Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

The place is 20 miles southeast of Rio Del Norte, at the entrance of
the cañon of the Piedra Pintada (Painted Rock) Creek. The carvings
are found on the right of the cañon, or valley, and upon volcanic
rocks. They bear the marks of age and are cut in, not painted, as
is still done by the Utes everywhere. They are found for a quarter
of a mile along the north wall of the cañon, on the ranches of W.
M. Maguire and F. T. Hudson, and consist of all manner of pictures,
symbols, and hieroglyphics done by artists whose memory even
tradition does not now preserve. The fact that these are carvings,
done upon such hard rock merits them with additional interest, as
they are quite distinct from the carvings I saw in New Mexico and
Arizona on soft sand-stone. Though some of them are evidently of
much greater antiquity than others, yet all are ancient, the Utes
admitting them to have been old when their fathers conquered the
country.

ROCK CARVINGS IN NEW MEXICO.

On the north wall of Cañon de Chelly, one fourth of a mile east of the mouth of the cañon, are several groups of pictographs, consisting chiefly of various grotesque forms of the human figure, and also numbers of animals, circles, etc. A few of them are painted black, the greater portion consisting of rather shallow lines which are in some places considerably weathered.

Further up the cañon, in the vicinity of cliff-dwellings, are numerous small groups of pictographic characters, consisting of men and animals, waving or zigzag lines, and other odd and “unintelligible” figures.

Lieut. J. H. Simpson gives several illustrations of pictographs copied from rocks in the northwest part of New Mexico in his Report of an Expedition into the Navajo Country. (Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 64, 31st Cong., 1st sess., 1856, Pl. 23, 24, 25.)

Inscriptions have been mentioned as occurring at El Moro, consisting of etchings of human figures and other unintelligible characters. This locality is better known as Inscription Rock. Lieutenant Simpson’s remarks upon it, with illustrations, are given in the work last cited, on page 120. He states that most of the characters are no higher than a man’s head, and that some of them are undoubtedly of Indian origin.

At Arch Spring, near Zuñi, figures are cut upon a rock which Lieutenant Whipple thinks present some faint similarity to those at Rocky Dell Creek. (Rep. Pac. R. R, Exped., Vol. III, 1856, Pt. III, p. 39, Pl. 32.)

Near Ojo Pescado, in the vicinity of the ruins, are pictographs, reported in the last mentioned volume and page, Plate 31, which are very much weather-worn, and have “no trace of a modern hand about them.”

ROCK-CARVINGS IN ARIZONA.

On a table land near the Gila Bend is a mound of granite bowlders, blackened by augite, and covered with unknown characters, the work of human hands. On the ground near by were also traces of some of the figures, showing some of the pictographs, at least, to have been the work of modern Indians. Others were of undoubted antiquity, and the signs and symbols intended, doubtless, to commemorate some great event. (See Ex. Doc. No. 41, 30th Cong., 1st sess. (Emory’s Reconnaissance), 1848, p. 89; Ill. opposite p. 89, and on p. 90.)

Characters upon rocks, of questionable antiquity, are reported in the last-mentioned volume, Plate, p. 63, to occur on the Gila River, at 32° 38′ 13″ N. lat., and 109° 07′ 30″ long. [According to the plate, the figures are found upon bowlders and on the face of the cliff to the height of about 30 feet.]

The party under Lieutenant Whipple (see Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped., III, 1856, Pt. III, p. 42) also discovered pictographs at Yampais Spring, Williams River. “The spot is a secluded glen among the mountains. A high, shelving rock forms a cave, within which is a pool of water and a crystal stream flowing from it. The lower surface of the rock is covered with pictographs. None of the devices seem to be of recent date.”

Many of the country rocks lying on the Colorado plateau of Northern Arizona, east of Peach Springs, bear traces of considerable artistic workmanship. Some observed by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, in 1871, were rather elaborate and represented figures of the sun, human beings in various styles approaching the grotesque, and other characters not yet understood. All of those observed were made by pecking the surface of basalt with a harder variety of stone.

Mr. G. K. Gilbert discovered etchings at Oakley Spring, eastern Arizona, in 1878, relative to which he remarks that an Oraibi chief explained them to him and said that the “Mokis make excursions to a locality in the cañon of the Colorado Chiquito to get salt. On their return they stop at Oakley Spring and each Indian makes a picture on the rock. Each Indian draws his crest or totem, the symbol of his gens [(?)]. He draws it once, and once only, at each visit.” Mr. Gilbert adds, further, that “there are probably some exceptions to this, but the etchings show its general truth. There are a great many repetitions of the same sign, and from two to ten will often appear in a row. In several instances I saw the end drawings of a row quite fresh while the others were not so. Much of the work seems to have been performed by pounding with a hard point, but a few pictures are scratched on. Many drawings are weather-worn beyond recognition, and others are so fresh that the dust left by the tool has not been washed away by rain. Oakley Spring is at the base of the Vermillion Cliff, and the etchings are on fallen blocks of sandstone, a homogeneous, massive, soft sandstone. Tubi, the Oraibi chief above referred to, says his totem is the rain cloud but it will be made no more as he is the last survivor of the gens.”

A group of the Oakley Spring etchings of which Figure 1 is a copy, measures six feet in length and four feet in height. Interpretations of many of the separated characters of Figure 1 are presented on page 46 _et seq._, also in Figures 156 _et seq._, page 237.

Mr. Gilbert obtained sketches of etchings in November, 1878, on Partridge Creek, northern Arizona, at the point where the Beale wagon road comes to it from the east. “The rock is cross-laminated Aubrey sandstone and the surfaces used are faces of the laminæ. All the work is done by blows with a sharp point. (Obsidian is abundant in the vicinity.) Some inscriptions are so fresh as to indicate that the locality is still resorted to. No Indians live in the immediate vicinity, but the region is a hunting ground of the Wallapais and Avasupais (Cosninos).”

Notwithstanding the occasional visits of the above named tribes, the characters submitted more nearly resemble those of other localities known to have been made by the Moki Pueblos.

Rock etchings are of frequent occurrence along the entire extent of the valley of the Rio Verde, from a short distance below Camp Verde to the Gila River.

Mr. Thomas V. Keam reports etchings on the rocks in Cañon Segy, and in Keam’s Cañon, northeastern Arizona. Some forms occurring at the latter locality are found also upon Moki pottery.

ROCK CARVINGS IN CALIFORNIA.

From information received from Mr. Alphonse Pinart, pictographic records exist in the hills east of San Bernardino, somewhat resembling those at Tule River in the southern spurs of the Sierra Nevada, Kern County.

These pictographic records are found at various localities along the hill tops, but to what distance is not positively known.

In the range of mountains forming the northeastern boundary of Owen Valley are extensive groups of petroglyphs, apparently dissimilar to those found west of the Sierra Nevada. Dr. Oscar Loew also mentions a singular inscription on basaltic rocks in Black Lake Valley, about 4 miles southwest of the town of Benton, Mono County. This is scratched in the basalt surface with some sharp instrument and is evidently of great age. (Ann. Report upon the Geog. Surveys west of the 100th meridian. Being Appendix J J, Ann. Report of Chief of Engineers for 1876. Plate facing p. 326.)

Dr. W. J. Hoffman, of the Bureau of Ethnology, reports the occurrence of a number of series of etchings scattered at intervals for over twenty miles in Owen’s Valley, California. Some of these records were hastily examined by him in 1871, but it was not until the autumn of 1884 that a thorough examination of them was made, when measurements, drawings, etc., were obtained for study and comparison. The country is generally of a sandy, desert, character, devoid of vegetation and water. The occasional bowlders and croppings of rock consist of vesicular basalt, upon the smooth vertical faces of which occur innumerable characters different from any hitherto reported from California, but bearing marked similarity to some figures found in the country now occupied by the Moki and Zuñi, in New Mexico and Arizona, respectively.

The southernmost group of etchings is eighteen miles south of the town of Benton; the next group, two miles almost due north, at the Chalk Grade; the third, about three miles farther north, near the stage road; the fourth, half a mile north of the preceding; then a fifth, five and a half miles above the last named and twelve and a half miles south of Benton. The northernmost group is about ten or twelve miles northwest of the last-mentioned locality and south west from Benton, at a place known as Watterson’s Ranch. The principal figures consist of various simple, complex, and ornamental circles, some of the simple circles varying as nucleated, concentric, and spectacle-shaped, zigzag, and serpentine lines, etc. Animal forms are not abundant, those readily identified being those of the deer, antelope, and jack-rabbits. Representations of snakes and huge sculpturings of grizzly-bear tracks occur on one horizontal surface, twelve and a half miles south of Benton. In connection with the latter, several carvings of human foot-prints appear, leading in the same direction, _i. e._, toward the south-southwest.

All of these figures are pecked into the vertical faces of the rocks, the depths varying from one-fourth of an inch to an inch and a quarter. A freshly broken surface of the rock presents various shades from a cream white to a Naples yellow color, though the sculptured lines are all blackened by exposure and oxidation of the iron contained therein. This fact has no importance toward the determination of the age of the work.

At the Chalk Grade is a large bowlder measuring about six feet in height and four feet either way in thickness, upon one side of which is one-half of what appears to have been an immense mortar. The sides of this cavity are vertical, and near the bottom turn abruptly and horizontally in toward the center, which is marked by a cone about three inches high and six inches across at its base. The interior diameter of the mortar is about twenty-four inches, and from the appearance of the surface, being considerably grooved laterally, it would appear as if a core had been used for grinding, similar in action to that of a millstone. No traces of such a core or corresponding form were visible. This instance is mentioned as it is the only indication that the authors of the etchings made any prolonged visit to this region, and perhaps only for grinding grass seed, though neither grass nor water is now found nearer than the remains at Watterson’s Ranch and at Benton.

The records at Watterson’s are pecked upon the surfaces of detached bowlders near the top of a mesa, about one hundred feet above the nearest spring, distant two hundred yards. These are also placed at the southeast corner of the mesa, or that nearest to the northern most of the main group across the Benton Range. At the base of the eastern and northeastern portion of this elevation of land, and but a stone’s throw from the etchings, are the remains of former camps, such as stone circles, marking the former sites of brush lodges, and a large number of obsidian flakes, arrowheads, knives, and some jasper remains of like character. Upon the flat granite bowlders are several mortar-holes, which perhaps were used for crushing the seed of the grass still growing abundantly in the immediate vicinity. Piñon nuts are also abundant in this locality.

Upon following the most convenient course across the Benton Range to reach Owen’s Valley proper, etchings are also found, though in limited numbers, and seem to partake of the character of “indicators as to course of travel.” By this trail the northernmost of the several groups of etchings above mentioned is the nearest and most easily reached.

The etchings upon the bowlders at Watterson’s are somewhat different from those found elsewhere. The number of specific designs is limited, many of them being reproduced from two to six or seven times, thus seeming to partake of the character of personal names.

One of the most frequent is that resembling a horseshoe within which is a vertical stroke. Sometimes the upper extremity of such stroke is attached to the upper inside curve of the broken ring, and frequently there are two or more parallel vertical strokes within one such curve. Bear-tracks and the outline of human feet also occur, besides several unique forms. A few of these forms are figured, though not accurately, in the Ann. Report upon the Geog. Surveys west of the 100th meridian last mentioned (1876), Plate facing p. 326.

Lieutenant Whipple reports (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped. III, 1856, Pt. III, p. 42, Pl. 36) the discovery of pictographs at Pai-Ute Creek, about 30 miles west of the Mojave villages. These are carved upon a rock, “are numerous, appear old, and are too confusedly obscure to be easily traceable.”

These bear great general resemblance to etchings scattered over Northeast Arizona, Southern Utah, and Western New Mexico.

Remarkable pictographs have also been found at Tule River Agency. See Figure 155, page 235.

COLORED PICTOGRAPHS ON ROCKS.

Mr. Gilbert Thompson reports the occurrence of painted characters at Paint Lick Mountain, 3 miles north of Maiden Spring, Tazewell County, Virginia. These characters are painted in red, blue, and yellow. A brief description of this record is given in a work by Mr. Charles B. Coale, entitled “The Life and Adventures of Wilburn Waters,” etc., Richmond, 1878, p. 136.

Mr. John Haywood (The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, p. 149) mentions painted figures of the sun, moon, a man, birds, etc., on the bluffs on the south bank of the Holston, 5 miles above the mouth of the French Broad. These are painted in red colors on a limestone bluff. He states that they were attributed to the Cherokee Indians, who made this a resting place when journeying through the region. This author furthermore remarks: “Wherever on the rivers of Tennessee are perpendicular bluffs on the sides, and especially if caves be near, are often found mounds near them, enclosed in intrenchments, with the sun and moon painted on the rocks,” etc.

Among the many colored etchings and paintings on rock discovered by the Pacific Railroad Expedition in 1853-’54 (Rep. Pac. R. R. Exped., III, 1856, Pt. III, pp. 36, 37, Pll. 28, 29, 30) may be mentioned those at Rocky Dell Creek, New Mexico, which were found between the edge of the Llano Estacado and the Canadian River. The stream flows through a gorge, upon one side of which a shelving sandstone rock forms a sort of cave. The roof is covered with paintings, some evidently ancient, and beneath are innumerable carvings of footprints, animals, and symmetrical lines.

Mr. James H. Blodgett, of the U. S. Geological Survey, calls attention to the paintings on the rocks of the bluffs of the Mississippi River, a short distance below the mouth of the Illinois River, in Illinois, which were observed by early French explorers, and have been the subject of discussion by much more recent observers.

Mr. P. W. Norris found numerous painted totemic characters upon the cliffs in the immediate vicinity of the pipestone quarry, Minnesota. These consisted, probably, of the totems or names of Indians who had visited that locality for the purpose of obtaining catlinite for making pipes. These had been mentioned by early writers.

Mr. Norris also discovered painted characters upon the cliffs on the Mississippi River, 19 miles below New Albin, in northeastern Iowa.

Mr. Gilbert Thompson reports his observation of pictographs at San Antonio Springs, 30 miles east of Fort Wingate, New Mexico. The human form, in various styles, occurs, as well as numerous other characters strikingly similar to those frequent in the country, farther west, occupied by the Moki Indians. The peculiarity of these figures is that the outlines are incised or etched, the depressions thus formed being filled with pigments of either red, blue, or white. The interior portions of the figures are simply painted with one or more of the same colors.

Charles D. Wright, esq., of Durango, Colorado, writes that he has discovered “hieroglyphical writings” upon rocks and upon the wall of a cliff house near the Colorado and New Mexico boundary line. On the wall in one small building was found a series of characters in red and black paints, consisting of a “chief on his horse, armed with spear and lance, wearing a pointed hat and robe; behind this were about twenty characters representing people on horses, lassoing horses, etc.; in fact, the whole scene represented breaking camp and leaving in a hurry. The whole painting measured about 12 by 16 feet.” Other rock-paintings are also mentioned as occurring near the San Juan River, consisting of four characters representing men as if in the act of taking an obligation, hands extended, etc. At the right are some characters in black paint, covering a space 3 by 4 feet.

The rock-paintings presented in Plates I and II are reduced copies of a record found by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, of the Bureau of Ethnology, in September, 1884, 12 miles west-northwest of the city of Santa Barbara, California. They are one-sixteenth original size. The locality is almost at the summit of the Santa Ynez range of mountains; the gray sandstone rock on which they are painted is about 30 feet high and projects from a ridge so as to form a very marked promontory extending into a narrow mountain cañon. At the base of the western side of this bowlder is a rounded cavity, measuring, on the inside, about 15 feet in width and 8 feet in height. The floor ascends rapidly toward the back of the cave, and the entrance is rather smaller in dimensions than the above measurements of the interior. About 40 yards west of this rock is a fine spring of water. One of the four old Indian trails leading northward across the mountains passes by this locality, and it is probable that this was one of the camping-places of the tribe which came south to trade, and that some of its members were the authors of the paintings. The three trails beside the one just mentioned cross the mountains at various points east of this, the most distant being about 15 miles. Other trails were known, but these four were most direct to the immediate vicinity of the Spanish settlement which sprang up shortly after the establishment of the Santa Barbara Mission in 1786. Pictographs (not now described) appear upon rocks found at or near the origin of all of the above-mentioned trails at the base of the mountains, with the exception of the one under consideration. The appearance and position of these pictographs appear to be connected with the several trails.

The circles figured in _b_ and _d_ of Plate I, and _c_, _r_, and _w_ of Plate II, together with other similar circular marks bearing cross-lines upon the interior, were at first unintelligible, as their forms among various tribes have very different signification. The character in Plate I, above and projecting from _d_, resembles the human form, with curious lateral bands of black and white, alternately. Two similar characters appear, also, in Plate II, _a_, _b_. In _a_, the lines from the head would seem to indicate a superior rank or condition of the person depicted.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. I

PICTOGRAPHS IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.]

Having occasion subsequently to visit the private ethnologic collection of Hon. A. F. Coronel, of Los Angeles, California, Dr. Hoffman discovered a clue to the general import of the above record, as well as the signification of some of the characters above mentioned. In a collection of colored illustrations of Mexican costumes some of them probably a century old, he found blankets bearing borders and colors, nearly identical with those shown in the circles in Plate I, _d_, and Plate II, _c_, _r_, _w_. It is more than probable that the circles represent bales of blankets which early became articles of trade at the Santa Barbara Mission. If this supposition is correct, the cross-lines would seem to represent the cords, used in tying the blankets into bales, which same cross-lines appear as cords in _l_, Plate II. Mr. Coronel also possesses small figures of Mexicans, of various conditions of life, costumes, trades, and professions, one of which, a painted statuette, is a representation of a Mexican lying down flat upon an outspread serape, similar in color and form to the black and white bands shown in the upper figure of _d_, Plate I, and _a_, _b_, of Plate II, and instantly suggesting the explanation of those figures. Upon the latter the continuity of the black and white bands is broken, as the human figures are probably intended to be in front, or on top, of the drawings of the blankets.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. II

PICTOGRAPHS IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.]

The small statuette above mentioned is that of a Mexican trader, and if the circles in the pictographs are considered to represent bales of blankets, there is a figure in Plate I, _d_, still more interesting, from the union of one of these circles with that of a character representing the trader, _i. e._, the man possessing the bales. Bales, or what appear to be bales, are represented to the top and right of the circle _d_, Plate I, and also upon the right hand figure in _l_, Plate II. To the right of the latter are three short lines, evidently showing the knot or ends of the cords used in tying a bale of blankets without colors, therefore of less importance, or of other goods. This bale is upon the back of what appears to be a horse, led in an upward direction by an Indian whose head-dress, and ends of the breech-cloth, are visible. Other human forms appear in the attitude of making gestures, one also in _j_, Plate II, probably carrying a bale of goods. Figure _u_ represents a centipede, an insect found occasionally south of the mountains, but reported as extremely rare in the immediate northern regions. (For _x_, see page 232.)

Mr. Coronel stated that when he first settled in Los Angeles, in 1843, the Indians living north of the San Fernando mountains manufactured blankets of the fur and hair of animals, showing transverse bands of black and white similar to those depicted, which were sold to the inhabitants of the valley of Los Angeles and to Indians who transported them to other tribes.

It is probable that the pictograph is intended to represent the salient features of a trading expedition from the north. The ceiling of the cavity found between the drawings represented in Plate I and Plate II has disappeared, owing to disintegration, thus leaving a blank about 4 feet long, and 6 feet from the top to the bottom of the original record between the parts represented in the two plates.

Dr. W. J. Hoffman also reports the following additional localities in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. Fifteen miles west of Santa Barbara, on the northern summit of the Santa Ynez range, and near the San Marcos Pass, is a group of paintings in red and black. One figure resembles a portion of a checker-board in the arrangement of squares. Serpentine and zigzag lines occur, as also curved lines with serrations on the concave sides; figures of the sun, groups of short vertical lines, and _tree forms_, resembling representations of the dragon-fly, and the human form, as drawn by the Moki Indians, and very similar to Fig. _e_, Pl. II. These paintings are in a cavity near the base of an immense bowlder, over twenty feet in height. A short distance from this is a flat granitic bowlder, containing twenty-one mortar holes, which had evidently been used by visiting Indians during the acorn season. Trees of this genus are very abundant, and their fruit formed one of the sources of subsistence.

Three miles west-northwest of this locality, in the valley near the base of the mountain, are indistinct figures in faded red, painted upon a large rock. The characters appear similar, in general, to those above mentioned.

Forty-three miles west of Santa Barbara, in the Najowe Valley, is a promontory, at the base of which is a large shallow cavern, the opening being smaller than the interior, upon the roof and back of which are numerous figures of similar forms as those observed at San Marcos Pass. Several characters appear to have been drawn at a later date than others, such as horned cattle, etc. The black color used was a manganese compound, while the red pigments consist of ferruginous clays, abundant at numerous localities in the mountain cañons. Some of the human figures are drawn with the hands and arms in the attitude of making the gestures for _surprise_ or _astonishment_, and _negation_.

One of the most extensive records, and probably also the most elaborately drawn, is situated in the Carisa Plain, near Señor Oreña’s ranch, sixty or seventy miles due north of Santa Barbara. The most conspicuous figure is that of the sun, resembling a face, with ornamental appendages at the cardinal points, and bearing striking resemblance to some Moki marks and pictographic work. Serpentine lines and numerous anomalous forms also abound.

Four miles northeast of Santa Barbara, near the residence of Mr. Stevens, is an isolated sandstone bowlder measuring about twenty feet high and thirty feet in diameter, upon the western side of which is a slight cavity bearing figures corresponding in general form to others in this county. The gesture for _negation_ again appears in the attitude of the human figures.

Half a mile farther east, on Dr. Coe’s farm, is another smaller bowlder, in a cavity of which some portions of human figures are shown. Parts of the drawings have disappeared through disintegration of the rock, which is called “Pulpit Rock,” on account of the shape of the cavity, its position at the side of the narrow valley, and the echo observed upon speaking a little above the ordinary tone of voice.

Painted rocks also occur in the Azuza Cañon, about thirty miles northeast of Los Angeles, of which illustrations are given in Plate LXXX, described on p. 156.

Dr. Hoffman also found other paintings in the valley of the South Fork of the Tule River, in addition to those discovered in 1882, and given in Figure 155, p. 235. The forms are those of large insects, and of the bear, beaver, centipede, bald eagle, etc.

Upon the eastern slope of an isolated peak between Porterville and Visalia, several miles east of the stage road, are pictographs in red and black. These are chiefly drawings of the deer, bear, and other animals and forms not yet determined.

Just previous to his departure from the Santa Barbara region, Dr. Hoffman was informed of the existence of eight or nine painted records in that neighborhood, which up to that time had been observed only by a few sheep-herders and hunters.

Other important localities showing colored etchings, and other painted figures, are at San Diego, California; at Oneida, Idaho; in Temple Creek Cañon, southeastern Utah, and in the Cañon de Chelly, northwestern New Mexico.

FOREIGN PETROGLYPHS.

The distribution and the description of the petroglyphs of Mexico, as well as of other forms of pictographs found there, are omitted in the present paper. The subject is so vast, and such a large amount of information has already been given to the public concerning it, that it is not considered in this work, which is mainly devoted to the similar productions of the tribes popularly known as North American Indians, although the pre-Columbian inhabitants of Mexico should, in strictness, be included in that category. It is, however, always to be recognized that one of the most important points in the study of pictographs, is the comparison of those of Mexico with those found farther north.

Copies of many petroglyphs found in the eastern hemisphere have been collected, but the limitations of the present paper do not allow of their reproduction or discussion.

PETROGLYPHS IN SOUTH AMERICA.

While the scope of this work does not contemplate either showing the distribution of the rock carvings in South America, or entering upon any detailed discussion of them, some account is here subjoined for the purpose of indicating the great extent of the ethnic material of this character that is yet to be obtained from that continent. Alexander von Humboldt, in Aspects of Nature in different lands and different climates, etc., Vol. I, pp. 196-201, London, 1850, gives the following general remarks concerning pictographs from South America:

In the interior of South America, between the 2d and 4th degrees of
North latitude, a forest-covered plain is enclosed by four rivers,
the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassiquiare. In
this district are found rocks of granite and of syenite, covered,
like those of Caicara and Uruana, with colossal symbolical figures
of crocodiles and tigers, and drawings of household utensils, and
of the sun and moon. At the present time this remote corner of the
earth is entirely without human inhabitants, throughout an extent
of more than 8,000 square geographical miles. The tribes nearest to
its boundaries are wandering naked savages, in the lowest stages
of human existence, and far removed from any thoughts of carving
hieroglyphics on rocks. One may trace in South America an entire
zone, extending through more than eight degrees of longitude, of
rocks so ornamented; viz. from the Rupuniri, Essequibo, and the
mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the Orinoco and of the
Yupura. These carvings may belong to very different epochs, for
Sir Robert Schomburgk even found on the Rio Negro representations
of a Spanish galiot, which must have been of a later date than the
beginning of the 16th century; and this in a wilderness where the
natives were probably as rude then as at the present time. But it
must not be forgotten that * * nations of very different descent,
when in a similar uncivilized state, having the same disposition to
simplify and generalize outlines, and being impelled by inherent
mental dispositions to form rythmical repetitions and series, may
be led to produce similar signs and symbols. * * * Some miles from
Encaramada, there rises, in the middle of the savannah, the rock
Tepu-Mereme, or painted rock. It shews several figures of animals and
symbolical outlines which resemble much those observed by us at some
distance above Encaramada, near Caycara, in 7° 5′ to 7° 40′ lat., and
66° 28′ to 67° 23′ W. long. from Greenwich. Rocks thus marked are
found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo (in 2° 5′ to 3° 20′
lat.), and what is particularly remarkable, 560 geographical miles
farther to the East in the solitudes of the Parime. This last fact is
placed beyond a doubt by the journal of Nicholas Hortsman, of which I
have seen a copy in the handwriting of the celebrated D’Anville. That
simple and modest traveller wrote down every day, on the spot, what
had appeared to him most worthy of notice, and he deserves perhaps
the more credence because, being full of dissatisfaction at having
failed to discover the objects of his researches, the Lake of Dorado,
with lumps of gold and a diamond mine, he looked with a certain
degree of contempt on whatever fell in his way. He found, on the
16th of April, 1749, on the banks of the Rupunuri, at the spot where
the river winding between the Macarana mountains forms several small
cascades, and before arriving in the district immediately round Lake
Amucu, “rocks covered with figures,”--or, as he says in Portugese,
“de varias letras.” We were shown at the rock of Culimacari, on
the banks of the Cassiquiare, signs which were called characters,
arranged in lines--but they were only ill-shaped figures of heavenly
bodies, boa-serpents, and the utensils employed in preparing manioc
meal. I have never found among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas)
any symmetrical arrangement or any regular even-spaced characters. I
am therefore disposed to think that the word “letras” in Hortsmann’s
journal must not be taken in the strictest sense.

Schomburgk was not so fortunate as to rediscover the rock seen by
Hortsmann, but he has seen and described others on the banks of the
Essequibo, near the cascade of Warraputa. “This cascade,” he says,
“is celebrated not only for its height but also for the quantity of
figures cut on the rock, which have great resemblance to those which
I have seen in the island of St. John, one of the Virgin Islands,
and which I consider to be, without doubt, the work of the Caribs,
by whom that part of the Antilles was formerly inhabited. I made the
utmost efforts to detach portions of the rock which contained the
inscription, and which I desired to take with me, but the stone was
too hard and fever had taken away my strength. Neither promises nor
threats could prevail on the Indians to give a single blow with a
hammer to these rocks--the venerable monuments of the superior mental
cultivation of their predecessors. They regard them as the work of
the Great Spirit, and the different tribes who we met with, though
living at a great distance, were nevertheless acquainted with them.
Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian companions, who appeared
to expect every moment that the fire of heaven would fall on my head.
I saw clearly that my endeavors would be fruitless, and I contented
myself with bringing away a complete drawing of these memorials.” *
* * Even the veneration everywhere testified by the Indians of the
present day for these rude sculptures of their predecessors, shews
that they have no idea of the execution of similar works. There is
another circumstance which should be mentioned: between Encaramada
and Caycara, on the banks of the Orinoco, a number of these
hieroglyphical figures are sculptured on the face of precipices at a
height which could now be reached only by means of extraordinarily
high scaffolding. If one asks the natives how these figures have been
cut, they answer, laughing, as if it were a fact of which, none but
a white man could be ignorant, that “in the days of the great waters
their fathers went in canoes at that height.” Thus a geological
fancy is made to afford an answer to the problem presented by a
civilization which has long passed away.

Mr. A. Pinart has for several years past been engaged in ethnologic researches, in which, as he explained to the present writer, orally, he has discovered a very large number of pictographs in the islands of the Caribbean Sea, in Venezuela, and Nicaragua, with remarkable correspondences between some of them, and strongly demarkating lines in regard to different types. His report will be of inestimable value in the complete discussion of this subject.

PETROGLYPHS IN BRITISH GUIANA.

In particular, a copious extract is given from the recent work Among the Indians of Guiana, by Everard F. im Thurn: London, 1883. His account is so suggestive for comparison with the similar discoveries made in North America that there is a temptation to extract from it even more liberally than has been done.

The following is taken from pages 391, _et seq._, of that author:

The pictured rocks, which are certainly the most striking and
mysterious of the antiquities of Guiana, are--and this has apparently
never yet been pointed out--not all of one kind. In all cases various
figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller surfaces of rocks.
Sometimes these figures are painted, though such cases are few and,
as will be shown, of little moment; more generally they are graven on
the rock, and these alone are of great importance. Rock sculptures
may, again, be distinguished into two kinds, differing in the depth
of incision, the apparent mode of execution, and, most important of
all, the character of the figures represented.

Painted rocks in British Guiana are mentioned by Mr. C. Barrington
Brown, well known as a traveler in the colony. He says, for instance,
that in coming down past Amailah fall (in the same district and
range as the Kaieteur), on the Cooriebrong River, he passed ‘a large
white sandstone rock ornamented with figures in red paint.’ When in
the Pacaraima mountains, on the Brazilian frontier, I heard of the
existence of similar paintings in that neighborhood, but was unable
to find them. Mr. Wallace, in his account of his ‘Travels on the
Amazons,’ mentions the occurrence of similar drawings in more than
one place near the Amazons; and from these and other accounts it
seems probable that they occur in various parts of South America.
If, as seems likely, these figures are painted with either of the
red pigments which the Indians use so largely to paint their own
bodies as well as their weapons and other implements, or, as is also
possible, with some sort of red earth, they must be modern, the work
of Indians of the present day; for these red pigments would not long
withstand the effects of the weather, especially where, as in the
case quoted from Mr. Brown, the drawings are on such an unenduring
substance as sandstone. Some further account of these paintings is,
however, much to be desired; for, though they are probably modern,
it would be very interesting to know whether the designs resemble
those depicted on the engraved rocks, or are of the kind with which
the Indian at the present time ornaments both his own skin and his
household utensils and paddles. It may be mentioned that in the
Christy collection there is a stone celt from British Guiana on which
are painted lines very closely resembling in character those which
the Indian commonly paints on his own body.

The engraved rocks, on the contrary, must be of some antiquity; that
is to say, they must certainly date from a time before the influence
of Europeans was much felt in Guiana. As has already been said,
the engravings are of two kinds and are probably the work of two
different people; nor is there even any reason to suppose that the
two kinds were produced at one and the same time.

These two kinds of engraving may, for the sake of convenience, be
distinguished as ‘deep,’ [a typical example of which is in Figure 2]
and ‘shallow’ [typical example Figure 3,] respectively, according as
the figures are deeply cut into the rock or are merely scratched on
the surface. The former * * vary from one-eighth to one-half of an
inch, or even more, in depth; the latter are of quite inconsiderable
depth. This difference probably corresponds with a difference in the
means by which they were produced. The deep engravings seem cut into
the rock with an edged tool, probably of stone; the shallow figures
were apparently formed by long continued friction with stones and
moist sand. The two kinds seem never to occur in the same place or
even near to each other; in fact, a distinct line may almost be
drawn between the districts in which the deep and shallow kinds
occur, respectively; the deep * * form occurs at several spots on the
Mazeruni, Essequibo, Ireng, Cotinga, Potaro, and Berbice Rivers. The
shallow form has as yet only been reported from the Corentyn River
and its tributaries, where, however, examples occur in considerable
abundance. But the two kinds differ not only in the depth of
incision, in the apparent mode of their production, and in the place
of their occurrence, but also--and this is the chief difference
between the two--in the figures represented.

* * * * *

They (the shallow engravings) seem always to occur on comparatively
large and more or less smooth surfaces of rock, and rarely, if
ever, as the deep figures, on detached blocks of rock, piled one
on the other. The shallow figures, too, are generally much larger,
always combinations of straight or curved lines in figures much more
elaborate than those which occur in the deep engravings; and these
shallow pictures always represent not animals, but greater or less
variations of the figure which has been described. Lastly, though I
am not certain that much significance can be attributed to this, all
the examples that I have seen, face more or less accurately eastward.

The deep engravings, on the other hand, consist not of a single
figure but of a greater or less number of rude drawings. * * These
depict the human form, monkeys, snakes, and other animals, and also
very simple combinations of two or three straight or curved lines
in a pattern, and occasionally more elaborate combinations. The
individual figures are small, averaging from twelve to eighteen
inches in height, but a considerable number are generally represented
in a group.

Some of the best examples of this latter kind are at Warrapoota
cataracts, about six days’ journey up the Essequibo.

* * * The commonest figures at Warrapoota are figures of men or
perhaps sometimes monkeys. These are very simple, and generally
consist of one straight line, representing the trunk, crossed by
two straight lines at right angles to the body line: one, about
two-thirds of the distance from the top, represents the two arms as
far as the elbows, where upward lines represent the lower part of the
arms; the other, which is at the lower end, represents the two legs
as far as the knees, from which point, downward lines represent the
lower part of the legs. A round dot, or a small circle, at the top of
the trunk-line, forms the head; and there are a few radiating lines
where the fingers, a few more where the toes, should be. Occasionally
the trunk-line is produced downwards as if to represent a long tail.
Perhaps the tailless figures represent men, the tailed monkeys. In a
few cases the trunk, instead of being indicated by one straight line,
is formed by two curved lines, representing the rounded outlines of
the body; and the body, thus formed, is bisected, by a row of dots,
almost invariably nine in number, which seem to represent vertebræ.

Most of the other figures at Warrapoota are very simple combinations
of two, three, or four straight lines similar to the so-called
‘Greek meander pattern,’ which is of such widespread occurrence.
Combinations of curved lines and simple spiral lines also frequently
occur. Many of these combinations closely resemble the figures which
the Indians of the present day paint on their faces and naked bodies.
The resemblance is, however, not so great but that it may be merely
due to the fact that the figures are just such simple combinations
of lines which would occur independently to the rock-engravers and to
the body-painters as to all other untaught designers.

The same author (pp. 368, 369) gives the following account of the superstitious reverence entertained for the petroglyphs by the living Indians of Guiana:

Every time a sculptured rock or striking mountain or stone is seen,
Indians avert the ill-will of the spirits of such places by rubbing
red peppers (_Capsicum_) each in his or her own eyes. For instance,
on reaching the Timehri rock on the Corentyn River, I at once began
to sketch the figures sculptured thereon. Looking up the next moment
I saw the Indians--men, women and children--who accompanied me all
grouped round the rock-picture, busily engaged in this painful
operation of pepper-rubbing. The extreme pain of this operation when
performed thoroughly by the Indians I can faintly realize from my
own feelings when I have occasionally rubbed my eyes with fingers
which had recently handled red-peppers; and from the fact that,
though the older practitioners inflict this self-torture with the
utmost stoicism, I have again and again seen that otherwise rare
sight of Indians, children, and even young men, sobbing under the
infliction. Yet the ceremony was never omitted. Sometimes when by a
rare chance no member of the party had had the forethought to provide
peppers, lime-juice was used as a substitute; and once, when neither
peppers nor limes were at hand, a piece of blue indigo-dyed cloth was
carefully soaked, and the dye was then rubbed into the eyes. These,
I believe, are the only ceremonies observed by the Indians. One idea
underlies them all, and that is the attempt to avoid attracting the
attention of malignant spirits.

The following extract from a paper on the Indian picture writing in British Guiana, by Mr. Charles B. Brown, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1873, Vol. II, 254-257, gives views and details somewhat different from the foregoing:

These writings or markings are visible at a greater or less distance
in proportion to the depth of the furrows. In some instances they
are distinctly visible upon the rocks on the banks of the river
at a distance of one hundred yards; in others they are so faint
that they can only be seen in certain lights by reflected rays
from their polished surfaces. They occur upon greenstone, granite,
quartz-porphyry, gneiss, and jasperous sandstone, both in a vertical
and horizontal position, at various elevations above the water.
Sometimes they can only be seen during the dry season, when the
rivers are low, as in several instances on the Berbice and Cassikytyn
rivers. In one instance, on the Corentyne river, the markings on the
rock are so much above the level of the river when at its greatest
height, that they could only have been made by erecting a staging
against the face of the rock, unless the river was at the time much
above its usual level. The widths of the furrows vary from half an
inch to one inch, while the depth never exceeds one-fourth of an
inch. Sometimes the markings are almost level with the surrounding
surfaces, owing to the waste or degradation by atmospheric
influences, which have acted with greater force upon the rough rock
than on the polished face of the grooved markings. The furrows
present the same weather-stained aspect as the rocks upon which they
are cut, and both the rocks and the furrows are in some instances
coated with a thin layer of the oxides of iron and manganese.

The Indians of Guiana know nothing about the picture writing by
tradition. They scout the idea of their having been made by the
hand of man, and ascribe them to the handiwork of the Makunaima,
their great spirit. Nevertheless, they do not regard them with any
superstitious feelings, looking upon them merely as curiosities,
which is the more extraordinary as there are numbers of large rocks
without any markings on some rivers, which they will not even look at
in passing, lest some calamity should overtake them. Their Peaimen or
sorcerers always squeeze tobacco juice in their eyes on approaching
these, but pay no regard to the sculptured rocks. In the Pacaraima
mountains, between the villages of Mora and Itabay, the path passes
through a circle of square stones placed on one end, one of which
has a carving upon it; some of these blocks have been thrown down
and broken by the Indians, clearly proving their utter disregard for
them. If then there were any traditions regarding these writings
handed down from father to son, I conclude that the Indians of the
present day--the most superstitious of beings--would undoubtedly
treat them with awe and respect. Again, if their forefathers were
as indolent as they now are, they never would have gone to the
trouble of making these pictures merely for the purpose of passing
away their time, which they could have more easily accomplished by
lying in their hammocks from morning to night in a semi-dreamy sort
of state, as their descendants do at present. As these figures were
evidently cut with great care and at much labor by a former race of
men, I conclude that they were made for some great purpose, probably
a religious one, as some of the figures give indications of Phallic
worship.

PETROGLYPHS IN BRAZIL.

The following is an abstract from a paper by J. Whitfield on Rock Inscriptions in Brazil, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1874, Vol. III, p. 114:

The rock inscriptions were visited in August, 1865, during an
exploring expedition for gold mines in the province of Ceará.
Several similar inscriptions are said to exist in the interior of
the province of Ceará, as well as in the provinces of Pernambuco and
Piauhy, especially in the _Sertaõs_, that is, in the thinly-wooded
parts of the interior, but no mention is ever made of their having
been seen near the coast.

In the margin and bed only of the river are the rocks inscribed. On
the margin they extend in some instances to fifteen or twenty yards.
Except in the rainy season the stream is dry. The rock is a silicious
schist of excessively hard and flinty texture. The marks have the
appearance of having been made with a blunt heavy tool, such as might
be made with an almost worn-out mason’s hammer.

The situation is about midway between Serra Grande or Ibiapaba and
Serra Merioca, about seventy miles from the coast and forty west of
the town Sobral. There are not any indications of works of art or
other antiquarian remains, nor anything peculiar to the locality. The
country is gently undulating, and of the usual character that obtains
for hundreds of miles extending along the base of the Serra Ibiapaba.

The native population attribute all the ‘Letreiros’ (inscriptions),
as they do everything else of which they have no information, to the
Dutch as records of hidden wealth. The Dutch, however, only occupied
the country for a few years in the early part of the seventeenth
century. Along the coast numerous forts, the works of the Dutch,
still remain; but there are no authentic records of their ever
having established themselves in the interior of the country, and
less probability still of their amusing themselves with inscribing
puzzling hieroglyphics, which must have been a work of time, on the
rocks of the far interior, for the admiration of wandering Indians.

PICTOGRAPHS IN PERU.

Dr. J. J. Von Tschudi mentions in his Travels in Peru during the years 1838-1842, [Wiley and Putnam’s Library, Vols. XCIII-XCIV, New York, 1847,] Pt. II, p. 345-346, that the ancient Peruvians also used a certain kind of “hieroglyphics” which they engraved in stone, and preserved in their temples. Notices of these “hieroglyphics” are given by some of the early writers. There appears to be a great similarity between these Peruvian pictographs and those found in Mexico and Brazil.

The temptation to quote from Charles Wiener’s magnificent work Pérou et Bolivie, Paris, 1880, and also from La Antigüedad del Hombre en el Plata, by Florentine Ameghino, Paris (and Buenos Aires), 1880, must be resisted.

OBJECTS REPRESENTED IN PICTOGRAPHS.

The objects depicted in pictographs of all kinds are too numerous and varied for any immediate attempt at classification. Those upon the petroglyphs may, however, be usefully grouped. Instructive particulars regarding them, may be discovered, for instance the delineation of the fauna in reference to its present or former habitat in the region where the representation of it is found, is of special interest.

As an example of the number and kind of animals pictured, as well as of their mode of representation, the following Figures, 4 to 21, are presented, taken from the Moki inscriptions at Oakley Springs, Arizona, by Mr. G. K. Gilbert. These were selected by him from, a large number of etchings, for the purpose of obtaining the explanation, and they were explained to him by Tubi, an Oraibi chief living at Oraibi, one of the Moki villages.

Jones, in his Southern Indians, p. 377-379, gives a résumé of objects depicted as follows:

Upon the Enchanted Mountain in Union County, cut in plutonic rock,
are the tracks of men, women, children, deer, bears, bisons, turkeys
and terrapins, and the outlines of a snake, of two deer, and of a
human hand. These sculptures--so far as they have been ascertained
and counted--number one hundred and thirty-six. The most extravagant
among them is that known as the footprint of the “Great Warrior.”
It measures eighteen inches in length, and has six toes. The other
human tracks and those of the animals are delineated with commendable
fidelity. * * *