when carelessly or rudely drawn can only be distinguished from personal marks by their position and their relation to other characters.

Figure 169 signifies earth lodges among the Hidatsa. The circles resemble the ground plan of the lodges, while the central markings are intended to represent the upright poles, which support the roof on the interior. Some of these are similar to the Kadiak drawing for island, Figure 47, page 147.

Figure 170 represents buildings erected by white men; the character is generally used by the Hidatsa to designate Government buildings and traders’ stores.

Figure 171 is the Hidatsati, the home of the Hidatsa. Inclosure with earth lodges within.

The Arikara sometimes simply mark dots or spots to signify men; when in connection with small crescents to denote horses. The numerical strength of a war party is sometimes shown in this manner, as in Figure 172.

Figure 173 was drawn for dead man by the Arikara. Cf. “nothing there,” page 168.

Figure 174. In records of personal events the two lines above the head of the fallen enemy denote among the Hidatsa that the person to whom the exploit refers was the second to strike the body.

Figure 175 shows the third person to strike the enemy, as drawn by the Hidatsa.

Figure 176 means a scalp taken. Hidatsa.

Figure 177 signifies, in Hidatsa drawing, the man who struck the enemy, and who took his gun.

The following specimens from the writer’s card collection are presented as having some individual interest:

Figure 178 was drawn by a Dakota Indian, at Mendota, Minnesota, and represents a man holding a scalp in one hand, while in the other is the gun, the weapon used in the destruction of the enemy. The short vertical lines below the periphery of the scalp indicate hair. The line crossing the leg of the Indian is only an indication of the ground upon which the figure is supposed to stand.

Figure 179 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1840-’41. He names it “Came-and-killed-five-of-Little-Thunder’s-brothers winter” and “Battiste-alone-returns winter.” He explains that the five were killed in an encounter with the Panis. Battiste Good was the only one of the party to escape. The capote is shown, and signifies war, as in several other instances of the same record. The five short vertical lines below the arrow signify that five were killed.

Figure 180 is taken from Mrs. Eastman’s Dahcotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux, New York, 1849, p. xxvii, and shows a Dakota method of recording the taking of prisoners. Nos. 1 and 3 are the prisoners; No. 1 being a female, as denoted by the presence of mammæ, and No. 3 a male. No. 2 is the person making the capture. It is also noted that the prisoners are without hands, to signify their helplessness.

In this connection the following quotation is taken from the Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part III, 1851, p. 124, describing a pictograph, as follows: “There were two figures of men without heads and some entire. The first denoted the dead and the second the prisoners. One of my conductors told me on this occasion that when there are any French among either, they set their arms akimbo, or their hands upon their hips, to distinguish them from the savages, whom they represent with their arms hanging down. This distinction is not purely arbitrary; it proceeds from these people having observed that the French often put themselves in this posture, which is not used among them.”

Figure 181 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good for the year 1851-’52. In the year 1851-’52, the first issue of goods was made to the Indians, and the character represents a blanket surrounded by a circle to show how the Indians sat awaiting the distribution. The people are represented by small lines running at right angles to the circle.

Figure 182 is also from Battiste Good. An encounter is represented between two tribes, each on the banks of a river, from which arrows were fired across the water at the opposing party. The vertical lines represent the banks, while the opposing arrows denote a fight or an encounter.

The drawing, Figure 183, was made by Mr. J. G. Swan while on a visit to the Prince of Wales Archipelago, where he found two carved figures with panthers’ heads, and claws upon the fore feet, and human feet attached to the hind legs. These mythical animals were placed upon either side of a corpse which was lying in state, awaiting burial.

This union of the human figure with that of other animals is of interest in comparison with the well-known forms of similar character in the art of Egypt and Assyria.

The feet of the accompanying Figure 184 cannot be seen, being hidden in the head of the figure beneath. It is squatting, with its hands on its knees, and has a wolf’s head. Arms, legs, mouth, jaws, nostrils, and ear-holes are scarlet; eyebrows, irises, and edges of the ears black. The figure is reproduced from The Northwest Coast of America, being results of recent ethnological researches from the collections of the Royal Museums at Berlin. (Trans. from German.) New York, Pl. 7, Fig. 3.

The accompanying illustration, Figure 185, represents a knife from Africa, which bears upon both sides of the blade incised characters of the human form, strikingly similar to those found among the Ojibwa. The lines running upward from the head are identical with an Ojibwa form of representing a meda, or Shaman, while the hour-glass form of body is also frequently found, though generally used to designate a woman, the lower part of the body representing the skirt. In the present instance, it may have allusion to the peculiar skirt-like dress often worn by the men among the tribes of Northern Africa.

The lines extending from the middle of the body downward to below the skirt and terminating in an irregular knob somewhat resemble the Pueblo method of designating sex, the male being shown by a small cross, and the female by a simple, short, vertical line attached to the perinæum.

The upper character, in B, in addition to the line and circle extending downward from the lower extremity, shows a bird’s leg and toes at either side. This is also, according to Schoolcraft, an Ojibwa method of depicting a person or being who is endowed with the power of flight into the upper regions, hence one of superior knowledge.

The history of the knife here figured is received from Mr. Thomas M. Chatard, of the National Museum, who in turn obtained it from his father, Mr. F. E. Chatard, Baltimore, Maryland, who writes that it was obtained at Cape Mesurado, Africa, in November, 1822, where the natives had attacked a recently established colony. The Africans were repulsed, and the knife was subsequently picked up on the battle-field and brought to America by the late William Seton, an officer of the United States Navy.

CONVENTIONALIZING.

The course of conventionalizing is noticeable in pictographs as well as in gesture-signs, on the one hand, and, on the other, as it appears in all forms of graphic art. The analysis of such conventions in form could be pursued at great length with regard to the pictographs now known in the same manner as has been done with success by Dr. Harrison Allen in his work “An analysis of the Life-form in Art,” Philadelphia, 1875. Some suggestions may be obtained from the present paper, especially from examples given under the headings of Ideographs, page 219, and Homomorphs and Symmorphs, page 239. See also conventionalized sign for Ponka in Winter Count No. I for 1778-79, on page 131, and for Mandan in the same count for 1783-84, on the same page; also the conventional sign for Cheyenne, Figure 78, page 173; also the device for starvation, Figure 144, page 220, as conventionalized in Figure 145, page 221. The limits of this paper will only allow of submitting in addition the following conventionalized forms of the human figure, in some cases being merely marks arbitrarily used to represent humanity:

Figure 186 signifies men among the Arikara. The characters are used in connection with horse-shoes, to denote “mounted men.” In other pictographs such spots or dots are merely numerical.

Figure 187 is drawn by the Kiatéxamut branch of the Innuits for man. It is an abbreviated form and rare.

Figure 188, drawn by the Blackfeet, signifies “Man--dead.” This is from a pictograph in Wind River Mountains. See Jones’s Northwestern Wyoming, etc., _op. cit._

Figure 189 is the Kiatéxamut Innuit drawing for man. This figure is armless; generally represents the person addressed.

Figure 190 is also a Kiatéxamut Innuit drawing for man. The figure makes the gesture for _negation_.

Figure 191, from a Californian pictograph, is a man, also gesturing _negation_.

Figure 192 is another Californian pictograph for man, making the same gesture.

Figure 193, from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 59, No. 91, is the Ojibwa “symbol” for disabled man.

Figure 194 is the Kiatéxamut Innuit drawing for Shaman.

Figure 195, used by the Kiatéxamut Innuit, represents man supplicating.

The five figures, 196 to 200, are reproduced from Schoolcraft, Vol. I, Pl. 58, opp. p. 408. The Numbers attached are those given by that author:

Figure 196, No. 6, is the Ojibwa representative figure for man.

Figure 197, No. 10, is used by the Ojibwa to denote a spirit or man enlightened from on high, having the head of the sun.

Figure 198, No. 20, is drawn by the Ojibwa for a “wabeno” or Shaman.

Figure 199, No. 30, is the Ojibwa “symbol” for an evil or one-sided “meda” or higher grade Shaman.

Figure 200, No. 29, is the Ojibwa general “symbol” for a meda.

Figure 201 is drawn by the Hidatsa for man.

Figure 202, from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 58, No. 3, is an Ojibwa drawing of a headless body.

Figure 203, from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 58, No. 2, is another Ojibwa figure for a headless body, perhaps female.

Figure 204, contributed by Mr. Gilbert Thompson, is a drawing for man, made by the Moki in Arizona.

Figure 205, reproduced from Schoolcraft, I, Pl. 64, opposite page 424, is a drawing from the banks of the River Yenesei, Siberia, by Von Strahlenberg, in his historical and geographical description of the northern and eastern parts of Europe, Asia, etc. London, 1738.

The similarity to characters on Figure 185 is obvious.

Figure 206, also from Strahlenberg, and quoted in Schoolcraft, Vol. I, Pl. 66, Fig. 4, opp. p. 342, was found in Siberia, and is identical with the character which, according to Schoolcraft, is drawn by the Ojibwa to represent speed and the power of superior knowledge by exaltation to the regions of the air, being, in his opinion, a combination of bird and man.

It is to be noticed that some Ojibwa recently examined regard the character merely as a human figure with outstretched arms, and fringes pendant therefrom. It has, also, a strong resemblance to some of the figures in the Dakota Winter Counts (those for 1854-’55 and 1866-’67, pages 121 and 124, respectively), in which there is no attempt understood to signify any thing more than a war-dress.

Figure 207, according to Schoolcraft, Vol. I, Pl. 58, No. 58, is the Ojibwa drawing symbolic for an American.

ERRORS AND FRAUDS.

No large amount of space need be occupied in the mention of recognized pictographic frauds, their importance being small, but much more than is now allowed would be required for the discussion of controverted cases.

There is little inducement, beyond a disposition to hoax, to commit actual frauds in the fabrication of rock-carvings. The instances where inscribed stones from mounds have been ascertained to be forgeries or fictitious drawings have been about equally divided between simple mischief and an attempt either to increase the marketable value of some real estate, supposed to contain more, or to sell the specimens.

With regard to the much more familiar and more portable material of engraved pipes, painted robes and like curios, it is well known to all recent travelers in the West who have had former experience that the fancy prices paid by amateurs for those decorations have stimulated their wholesale manufacture by Indians at agencies (locally termed “coffee-coolers”), who make a business of sketching upon ordinary robes or plain pipes the characters in common use by them, without regard to any real event or person, and selling them as curious records.

This pictorial forgery would seem to show a gratifying advance of the Indians in civilization, but it is feared that the credit of the invention is chiefly due to some enterprising traders who have been known to furnish the unstained robes, plain pipes, paints, and other materials for the purpose, and simply pay a skillful Indian for his work, when the fresh antique or imaginary chronicle is delivered.

Six inscribed copper plates were said to have been found in a mound near Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois, which were reported to bear a close resemblance to Chinese. This resemblance seemed not to be so extraordinary when it was ascertained that the plate had been engraved by the village blacksmith, copied from the lid of a Chinese tea-chest.

Mica plates were found in a mound at Lower Sandusky, Ohio, which, after some attempts at interpretation, proved to belong to the material known as graphic or hieroglyphic mica, the discolorations having been caused by the infiltration of mineral solution between the laminæ.

The following recent notice of a case of alleged fraud is quoted from Science, Vol. III, No. 58, March 14, 1884, page 334:

Dr. N. Roe Bradner exhibited [at the Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,] an inscribed stone found inside a skull
taken from one of the ancient mounds at Newark, Ohio, in 1865. An
exploration of the region had been undertaken in consequence of
the finding of stones bearing markings somewhat resembling Hebrew
letters, in the hope of finding other specimens of a like character.
The exploration was supposed to have been entirely unproductive of
such objects until Dr. Bradner had found the engraved stone, now
exhibited, in a skull which had been given to him.

This was supplemented by an editorial note in No. 62 of the same publication, page 467, as follows:

A correspondent from Newark, Ohio, warns us that any inscribed
stones said to originate from that locality may be looked upon as
spurious. Years ago certain parties in that place made a business of
manufacturing and burying inscribed stones and other objects in the
autumn, and exhuming them the following spring in the presence of
innocent witnesses. Some of the parties to these frauds afterwards
confessed to them; and no such objects, except such as were spurious,
have ever been known from that region.

The correspondent of Science probably remembered the operations of David Wyrick, of Newark, who, to prove his theory that the Hebrews were the mound-builders, discovered in 1860 a tablet bearing on one side a truculent “likeness” of Moses with his name in Hebrew, and on the other a Hebrew abridgment of the ten commandments. A Hebrew bible afterwards found in Mr. Wyrick’s private room threw some light on the inscribed characters.

As the business of making and selling archæological frauds has become so extensive in Egypt and Palestine, it can be no matter of surprise that it has been attempted by the enterprising people of the United States. The Bureau of Ethnology has discovered several centers of that fraudulent industry.

Without further pursuing the subject of mercenary frauds, an example may be mentioned which was brought forth during the researches of the present writer and his assistant, Dr. Hoffman, which is probably as good a case of a modern antique in this line as can be presented. Figure 208 is a copy of a drawing taken from an Ojibwa pipe-stem, obtained by Dr. Hoffman from an officer of the United States Army, who had procured it from an Indian in Saint Paul, Minnesota. On a later and more minute examination, it appeared that the pipe-stem had been purchased at a store in Saint Paul, which had furnished a large number of similar objects, so large as to awaken suspicion that they were in the course of daily manufacture. The figures and characters on the pipe-stem were drawn in colors. In the present figure, which is without colors, the horizontal lines represent blue and the vertical red, according to the heraldic scheme several times used in this paper. The outlines were drawn in a dark neutral tint, in some lines approaching black; the triangular characters, representing lodges, being also in a neutral tint, or an ashen hue, and approaching black in several instances. The explanation of the figures, made before there was any suspicion of their real character, is as follows:

The first figure is that of a bear, representing the individual to whom the record pertains. The three hearts above the line, according to an expression in gesture language, signifies a brave heart; increased numbers indicating _much_ or _many_, _i. e._, a large brave heart.

The second figure, a circle inclosing a triradiate character, refers to the personal totem. The character in the middle resembles, to some extent, the pictograph sometimes found to represent stars, though in the latter the lines center upon the disks and not at a common point.

The seven triangular characters represent the lodges of a village to which the individual to whom reference is made belongs.

The serpentine line immediately below these signifies a stream or river, near which the village is located.

The two persons holding guns in their left hands, together with another having a spear, appear to be the companions of the speaker, all of whom are members of the turtle gens, as shown by that reptile.

The curve from left to right is a representation of the sky, the sun having appeared upon the left or eastern horizon when the transaction below mentioned was enacted. In an explanation by gesture, or by pictograph, the speaker always faces the south, or conducts himself as if he did so, and begins on the left side to convey the idea of morning, if day; the hand, or line, is drawn all the way from the eastern horizon to the western. The above, then, represents the morning when a female--headless body of a woman--a member of the crane gens, was killed.

The figure of a bear below is the same apparently as number one, though turned to the right. The heart is reversed to denote sadness, grief, remorse, as expressed in gesture-language, and to atone for the misdeed committed in the proceeding the pipe is brought and offering made to the “Great Spirit.”

Altogether, the act depicted appears to have been accidental, the woman belonging to the same tribe, as can be learned from the gens of which she was a member. The regret or sorrow signified in the bear, next to the last figure, corresponds with that supposition, as such feelings would not be congruous to the Indian in the case of an enemy.

The point of interest in this pictograph is, that the figures are very skillfully copied from the numerous characters of the same kind representing Ojibwa pictographs, and given by Schoolcraft. The arrangement of these copied characters is precisely that which would be natural in the similar work of Indians. In fact, the groups constitute a thoroughly genuine pictograph, and afford a good illustration of the manner in which a record can be made. The fact that it was made and sold under false representations is its objectionable feature.

An inscribed stone found in Grave Creek Mound, near the Ohio River, in 1838, has been the subject of much linguistic contention among those who admitted its authenticity. Twenty-four characters on it have been considered to be alphabetic and one is a supposed hieroglyphic sign. Mr. Schoolcraft says that twenty-two of the characters are alphabetic, but there has been a difference of opinion with regard to their origin. One scholar finds among them four characters which he claims are ancient Greek; another claims that four are Etruscan; five have been said to be Runic; six, ancient Gaelic; seven, old Erse; ten, Phœnician; fourteen, old British; and sixteen, Celteberic. M. Levy Bing reported at the Congress of Americanists at Nancy, in 1875, that he found in the inscription twenty-three Canaanite letters, and translated it: “What thou sayest, thou dost impose it, thou shinest in thy impetuous clan and rapid chamois.”(!) M. Maurice Schwab in 1857 rendered it: “The Chief of Emigration who reached these places (or this island) has fixed these statutes forever.” M. Oppert, however, gave additional variety by the translation, so that all tastes can be suited: “The grave of one who was assassinated here. May God to avenge him strike his murderer, cutting off the hand of his existence.”

For further particulars on this topic reference may be made to Colonel Charles Whittlesey’s Archæological Frauds, in several tracts, and to The Mound Builders, by J. P. MacLean, Cincinnati, 1879, p. 90, _et seq._

From considerations mentioned in the introduction of this paper, and others that are obvious, any inscriptions purporting to be pre-Columbian showing apparent use of alphabetic characters, signs of the zodiac, or other evidences of a culture higher than that known among the North American Indians, must be received with caution, but the pictographs may be altogether genuine, and their erroneous interpretation be the sole ground of their being discredited.

In this connection some allusion may be made to the learned discussions upon the Dighton rock before mentioned. The originally Algonkian characters were translated by a Scandinavian antiquary as an account of the party of Thorfinn, the Hopeful. A distinguished Orientalist made out clearly the word _melek_ (king). Another scholar triumphantly established the characters to be Scythian, and still another made them Phœnician. But this inscription has been so manipulated that it is difficult now to determine the original details.

The course above explained, viz., to attempt the interpretation of all unknown American pictographs by the aid of actual pictographers among the living Indians, should be adopted regarding all remarkable “finds.” This course was pursued by Mr. Horatio N. Rust, of Pasadena, California, regarding the much-discussed Davenport Tablets, in the genuineness of which he believes, and which is not here placed in question. Mr. Rust exhibited the drawings to Dakotas, with the result made public at the late Montreal meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and also in a letter, an extract from which is as follows:

As I made the acquaintance of several of the older and more
intelligent members of the tribe, I took the opportunity to show them
the drawings. Explaining that they were pictures copied from stones
found in a mound, I asked what they meant. They readily gave me the
same interpretation (and in no instance did either interpreter know
that another had seen the pictures, so there could be no collusion).
In Plate I, of the Davenport Inscribed Tablets [so numbered in the
Proceedings of the Davenport Academy, Vol. II], the lower central
figure represents a dome-shaped lodge, with smoke issuing from
the top, behind and to either side of which appears a number of
individuals with hands joined, while three persons are depicted as
lying upon the ground. Upon the right and left central margins are
the sun and moon, the whole surmounted by three arched lines, between
each of which, as well as above them, are numerous unintelligible
characters. * * * The central figure, which has been supposed by some
to represent a funeral pile, was simply the picture of a dirt lodge.
The irregular markings apparently upon the side and to the left of
the lodge represent a fence made of sticks and brush set in the
ground. The same style of fence may be seen now in any Sioux village.

The lines of human figures standing hand-in-hand indicate that a
dance was being conducted in the lodge. The three prostrate forms at
right and left sides of the lodge represent two men and a woman who,
being overcome by the excitement and fatigue of the dance, had been
carried out in the air to recover. The difference in the shape of the
prostrate forms indicates the different sexes.

The curling figures or rings above the lodge represent smoke, and
indicates that the dance was held in winter, when fire was used.

An example of forced interpretation of a genuine petroglyph is given by Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison, U. S. Top. Engineers, in his work entitled The Mormons, or, Latter-day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, etc., Philadelphia, 1852, pp. 62, 63. He furnishes two illustrations of petroglyphs taken from the cliff in Sam Pete Valley, Utah, not reproduced in this paper, which resemble the general type of the Shoshonian system. On account of various coincidences which have occurred to strikingly keep alive in the mountain brethren their idea of being the chosen of the Lord, these etchings confirm them in the belief of the inspiration of the Book of Mormon. One of their Regents has translated one of them as follows:

I, Mahanti, the 2nd King of the Lamanites, in five valleys in the
mountains, make this record in the 12 hundredth year since we came
out of Jerusalem. And I have three sons gone to the South country to
live by hunting antelope and deer.

Among the curiosities of literature in connection with the interpretation of pictographs may be mentioned La Vèritè sur le Livre des Sauvages, par L’Abbé Em. Domenech, Paris, 1861, and Researches into the Lost Histories of America, by W. S. Blacket, London and Philadelphia, 1884.

Under the head of errors some of the most marked have arisen from the determination of enthusiastic symbolists to discover something mystical in the form of the cross wherever found.

The following quotation is taken from a work by Gabriel de Mortillet, entitled Le Signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme (Paris, Reinwald, 1866), p. 173:

On voit qu’il ne peut plus y avoir de doute sur l’emploi de la Croix
comme signe religieux, bien longtemps avant le christianisme. Le
culte de la Croix, répandu en Gaule avant la conquête, existait
déjà dans l’Émilie à l’époque du bronze, plus de mille aus avant
Jésus-Christ.

C’est surtout dans les sépultures de Golasecca où ce culte s’est
révélé de la manière la plus complète; et là, chose étrange, on a
trouvé un vase portant le monogramme ancien du Christ, figure 117
[reproduced in the present paper by Figure 209; the right-hand figure
being from the vase, and that on the left the recognized monogram of
Christ], dessiné peut-être mille ans avant la venue de Jésus-Christ.
La présence isolée de ce monogramme du Christ au milieu de nombreuses
Croix est-elle un fait accidentel entièrement fortuit? Des recherches
plus complètes peuvent seules permettre de répondre à cette question.

Un autre fait fort curieux, très-intéressant à constater, c’est
que ce grand développement du culte de la Croix, avant la venue du
Christ, semble toujours coïncider avec l’absence d’idoles et même
de toute représentation d’objets vivants. Dès que ces objets se
montrent, on dirait que les Croix deviennent plus rares et finissent
même par disparaître.

La Croix a donc été, dans la haute antiquité, bien longtemps avant
la venue de Jésus-Christ, l’emblème sacré d’une secte religieuse qui
repoussait l’idolâtrie!!!

The author, with considerable naiveté, has evidently determined that the form of the cross was significant of a high state of religious culture, and that its being succeeded by effigies, which he calls idols, showed a lapse into idolatry. The fact is simply that, next to one straight line, the combination of two straight lines forming a cross is the easiest figure to draw, and its use before art could attain to the drawing of animal forms, or their representation in plastic material, is merely an evidence of crudeness or imperfection in designing. It is worthy of remark that Dr. Schliemann, in his “Troja,” page 107, presents as Fig. 38 a much more distinct cross than that given by M. Mortillet, with the simple remark that it is “a geometrical ornamentation.” An anecdote told by Dr. Robert Fletcher, U. S. Army, in connection with his exhaustive paper on Tattooing Among Civilized People, published in the Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, Vol. II, page 40, is also in point. Some _savants_ were much excited over the form of the cross found in tattoo marks on an Arab boy, but on inquiry of the mother as to why the cross had been placed there, she simply answered “because it looked pretty.” The present writer will add to the literature on the subject a reference to the cross as shown upon the arm of a Cheyenne in Cloud-Shield’s winter count for the year 1790-’91, page 132, _ante_. (See also page 173.) This is explained fully by one of the common gestures for the tribal sign, Cheyenne.

“The extended index, palm upward, is drawn across the forefinger of the left hand, palm inward, several times, left hand stationary; right hand is drawn toward the body until the index is drawn clear off; then repeat. Some Cheyennes believe this to have reference to the former custom of cutting the arm as offerings to spirits, while others think that it refers to a more ancient custom, the cutting of the enemy’s fingers for necklaces.” The pictograph is simply a graphic representation of this gesture sign. See also the Moki use of the Maltese cross, page 232, the form of which in a rock-painting appears in _x_ on Plate II, page 35.

There is no doubt that among the Egyptians and several of the peoples of the eastern hemisphere, ancient and modern, the form of the cross was used symbolically, and there is no more doubt that it was employed in a similar manner by many American tribes with reference to the points of the compass, or rather the four winds. It was also used with many differing significations. See in this paper Figure 60, page 158, Figure 143, page 220, Figure 154, page 230, Figure 165, page 238, and Figure 168, page 240. The ease with which the design was made would tend to its early adoption as a sign, an emblem, or a symbol.

Rev. S. D. Hinman states that among the Dakota, symbolic crosses always have the members equal, or of the “Greek” pattern, and are always worn resting on one foot, not two as in the St. Andrew’s cross. They represent the four winds issuing from the four caverns in which the souls of men existed before embodiment. The top of the cross is the cold, all-conquering giant, the north wind. As worn on the body it is nearest the head, the seat of intelligence. The top arm, covering the heart, is the east wind, coming from the seat of life and love. The foot is the burning south wind, indicating as it is worn the seat of passion and fiery lust. The right is the gentle west wind, blowing from the spirit land, covering the lungs, from which at last the breath goes out. The center of the cross is the earth and man, sometimes indicated at that point by a circle surrounding a dot. On the upper arm an arrow is sometimes drawn, on the left a heart, on the right a star, and on the lower a sun.

SUGGESTIONS TO COLLABORATORS.

The present writer hopes to receive contributions from travelers and observers, not only in North America, but in other parts of the world. Such collaboration will always receive due credit, and when practicable will be reproduced in the language of the collaborator.

The number and the importance of the contributions received upon the collateral branch of sign-language encourages the hope of similar success in this application for assistance in the monograph on pictographs now in preparation.

The main object of the classification both of the text and of the illustrations in the present paper has been to stimulate the research and assist the collaboration invited, so that reference to the various preceding headings is unnecessary. Some practical suggestions may, however, be offered as follows:

As a small drawing of large rock inscriptions may give an exaggerated idea of the degree of finish or fineness of the subject, it is desirable, in every instance, to affix the scale of the drawing, or to give a principal dimension that may serve as a guide. A convenient scale for ordinary petroglyphs is one-sixteenth of full size. The drawing should be sufficiently close and accurate to show the character of the work. It is desirable to note the lithologic character of the rock or bowlder used; whether the drawing has been etched into the face of the rock, or pecked in more deeply with a sharp implement, and the depth of such pecking; whether the design is merely outlined, or the whole body of the figures pecked out, and whether paint has been applied to the pecked surface, or the design executed with paint only. The composition of paint should be ascertained when possible. The amount of weathering or erosion, together with the exposure, or any other feature bearing on the question of antiquity, would prove important. If actual colors are not accessible for representation the ordinary heraldic scheme of colors can be used.

That sketches even by fair artists, are of not high value in accuracy, is shown by the discrepant copies of some of the most carefully-studied pictographs, which discrepancies sometimes leave in uncertainty the points most needed for interpretation. Sketches, or still better, photographs are desirable to present a connected and general view of the characters and the surface upon which they are found. For accuracy of details “squeezes” should be obtained when practicable.

A simple method of obtaining squeezes of petroglyphs, when the lines are sufficiently deep to receive an impression, is to take ordinary manilla paper of loose texture, and to spread the sheet, after being thoroughly wetted, over the surface desired, commencing at the top. The top edge may be temporarily secured by a small streak of starch or flour paste. The paper is then pressed upon the surface of the rock by means of a soft bristle brush, so that its texture is gently forced into every depression. Torn portions of the paper may be supplied by applying small patches of wet paper until every opening is thoroughly covered. A coating of ordinary paste, as above mentioned, is now applied to the entire surface, and a new sheet of paper, similarly softened by water, is laid over this and pressed down with the brush. This process is continued until three or four thicknesses of paper have been used. Upon drying, the entire mold will usually fall off by contraction. The edge at the top, if previously pasted to the rock, should be cut. The entire sheet can then be rolled up, or if inconveniently large can be cut in sections and properly marked for future purposes. This process yields the negative. To obtain the _positive_ the inner coating of the negative may be oiled, and the former process renewed upon the cast.

Pictographs, when of bright colors and upon a light-colored surface, may readily be traced upon tracing linen, such as is employed by topographers. Should the rock be of a dark color, and the characters indistinct, a simple process is to first follow the pictographic characters in outline with colored crayons, red chalk, or dry colors mixed with water and applied with a brush, after which a piece of muslin is placed over the surface and pressed so as to receive sufficient coloring matter to indicate the general form and relative positions of the characters. After these impressions are touched up the true position may be obtained by painting the lines upon the back of the sheet of muslin, or by making a true tracing of the negative.

A mode of securing the outline once adopted was to clear out the channels of the intaglios, then, after painting them heavily, to press a sheet of muslin into the freshly-painted depressions. The objection to this method is the obvious damage inflicted on the inscription. Before such treatment, if the only one practicable, all particulars of the work to be covered by paint should be carefully recorded.

The locality should be reported with detail of State (or Territory), county, township, and distance and direction from the nearest post-office, railway station or country road. In addition the name of any contiguous stream, hill, bluff, or other remarkable natural feature should be given. The name of the owner of the land is of some secondary value, but that indication is liable to frequent changes. The site or station should be particularly described with reference to the surrounding country and to the natural circumstances and geological history of the location.

When numbers and groups of petroglyphs or rock paintings occur, their relation to each other, to the points of the compass, or to topographical features should be noted, if possible, by an accurate survey, otherwise by numeration and sketching.

The following details should be carefully noted: The direction of the face of the rock. The presence of probable trails and gaps which may have been used in shortening distances in travel. Localities of mounds and caves, if any, in the vicinity. Ancient camping grounds, indicated by fragments of pottery, flint chips, etc. Existence of aboriginal relics, particularly flints which may have been used in pecking; these may be found at the base of the rocks upon which petroglyphs occur. The presence of small mortar-holes which may have served in the preparation of colors.

With reference to pictographs on other objects than rock the material upon which they appear and the substances used in their execution should be reported, as indicated in another part of this paper.

With reference to all kinds of pictographs, it should be noted that mere descriptions without reproduction are of little value. Probable age and origin and traditions relating to them should be ascertained. Their interpretation by natives of the locality who themselves make pictographs or who belong to people who have lately made pictographs is most valuable, especially in reference to such designs as do not represent objects of nature, and which may be either conventional or connected with lines of gesture-signs.

Index

A

Abbe, Prof. Cleveland, explained eclipse to Indians 125
Abnaki devices 152, 153
[Absaroka], customs 55, 166, 230
Abstract ideas pictured 233
Achievements, Signs of individual 183-187
Adams, William A., on rock carvings 22
[African] carved knife 243
[African] property mark 182
Aigaluxamut dialect 148, 198, 199
Ainos of Gazo tattoo 78
[Alaska] Commercial Company, ivory pictographs 191-194
[Alaska] tattooing 66-73
Alaskan pictographs 59, 147-150, 152-155, 161, 191-194, 197-199, 214
Algonkian linguistic stock 19
[Algonkin] family 118
[Algonkin] petroglyph 20, 224-225, 227
[Algonkin] tribe 108
[Algonquin] characters 250
[Algonquin] legends of New England 190
Alleghany River, Pictographs on 20, 21
Allen, Dr. Harrison, on conventionalized forms 244
Alphabets 13
American Horse chart or Winter count, (_see_ Corbusier Winter counts)
95, 129-146
[American Naturalist] on tattooing 76
Amherst, Ohio, Rock carvings at 21
Analysis of the life form in art, An 244
Andree, Dr. R., criticism on pictographs 14-15
[Animal] mounds in Wisconsin 61
Anthropological Society, Washington, cited 17
Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Jones, quoted 22-23, 46
Arab symbols 222
[Arapahoes], Algonkin 108, 109
[Arapahoes], called Blue Cloud 176
[Arapahoes], formation of war party 139
Arch Spring, Pictographs at 28
Archæological frauds, Whittlesey’s, cited 250
Arickara (see Arikara) 100, 101
[Arikara] at war with Dakotas and United States 111-112
[Arikara] pictography 48, 50, 59, 186, 187, 240
[Arikara] property marks 182
[Arikara] Symbol of 60, 213-214, 231
[Arikaras], a branch of the Pawnee or Pani 105
[Arikaras], killed 209-214
Arikaree; Corrupt form of Arikara 100
Arison, William, copied petroglyph 225
[Arizona], pictographs on person 61
Rock carvings in 28-30, 222, 228, 245
Army Medical Museum, Tattooed heads in 75
Arrows in declaration of war 87, 88
Ashley, Gen. William H., attacked by Arickara 111
Assiniboine 116, 119, 124
Association pictographs 203-206
Atsina 108
Australian tattooing 76
Authors quoted by Bancroft 66
Avoidance of personal name by Indians 171
[Aztec] writing 14
Azuza Cañon pictographs 37, 156

B

Babylonian use of color 54
Bancroft, H. H., on pictography 64, 65, 66, 73, 78, 88
Barnes, Dr. G. W., California pictographs 229
Barnesville, Ohio, Bock carvings at 21
Bark, Pictographs on 59
[Bark] record of Lenni Lenape 207
Barrés totem mark 167
[Basketry] suggesting ornament 57
Beach’s Indian Miscellany, cited 188
Beale wagon road 30
Beaver Creek, Pictographs on 27
Beef first issued to Dakotas 125
Belmont County, Ohio, Rock carvings in 21
Beltrami, J. C., on Dakotas 104-105
Bendire, Capt. Charles, on petrographs 26
Benton, Cal., Petrographs at 31, 32
Berthond, Capt. E. L., on pictographs 27
Bible on war symbols 88
Big Horse Creek, Rock carvings on 22
Big Road’s roster 174-176
Biographic pictographs 208-218
Black Bear or Mato Sapa’s chart 94, 99-127
Black Hills discovered 130
Black Late Valley, Pictographs at 31
Black Rock Springs, Pictographs at 27
Blacket, W. S., cited 251
Blackfoot 102, 104, 106, 114, 121, 122, 227
[Blackfoot] defined 97
[Blackfoot], Rock carvings of 24
Bland, Dr. T. A., loaned Red Cloud census 176, 177
Blodgett, James H., on pictographs 33
Blue Cloud, a name for Arapaho 117, 118, 176
Boats ornamented 72, 78
Bo-i-de, or The Flame, Time chart of 93
Bone, Pictographs on 59
[Bone] tattooed 73-74
Book cliff, Pictographs of 27
Bourke, Capt. John G., on Moki colors 56
Bow-drill, used by Innuit 48
Brauns, Professor, on tattooing 78
Brazil, Petroglyphs in 44, 45
[Brazil], Totem marks in 167
Brinton, Dr. D. G., Research of 84, 188, 233
British Guiana, Pictographs in 40-44
Brown, Charles B., on pictographs in Guiana 40, 43, 44
Brulé 108, 109, 119, 120, 122, 127, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 141
[Brulé] defined 98, 207
[Brulé] Winter counts 129
Bureau of Ethnology, system of spelling 147
Burning Spring, W. Va., Pictographs at 22
Bush, Maj. Joseph, on time charts 94, 99-127