Chapter XCIII: Section 1: Typical Style

Fig. 1088 is presented as a type of eastern Algonquian petroglyphs. It is a copy of the “Hamilton picture rock,” contributed by Mr. J. Sutton Wall, of Monongahela city, Pennsylvania. The drawings are on a sandstone rock, on the Hamilton farm, 6 miles southeast from Morgantown, West Virginia. The turnpike passes over the south edge of the rock.

Mr. Wall furnishes the following description of the characters:

_a_, outline of a turkey; _b_, outline of a panther; _c_,
outline of a rattlesnake; _d_, outline of a human form; _e_, a
“spiral or volute;” _f_, impression of a horse foot; _g_, impression
of a human foot; _h_, outline of the top portion of a tree or
branch; _i_, impression of a human hand; _j_, impression of a bear’s
forefoot, but lacks the proper number of toe marks; _k_, impression
of two turkey tracks; _l_, has some appearance of a hare or rabbit,
but lacks the corresponding length of ears; _m_, impression of a
bear’s hindfoot, but lacks the proper number of toe marks; _n_,
outline of infant human form, with two arrows in the right hand;
_o_, _p_, two cup-shaped depressions; _q_, outline of the hind part
of an animal; _r_ might be taken to represent the impression of a
horse’s foot were it not for the line bisecting the outer curved
line; _s_ represent buffalo and deer tracks.

The turkey _a_, the rattlesnake _c_, the rabbit _l_, and the “footprints” _j_, _m_, and _q_, are specially noticeable as typical characters in Algonquian pictography.

Mr. P. W. Sheafer furnishes, in his Historical Map of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1875, a sketch of a pictograph on the Susquehanna river, Pennsylvania, below the dam at Safe Harbor, part of which is reproduced in Fig. 1089. This appears to be purely Algonquian, and has more resemblance to Ojibwa characters than any other petroglyph in the eastern United States yet noted.

See also Figs. 70, et seq., supra, under the heading of Pennsylvania, as showing excellent types of eastern Algonquian petroglyphs and resembling those on the Dighton rock.

Fig. 1090 is reproduced from Schoolcraft (_p_), and is a copy taken in 1851 of an inscription sculptured on a rock on the south side of Cunningham’s island, Lake Erie. Mr. Schoolcraft’s explanation, given in great detail, is fanciful. It is perhaps only necessary to explain that the dotted lines are intended to divide the partially obliterated from the more distinct portions of the glyph. The central part is the most obscure.

It is to be remarked that this petroglyph is in some respects similar in general style to those before given as belonging to the eastern Algonquian type, but is still more like some of the representations of the Dighton rock inscription, one of them being Fig. 49, supra, and others, which it still more closely resembles in the mode of drawing human figures, are in the copies of Dighton rock on Pl. LIV, Chap. XXII. In some respects this Cunningham’s island glyph occupies a typical position intermediate between the eastern and western Algonquian.

A good type of western Algonquian petroglyphs was discovered by the party of Capt. William A. Jones (_b_), in 1873, with an illustration here reproduced as Fig. 1091, in which the greater number of the characters are shown, about one-fifth real size.

An abstract of his description is as follows:

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

Throughout the Wind river country of Wyoming many petroglyphs have been found and others reported by the Shoshoni Indians, who say that they are the work of the “Pawkees,” as they call the Blackfeet, or, more properly, Satsika, an Algonquian tribe which formerly occupied that region, and their general style bears strong resemblance to similar carvings found in the eastern portion of the United States, in regions known to have been occupied by other tribes of the Algonquian linguistic stock.

The four specimens of Algonquian petroglyphs presented here in Figs. 1088-91 and those referred to, show gradations in type. In connection with them reference may be made to the numerous Ojibwa bark records in this work; the Ottawa pipestem, Fig. 738; and they may be contrasted with the many Dakota, Shoshoni, and Innuit drawings also presented.

The petroglyphs found scattered throughout the states and territories embraced within the area bounded by the Rocky mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west, and generally south of the forty-eighth degree of latitude, are markedly similar in the class of objects represented and the general style of their delineation, without reference to their division into pecked or painted characters; also in many instances the sites selected for petroglyphic display are of substantially the same character. This type has been generally designated as the Shoshonean, though many localities abounding in petroglyphs of the type are now inhabited by tribes of other linguistic stocks.

Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the U. S. Geological Survey, has furnished a small collection of drawings of Shoshonean petroglyphs from Oneida, Idaho, shown in Fig. 39, supra.

Five miles northwest from this locality and one-half mile east from Marsh creek is another group of characters on basalt bowlders, apparently totemic, and drawn by Shoshoni. A copy of these, also contributed by Mr. Gilbert, is given in Fig. 1092.

All of these drawings resemble the petroglyphs found at Partridge creek, northern Arizona, and in Temple creek canyon, southeastern Utah, mentioned supra, pages 50 and 116, respectively.

Mr. I. C. Russell, of the U. S. Geological Survey, has furnished drawings of rude pictographs at Black Rock spring, Utah, represented in Fig. 1093. Some of the other characters not represented in the figure consist of several horizontal lines, placed one above another, above which are a number of spots, the whole appearing like a numerical record having reference to the figure alongside, which resembles, to a slight extent, a melon with tortuous vines and stems. The left-hand upper figure suggests the masks shown in Fig. 713.

Mr. Gilbert Thompson, of the U. S. Geological Survey, has discovered pictographs at Fool creek canyon, Utah, shown in Fig. 1094, which strongly resemble those still made by the Moki of Arizona. Several characters are identical with those last mentioned, and represent human figures, one of which is drawn to represent a man, shown by a cross, the upper arm of which is attached to the perinæum. These are all drawn in red color and were executed at three different periods. Other neighboring pictographs are pecked and unpainted, while others are both pecked and painted.

Both of these pictographs from Utah may be compared with the Moki pictographs from Oakley springs, Arizona, copied in Fig. 1261.

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

From the numerous illustrations furnished of petroglyphs found in Owens valley, California, reference is here made to Pl. II _a_, Pl. III _h_, and Pl. VII _a_ as presenting suggestive similarity to the Shoshonean forms above noted, and apparently connecting them with others in New Mexico, Arizona, Sonora, and Central and South America.

Mr. F. H. Cushing (_a_) figured three petroglyphs, now reproduced in Figs. 1095 and 1096, from Arizona, and referred to them in connection with figurines found in the ruined city of Los Muertos, in the Salado valley, as follows:

Beneath the floor of the first one of these huts which we
excavated, near the ranch of Mr. George Kay Miller, were discovered,
disposed precisely as would be a modern sacrifice of the kind in
Zuñi, the paraphernalia of a Herder’s sacrifice, namely, the paint
line, encircled, perforated medicine cup, the Herder’s amulet stone
of chalcedony, and a group of at least fifteen remarkable figurines.
The figurines alone, of the articles constituting this sacrifice,
differed materially from those which would occur in a modern
Zuñi “New Year Sacrifice” of the kind designed to propitiate the
increase and prosperity of its herds. While in Zuñi these figurines
invariably represent sheep (the young of sheep mainly; mostly also
females), the figurines in the hut at “Los Guanacos,” as I named the
place, represented with rare fidelity * * * some variety, I should
suppose, of the auchenia or llama of South America.

Summing up the evidence presented by the occurrence of numerous
“bola stones” in these huts and within the cities; by the remarkably
characteristic forms of these figurines; by the traditional
statement of modern Zuñis regarding “small hairy animals” possessed
by their ancestors, no less than by the statements of Marcus
Nizza, Bernal Diaz, and other Spanish writers to the same effect,
and adding to this sum the facts presented in sundry ritualistic
pictographs, I concluded, very boldly, * * * that the ancient
Pueblos-Shiwians, or Aridians, * * * must have had domesticated a
North American variety of the auchenia more nearly resembling, it
would seem, the guanaco of South America than the llama.

It is ascertained that the petroglyphs copied by Mr. Cushing as above are pecked upon basaltic rock in the northern face of Maricopa mountains, near Telegraph pass, south of Phœnix, Arizona.

The following information is obtained from Dr. H. Ten Kate (_a_):

In several localities in the sierra in the peninsula of
California and Sonora are rocks painted red. These paintings are
quite rude and are inferior to many of the pictographs of the
North American Indians. Figs. 1097 and 1098 were found at Rincon
de S. Antonio. The right-hand division of Fig. 1097 is a complete
representation, and the figures copied appear on the stone in the
order in which they are here given. The left-hand division of the
same figure represents only the most distinct objects, selected from
among a large number of others, very similar, which cover a block of
marble several meters in height. The object in the upper left-hand
corner of Fig. 1097 measures 20 to 21 centimeters; the others are
represented in proportion.

These two figures resemble petroglyphs reported from the Santa Inez range, west of Santa Barbara, Lower California.

The same author, op. cit., p. 324, says:

Fig. 1098 represents symbols which were the most easily
distinguished among the great number of those which cover two
immense granite blocks at Boca San Pedro. The rows of dots (or
points) which are seen at the left of this figure measure 1.50
meters, the parallel lines traced at the right are about 1 meter.

This figure is like another found farther east (see Fig. 31) from Azuza canyon, California.

A number of Haida pictographs are reproduced in other parts of this work. In immediate connection with the present topic Fig. 1099 is presented. It shows the carved columns in front of the chief’s house at Massett, Queen Charlotte island.

The following illustrations from New Zealand are introduced here for comparison.

Dr. F. von Hochstetter (_b_) writing of New Zealand, says:

The dwellings of the chiefs at Ohinemutu are surrounded with
inclosures of pole fences, and the Whares and Wharepunis, some
of them exhibiting very fine specimens of the Maori order of
architecture, are ornamented with grotesque wood carvings. Fig. 1100
is an illustration of some of them. The gable figure with the lizard
having six feet and two heads is very remarkable. The human figures
are not idols, but are intended to represent departed sires of the
present generation.

Niblack (_c_) gives a description of the illustration reproduced as Fig. 1101.

Tiki. At Raroera Pah, New Zealand. From Wood’s Natural History,
page 180. Of this he says: “This gigantic tiki stands, together with
several others, near the tomb of the daughter of Te Whero-Whero,
and, like the monument which it seems to guard, is one of the finest
examples of native carving to be found in New Zealand. The precise
object of the tiki is uncertain, but the protruding tongue of the
upper figure seems to show that it is one of the numerous defiant
statues which abound in the islands. The natives say that the lower
figure represents Maui the Auti who, according to Maori tradition,
fished up the islands from the bottom of the sea.”

Dr. Bransford (_b_) gives an illustration, copied here as the left-hand character of Fig. 1102, with the description of the site, viz: “On a hillside on the southern end of the island of Ometepec, Nicaragua, about a mile and a half east of Point San Ramon.” On a rough, irregular stone of basalt, projecting 3 feet above ground, was the following figure on the south side:

This suggests comparison with some of the Moki and British Guiana figures.

The same authority gives on page 66, from the same island and neighborhood, the illustration copied as the right-hand character of the same figure.

By comparing some of the New Mexican, Zuñi, and Pueblo drawings with the above figure the resemblance is obvious. This is most notable in the outline of the square abdomen and the widespread legs.

Fig. 1103, also mentioned and figured by Dr. Bransford as found with the preceding in Nicaragua, resembles some of the petroglyphs presented in the collection from Owens valley, California.

The carvings in Fig. 1104 are from British Guiana, and are reproduced from im Thurn (_i_):

Most of these figures so strongly resemble some from New Mexico, and perhaps Arizona, as to appear as if they were made by the same people. This is specially noticeable in the lowermost characters, and more particularly so in the last two, resembling the usual Shoshonean type for toad or frog.

The petroglyph of Boca del Infierno, a copy of which is furnished by Marcano (_f_), reproduced as Fig. 1105, is thus described:

In the strange combination that surmounts it, _a_, there are
seen at the lower part two figures resembling the eyes of jaguars,
but asymmetric. Still the difference is apparent rather than real.
These eyes are always formed of three circumferences, the central
one being at times replaced by a point, as in the eye at the left;
the one at the right shows its three circumferences, but the
outermost is continuous with the rest of the drawing. The two eyes
are joined together by superposed arches, the smallest of which
touches only the left eye, while the larger one, which is not in
contact with the left eye, forms the circumference of the right
eye. The whole is surrounded by 34 rays, pretty nearly of the same
size, except one, which is larger. Is there question of a jaguar’s
head seen from in front with its bristling mane, or is it a sunrise?
All conjecture is superfluous, and it is useless to search for the
interpretation of these figures, whose value, entirely conventional,
is known only by those who invented them.

In _b_ of the same pictograph, alongside of a tangle of various
figures, always formed of geometric lines, we distinguished, at the
left, three points; in the middle a collection of lines representing
a fish. Let us note, finally, the dots which, as in the preceding
case, run out from certain lines.

The design of _c_, while quite as complex, has quite
another arrangement. At the left we see again the figure of the
circumferences surrounding a dot, and these are surmounted by a
series of triangles; at the bottom there are two little curves
terminated by dots. At _d_ two analogous objects are represented;
they may be what Humboldt took to be arms or household implements.

In the above figure, the uppermost character, _a_, is similar to various representations of the “sky,” as depicted upon the birch-bark midē' records of the Ojibwa. The lower characters are similar to several examples presented under the Shoshonean types, particularly to those in Owens valley, California.

Dr. A. Ernst in Verhandl. der Berliner, Anthrop. Gesell. (_c_) gives a description of Fig. 1106, translated and condensed as follows:

The rock on which the petroglyph is carved is 41 kilometers WSW.
of Caracas, and 27 kilometers almost due north of La Victoria, in
the coast mountains of Venezuela. The petroglyph is found on two
large stones lying side by side and leaning against other blocks of
leptinite, though resembling sandstone. The length of the two stones
is 3.5 m., their height 2 m. The stones lie beside the road from the
colony of Tovar to La Maya, on the border of a clearing somewhat
inclined southward not far from the woods. The surface is turned
south. Concerning the meaning of the very fragmentary figures I can
not even express a conjecture.

Araripe (_c_) furnishes the following description of Fig. 1107:

In the district of Inhamun, on the road from Carrapateira to
Cracará, at a distance of half a league, following a footpath which
branches off to the left, is a small lake called Arneiros, near
which is a heap of round and long stones; on one of the round ones
is an inscription, here given in the order in which the figures
appear, on the face toward the north, engraved with a pointed
instrument, the characters being covered with red paint.

The same authority, p. 231, gives the following description of the lower group in Fig. 1108. It is called Indian writing in Vorá, in Faxina, province of São Paulo.

From a rock which is more than 40 meters in height, a large mass
has been detached leaving a greater inclination of 10 meters. This
incline, together with the wall formed by the detached portion,
constitutes a sheltered place which was used by the Indians as a
resting place for their dead.

On the walls of this grotto are figures engraved in the stone
and painted with “indelible” colors in red and black. It would seem
that the Indians had engraved in these figures the history of the
tribe. The designs are as follows:

A human figure with ornaments of feathers on the head and neck;
a palm tree rudely engraved and painted; a number of circular holes,
24 or more or less, in a straight line; a circle with a diameter
of 15 inches, having dentated lines on the edge; two concentric
circles resembling a clock face, with 60 divisions; immediately
following this the figure of an idol, and various marks all painted
in a very firm black; a figure of the sun with a +; a T; six more
circles; a human hand and foot well carved, etc. In the wall are
fragments of bones.

The two upper groups are copies of petroglyphs in Fuencaliente, Andalusia, Spain, which are described in Chap. IV, sec. 3, and are introduced here for convenient comparison with characters in the lower group of this figure, and also with others in Figs. 1097 and 1107.

Dr. Ladisláu Netto (_c_) gives an account of characters copied from the inscriptions of Cachoeira Savarete, in the valley of the Rio Negro, here reproduced as Fig. 1109. They represent men and animals, concentric circles, double spirals, and other figures of indefinite form. The design in the left hand of the middle line evidently represents a group of men gathered and drawn up like soldiers in a platoon.

The same authority, p. 552, furnishes characters copied from rocks near the villa of Moura in the valley of the Rio Negro, here reproduced as Fig. 1110. They represent a series of figures on which Dr. Netto remarks as follows:

It is singular how frequent are these figures of circles two
by two, one of which seems to simulate one of the meanders that in
a measure represent the form of the Buddhic cross. This character,
represented by the double cross, is very common in many American
inscriptions. It probably signifies some idea which has nothing to
do with that of nandyavarta.

The same authority, p. 522, gives carvings copied from the rocks of the banks of the Rio Negro, from Moura to the city of Mañaus, some of which are reproduced as Fig. 1111. The group on the left Dr. Netto believes to represent a crowned chief, having by his side a figure which may represent either the sun or the moon in motion, but which, were it carved by civilized men, would suggest nothing more remarkable than a large compass.

The same authority, p. 553, presents characters copied from stones on the banks of the Rio Negro, Brazil, here reproduced as Fig. 1112.

They are rather sketches or vague tracings and attempts at drawing than definite characters. The human heads found in most of the figures observed at this locality resemble the heads carved in the inscriptions of Central America and on the banks of the Colorado river. The left-hand character, which here appears to be simply a rude drawing of a nose and the eyes belonging to a human face, may be compared with the so-called Thunderbird from Washington, contributed by Rev. Dr. Eels (see Fig. 679).

Dr. E. R. Heath (_b_), in his Exploration of the River Beni, introducing Fig. 1113, says:

Periquitos rapids connects so closely with the tail of “Riberáo”
that it is difficult to say where one begins and the other ends.
Our stop at the Periquitos rapids was short yet productive of a few
figures, one rock having apparently a sun and moon on it, the first
seen of that character.

He further says:

On some solid water-worn rocks, at the edge of the fall, are the
following figures [Fig. 1114]. There were many fractional parts of
figures which we did not consider of sufficient value to copy.