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.
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration:
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.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Deep carvings in Guiana.]
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.