Chapter CI: Section 3

AMBIGUOUS CHARACTERS WITH ASCERTAINED MEANING.

Under this heading specimens of the card catalogue before mentioned are presented. The characters would not probably be recognized for the objects they are intended to represent and many of them might be mistaken for attempts to delineate other objects. A much larger number of similar delineations are to be found under other headings in this work, especially in Chap. XIII on Totems, titles, and names.

Prof. C. Thomas (_c_) gives _a_, _b_, _c_, and _d_, in Fig. 1281 as representing the turtle.

That they do so is shown by the head of the animal, _e_, taken from the Cortesian Codex. This is one of the many examples in which the significance of drawings can be ascertained from a series of conventionalized forms. Other instances are given in the present paper, and more in the works of Mr. W. H. Holmes, published in several of the Annual Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology.

Fig. 1282 is given in the last cited volume and page as the symbol of the armadillo of Yucatan.

The drawings of which Fig. 1283 presents copies were made by Dakota tribesmen: _a_, fox; _b_, black fox; _c_, wolf; _d_, black deer; _e_, beaver; _f_, spotted horse; _g_, porcupine; _h_, white hawk; _i_, bald eagle; _k_, crow; _l_, swallow; _m_ and _n_, war bonnet; _o_, leggins; _p_, gun; _q_, pipe.

The characters in Fig. 1284 are Ojibwa drawings. With the exception of the last one they are copies of selected sketches made by Gaga Sindebi at White Earth, Minn., in 1891, as parts of a Midē' song.

_a_, a wolf. The dark chest markings and the large tail are in imitation of those parts of the timber wolf. The coyote is not now found in the region where the author of the song lives; but is more particularly a prairie animal.

_b_, a wolf. The pronounced jaw indicates his carnivorous nature.

_c_, a badger. Although the form resembles that of the bear the difference is shown by the darkened body to imitate the gray fur.

_d_, a bear.

_e_, a bear. This style of drawing is not common, it being rather short and stout, while the legs and ears are unusually pronounced.

_f_, the figure of a bear manido, to which is attached a feather denoting the mythic character of the animal.

_g_, the figure represents a “lean bear,” as is specified by the appearance of the ribs showing his lean condition.

_h_, a lizard. The ribs are ridges, which are found upon some forms of _Siredon_, one species of which occurs in the ponds and small lakes of Minnesota.

_i_, a toad.

_k_, a raccoon. The bands of color are indicated in the drawing.

_l_, a porcupine. Resembles some forms of the sacred bear manido as the latter is sometimes drawn.

_m_, the crane. The three round spots over the head represent three songs sung by the midē' to the crane manido.

_n_, the thunder-bird or eagle, having four heads. This character appears to be unique, as it has at no time been noticed upon any of the numerous midē' records in the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology.

_o_, the character represents a man using the rattle, as in the ceremony of incantation. The projections above the head denote his superior powers.

_p_, a midē', holding in his right hand a bear’s paw medicine bag, and in his left hand an arrow. The character resembles similar drawings to denote vessels in which herbs are boiled and from the top of which vapor is issuing.

_q_, a midē' medicine sack. The character appears like similar drawings of the otter; in the present instance, however, the ornamentation upon the skin shows it to be not a living animal.

_r_, a beaver’s tail, from Schoolcraft (_y_). Many other illustrations of this general nature are given by Mr. Schoolcraft, nearly all colored according to his fancy.