among the Aztecs, and have made it a subject of careful study for
many years. I received unexpected aid by the plates in Habel’s
Investigations in Central and South America. I have shown them to
Indians of various coast tribes at various times, and they all
recognize certain of those pictures. No. 1, Plate 1, represents a
priest cutting off the head of his victim with his stone knife.
They recognize this, because they always cut off the heads of their
enemies slain in battle; they never scalp. The bird of the sun is
recognized by all who have seen the picture as the thunder bird of
the coast tribes. But the most singular evidence I have seen is
in Cushing’s description of the Zuñi Indian, as published in the
Century Magazine. The Haidas recognize the scenes, particularly the
masquerade scenes in the February [1883] number, as similar to their
own tomanawos ceremonies. I have had at least a dozen Haida men
and women at one time looking at those pictures and talk and explain
to each other their meaning. One chief who speaks English said to
me after he had for a long time examined the pictures, ‘Those are
our people; they do as we do. If you wish, I will make you just such
masks as those in the pictures.’
“These Indians know nothing, and recognize nothing in the Hebrew or
Egyptian, the Chinese or Japanese pictures, but when I show them any
Central or South American scenes, if they do not understand them they
recognize that they are ‘their people.’”
According to Stephen Powers (in Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol. III, p.
140), there is at the head of Potter Valley, California, “a singular
knoll of red earth which the Tátu or Hūchnom believe to have
furnished the material for the creation of the original coyote-man.
They mix this red earth into their acorn bread, and employ it for
painting their bodies on divers mystic occasions.” Mr. Powers
supposed this to be a ceremonial performance, but having found the
custom to extend to other tribes he was induced to believe the
statements of the Indians “that it made the bread sweeter and go
further.”
See also the mnemonic devices relative to Songs, page 82, and to
Traditions, page 84; also page 237.
Plate LXXXII represents stone heaps surmounted by buffalo skulls
found near the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers
by Prince Maximilian zu Wied, and described in his Reise in das
Innere Nord-America. Coblenz, 1841, II, p. 435. Atlas plate 29.
The description by him, as translated in the London edition, is as
follows: “From the highest points of this ridge of hills, curious
signals are perceived at certain distances from one another,
consisting of large stones and granite blocks, piled up by the
Assiniboins, on the summits of each of which are placed Buffalo
skulls, and which were erected by the Indians, as alleged, for the
purpose of attracting the Bison herds, and to have a successful hunt.”
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXXII
BUFFALO-HEAD MONUMENT.]
This objective monument is to be compared with the pictographs above,
“making buffalo medicine,” frequent in the Dakota Winter Counts.
Descriptions of ceremonies in medicine lodges and in the initiation
of candidates to secret associations have been published with and
without illustrations. The most striking of these are graphic
ceremonial charts made by the Indians themselves. Figure 38, on
page 86, is connected with this subject, as is also No. 7 of Figure
122, page 205. A good illustration is to be found in Mrs. Eastman’s
Dahcotah, or Life and Legends of the Sioux, page 206. Sketches,
with descriptions of drawings used in the ceremonials of the Zuñi
and Navajo, have been made by Messrs. Cushing and Stevenson and Dr.
Matthews, but cannot be published here.
Figure 111_a_ was drawn and interpreted by Naumoff, a Kadiak native,
in San Francisco, California, in 1882.
It represents the ground plan of a Shaman’s lodge with the Shaman
curing a sick man.
The following is the explanation:
[Illustration: FIG. 111_a_. Shaman’s lodge. Alaska.]
No. 1. The entrance to the lodge.
No. 2. The fire place.
No. 3. A. vertical piece of wood upon which is placed a cross-piece,
upon each end of which is a lamp.
No. 4. The musicians seated upon the raised seats furnishing drumming
and music to the movements of the Shaman during his incantations
in exorcising the “evil spirit” supposed to have possession of the
patient.
No. 5. Visitors and friends of the afflicted seated around the walls
of the lodge.
No. 6. The Shaman represented in making his incantations.
No. 7. The patient seated upon the floor of the lodge.
No. 8. Represents the Shaman in another stage of the ceremonies,
driving out of the patient the “evil being.”
No. 9. Another figure of the patient; from his head is seen to issue
a line connecting it with No. 10.
No. 10. The “evil spirit” causing the sickness.
No. 11. The Shaman in the act of driving the “evil being” out of the
room. In his hands are sacred objects, his personal fetish, in which
the power lies.
No. 12. The flying “evil one.”
Nos. 13, 14. Are assistants to the Shaman, stationed at the entrance
to hit and hasten the departure of the evil being.
A chart of this character appears to have been seen among the
natives of New Holland by Mr. James Manning, but not copied or fully
described in his Notes on the Aborigines of New Holland (Jour. of
Royal Society, New South Wales, Vol. XVI, p. 167). He mentions it
in connection with a corrobery or solemn religious ceremony among
adults, as follows: “It has for its form the most curious painting
upon a sheet of bark, done in various colors of red, yellow, and
white ochre, which is exhibited by the priest.” Such objects would be
highly important for comparison, and their existence being known they
should be sought for.
MORTUARY PRACTICES.
Several devices indicating death are presented under other headings
of this paper. See, for example, page 103 and the illustrations in
connection with the text.
According to Powers, “A Yokaia widow’s style of mourning is peculiar.
In addition to the usual evidences of grief she mingles the ashes
of her dead husband with pitch, making a white tar or unguent, with
which she smears a band about 2 inches wide all around the edge of
the hair (which is previously cut off close to the head), so that
at a little distance she appears to be wearing a white chaplet.”
(See Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol., III, p. 166.) Mr. Dorsey reports
that mud is used by a mourner in the sacred-bag war party among the
Osages. Many objective modes of showing mourning by styles of paint
and markings are known, the significance of which are apparent when
discovered in pictographs.
Figure 112 is copied from a piece of ivory in the museum of the
Alaska Commercial Company, San Francisco, California, and was
interpreted by an Alaskan native in San Francisco in 1882.
[Illustration: FIG. 112.--Votive offering. Alaska.]
No. 1. Is a votive offering or “Shaman stick,” erected to the memory
of one departed. The “bird” carvings are considered typical of
“good spirits,” and the above was erected by the remorse-stricken
individual, No. 3, who had killed the person shown in No. 2.
No. 2. The headless body represents the man who was killed. In this
respect the Ojibwa manner of drawing a person “killed” is similar.
No. 3. The individual who killed No. 2, and who erected the
“grave-post” or “sacred stick.” The arm is thrown earthward,
resembling the Blackfeet and Dakota gesture for “kill.”
The following is the text in Aígalúxamut:
Nu-ná-mu-quk´ á-x’l-xik´ aí-ba-li to-qgú-qlu gú nú-hu tcuk nac-quí
Place two quarrel(with) one another, (one) killed large knife took head
him (the other)
(with a)
qlu-gú, i-nó-qtclu-gu; Ka-sá-ha-lik´ na-bŏn´ ca-gú-lŭk a-gú-nŭ-qua-qlu-hŭ’.
off, laid him down; Shaman stick bird to set (or place)
(buried) (offering) (wooden) on the top of
(over).
That portion of the Kauvuya tribe of Indians in Southern California
known as the Playsanos, or _lowlanders_, formerly inscribed
characters upon the gravestones of their dead, relating to the
pursuits or good qualities of the deceased. Dr. W. J. Hoffman
obtained several pieces or slabs of finely-grained sandstone near
Los Angeles, California, during the summer of 1884, which had been
used for this purpose. Upon these were the drawings, in incised
lines, of the Fin-back whale, with figures of men pursuing them with
harpoons. Around the etchings were close parallel lines with cross
lines similar to the drawings made on ivory by the southern Innuit of
Alaska.
GRAVE-POSTS.
Figures 113 and 114 were procured from a native Alaskan, by Dr.
Hoffman in 1882, and explained to him to be drawings made upon
grave-posts.
Drawings similar to these are made on slabs of wood by devoted
friends, or relatives, to present and perpetuate the good qualities
of a deceased native. The occupation is usually referred to, as
well as articles of importance of which the departed one was the
possessor.
[Illustration: FIG. 113.--Grave-post. Alaska.]
Figure 113 refers to a hunter, as land animals are shown as the chief
pursuit. The following is the explanation of the characters:
1. The baidarka, or boat, holding two persons; the occupants are
shown, as are also the paddles, which project below the horizontal
body of the vessel.
2. A rack for drying skins and fish. A pole is added above it, from
which are seen floating streamers of calico or cloth.
3. A fox.
4. A land otter.
5. The hunter’s summer habitations. These are temporary dwellings
and usually constructed at a distance from home. This also indicates
the profession of a skin-hunter, as the permanent lodges, indicated
as winter houses, _i. e._, with round or dome-like roof, are located
near the sea-shore, and summer houses are only needed when at some
distance from home, where a considerable length of time is spent.
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--Grave-post. Alaska.]
The following is the explanation of Figure 114. It is another design
for a grave-post, but refers to a fisherman:
1. The double-seated baidarka, or skin canoe.
2. A bow used in shooting seal and other marine animals.
3. A seal.
4. A whale.
The summer lodge is absent in this, as the fisherman did not leave
the sea-shore in the pursuit of game on land.
Figure 115 is a native drawing of a village and neighboring
burial-ground, prepared by an Alaskan native in imitation of
originals seen by him among the natives of the mainland of Alaska,
especially the Aigalúqamut. Carvings are generally on walrus ivory;
sometimes on wooden slats. In the figure, No. 7 is a representation
of a grave-post in position, bearing an inscription similar in
general character to those in the last two preceding figures.
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--Village and burial-grounds. Alaska.]
The details are explained as follows:
No. 1, 2, 3, 4. Various styles of habitations, representing a
settlement.
5. An elevated structure used for the storage of food.
6. A box with wrappings, containing the corpse of a child. The small
lines, with ball attached, are ornamented appendages consisting of
strips of cloth or skin, with charms, or, sometimes, tassels.
7. Grave-post, bearing rude illustrations of the weapons or
implements used by a person during his life.
8. A grave scaffold, containing adult. Besides the ornamental
appendages, as in the preceding, there is a “Shaman stick” erected
over the box containing the corpse as a mark of good wishes of a
sorrowing survivor. See object No. 1, in Figure 112.
The following extract from Schoolcraft (Hist. Indian Tribes of the
United States, 1851, Vol. I, p. 356, Fig. 46) relates to the burial
posts used by the Sioux and Chippewas. Plate LXXXIII is after the
illustration given by this author in connection with the account
quoted:
Among the Sioux and Western Chippewas, after the body has been
wrapped in its best clothes and ornaments, it is then placed on a
scafford, or in a tree, where it remains until the flesh is entirely
decayed; after which the bones are buried, and the grave-posts
fixed. At the head of the grave a tabular piece of cedar, or other
wood, called the adjedatig, is set. This grave-board contains the
symbolic or representative figure which records, if it be a warrior,
his totem; that is to say, the symbol of his family, or surname,
and such arithmetical or other devices as serve to denote how many
times the deceased has been in war parties, and how many scalps he
had taken from the enemy; two facts from which his reputation is
essentially to be derived. It is seldom that more is attempted in
the way of inscription. Often, however, distinguished chiefs have
their war-flag, or, in modern days, a small ensign of American
fabric, displayed on a standard at the head of their graves, which
is left to fly over the deceased till it is wasted by the elements.
Scalps of their enemies, feathers of the bald and black eagle,
the swallow-tailed falcon, or some carnivorous bird, are also
placed, in such instances, on the adjedatig, or suspended, with
offerings of various kinds, on a separate staff. But the latter are
super-additions of a religious character, and belong to the class of
the ke-ke-wa-o-win-an-tig. The building of a funeral fire on recent
graves, is also a rite which belongs to the consideration of their
religious faith.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXXIII
OJIBWA GRAVE-POSTS.]
The following quotations and illustrations are taken from Dr. Ferdinand
von Hochstetter’s New Zealand, before cited. That author says on page
437 _et seq._:
The carved Maori-figures, which are met with on the road, are the
memorials of chiefs, who, while journeying to the restorative baths
of Rotorua, succumbed to their ills on the road. Some of the figures
are decked out with pieces of clothing or kerchiefs; and the most
remarkable feature in them is the close imitation of the tattooing of
the deceased, by which the Maoris are able to recognize for whom the
monument has been erected. Certain lines are peculiar to the tribe,
others to the family, and again others to the individual. A close
imitation of the tattooing of the face, therefore, is to the Maori
the same as to us a photographic likeness; it does not require any
description of name.
A representation of one of these carved posts is given in Figure 116.
[Illustration: FIG. 116.--New Zealand grave effigy.]
Another carved post of like character is represented in Figure 117,
concerning which the same author says, page 338:
[Illustration: FIG. 117.--New Zealand grave-post.]
“Beside my tent, at Tahuahu, on the right bank of the Mangapu, there
stood an odd half decomposed figure carved of wood; it was designated
to me by the natives as a Tiki, marking the tomb of a chief.”
The same author states, page 423: “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. The annexed wood-cut [here reproduced as Figure 118] is
intended as 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.”
[Illustration: FIG. 118.--New Zealand house posts.]
CHARMS AND FETICHES.
The use of objects as charms and fetiches is well known. Their graphic
representation is not so well understood, although in the attempted
interpretation of pictographs it is to be supposed that objects of
this character would be pictorially represented. The following is an
instance where the use in action of a charm or fetich was certainly
portrayed in a pictograph.
Figure 119, drawn by the Dakota Indians near Fort Snelling, Minnesota,
exhibits the use for a fetichistic purpose of an instrument which is
usually included among war clubs, though this particular object is more
adapted to defense than to offense.
[Illustration: FIG. 119.--Mdewakantawan Fetich.]
The head of the fetich is a grooved stone hammer of moderate size,
measuring from an inch and a half to as much as 5 inches in length. A
withe is tied about the middle of the hammer in the groove provided
for the purpose, having a handle of from 2 to 4 feet in length. The
latter is frequently wrapped with buckskin or raw-hide to strengthen
it, as well as for ornamental purposes. Feathers attached bear mnemonic
marks or designs, indicating marks of distinction, perhaps fetichistic
devices not understood.
These objects are believed to possess the peculiar charm of warding
off an enemy’s missiles when held upright before the body. In the
pictograph made by the Dakota Indian, the manner of holding it, as well
as the act of shooting an arrow by an enemy, is shown with considerable
clearness. The interpretation was explained by the draftsman himself.
Properties are attributed to this instrument similar to those of the
small bags prepared by the Shaman, which are carried suspended from the
neck by means of string or buckskin cords.
Subject-matter connected with this heading appears in several parts of
this paper, _e. g._, Figure 46, on page 141, and the characters for
1824-’25 on plate XLII.
CUSTOMS.
Pictographs in the writer’s possession, to be classed under this
very general heading, in addition to those that are more intimately
connected with other headings, and therefore arranged in other parts
of this paper, may be divided into those relating to Associations and
those exhibiting details of daily life and habits.
ASSOCIATIONS.
It is well known that voluntary associations, generally of a religious
character, have existed among the Indians, the members of which are
designated by special paintings and marks entirely distinct from those
relating to their clan-totems and name-totems. This topic requires too
minute details to be entered upon in this paper after the space taken
by other divisions. That it may become a feature in the interpretation
of pictographs is shown by the following account:
Dr. W. J. Hoffman obtained a copy of drawings on a pipe-stem, which
had been made and used by Ottawa Indians. Both of the flat surfaces
bore incisions of figures, which are represented in Figure 120. On each
side are four spaces, upon each of which are various characters, three
spaces on one side being reserved for the delineation of human figures,
each having diverging lines from the head upward, denoting their social
status as chiefs or warriors and medicine-men.
[Illustration: FIG. 120.--Ottawa pipe-stem.]
Upon the space nearest the mouth is the drawing of a fire, the
flames passing upward from the horizontal surface beneath them. The
blue cross-bands are raised portions of the wood (ash) of which the
pipe-stem is made; these show peculiarly shaped openings which pass
entirely through the stem, though not interfering with the tube
necessary for the passage of the smoke. This indicates considerable
mechanical skill.
Upon each side of the stem are spaces corresponding in length and
position to those upon the opposite side. In the lower space of the
stem is a drawing of a bear, indicating that the two persons in the
corresponding space on the opposite side belong to the Bear gens. The
next upper figure is that of a beaver, showing the three human figures
to belong to the Beaver gens, while the next to this, the eagle,
indicates the opposite persons to be members of the Eagle gens. The
upper figure is that of a lodge, the lodge containing a council fire,
shown on the opposite side.
The signification of the whole is that two members of the Bear gens,
three members of the Beaver gens, and three members of the Eagle gens
have united and constitute a society living in one lodge, around one
fire, and smoke through the same pipe.
DAILY LIFE AND HABITS.
Examples of daily life and habits are given in Figures 121 and 122:
[Illustration: FIG. 121.--Walrus hunter. Alaska.]
Figure 121 represents an Alaskan native in the water killing a walrus.
The illustration was obtained from a slab of walrus ivory in the museum
of the Alaska Commercial Company, of San Francisco, California, and
interpreted by a native.
[Illustration: FIG. 122.--Ivory carving with records. Alaska.]
The carving, Figure 122, made of a piece of walrus tusk, was copied
from the original in the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, San
Francisco, California, during the summer of 1882. Interpretations were
verified by Naumoff, a Kadiak half-breed, in San Francisco at the time.
The special purport of some of the characters and etchings is not
apparent.
In No. 1 is a native whose left hand is resting against the house,
while the right hangs toward the ground. The character to his right
represents a “Shaman stick” surmounted by the emblem of a bird, a “good
spirit,” in memory of some departed friend. It was suggested that the
grave stick had been erected to the memory of his wife.
No. 2. Represents a reindeer, but the special import in this drawing is
unknown.
No. 3. Signifies that one man, the recorder, shot and killed another
with an arrow.
No. 4. Denotes that the narrator has made trading expeditions with a
dog-sledge.
No. 5. Is a sail-boat, although the elevated paddle signifies that that
was the manner in which the voyage was best made.
No. 6. A dog-sled, with the animal hitched up for a journey. The
radiating lines in the upper left hand corner, over the head of the
man, is a representation of the sun.
No. 7. A sacred lodge. The four figures at the outer corners of the
square represent the young men placed on guard, armed with bows and
arrows, to keep away those not members of the band, who are depicted as
holding a dance. The small square in the center of the lodge represents
the fire-place. The angular lines extending from the right side of the
lodge to the vertical partition line are an outline of the subterranean
entrance to the lodge.
No. 8. A pine tree, upon which a porcupine is crawling upward.
No. 9. A pine tree, from which a bird (woodpecker) is extracting larvæ
for food.
No. 10. A bear.
No. 11. The recorder in his boat, holding aloft his double-bladed
paddle to drive fish into a net.
No. 12. An assistant fisherman driving fish into the net.
No. 13. The net.
The figure over the man (No. 12) represents a whale, with harpoon and
line attached, caught by the narrator.
* * * * *
It will be understood that all personal customs, such, for instance, as
the peculiar arrangement of hair in any tribe, are embodied in their
pictorial designation by other tribes and perhaps by themselves. See in
this connection, page 230.
Among the many customs susceptible of graphic portrayal which do not
happen to be illustrated in this paper, an example may be given in the
mode in several tribes (_e. g._, Apache, Muskoki, Dakota and Miztec),
of punishing the infidelity of wives, namely, by cutting off the nose.
The picture of a noseless woman would, therefore, when made by those
tribes, have distinct meaning. The unfaithful wife mentioned on page
134 is drawn with a nose, but in her case the greater punishment of
death was inflicted.
TRIBAL HISTORY.
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish in pictographs,
or, indeed, orally, between historical and traditional accounts
obtained from Indians, so that this heading may be connected with
one before presented, having relation to Traditions as mnemonically
pictured. See page 84.
The Walum-Olum, or Bark Record of the Lenni-Lenapè, before mentioned,
as also some of Schoolcraft’s pictographic illustrations, may be, in
accordance with the judgment of the reader, more or less properly
connected with history. The Dakota Winter Counts, including the
Corbusier Winter Counts, in the present paper, while having their
chief value as calendars, contain some material that is absolute
and veritable tribal history, though seldom of more than local and
transient interest. An example from Battiste Good’s count for the year
1862-’63, is given in addition, explaining the origin of the title
“Brulé” Dakota.
He calls the year “The-people-were-burnt winter,” and adds: