Chapter XXI: , infra

Champlain (_b_) reports:

Quelque marque ou signal par où ayont passé leurs ennemis, ou
leurs amis, ce qu’ils cognoissent par de certaines marques que les
chefs se donnent d’une nation a l’autre, qui ne sont pas toujours
semblables, s’advertisans de temps en temps quand ils en changent;
et par ce moyen ils recognoissent si ce sont amis ou ennemis qui ont
passé.

A notice of departure, direction, and purpose made in 1810 by Algonquins, of the St. Lawrence River, is described by John Merrick in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society (_a_), of which the following is an abstract;

It was drawn with charcoal on a chip cut from a spruce tree
and wedged firmly into the top of a stake. It represented two male
Indians paddling a canoe in an attitude of great exertion, and
in the canoe were bundles of baggage and a squaw with a papoose;
over all was a bird on the wing ascertained to be a loon. The
whole was interpreted by an Indian pilot on the St. Lawrence, to
be a Wickheegan or Awickheegan, and that it was left by a party
of Indians for the information of their friends. The attitude of
exertion showed that the party, consisting of two men, a woman, and
a child, were going upstream. They intended to remain during the
whole period allotted by Indians to the kind of hunting which was
then in season, because they had all their furniture and family in
the canoe. The loon expressed the intention to go without stopping
anywhere before they arrived at the hunting ground, as the loon,
from the shortness of its legs, walking with great difficulty, never
alighted on its way.

The following account is from Doc. Hist. N.Y. (_a_).

When they go to war and wish to inform those of the party who
may pass their path, they make a representation of the animal of
their tribe, with a hatchet in his dexter paw; sometimes a saber
or a club; and if there be a number of tribes together of the same
party, each draws the animal of his tribe, and their number, all
on a tree from which they remove the bark. The animal of the tribe
which heads the expedition is always the foremost.

The three following figures show the actual use of the wikhegan by the Abnaki in the last generation. Wikhegan is a Passamaquoddy word which corresponds in meaning nearly to our missive, or letter, being intelligence conveyed to persons at a distance by marks on a piece of birch bark, which may be either sent to the person or party with whom it is desired to hold communication, or may be left in a conspicuous place for such persons to notice on their expected arrival. In the cases now figured the wikhegan was left as notice of departure and direction. They were made at different times by the brother, now dead, of Big Raven, baptized as Noel Joseph, who lived all alone on Long Lake, a few miles from Princeton, Maine. He would not have anything to do with civilization, and subsisted by hunting and fishing in the old fashion, nor would he learn a word of French or English. When he would go on any long expedition his custom was to tie to a stick conspicuously attached to his wigwam a small roll of birch bark, with the wikhegan on it for the information of his friends.

The upper device of Fig. 438 means, I am going across the lake to hunt deer.

The middle device means, I am going towards the lake and will turn off at the point where there is a pointer, before reaching the lake.

The lower device means, I am going hunting--will be gone all winter, the last information indicated by snowshoes and packed sledge.

The following description of a pictograph on the Pacific coast is extracted from Dr. Gibbs’ (_a_) account, “Tribes of Western Washington,” etc., Contrib. to N. A. Ethn. I, p. 222, of the Sound tribes.

A party of Snakes are going to hunt strayed horses. A figure
of a man, with a long queue or scalp lock, reaching to his heels,
denoted Shoshone; that tribe being in the habit of braiding horse or
other hair into their own in that manner. A number of marks follow,
signifying the strength of the party. A footprint, pointing in the
direction they take, shows their course, and a hoof mark turned
backward, that they expect to return with animals. If well armed,
and expecting a possible attack, a little powder mixed with sand
tells that they are ready, or a square dotted about the figures
indicates that they have fortified. These pictographs are often an
object of study to decipher the true meaning. The shrewder or more
experienced old men consult over them. It is not everyone that is
sufficiently versed in the subject to decide correctly.

Dr. W. J. Hoffman obtained the original of the accompanying drawing, Fig. 439, from Naumoff, an Alaskan, in San Francisco in 1882; also the interpretation.

The drawing was in imitation of similar ones made by the natives to inform their visitors or friends of their departure for a purpose designated. They are depicted upon strips of wood, which are placed in conspicuous places near the doors of the habitations.

The following is the explanation of the characters: _a_, the speaker, with the right hand indicating himself and with the left pointing in the direction to be taken; _b_, holding a boat-paddle, going by boat; _c_, the right hand to the side of the head, to denote sleep, and the left elevated with one finger erect to signify one night; _d_, a circle with two marks in the middle, signifying an island with huts upon it; _e_, same as _a_; _f_, a circle to denote another island; _g_, same as _c_, with an additional finger elevated, signifying two nights; _h_, the speaker, with his harpoon, making the sign of a sea-lion with the left hand. The flat hand is held edgewise with the thumb elevated, then pushed outward from the body in a slightly downward curve. At _i_ is represented a sea-lion; _j_, shooting with bow and arrow; _k_, the boat with two persons in it, the paddles projecting downward; _l_, the winter or permanent habitation of the speaker.

The following, Fig. 440, is of a similar nature to the preceding, and was obtained under similar circumstances.

The explanation of the above characters is as follows:

The letters _a_, _c_, _e_, _g_, represent the person spoken to.

_b._ Indicates the speaker with his right hand to the side or breast, indicating _self_, the left hand pointing in the direction in which he is going.

_d._ Both hands elevated, with fingers and thumbs signifies many, according to the informant. When the hands are thus held up, in sign-language, it signifies _ten_, but when they are brought toward and backward from one another, _many_.

_f._ The right hand is placed to the head to denote sleep--_many sleeps_, or, in other words, _many nights and days_; the left hand points downward, _at that place_.

_h._ The right hand is directed toward the starting point, while the left is brought upward toward the head--_to go home_, or _whence he came_.

The drawing presented in Fig. 441 was made by a native Alaskan, and represents information to the effect that the artist contemplates making a journey to hunt deer. The drawing is made upon a narrow strip of wood, and placed on or near the door of the house, where visitors will readily perceive it.

In this figure the curves _a a_ represent the contour lines of the country and mountain peaks; _b_, native going away from home; _c_, stick placed on hilltop, with bunch of grass attached, pointing in the direction he has taken; _d_, native of another settlement, with whom the traveler remained over night; _e_, lodge; _f_, line representing the end of the first day, i. e., the time between two days; rest; _g_, traveler again on the way; _h_, making signal that on second day (right hand raised with two extended fingers) he saw game (deer, _i_,) on a hilltop, which he secured, so terminating his journey; _i_, deer.

Figs. 442, 443, and 444 were drawn by Naumoff and signify “Have gone home.”

His explanation of this figure is as follows:

When one of a hunting party is about to return home and wishes to inform his companions that he has started, he ascends the hilltop nearest to which they became separated, where he ties a bunch of grass or other light-colored material to the top of a long stick or pole. The lower end of the stick is placed firmly in the ground, leaning in the direction taken. When another hill is ascended, another stick with similar attachment is erected, again leaning in the direction to be taken. These sticks are placed at proper intervals until the village is sighted. This device is employed by Southern Alaskan Indians.

He explained Fig. 443 as follows:

Seal hunters thus inform their comrades that they have returned to the settlement. The first to return to the regular landing place sometimes sticks a piece of wood into the ground, leaning toward the village, upon which is drawn or scratched the outline of a baidarka, or skin canoe, heading toward one or more outlines of lodges, signifying that the occupants of the boat have gone toward their homes.

This device is used by coast natives of Southern Alaska and Kadiak. He explained Fig. 444 as follows:

When hunters become separated, the one first returning to the forks of the trail puts a piece of wood in the ground, on the top of which he makes an incision, into which a short piece of wood is secured horizontally, so as to point in the direction taken.

Maj. Long--Keating’s Long (_a_)--says:

When we stopped to dine, White Thunder (the Winnebago chief
that accompanied me), suspecting that the rest of his party were
in the neighborhood, requested a piece of paper, pen, and ink, to
communicate to them the intelligence of his having come up with me.
He then seated himself and drew three rude figures, which, at my
request, he explained to me. The first represented my boat with a
mast and flag, with three benches of oars and a helmsman. To show
that we were Americans, our heads were represented by a rude cross,
indicating that we wore hats. The representation of himself was a
rude figure of a bear over a kind of cipher, representing a hunting
ground. The second figure was designed to show that his wife was
with him; the device was a boat with a squaw seated in it; over her
head lines were drawn in a zigzag direction, indicating that she
was the wife of White Thunder. The third was a boat with a bear
sitting at the helm, showing that an Indian of that name [or of
the bear gens] had been seen on his way up the river and had given
intelligence where the party were. This paper he set up at the mouth
of Kickapoo creek, up which the party had gone on a hunting trip.

An ingenious mode of giving intelligence is practiced at this day by the Abnaki, as reported by H. L. Masta, chief of that tribe, lately living at Pierreville, Quebec. When they are in the woods, to say “I am going to the east,” a stick is stuck in the ground pointing in that direction, Fig. 445, _a_. “I am not gone far,” another stick is stuck across the former, close to the ground, same figure, _b_. “Gone far” is the reverse, same figure, _c_. The number of days’ journey of proposed absence is shown by the same number of sticks across the first; thus, same figure, _d_, signifies five days’ journey.

Fig. 446, scratched on birch bark, was given to the present writer at Fredericton, New Brunswick, in August, 1888, by Gabriel Acquin, an Amalecite, then 66 years old, who spoke English quite well. The circumstances under which it was made and used are in the Amalecite’s words, as follows:

“When I was about 18 years old I lived at a village 11 miles above Fredericton and went with canoe and gun. I canoed down to Washademoak lake, about 40 miles below Fredericton; then took river until it became too narrow for canoe; then ‘carried’ to Buctoos river; followed down to bay of Chaleur; went up the northwest Mirimachi, and ‘carried’ into the Nepisigiut. There spent the summer. On that river met a friend of my time; we camped there.

“One time while I was away my friend had gone down the river by himself and had not left any wikhe'gan for me. I had planned to go off and left for him this wikhe'gan, to tell where I would be and how long gone. The wigwam at the lower left-hand corner showed the one used by us, with the river near it. The six notches over the door of the wigwam meant that I would be gone six days. The canoe and man nearest to the wigwam referred to my friend, who had gone in the opposite direction to that I intended to travel. Next to it I was represented in my own canoe, with rain falling, to show the day I started, which was very rainy. Then the canoe carried by me by a trail through woods shows the ‘carry’ to Nictaux lake, beside which is a very big mountain. I stayed at that lake for six days, counting the outgoing and returning. As I had put the wikhe'gan in the wigwam before I started, my friend on his return understood all about me, and, counting six from and including the rainy day, knew just when I was coming back, and was waiting for me.”

The chief point of interest in this notice is the ingenious mode of fixing the date of departure. The marks for rain are nearly obliterated, but it flows from the man’s hair. The topography is also delineated.

The following is extracted from James Long’s Expedition (_b_):

On the bank of the Platte river was a semicircular row of
sixteen bison skulls, with their noses pointing down the river.
Near the center of the circle which this row would describe, if
continued, was another skull marked with a number of red lines.

Our interpreter informed us that this arrangement of skulls
and other marks here discovered were designed to communicate the
following information, namely, that the camp had been occupied by
a war party of the Skeeree or Pawnee Loup Indians, who had lately
come from an excursion against the Cumancias, Ietans, or some of
the western tribes. The number of red lines traced on the painted
skull indicated the number of the party to have been thirty-six; the
position in which the skulls were placed, that they were on their
return to their own country. Two small rods stuck in the ground,
with a few hairs tied in two parcels to the end of each, signified
that four scalps had been taken.

When a hunting party of the Hidatsa arrived at any temporary camping ground from which some of them had left on a short reconnoitering expedition, the remainder, having occasion to move, erect a pole and cause it to lean in the direction taken. At the foot of this pole a buffalo shoulder blade or other flat bone is placed, upon which is depicted the reason of departure; e. g. should buffalo or antelope be seen, the animal is drawn with a piece of charred wood or red lead.

When a Hidatsa party has gone on the warpath, and a certain number is detailed to take another direction, the point of separation is taken as the rendezvous. After the return of the first party to the rendezvous, should the second not come up in a reasonable length of time, they will set sticks in the ground leaning in the direction to be taken, and notches are cut into the upper ends of the sticks to represent the number of nights spent there by the waiting party.

A party of Hidatsa who may be away from home for any purpose whatever often appoint a rendezvous, from which point they return to their respective lodges. Should one of the party return to the rendezvous before any others and wish to make a special trip, he will, for the information of the others, place a stick of about 3 or 4 feet in length in the ground, upon the upper end of which a notch is cut, or perhaps a split made for the reception of a thinner piece of twig or branch having a length of about a foot. This horizontal top piece is inserted at one end, so that the whole may point in the direction to be taken. Should he wish to say that the trail would turn at a right angle, to either side, at about half the distance of the whole journey in prospect, the horizontal branch is either bent in that direction or a naturally curved branch is selected having the turn at the middle of its entire length, thus corresponding to the turn in the trail. Any direction can be indicated by curves in the top branch.

No prescribed system of characters is used at the present time by the Ojibwa, in the indication of direction or travel. When anyone leaves camp or home for any particular hunting or berry ground, a concerted arrangement is made by which only those interested can, with any certainty, recognize “blaze” or trail marks.

Three characters cut upon the bark of large pine trees observed in the forest near Red Lake, Minnesota, are shown in Fig. 447. The Ojibwa using such a mark will continue on a trail leading from his home, until he leaves the trail, when a conspicuous tree, or in its absence a piece of wood or bark, is selected upon which a human figure is cut, with one arm elevated and pointing in the direction to be taken. These figures measure about 18 inches in height. Those represented on the two sides of the copy were cut into the bark of a “jack pine” without coloration, and the one in the middle had been rubbed with red chalk upon the wood of the trunk after the bark had been removed and the incision made. The middle figure indicates the direction by its bearings, although the pointers are differently arranged.

Plain sticks are sometimes used by the Ojibwa to indicate direction. These vary in length according to the fancy of the person and the requirements of the case. They are stuck into the ground, and lean in the direction to which notice is invited.

When a preconcerted arrangement is made, scrolls of birch bark are used, upon which important geographic features are delineated, so that the reader can, with little difficulty, learn the course taken by the traveler. For instance, a hunter upon leaving his home, deposits there a scroll bearing marks such as appear in Fig. 448:

_a_ is a stream to be followed to a lake _b_, where the hunter will erect his lodge _c_, during his stay. The do-dém (totem) is added, used between persons or parties communicating, to show who was the one that drew it. It is in the nature of a signature.

Fig. 449 shows a still existing use of the wikhegan between a Penobscot Indian and his nephew. It is copied from the original, incised on birch bark, by Nicholas Francis, a Penobscot, of Oldtown, Maine, which was obtained and kindly presented by Miss A. L. Alger of Boston.

Pitalo (Roaring Lion), English name, Noel Lyon, and his old uncle, aged over 70 years, went trapping for beaver in 1885 and camped at _d_, near Moosehead Lake _h_, having their supply tent at _e_. They visited the ponds _a_ and _b_ and knew there were beaver there, and set traps for them, _f f_. The beaver dams are also shown extending across the outlets of the streams. Noel came back from pond _b_ one day to the camping tent and found this birch-bark wikhegan made by the old uncle, who still used the pictographic method, as he does not know how to write, and by this Noel knew his uncle had gone to pond _c_ to see if there were any beaver there and would be gone one night, the latter expressed by one line _g_ drawn between the two arrows pointing in opposite directions, showing the going and returning on the same trail.

The notable part of the above description is that the wikhegan consisted of the chart of the geographic features before traversed by the two trappers, with the addition of new features of the country undoubtedly known to both of the Indians, but not before visited in the present expedition. This addition exhibited the departure, its intent, direction, and duration.

Sapiel Selmo, a chief of the Passamaquoddy tribe, who gave to the writer the wikhegan copied as Fig. 450, in 1887, was then a very aged man and has since died. He lived at Pleasant point, 7 miles north of Eastport, Maine. He was the son of a noted chief, Selmo Soctomah (a corruption of St. Thomas), who, as shown by a certificate exhibited, commanded 600 Passamaquoddy Indians in the Revolutionary war. When a young man Sapiel, with his father, had a temporary camp, _a_, at Machias Lake. He left his father and went to their permanent home at Pleasant Point, _b_, to get meat, and then returned to the first camp (route shown by double track) and found that his father had gone, but that he had left in the temporary wigwam the wikhegan on birch bark, showing that he had killed one moose, the meat of which Sapiel found in the snow, and that the father was going to hunt moose on the other lake (East Machias lake) and would camp there three days, shown by the same number of strokes at _c_; so he waited for him until he came back.

Josiah Gregg (_a_) says of the Plains tribes:

When traveling they will also pile heaps of stones upon mounds
or conspicuous points so arranged as to be understood by their
passing comrades; and sometimes they set up the bleached buffalo
heads, which are everywhere scattered over those plains, to indicate
the direction of their march, and many other facts which may be
communicated by those simple signs.

Putnam (_a_) gives one example of this character:

A family of five persons were killed--a tall man, a short, fat
woman, and three children--at some place to the north. Five sticks
were cut of various lengths. The longest being forked or split
indicated the man, the thick short one the woman, and three of
smaller sizes and lengths the children. They were all scalped, as
is shown by the peeling of the bark. There were thirteen Indians,
as we are informed by the stick with stripes and thirteen notches;
and they have fled south with two prisoners, as we judge from the
pointer and little strips of bark seemingly tied together. Sometimes
all the intimations would be on one stick or piece of bark. A spy
finding, at places well known, some of these mysterious articles,
would bring them to the station, where a consultation would be
held and conclusion drawn as to the meaning. A spy or hunter would
intimate to his friend his want of powder or lead or other want and
the place at which he would look for supplies.

Hind (_a_) speaks of a special form of notice by the natives of the Labrador peninsula:

To indicate their speed and direction on a march, the Nasquapees
of the Labrador peninsula thrust a stick in the ground, with a tuft
of grass at the top, pointing toward their line of route, and they
show the rate at which they are traveling by the greater or less
inclination of the stick. This mode of communicating intelligence to
those who may follow is universal among Indians; but the excellent
and simple contrivance for describing the speed at which they travel
is not generally employed as far as I am aware, by other nations.

Mr. Charles G. Leland, in a letter, tells that the English gypsies, at a crossroad, drew the ordinary Latin cross with the long arm pointing in the direction taken. Others pulled up three bunches of grass by the roots and laid the green points in the direction. Others again, at the present time, take a small stick and set it up inclining at an angle of 45 degrees in the line of travel.

Dr. George M. Dawson (_a_) reports of the Shuswap people of British Columbia--

A rag of clothing, particularly a small piece or pieces of
colored or other easily recognizable material from a woman’s dress,
left in a forked twig, indicates that a person or party of persons
has passed. If the stick stands upright, it means that the hour was
noon, if inclined it may either point to the direction of the sun at
the time or show the direction in which the person or party went. If
it is desired to show both, a larger stick points to the position
of the sun, a smaller to that of the route followed. If those for
whose information the signs are left are likely to arrive after an
interval of several days, a handful of fresh grass or a leafy branch
may be left, from the condition of which an estimate of the time
which has elapsed can be formed. Such signs are usually placed near
the site of the camp fire.

The device to indicate the time of depositing the notice may be compared with that shown in Fig. 446.