1838, has been the subject of much linguistic contention among those
who admitted its authenticity. Twenty-four characters on it have been
considered to be alphabetic and one is a supposed hieroglyphic sign.
Mr. Schoolcraft says that twenty-two of the characters are alphabetic,
but there has been a difference of opinion with regard to their origin.
One scholar finds among them four characters which he claims are
ancient Greek; another claims that four are Etruscan; five have been
said to be Runic; six, ancient Gaelic; seven, old Erse; ten, Phœnician;
fourteen, old British; and sixteen, Celteberic. M. Levy Bing reported
at the Congress of Americanists at Nancy, in 1875, that he found in the
inscription twenty-three Canaanite letters, and translated it: “What
thou sayest, thou dost impose it, thou shinest in thy impetuous clan
and rapid chamois.”(!) M. Maurice Schwab in 1857 rendered it: “The
Chief of Emigration who reached these places (or this island) has fixed
these statutes forever.” M. Oppert, however, gave additional variety by
the translation, so that all tastes can be suited: “The grave of one
who was assassinated here. May God to avenge him strike his murderer,
cutting off the hand of his existence.”
For further particulars on this topic reference may be made to Colonel
Charles Whittlesey’s Archæological Frauds, in several tracts, and to
The Mound Builders, by J. P. MacLean, Cincinnati, 1879, p. 90, _et seq._
From considerations mentioned in the introduction of this paper,
and others that are obvious, any inscriptions purporting to be
pre-Columbian showing apparent use of alphabetic characters, signs of
the zodiac, or other evidences of a culture higher than that known
among the North American Indians, must be received with caution,
but the pictographs may be altogether genuine, and their erroneous
interpretation be the sole ground of their being discredited.
In this connection some allusion may be made to the learned discussions
upon the Dighton rock before mentioned. The originally Algonkian
characters were translated by a Scandinavian antiquary as an account
of the party of Thorfinn, the Hopeful. A distinguished Orientalist
made out clearly the word _melek_ (king). Another scholar triumphantly
established the characters to be Scythian, and still another made them
Phœnician. But this inscription has been so manipulated that it is
difficult now to determine the original details.
The course above explained, viz., to attempt the interpretation of
all unknown American pictographs by the aid of actual pictographers
among the living Indians, should be adopted regarding all remarkable
“finds.” This course was pursued by Mr. Horatio N. Rust, of Pasadena,
California, regarding the much-discussed Davenport Tablets, in the
genuineness of which he believes, and which is not here placed in
question. Mr. Rust exhibited the drawings to Dakotas, with the result
made public at the late Montreal meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, and also in a letter, an extract from
which is as follows:
As I made the acquaintance of several of the older and more
intelligent members of the tribe, I took the opportunity to show them
the drawings. Explaining that they were pictures copied from stones
found in a mound, I asked what they meant. They readily gave me the
same interpretation (and in no instance did either interpreter know
that another had seen the pictures, so there could be no collusion).
In Plate I, of the Davenport Inscribed Tablets [so numbered in the
Proceedings of the Davenport Academy, Vol. II], the lower central
figure represents a dome-shaped lodge, with smoke issuing from
the top, behind and to either side of which appears a number of
individuals with hands joined, while three persons are depicted as
lying upon the ground. Upon the right and left central margins are
the sun and moon, the whole surmounted by three arched lines, between
each of which, as well as above them, are numerous unintelligible
characters. * * * The central figure, which has been supposed by some
to represent a funeral pile, was simply the picture of a dirt lodge.
The irregular markings apparently upon the side and to the left of
the lodge represent a fence made of sticks and brush set in the
ground. The same style of fence may be seen now in any Sioux village.
The lines of human figures standing hand-in-hand indicate that a
dance was being conducted in the lodge. The three prostrate forms at
right and left sides of the lodge represent two men and a woman who,
being overcome by the excitement and fatigue of the dance, had been
carried out in the air to recover. The difference in the shape of the
prostrate forms indicates the different sexes.
The curling figures or rings above the lodge represent smoke, and
indicates that the dance was held in winter, when fire was used.
An example of forced interpretation of a genuine petroglyph is given
by Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison, U. S. Top. Engineers, in his work
entitled The Mormons, or, Latter-day Saints, in the Valley of the Great
Salt Lake, etc., Philadelphia, 1852, pp. 62, 63. He furnishes two
illustrations of petroglyphs taken from the cliff in Sam Pete Valley,
Utah, not reproduced in this paper, which resemble the general type of
the Shoshonian system. On account of various coincidences which have
occurred to strikingly keep alive in the mountain brethren their idea
of being the chosen of the Lord, these etchings confirm them in the
belief of the inspiration of the Book of Mormon. One of their Regents
has translated one of them as follows:
I, Mahanti, the 2nd King of the Lamanites, in five valleys in the
mountains, make this record in the 12 hundredth year since we came
out of Jerusalem. And I have three sons gone to the South country to
live by hunting antelope and deer.
Among the curiosities of literature in connection with the
interpretation of pictographs may be mentioned La Vèritè sur le Livre
des Sauvages, par L’Abbé Em. Domenech, Paris, 1861, and Researches
into the Lost Histories of America, by W. S. Blacket, London and
Philadelphia, 1884.
Under the head of errors some of the most marked have arisen from the
determination of enthusiastic symbolists to discover something mystical
in the form of the cross wherever found.
The following quotation is taken from a work by Gabriel de Mortillet,
entitled Le Signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme (Paris, Reinwald,
1866), p. 173:
On voit qu’il ne peut plus y avoir de doute sur l’emploi de la Croix
comme signe religieux, bien longtemps avant le christianisme. Le
culte de la Croix, répandu en Gaule avant la conquête, existait
déjà dans l’Émilie à l’époque du bronze, plus de mille aus avant
Jésus-Christ.
C’est surtout dans les sépultures de Golasecca où ce culte s’est
révélé de la manière la plus complète; et là, chose étrange, on a
trouvé un vase portant le monogramme ancien du Christ, figure 117
[reproduced in the present paper by Figure 209; the right-hand figure
being from the vase, and that on the left the recognized monogram of
Christ], dessiné peut-être mille ans avant la venue de Jésus-Christ.
La présence isolée de ce monogramme du Christ au milieu de nombreuses
Croix est-elle un fait accidentel entièrement fortuit? Des recherches
plus complètes peuvent seules permettre de répondre à cette question.
Un autre fait fort curieux, très-intéressant à constater, c’est
que ce grand développement du culte de la Croix, avant la venue du
Christ, semble toujours coïncider avec l’absence d’idoles et même
de toute représentation d’objets vivants. Dès que ces objets se
montrent, on dirait que les Croix deviennent plus rares et finissent
même par disparaître.
La Croix a donc été, dans la haute antiquité, bien longtemps avant
la venue de Jésus-Christ, l’emblème sacré d’une secte religieuse qui
repoussait l’idolâtrie!!!
[Illustration: FIG. 209.--Symbols of the cross.]
The author, with considerable naiveté, has evidently determined that
the form of the cross was significant of a high state of religious
culture, and that its being succeeded by effigies, which he calls
idols, showed a lapse into idolatry. The fact is simply that, next
to one straight line, the combination of two straight lines forming
a cross is the easiest figure to draw, and its use before art could
attain to the drawing of animal forms, or their representation in
plastic material, is merely an evidence of crudeness or imperfection in
designing. It is worthy of remark that Dr. Schliemann, in his “Troja,”
page 107, presents as Fig. 38 a much more distinct cross than that
given by M. Mortillet, with the simple remark that it is “a geometrical
ornamentation.” An anecdote told by Dr. Robert Fletcher, U. S. Army,
in connection with his exhaustive paper on Tattooing Among Civilized
People, published in the Transactions of the Anthropological Society
of Washington, Vol. II, page 40, is also in point. Some _savants_ were
much excited over the form of the cross found in tattoo marks on an
Arab boy, but on inquiry of the mother as to why the cross had been
placed there, she simply answered “because it looked pretty.” The
present writer will add to the literature on the subject a reference to
the cross as shown upon the arm of a Cheyenne in Cloud-Shield’s winter
count for the year 1790-’91, page 132, _ante_. (See also page 173.)
This is explained fully by one of the common gestures for the tribal
sign, Cheyenne.
“The extended index, palm upward, is drawn across the forefinger of
the left hand, palm inward, several times, left hand stationary;
right hand is drawn toward the body until the index is drawn clear
off; then repeat. Some Cheyennes believe this to have reference to
the former custom of cutting the arm as offerings to spirits, while
others think that it refers to a more ancient custom, the cutting of
the enemy’s fingers for necklaces.” The pictograph is simply a graphic
representation of this gesture sign. See also the Moki use of the
Maltese cross, page 232, the form of which in a rock-painting appears
in _x_ on Plate II, page 35.
There is no doubt that among the Egyptians and several of the peoples
of the eastern hemisphere, ancient and modern, the form of the cross
was used symbolically, and there is no more doubt that it was employed
in a similar manner by many American tribes with reference to the
points of the compass, or rather the four winds. It was also used with
many differing significations. See in this paper Figure 60, page 158,
Figure 143, page 220, Figure 154, page 230, Figure 165, page 238, and
Figure 168, page 240. The ease with which the design was made would
tend to its early adoption as a sign, an emblem, or a symbol.
Rev. S. D. Hinman states that among the Dakota, symbolic crosses always
have the members equal, or of the “Greek” pattern, and are always
worn resting on one foot, not two as in the St. Andrew’s cross. They
represent the four winds issuing from the four caverns in which the
souls of men existed before embodiment. The top of the cross is the
cold, all-conquering giant, the north wind. As worn on the body it is
nearest the head, the seat of intelligence. The top arm, covering the
heart, is the east wind, coming from the seat of life and love. The
foot is the burning south wind, indicating as it is worn the seat of
passion and fiery lust. The right is the gentle west wind, blowing from
the spirit land, covering the lungs, from which at last the breath goes
out. The center of the cross is the earth and man, sometimes indicated
at that point by a circle surrounding a dot. On the upper arm an arrow
is sometimes drawn, on the left a heart, on the right a star, and on
the lower a sun.
SUGGESTIONS TO COLLABORATORS.
The present writer hopes to receive contributions from travelers and
observers, not only in North America, but in other parts of the world.
Such collaboration will always receive due credit, and when practicable
will be reproduced in the language of the collaborator.
The number and the importance of the contributions received upon the
collateral branch of sign-language encourages the hope of similar
success in this application for assistance in the monograph on
pictographs now in preparation.
The main object of the classification both of the text and of the
illustrations in the present paper has been to stimulate the research
and assist the collaboration invited, so that reference to the various
preceding headings is unnecessary. Some practical suggestions may,
however, be offered as follows:
As a small drawing of large rock inscriptions may give an exaggerated
idea of the degree of finish or fineness of the subject, it is
desirable, in every instance, to affix the scale of the drawing, or
to give a principal dimension that may serve as a guide. A convenient
scale for ordinary petroglyphs is one-sixteenth of full size. The
drawing should be sufficiently close and accurate to show the character
of the work. It is desirable to note the lithologic character of the
rock or bowlder used; whether the drawing has been etched into the
face of the rock, or pecked in more deeply with a sharp implement,
and the depth of such pecking; whether the design is merely outlined,
or the whole body of the figures pecked out, and whether paint has
been applied to the pecked surface, or the design executed with paint
only. The composition of paint should be ascertained when possible.
The amount of weathering or erosion, together with the exposure, or
any other feature bearing on the question of antiquity, would prove
important. If actual colors are not accessible for representation the
ordinary heraldic scheme of colors can be used.
That sketches even by fair artists, are of not high value in accuracy,
is shown by the discrepant copies of some of the most carefully-studied
pictographs, which discrepancies sometimes leave in uncertainty the
points most needed for interpretation. Sketches, or still better,
photographs are desirable to present a connected and general view of
the characters and the surface upon which they are found. For accuracy
of details “squeezes” should be obtained when practicable.
A simple method of obtaining squeezes of petroglyphs, when the lines
are sufficiently deep to receive an impression, is to take ordinary
manilla paper of loose texture, and to spread the sheet, after being
thoroughly wetted, over the surface desired, commencing at the top.
The top edge may be temporarily secured by a small streak of starch
or flour paste. The paper is then pressed upon the surface of the
rock by means of a soft bristle brush, so that its texture is gently
forced into every depression. Torn portions of the paper may be
supplied by applying small patches of wet paper until every opening is
thoroughly covered. A coating of ordinary paste, as above mentioned,
is now applied to the entire surface, and a new sheet of paper,
similarly softened by water, is laid over this and pressed down with
the brush. This process is continued until three or four thicknesses
of paper have been used. Upon drying, the entire mold will usually
fall off by contraction. The edge at the top, if previously pasted to
the rock, should be cut. The entire sheet can then be rolled up, or
if inconveniently large can be cut in sections and properly marked
for future purposes. This process yields the negative. To obtain the
_positive_ the inner coating of the negative may be oiled, and the
former process renewed upon the cast.
Pictographs, when of bright colors and upon a light-colored surface,
may readily be traced upon tracing linen, such as is employed by
topographers. Should the rock be of a dark color, and the characters
indistinct, a simple process is to first follow the pictographic
characters in outline with colored crayons, red chalk, or dry colors
mixed with water and applied with a brush, after which a piece of
muslin is placed over the surface and pressed so as to receive
sufficient coloring matter to indicate the general form and relative
positions of the characters. After these impressions are touched up the
true position may be obtained by painting the lines upon the back of
the sheet of muslin, or by making a true tracing of the negative.
A mode of securing the outline once adopted was to clear out the
channels of the intaglios, then, after painting them heavily, to press
a sheet of muslin into the freshly-painted depressions. The objection
to this method is the obvious damage inflicted on the inscription.
Before such treatment, if the only one practicable, all particulars of
the work to be covered by paint should be carefully recorded.
The locality should be reported with detail of State (or Territory),
county, township, and distance and direction from the nearest
post-office, railway station or country road. In addition the name
of any contiguous stream, hill, bluff, or other remarkable natural
feature should be given. The name of the owner of the land is of some
secondary value, but that indication is liable to frequent changes. The
site or station should be particularly described with reference to the
surrounding country and to the natural circumstances and geological
history of the location.
When numbers and groups of petroglyphs or rock paintings occur,
their relation to each other, to the points of the compass, or to
topographical features should be noted, if possible, by an accurate
survey, otherwise by numeration and sketching.
The following details should be carefully noted: The direction of the
face of the rock. The presence of probable trails and gaps which may
have been used in shortening distances in travel. Localities of mounds
and caves, if any, in the vicinity. Ancient camping grounds, indicated
by fragments of pottery, flint chips, etc. Existence of aboriginal
relics, particularly flints which may have been used in pecking; these
may be found at the base of the rocks upon which petroglyphs occur. The
presence of small mortar-holes which may have served in the preparation
of colors.
With reference to pictographs on other objects than rock the material
upon which they appear and the substances used in their execution
should be reported, as indicated in another part of this paper.
With reference to all kinds of pictographs, it should be noted that
mere descriptions without reproduction are of little value. Probable
age and origin and traditions relating to them should be ascertained.
Their interpretation by natives of the locality who themselves make
pictographs or who belong to people who have lately made pictographs
is most valuable, especially in reference to such designs as do not
represent objects of nature, and which may be either conventional or
connected with lines of gesture-signs.
Index
A
Abbe, Prof. Cleveland, explained eclipse to Indians 125
Abnaki devices 152, 153
[Absaroka], customs 55, 166, 230
Abstract ideas pictured 233
Achievements, Signs of individual 183-187
Adams, William A., on rock carvings 22
[African] carved knife 243
[African] property mark 182
Aigaluxamut dialect 148, 198, 199
Ainos of Gazo tattoo 78
[Alaska] Commercial Company, ivory pictographs 191-194
[Alaska] tattooing 66-73
Alaskan pictographs 59, 147-150, 152-155, 161, 191-194, 197-199, 214
Algonkian linguistic stock 19
[Algonkin] family 118
[Algonkin] petroglyph 20, 224-225, 227
[Algonkin] tribe 108
[Algonquin] characters 250
[Algonquin] legends of New England 190
Alleghany River, Pictographs on 20, 21
Allen, Dr. Harrison, on conventionalized forms 244
Alphabets 13
American Horse chart or Winter count, (_see_ Corbusier Winter counts)
95, 129-146
[American Naturalist] on tattooing 76
Amherst, Ohio, Rock carvings at 21
Analysis of the life form in art, An 244
Andree, Dr. R., criticism on pictographs 14-15
[Animal] mounds in Wisconsin 61
Anthropological Society, Washington, cited 17
Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Jones, quoted 22-23, 46
Arab symbols 222
[Arapahoes], Algonkin 108, 109
[Arapahoes], called Blue Cloud 176
[Arapahoes], formation of war party 139
Arch Spring, Pictographs at 28
Archæological frauds, Whittlesey’s, cited 250
Arickara (see Arikara) 100, 101
[Arikara] at war with Dakotas and United States 111-112
[Arikara] pictography 48, 50, 59, 186, 187, 240
[Arikara] property marks 182
[Arikara] Symbol of 60, 213-214, 231
[Arikaras], a branch of the Pawnee or Pani 105
[Arikaras], killed 209-214
Arikaree; Corrupt form of Arikara 100
Arison, William, copied petroglyph 225
[Arizona], pictographs on person 61
Rock carvings in 28-30, 222, 228, 245
Army Medical Museum, Tattooed heads in 75
Arrows in declaration of war 87, 88
Ashley, Gen. William H., attacked by Arickara 111
Assiniboine 116, 119, 124
Association pictographs 203-206
Atsina 108
Australian tattooing 76
Authors quoted by Bancroft 66
Avoidance of personal name by Indians 171
[Aztec] writing 14
Azuza Cañon pictographs 37, 156
B
Babylonian use of color 54
Bancroft, H. H., on pictography 64, 65, 66, 73, 78, 88
Barnes, Dr. G. W., California pictographs 229
Barnesville, Ohio, Bock carvings at 21
Bark, Pictographs on 59
[Bark] record of Lenni Lenape 207
Barrés totem mark 167
[Basketry] suggesting ornament 57
Beach’s Indian Miscellany, cited 188
Beale wagon road 30
Beaver Creek, Pictographs on 27
Beef first issued to Dakotas 125
Belmont County, Ohio, Rock carvings in 21
Beltrami, J. C., on Dakotas 104-105
Bendire, Capt. Charles, on petrographs 26
Benton, Cal., Petrographs at 31, 32
Berthond, Capt. E. L., on pictographs 27
Bible on war symbols 88
Big Horse Creek, Rock carvings on 22
Big Road’s roster 174-176
Biographic pictographs 208-218
Black Bear or Mato Sapa’s chart 94, 99-127
Black Hills discovered 130
Black Late Valley, Pictographs at 31
Black Rock Springs, Pictographs at 27
Blacket, W. S., cited 251
Blackfoot 102, 104, 106, 114, 121, 122, 227
[Blackfoot] defined 97
[Blackfoot], Rock carvings of 24
Bland, Dr. T. A., loaned Red Cloud census 176, 177
Blodgett, James H., on pictographs 33
Blue Cloud, a name for Arapaho 117, 118, 176
Boats ornamented 72, 78
Bo-i-de, or The Flame, Time chart of 93
Bone, Pictographs on 59
[Bone] tattooed 73-74
Book cliff, Pictographs of 27
Bourke, Capt. John G., on Moki colors 56
Bow-drill, used by Innuit 48
Brauns, Professor, on tattooing 78
Brazil, Petroglyphs in 44, 45
[Brazil], Totem marks in 167
Brinton, Dr. D. G., Research of 84, 188, 233
British Guiana, Pictographs in 40-44
Brown, Charles B., on pictographs in Guiana 40, 43, 44
Brulé 108, 109, 119, 120, 122, 127, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 141
[Brulé] defined 98, 207
[Brulé] Winter counts 129
Bureau of Ethnology, system of spelling 147
Burning Spring, W. Va., Pictographs at 22
Bush, Maj. Joseph, on time charts 94, 99-127
C