Before concluding, it may be of interest to refer in some detail to
several subjects mentioned in the preceding pages. The mnemonic songs
are in nearly every instance incised upon birch bark by means of a
sharp-pointed piece of bone or a nail. The inner surface of the bark is
generally selected because it is softer than the reverse. Bark for such
purposes is peeled from the trunk during the spring months. On the right
hand upper corner of Pl. XIX is reproduced a portion of a mnemonic song
showing characters as thus drawn. The specimen was obtained at White
Earth, and the entire song is presented on Pl. XVI, C. A piece of bark
obtained at Red Lake, and known to have been incised more than seventy
years ago, is shown on the right lower corner of Pl. XIX. The drawings
are upon the outer surface and are remarkably deep and distinct. The
left hand specimen is from the last named locality, and of the same
period, and presents pictographs drawn upon the inner surface.
[Illustration: Plate XIX.
Sacred Birch Bark Records.]
In a majority of songs the characters are drawn so as to be read from
left to right, in some from right to left, and occasionally one is found
to combine both styles, being truly boustrophic. Specimens have been
obtained upon which the characters were drawn around and near the margin
of an oblong piece of bark, thus appearing in the form of an irregular
circle.
The pictographic delineation of ideas is found to exist chiefly among
the shamans, hunters, and travelers of the Ojibwa, and there does not
appear to be a recognized system by which the work of any one person is
fully intelligible to another. A record may be recognized as pertaining
to the Midē´ ceremonies, as a song used when hunting plants, etc.; but
it would be impossible for one totally unfamiliar with the record to
state positively whether the initial character was at the left or the
right hand. The figures are more than simply mnemonic; they are
ideographic, and frequently possess additional interest from the fact
that several ideas are expressed in combination. Col. Garrick Mallery,
U.S. Army, in a paper entitled “Recently Discovered Algonkian
Pictographs,” read before the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, at Cleveland, 1888, expressed this fact in the following
words:
It is desirable to explain the mode of using the Midē´ and other bark
records of the Ojibwa and also those of other Algonkian tribes to be
mentioned in this paper. The comparison made by Dr. E. B. Tylor of the
pictorial alphabet to teach children “A was an archer,” etc., is not
strictly appropriate in this case. The devices are not only mnemonic,
but are also ideographic and descriptive. They are not merely invented
to express or memorize the subject, but are evolved therefrom. To
persons acquainted with secret societies a good comparison for the
charts or rolls would be what is called the tressel board of the
Masonic order, which is printed and published and publicly exposed
without exhibiting any of the secrets of the order, yet is not only
significant, but useful to the esoteric in assistance to their memory
as to degrees and details of ceremony.
A more general mode of explaining the so-called symbolism is by a
suggestion that the charts of the order or the song of a myth should
be likened to the popular illustrated poems and songs lately published
in Harper’s Magazine for instance, “Sally in our Alley,” where every
stanza has an appropriate illustration. Now, suppose that the text was
obliterated forever, indeed the art of reading lost, the illustrations
remaining, as also the memory to many persons of the ballad. The
illustrations kept in order would supply always the order of the
stanzas and also the general subject-matter of each particular stanza
and the latter would be a reminder of the words. This is what the
rolls of birch bark do to the initiated Ojibwa, and what Schoolcraft
pretended in some cases to show, but what for actual understanding
requires that all the vocables of the actual songs and charges of the
initiation should be recorded and translated. This involves not only
profound linguistic study, but the revelation of all the mysteries.
In other instances the literation in the aboriginal language of the
nonesoteric songs and stories and their translation is necessary to
comprehend the devices by which they are memorized rather than
symbolized. Nevertheless, long usage has induced some degree of
ideography and symbolism.
[Illustration: Plate XX.
Sacred Bark Scroll and Contents.]
On Pl. XX are presented illustrations of several articles found in a
Midē´ sack which had been delivered to the Catholic priest at Red Lake
over seventy years ago, when the owner professed Christianity and
forever renounced (at least verbally) his pagan profession. The
information given below was obtained from Midē´ priests at the above
locality. They are possessed of like articles, being members of the same
society to which the late owners of the relics belonged. The first is a
birch-bark roll, the ends of which were slit into short strips, so as to
curl in toward the middle to prevent the escaping of the contents. The
upper figure is that of the Thunder god, with waving lines extending
forward from the eyes, denoting the power of peering into futurity. This
character has suggested to several Midē´ priests that the owner might
have been a Midē´-Jĕs´sakkīd´. This belief is supported by the actual
practice pursued by this class of priests when marking their personal
effects. The lower figure is that of a buffalo, as is apparent from the
presence of the hump. Curiously enough both eyes are drawn upon one side
of the head, a practice not often followed by Indian artists.
The upper of the four small figures is a small package, folded,
consisting of the inner sheet of birch-bark and resembling paper both in
consistence and color. Upon the upper fold is the outline of the Thunder
bird. The next two objects represent small boxes made of pine wood,
painted or stained red and black. They were empty when received, but
were no doubt used to hold sacred objects. The lowest figure of the four
consists of a bundle of three small bags of cotton wrapped with a strip
of blue cloth. The bags contain, respectively, love powder, hunter’s
medicine--in this instance red ocher and powdered arbor vitæ leaves--and
another powder of a brownish color, with which is mixed a small quantity
of ground medicinal plants.
The roll of birch-bark containing these relics inclosed also the skin of
a small rodent (Spermophilus sp.?) but in a torn and moth-eaten
condition. This was used by the owner for purposes unknown to those who
were consulted upon the subject. It is frequently, if not generally,
impossible to ascertain the use of most of the fetiches and other sacred
objects contained in Midē´ sacks of unknown ownership, as each priest
adopts his own line of practice, based upon a variety of reasons,
chiefly the nature of his fasting dreams.
Fancy sometimes leads an individual to prepare medicine sticks that are
of curious shape or bear designs of odd form copied after something of
European origin, as exemplified in the specimen illustrated on. Pl. XXI,
Nos. 1 and 2, showing both the obverse and reverse. The specimen is made
of ash wood and measures about ten inches in length. On the obverse
side, besides the figures of man´-idōs, such as the Thunder bird, the
serpent, and the tortoise, there is the outline of the sun, spots copied
from playing cards, etc.; upon the reverse appear two spread hands, a
bird, and a building, from the top of which floats the American flag.
This specimen was found among the effects of a Midē´ who died at Leech
Lake, Minnesota, a few years ago, together with effigies and other
relics already mentioned in another part of this paper.