The result is that in the several camps of Micmacs visited by the

present writer in Cape Breton island, Prince Edward island, and Nova

Scotia, fragments of the printed works are kept and used for religious

worship, and also many copies on various sheets and scraps of paper have

been made of similar fragments, but their use is entirely mnemonic,

as was that of their ancient bark originals. Very few of the Indians

who in one sense can “read” them currently in the Micmac language,

have any idea of the connection between any one of the characters and

the vocables of the language. When asked what a particular character

meant they were unable to answer, but would begin at the commencement

of the particular prayer or hymn, and when arrested at any point would

then for the first time be able to give the Micmac word or words which

corresponded with that character. This was not in any religious spirit,

as is mentioned by Dr. Washington Matthews, in his Mountain Chant, Fifth

Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, with reference to the Navajo’s repeating

all, if any, of the chant, but because they only knew that way to use

the script. In that use they do as is mentioned of the Ojibwa, supra.

The latter often by their bark script keep the memory of archaic words,

and the Micmac keep that of religious phrases not well understood. A

few, and very few, of the characters, which were constantly repeated,

and were specially conspicuous, were known as distinct from the other

characters by one only of the Indians examined. It apparently had never

occurred to any of them that these same characters, which in their

special mnemonic connection represented Micmac words, could be detached

from their context and by combination represent the same words in other

sentences. Therefore, the expression “reading,” used in reference to

the operation, is not strictly correct. In most cases the recitation of

the script was in a chant, and the musical air of the Roman Catholic

Church belonging to the several hymns and chants was often imitated.

The object, therefore, which has been expressed in the above quoted

accounts of Fathers Druillettes and Le Clercq had been accomplished

regarding the then extant generation of Indians two hundred years before

Father Kauder’s publication. That object was for Indians under their

immediate charge to learn in the most speedy manner certain formulæ

of the church, by the use of which it was supposed that they would

gain salvation. The formation of an alphabet, or even a syllabary, by

which the structure of the language should be considered and its vocal

expression recorded, was not the object. It is possible that there was

an objection to the instruction of the Indians in a modern alphabet by

which they might more readily learn either French or English, and at

the same time be able to read profane literature and thereby become

perverted from the faith. These missionaries certainly refrained,

for some reason, not only from instructing the heathen in any of the

languages of civilization, but also from teaching them the use of an

alphabet for their own language.

It is probable that Father Kauder had some idea of reducing the language

of the Micmacs to a written form, based not upon verbal or even syllabic

notation, but upon some anomalous compromise between their ideographic

original or substratum and a grammatic superstructure. If so, he

entirely failed. The interesting point with regard to this remarkable

and unique attempt is, that there is undoubtedly a basis of Indian

designs and symbols included and occluded among the differentiated

devices in the three volumes mentioned, which arbitrarily express

thoughts and words by a false pictographic method, instead of sentences

and verses. But the change from the pictorial forms to those adopted,

if not as radical as that from the Egyptian hieroglyphs to the Roman

text, resembles that from the archaic to the modern Chinese. Therefore

it would follow that the present form of the characters is not one which

the Indians would learn more readily than an alphabet or a syllabary,

and that is the ascertained fact. At Cow bay, a Micmac camp, about 12

miles from Halifax, an aged chief who in his boyhood at Cape Breton

island was himself instructed by Father Kauder in these characters,

explained that Kauder taught them to the boys by drawing them on a

blackboard and by repetition, very much in the manner in which a

schoolmaster in civilized countries teaches the alphabet to children.

The actual success of the Cherokees in the free and general use of

Sequoya’s Syllabary, which was not founded on pictographs, but on signs

for sounds, should be noted in this connection.

Among the thousands of scratchings on the Kejemkoojik rocks, many of

which were undoubtedly made by the Micmac, only two characters were

found resembling any in Kauder’s volumes, and those were common symbols

of the Roman Catholic Church, and might readily have been made by the

Frenchmen, who also certainly left scratchings there. Altogether after

careful study of the subject it is considered that the devices in Father

Kauder’s work are so intrinsically changed, both in form and intent,

from the genuine Micmac designs that they can not be presented as

examples of Indian pictography.

Connected with this topic is the following account in the Jesuit

Relations of 1646, p. 31, relative to the Montagnais and other

Algonquians of the St. Lawrence river, near the Saguenay: “They confess

themselves with admirable frankness; some of them carry small sticks

to remind them of their sins; others write, after their manner, on

small pieces of bark.” This is but the application of the ideographic

writing on birch bark by the converts to the ceremonies and stories of

the Christian religion, as the same art had been long used for their

aboriginal traditions.

[Illustration: FIG. 1084.--Religious story. Sicasica.]

Examples of pictographic work, done in a spirit similar to that above

mentioned, are given by Wiener (_g_), describing the illustrations of

which Figs. 1084 and 1085 are copies, one-fifth real size.

In the most distant part of Peru, in the valley of Paucartambo, at

Sicasica, the history of the passion of Christ was found written in

the same ideographic system that the Indians of Ancon and the north of

the coast were acquainted with before the conquest. (Fig. 1084.) The

drawings were made with a pencil, probably first dipped in a mixture of

gum and mandioc flour. This tissue is of a dark brown and the designs

are of a very bright red.

[Illustration: FIG. 1085.--Religious story. Sicasica.]

The second series, Fig. 1085, which was found at Paucartambo, was

written in an analogous system on old Dutch paper. The designs are red

and blue.

In an article by Terrien de Lacouperie (_f_) is the following condensed

account, part of which relates to Fig. 1086, and may be compared with

the priestly inventions above mentioned:

[Illustration: FIG. 1086.--Mo-so MS. Desgodins.]

Père Desgodins was able, in 1867, to make a copy of eleven

pages from a manuscript written in hieroglyphics, and belonging

to a tom-ba or tong-ba, a medicine man among the Mo-sos. These

hieroglyphics are not, properly speaking, a writing, still less the

current writing of the tribe. The sorcerers or tong-bas alone use

it when invited by the people to recite these so-called prayers,

accompanied with ceremonies and sacrifices, and also to put some

spells on somebody, a specialty of their own. They alone know how to

read them and understand their meaning; they alone are acquainted

with the value of these signs, combined with the numbers of the

dice and other implements of divination which they use in their

witchcraft. Therefore, these hieroglyphics are nothing else than

signs more or less symbolical and arbitrary, known to a small number

of initiated who transmit their knowledge to their eldest son and

successor in their profession of sorcerers. Such is the exact value

of the Mo-so manuscripts; they are not a current and common writing;

they are hardly a sacred writing in the limits indicated above.

However, they are extremely important for the general theory of

writing, inasmuch as they do not pretend to show in that peculiar

hieroglyphical writing any survival of former times. According

to these views, it was apparently made up for the purpose by the

tom-bas or medicine men. This would explain, perhaps, the anomalous

mixture of imperfect and bad imitations of ancient seal characters

of China, pictorial figures of animals and men, bodies and their

parts, with several Tibetan and Indian characters and Buddhist

emblems.

It is not uninteresting to remark here that a kind of meetway or

toomsah, i. e., priest, has been pointed out among the Kakhyens of

Upper Burma. The description is thus quoted:

“A formal avenue always exists as the entrance to a Kakhyen

village. * * * On each side of the broad grassy pathway are a

number of bamboo posts, 4 feet high or thereabouts, and every 10

paces or so, taller ones, with strings stretching across the path,

supporting small stars of split rattan and other emblems. There are

also certain hieroglyphics which may constitute a kind of embryo

picture-writing but are understood by none but the meetway or

priest.”

PICTOGRAPHS IN ALPHABETS.

Mr. W. W. Rockhill, in Am. Anthrop., IV, No. 1, p. 91, notices the

work of M. Paul Vial, missionary, etc., De la langue et de l’écriture

indigènes au Yûnân, with the following remarks:

Père Vial has published a study upon the undeciphered script

of the Lolos of Western China, of which the first specimen was

secured some twelve years ago by E. Colborne Baber. Prof. Terrien

de Lacouperie endeavored to establish a connection between these

curious characters and the old Indian script known as the southern

Ashoka alphabet. The present, Père Vial’s, work gives them a much

less glorious origin. He says of them: “The native characters were

formed without key, without method. It is impossible to decompose

them. They are written not with the strokes of a brush, but with

straight, curved, round, or angular lines, as the shape chosen for

them requires. As the representation could not be perfect, they have

stopped at something which can strike the eye or mind--form, motion,

passion, a head, a bird’s beak, a mouth, right or left, lightness or

heaviness; in short, at that portion of the object delineated which

is peculiarly characteristic of it. But all characters are not of

this expressive kind; some even have no connection with the idea

they express. This anomaly has its reason. The native characters

are much less numerous than the words of the language, only about

thirty per cent. Instead of increasing the number of ideograms, the

Lolos have used one for several words. As a result of this practice

the natives have forgotten the original meaning of many of their

characters.”

A summary of the original cuneiform characters, numbering one hundred

and seventy, gives many of them as recognizable sketches of objects.

The foot stands for “go,” the hand for “take,” the legs for “run,” much

as in the Egyptian and in the Maya and other American systems. The bow,

the arrow, and the sword represent war; the vase, the copper tablet, and

the brick represent manufacture; boats, sails, huts, pyramids, and many

other objects are used as devices.

W. St. Chad Boscawen (_a_) says:

Man’s earliest ventures in the art of writing were, as we are

well aware, of a purely pictorial nature, and even to this day such

a mode of ideography can be seen among some of the Indian tribes. *

* * There is no reasonable doubt but that all the principal systems

of paleography now in vogue had their origin at some remote period

in this pictorial writing. In so primitive a center as Babylonia we

should naturally expect to find such a system had been in vogue, and

in this we are not disappointed.

[Illustration: FIG. 1087.--Pictographs in alphabets.]

Fig. 1087 is presented as a brief exhibit of the pictographs in some

inchoate alphabets.

CHAPTER XX.

SPECIAL COMPARISONS.

The utility of the present work depends mainly upon the opportunity

given by the various notes and illustrations collected for students to

make their own comparisons and deductions. This chapter is intended to

assist in that study by presenting some groups of comparisons which

have seemed to possess special interest. For that reason descriptions

and illustrations are collected here which logically belong to other

headings.

Many of the pictographs discussed and illustrated in this chapter

and in the one following are the representation of animals and other

natural objects. It would therefore seem that they could be easily

identified, but in fact the modes of representation of the same object

among the several peoples differed, and when conventionalizing has also

become a factor the objects may not be recognized without knowledge of

the typical style. Sometimes there was apparently no attempt at the

imitation of natural objects, but marks were used, such as points,

lines, circles, and other geometric forms. These were combined in

diverse modes to express concepts and record events. Those marks and

combinations originated in many centers and except in rare instances

of “natural” ideograms those of one people would not correspond with

those of other peoples unless by conveyance or imitation. Typical

styles therefore appear also in this class of pictographs and, when

established, all typical styles afford some indication with regard to

the peoples using them.

This chapter is divided under the headings of: 1. Typical Style. 2.

Homomorphs and Symmorphs. 3. Composite forms. 4. Artistic skill and

methods.

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1088.--Algonquian petroglyph. Hamilton farm, West

Virginia.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1089.--Algonquian petroglyphs. Safe Harbor,

Pennsylvania.]

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.

[Illustration: Fig. 1090.--Algonquian petroglyphs. Cunningham’s island,

Lake Erie.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1091.--Algonquian petroglyphs. Wyoming.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1092.--Shoshonean petroglyphs. Idaho.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1093.--Shoshonean petroglyphs. Utah.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1094.--Shoshonean rock-painting. Utah.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1095.--Arizona petroglyph.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1096.--Arizona petroglyph.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1097.--Petroglyphs, Lower California.]

[Illustration: FIG. 1098.--Petroglyphs in Lower California.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1099.--Haida Totem Post.]

The following illustrations from New Zealand are introduced here for

comparison.

[Illustration: FIG. 1100.--New Zealand house posts.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1101.--New Zealand tiki.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1102.--Nicaraguan petroglyphs.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1103.--Nicaraguan petroglyphs.]

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_):

[Illustration: FIG. 1104.--Deep carvings in Guiana.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1105.--Venezuelan petroglyphs.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1106.--Venezuelan petroglyphs.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1107.--Brazilian petroglyphs.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1108.--Spanish and Brazilian petroglyphs.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1109.--Brazilian petroglyphs.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1110.--Brazilian petroglyphs.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1111.--Brazilian petroglyphs.]

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1112.--Brazilian pictograph.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1113.--Brazilian petroglyphs.]

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:

[Illustration: FIG. 1114.--Brazilian petroglyphs.]

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.

SECTION 2.

HOMOMORPHS AND SYMMORPHS.

It has already been mentioned that characters substantially the same, or

homomorphs, made by one set of people, have a different signification

among others. The class of homomorphs may also embrace the cases common

in gesture signs, and in picture writing, similar to the homophones in

oral language, where the same sound has several meanings among the same

people.

It would be very remarkable if precisely the same character were

not used by different or even the same persons or bodies of people

with wholly distinct significations. The graphic forms for objects

and ideas are much more likely to be coincident than sound is for

similar expressions, yet in all oral languages the same precise sound,

sometimes but not always distinguished by different literation, is

used for utterly diverse meanings. The first conception of different

objects could not have been the same. It has been found, indeed, that

the homophony of words and the homomorphy of ideographic pictures is

noticeable in opposite significations, the conceptions arising from

the opposition itself. The same sign and the same sound may be made

to convey different ideas by varying the expression, whether facial

or vocal, and by the manner accompanying their delivery. Pictographs

likewise may be differentiated by modes and mutations of drawing. The

differentiation in picturing or in accent is a subsequent and remedial

step not taken until after the confusion had been observed and had

become inconvenient. Such confusion and contradiction would only be

eliminated from pictography if it were far more perfect than is any

spoken language.

This heading, for convenience, though not consistently with its

definition, may also include those pictographs which convey different

ideas and are really different in form of execution as well as in

conception, yet in which the difference in form is so slight as

practically to require attention and discrimination. Examples are given

below in this section, and others may be taken from the closely related

sign-language, one group of which may now be mentioned.

[Illustration: FIG. 1115.--Tree.]

The sign used by the Dakota, Hidatsa, and several other tribes for

“tree” is made by holding the right hand before the body, back forward,

fingers and thumb separated; then pushing it slightly upward, Fig. 1115;

that for “grass” is the same, made near the ground; that for “grow” is

made like “grass,” though, instead of holding the back of the hand near

the ground, the hand is pushed upward in an interrupted manner, Fig.

1116. For “smoke” the hand (with the back down, fingers pointing upward

as in grow) is then thrown upward several times from the same place

instead of continuing the whole motion upward. Frequently the fingers

are thrown forward from under the thumb with each successive upward

motion. For “fire” the hand is employed as in the gesture for smoke, but

the motion is frequently more waving, and in other cases made higher

from the ground.

[Illustration: FIG. 1116.--Grow.]

Symmorphs, a term suggested by the familiar “synonym,” are designs not

of the same form, but which are used with the same significance or

so nearly the same as to have only a slight shade of distinction and

which sometimes are practically interchangeable. The comprehensive

and metaphorical character of pictographs renders more of them

interchangeable than is the case with words; still, like words, some

pictographs with essential resemblance of meaning have partial and

subordinate differences made by etymology or usage. Doubtless the

designs are purposely selected to delineate the most striking outlines

of an object or the most characteristic features of an action; but

different individuals and likewise different bodies of people would

often disagree in the selection of those outlines and features. In

an attempt to invent an ideographic, not an iconographic, design for

“bird,” any one of a dozen devices might have been agreed upon with

equal appropriateness, and, in fact, a number have been so selected by

several individuals and tribes, each one, therefore, being a symmorph

of the other. Gesture language gives another example in the signs for

“deer,” designated by various modes of expressing fleetness, also by his

gait when not in rapid motion, by the shape of his horns, by the color

of his tail, and sometimes by combinations of those characteristics.

Each of these signs and of the pictured characters corresponding with

them may be indefinitely abbreviated and therefore create indefinite

diversity. Some examples appropriate to this line of comparison are now

presented.

SKY.

[Illustration: FIG. 1117.--Sky.]

The Indian gesture sign for sky, heaven, is generally made by passing

the index from east to west across the zenith. This curve is apparent in

the Ojibwa pictograph, the left-hand character of Fig. 1117, reported

in Schoolcraft (_q_), and is abbreviated in the Egyptian character

with the same meaning, the middle character of the same figure, from

Champollion (_e_). A simpler form of the Ojibwa picture sign for sky is

the right-hand character of the same figure, from Copway (_h_).

SUN AND LIGHT.

[Illustration: FIG. 1118.--Sun. Oakley springs.]

Fig. 1118 shows various representations of the sun taken from a

petroglyph at Oakley springs.

[Illustration: FIG. 1119.--Sun. Gesture sign.]

The common Indian gesture sign for sun is: Right hand closed, the index

and thumb curved, with tips touching, thus approximating a circle, and

held toward the sky, the position of the fingers of the hand forming a

circle as is shown in Fig. 1119. Two of the Egyptian characters for sun,

the left-hand upper characters of Fig. 1120 are the common conception

of the disk. The rays emanating from the whole disk appear in the two

adjoining characters on the same figure, taken from the rock etchings

of the Moki pueblos in Arizona. From the same locality are the two

remaining characters in the same figure, which may be distinguished from

several similar etchings for “star,” Fig. 1129, infra, by their showing

some indication of a face, the latter being absent in the characters

denoting “star.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1120.--Devices for sun.]

With the above characters for sun compare the left-hand character of

Fig. 1121, found at Cuxco, Peru, and taken from Wiener (_h_).

[Illustration: FIG. 1121.--Sun and light.]

In the pictorial notation of the Laplanders the sun bears its usual

figure of a man’s head, rayed. See drawings in Scheffer’s History of

Lapland, London, 1704.

The Ojibwa pictograph for sun is seen in the second character of Fig.

1121, taken from Schoolcraft (_r_). The sun’s disk, together with

indications of rays, as shown in the third character of the same figure,

and in its linear form, the fourth character of that figure, from

Champollion, Dict., constitutes the Egyptian character for light.

[Illustration: FIG. 1122.--Light.]

Fig. 1122.--Light. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is to be compared with the

rays of the sun as above shown, but still more closely resembles the old

Chinese character for light, or more specifically “light above man,” in

the left-hand character of Fig. 1123, reported by Dr. Edkins.

[Illustration: FIG. 1123.--Light and sun.]

The other characters of the same figure are given by Schoolcraft (_s_)

as Ojibwa symbols of the sun.

[Illustration: FIG. 1124.--Sun. Kwakiutl.]

The left-hand character of Fig. 1124, from Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum

(_a_), shows the top of an heraldic column of the Sentlae (Sun) gens of

the Kwakiutl Indians in Alert bay, British Columbia, which represents

the sun surrounded by wooden rays. A simpler form is seen in the right

character of the same figure where the face of the sun is also fastened

to the top of a pole. The author, Dr. Boas, states that Fig. 1125 is the

sun mask used by the same gens in their dance. This presents another

mode in which the common symbolic connection of the eagle (the beak of

which bird is apparently shown) with the sun is indicated.

[Illustration: FIG. 1125.--Sun mask. Kwakiutl.]

Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in Aids to the Study of the Manuscript Troano, Sixth

Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., p. 348, gives the left-hand character in Fig. 1126

as representing the sun.

[Illustration: FIG. 1126.--Suns.]

General Forlong (_a_) states that the middle device of the same figure

represents the sun as Mihr, the fertilizer of the seed.

Dr. Edkins (_e_) gives the right-hand device of the same figure as a

picture of the sun. Originally it was a circle with a stroke or dot in

the middle.

MOON.

[Illustration: FIG. 1127.--Gesture for moon.]

A common Indian gesture sign for moon, month, is the right hand closed,

leaving the thumb and index extended, but curved to form a half circle

and the hand held toward the sky, in a position which is illustrated in

Fig. 1127, to which curve the Moki drawing, the upper left-hand device

in Fig. 1128, and the identical form in the ancient Chinese have an

obvious resemblance.

[Illustration: FIG. 1128.--Moon.]

The crescent, as Europeans and Asiatics commonly figure the satellite,

appears also in the Ojibwa pictograph, the lower left-hand character in

Fig. 1128, taken from Schoolcraft (t), which is the same, with a slight

addition, as the Egyptian figurative character.

The middle character in Fig. 1128 is the top of an upright post of a

house of the moon gens of the Kuakiutl Indians taken from Boas (_g_). It

represents the moon.

Schoolcraft (_u_) gives the right-hand character of the same figure for

the moon, i. e., an obscured sun, as drawn by the Ojibwa.

STARS.

[Illustration: FIG. 1129.--Stars.]

Fig. 1129 shows various forms of stars, taken from a petroglyph at

Oakley Springs, Arizona. Most of them show the rays in a manner to

suggest the points of stars common in many parts of the world.

DAYTIME AND KIND OF DAY.

Fig. 1130, copied from Copway (_h_), presents respectively the

characters for sunrise, noon, and sunset.

[Illustration: FIG. 1130.--Day. Ojibwa.]

An Indian gesture sign for “sunrise,” “morning,” is: Forefinger of right

hand crooked to represent half of the sun’s disk and pointed or extended

to the left, slightly elevated. In this connection it may be noted that

when the gesture is carefully made in open country the pointing would

generally be to the east, and the body turned so that its left would be

in that direction. In a room in a city, or under circumstances where

the points of the compass are not specially attended to, the left side

supposes the east, and the gestures relating to sun, day, etc., are made

with such reference. The half only of the disk represented in the above

gesture appears in the Moki pueblo drawings for morning and sunrise.

[Illustration: FIG. 1131.--Morning. Arizona.]

Fig. 1131 shows various representations of sunrise from Oakley Springs,

Arizona.

J. B. Dunbar (_b_), in The Pawnee Indians, says:

As an aid to the memory the Pawnees frequently made use of

notches cut in a stick or some similar device for the computation

of nights (for days were counted by nights), or even of months and

years. Pictographically a day or daytime was represented by a six or

eight pointed star as a symbol of the sun. A simple cross (a star)

was a symbol of a night and a crescent represented a moon or lunar

month.

A common Indian gesture for day is when the index and thumb form a

circle (remaining fingers closed) and are passed from east to west.

[Illustration: FIG. 1132.--Day.]

Fig. 1132 shows a pictograph found in Owens valley, California, a

similar one being reported in the Ann. Rep. Geog. Survey West of the

100th Meridian for 1876, Washington, 1876, pl. opp. p. 326, in which the

circle may indicate either day or month (both these gestures having the

same execution), the course of the sun or moon being represented perhaps

in mere contradistinction to the vertical line, or perhaps the latter

signifies one.

[Illustration: FIG. 1133.--Days. Apache.]

Fig. 1133 is a pictograph made by the Coyotèro Apaches, found at Camp

Apache, in Arizona, reported in the Tenth Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. and

Geogr. Survey of the Terr., Washington, 1878, Pl. LXXVII. The sun and

the ten spots of approximately the same shape represent the days,

eleven, which the party passed in traveling through the country. The

separating lines are the nights, and may include the conception of

covering over and consequent obscurity referred to in connection with

the pictographs for night.

[Illustration: FIG. 1134.--Clear, stormy. Ojibwa.]

The left-hand character in Fig. 1134, copied from Copway (_h_),

represents smooth water or clear day.

The right-hand character in the same figure, from the same authority, p.

135, represents storm or a windy day.

NIGHT.

[Illustration: FIG. 1135.]

Fig. 1135.--Kills-the-Enemy-at-Night. Red-Cloud’s Census. Night is

indicated by the black circle around the head, suggesting the covering

over with darkness, as is shown in the common gesture for night, made

by passing both flat hands from their respective sides, inward and

downward, before the body. The sign for kill is denoted here by the bow

in contact with the head, in accordance with a custom among the Dakota

of striking the dead enemy with the bow or coup stick.

[Illustration: FIG. 1136.]

Fig. 1136.--Kills-Enemy-at-Night. Red-Cloud’s Census. This drawing is

similar to the preceding. The differentiation is sufficient to allow of

a distinction between the two characters, each representing the same

name, though belonging to two different men.

[Illustration: FIG. 1137.]

Fig. 1137.--Smokes-at-Night. Red-Cloud’s Census. Again the concept is

expressed by the covering over with darkness.

[Illustration: FIG. 1138.]

Fig. 1138.--Kills-at-Night. Red-Cloud’s Census. Night is here shown by

the curve for sky and the suspension, beneath it, of a star, or more

probably in Dakotan expression, a night sun, i. e., the moon.

[Illustration: FIG. 1139.]

Fig. 1139.--A Crow chief, Flat-Head, comes into the tipi of a Dakota

chief, where a council was assembled. Flame’s Winter Count, 1852-’53.

The night is shown by the black top of the tipi.

[Illustration: FIG. 1140.--Ojibwa.]

Fig. 1140 is taken from Copway (_f_). It represents “night.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1141.--Sign for night.]

A typical Indian gesture for night, illustrated by Fig. 1141, is: Place

the flat hands horizontally about 2 feet apart, move them quickly in an

upward curve toward one another until the right lies across the left.

“Darkness covers all.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1142.--Night. Egyptian.]

The conception of covering executed by delineating the object covered

beneath the middle point of an arch or curve, appears also clearly in

the Egyptian characters for night, Fig. 1142, Champollion (_f_).

[Illustration: FIG. 1143.--Night. Mexican.]

In Kingsborough (_m_) is the painting reproduced as Fig. 1143.

This painting expresses the multitude of eyes, i. e., stars in the sky,

and signifies the night. Eyes in Mexican paintings are painted exactly

in this manner.

CLOUD.

[Illustration: FIG. 1144.--Cloud shield.]

Fig. 1144.--Cloud shield. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure shows in

conjunction with the disk, probably a shield but possibly the sun, a

dim cloud, and below is a line apparently holding up clouds from which

the raindrops have not yet begun to fall. This may be collated with the

pictographs for rain and also for snow, as figured below.

[Illustration: FIG. 1145.--Clouds, Moki.]

A Cheyenne sign for cloud is as follows: (1) Both hands partially

closed, palms facing and near each other, brought up to level with

or slightly above but in front of the head; (2) suddenly separated

sidewise, describing a curve like a scallop; this scallop motion is

repeated for “many clouds.” The same conception is in the Moki etchings,

the three left-hand characters of Fig. 1145 (Gilbert MS.), and in

variants from Oakley Springs, the two right-hand characters of the same

figure.

[Illustration: FIG. 1146.--Cloud, Ojibwa.]

The Ojibwa pictograph for cloud, reported in Schoolcraft (_n_), is more

elaborate, Fig. 1146. It is composed of the sign for sky to which that

for clouds is added, the latter being reversed, as compared with the

Moki etchings, and picturesquely hanging from the sky.

RAIN.

[Illustration: FIG. 1147.--Rain. Ojibwa.]

Fig. 1147.--From Copway, loc. cit., represents rain, cloudy.

[Illustration: FIG. 1148.--Rain. Pueblo.]

The gesture sign for rain is illustrated in Fig. 1002. The pictograph,

Fig. 1148, reported as found in New Mexico, by Lieut. Simpson, in

Ex. Doc. No. 64, 31st Congress, 1st session, 1850, p. 9, is said to

represent Montezuma’s adjutants sounding a blast to him for rain. The

small character inside the curve which represents the sky, corresponds

with the gesturing hand, but may be the rain cloud appearing.

[Illustration: FIG. 1149.--Rain. Moki.]

The Moki drawing for rain, i. e., a cloud from which the drops are

falling, is given in Fig. 1149, in six variants taken from a petroglyph

at Oakley Springs.

[Illustration: FIG. 1150.--Rain. Chinese.]

Edkins (_f_) gives Fig. 1150 as the Chinese character for rain. It is a

picture of rain falling from the clouds. He adds, p. 155:

Rain was anciently without the upper line, and instead of the

vertical line in the middle there were four, but all shorter. Above

each of them and within the concave was a dot. These four dots were

raindrops, the four lines were the direction of their descent, and

the concave was the firmament.

LIGHTNING.

Among the northern Indians of North America the concept of lightning is

included in that of thunder, and is represented by the thunder bird, see

Chap. XIV, sec. 2, supra.

[Illustration: FIG. 1151.--Lightning. Moki.]

Fig. 1151 shows three ways in which lightning is represented by the

Moki. They are copied from a petroglyph at Oakley Springs, Arizona. In

the middle character the sky is shown, the changing direction of the

streak and clouds with rain falling. The part relating specially to the

streak is portrayed in an Indian gesture sign as follows: Right hand

elevated before and above the head, forefinger pointing upward, brought

down with great rapidity with a sinuous, undulating motion, finger still

extended diagonally downward toward the right.

[Illustration: FIG. 1152.--Lightning. Moki.]

Fig. 1152 is a copy from a vase in the collection of relics of the

ancient builders of the southwest table lands in the MS. Catalogue of

Mr. Thomas V. Keam, and represents the body of the mythic Um-tak-ina,

the Thunder. This body is a rain cloud with thunder [lightning] darting

through it, and is probably of ancient Moki workmanship.

[Illustration: FIG. 1153.--Lightning. Moki.]

Fig. 1153, also from Keam’s MS., gives three other representations of

the Moki characters for lightning. The middle one shows the lightning

sticks which are worked by the hands of the dancers.

[Illustration: FIG. 1154.--Lightning. Pueblo.]

Fig. 1154 also represents lightning, taken by Mr. W. H. Jackson,

photographer of the late U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey, from the

decorated walls of an estufa in the Pueblo de Jemez, New Mexico. The

former is blunt, for harmless, and the latter terminates in an arrow or

spear point, for destructive or fatal lightning.

Connected with this topic is the following extract from Virgil’s Æneis,

Lib. VIII, 429:

Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosæ

Addiderant, rutili tres ignis et alitis austri.

The “radii” are the forks or spikes by which lightning is designated,

especially on medals. It consisted of twelve wreathed spikes or darts

extended like the radii of a circle. The wings denote the lightning’s

rapid motion and the spikes or darts its penetrating quality. The

four different kinds of spikes refer to the four seasons. The “tres

imbristorti radii” or the three spikes of hail, are the winter when

hail storms abound. The “tres nubis aquosæ radii,” the three spikes

of a watery cloud, denote the spring. The “tres rutili ignis radii,”

the three spikes of sparkling fire, are the summer when lightning is

frequent and the “tres alitis austri radii,” or the three spikes of

winged wind, are for autumn with its many wind storms.

HUMAN FORM.

[Illustration: FIG. 1155.--Human form.]

Fig. 1155.--_a_ among the Arikara signifies men. The characters are

used in connection with horseshoes, to denote “mounted men” _b_. In

other pictographs such spots or dots are merely numerical. _c_ is drawn

by the Kiatéxamut branch of the Innuits for man. It is an abbreviated

form and rare. _d_, drawn by the Blackfeet, signifies “Man-dead.” This

is from a pictograph in Wind River mountains, taken from Jones’s (_c_)

Northwestern Wyoming. _e_ is also a Kiatéxamut Innuit drawing for man.

This figure is armless; generally represents the person addressed.

[Illustration: FIG. 1156.--Human form.]

Fig. 1156.--_a_ is also a Kiatéxamut Innuit drawing for man. The

person makes the gesture for negation. _b_ and _c_, from a Californian

petroglyph, are men also gesturing negation. _d_, from Schoolcraft

(_v_), is the Ojibwa “symbol” for disabled man.

[Illustration: FIG. 1157.--Human form.]

Fig. 1157.--_a_ is the Kiatéxamut Innuit drawing for Shaman. _b_, used

by the same tribe, represents man supplicating. _c_, reproduced from

Schoolcraft (_u_), is the Ojibwa representative figure or man.

[Illustration: FIG. 1158.--Human form.]

Fig. 1158.--_a_, from Schoolcraft, loc. cit., is an Ojibwa drawing of

a headless body. _b_, from the same, is another Ojibwa figure for a

headless body, perhaps female. _c_, contributed by Mr. Gilbert Thompson,

is a drawing for a man, made by the Moki in Arizona. _d_, reproduced

from Schoolcraft (_w_), is a drawing from the banks of the River

Yenesei, Siberia, by Von Strahlenberg (_a_). _e_ is given by Dr. Edkins,

op. cit., p. 4, as the Chinese character for, and originally a picture

of, a man.

[Illustration: FIG. 1159.--Human form. Alaska.]

The representation of a headless body does not always denote death.

An example is given in Fig. 1159, _a_, taken from an ivory drill-bow

in the collection of the Alaska Commercial Company, of San Francisco,

California. It was made by the Aigaluxamut natives of Alaska. As the

explanation gives no suggestion of a fatal casualty, the concept may be

that the hunter got lost or “lost his head,” according to the colloquial

phrase.

The figures of men in a canoe are represented by the Kiatéxamut Innuit

of Alaska, as shown in the same figure, _b_. The right-hand upward

stroke represents the bow of the boat, while the two lines below the

horizontal stroke denote the paddles used by the men, who are shown

as the first and second upward strokes above the canoe; in the same

figure, _c_ shows the outline of human figures, copied from a walrus

ivory drill-bow (U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 44398) from Cape Nome, Alaska.

The second pair closely resemble forms of the thunder-bird as drawn

by various Algonquian tribes and as found in petroglyphs upon rocks

in the northeastern portion of the United States; in the same figure,

_d_, selected from a group of human forms, is incised upon a walrus

ivory drill-bow obtained at Port Clarence, Alaska, by Dr. T. H. Bean,

of the National Museum. The specimen is numbered 40054. The fringe-like

appendages on the arms may indicate the garment worn by some of the

Kenai or other inland Athabascan Indians of Alaska.

[Illustration: FIG. 1160.--Bird-man. Siberia.]

Fig. 1160, from Strahlenberg, op. cit., was found in Siberia, and is

identical with the character which, according to Schoolcraft, is drawn

by the Ojibwa to represent speed and the power of superior knowledge

by exaltation to the regions of the air, being, in his opinion, a

combination of bird and man.

It is to be noticed that some Ojibwa recently examined regard the

character merely as a human figure with outstretched arms, and fringes

pendent therefrom. It has, also, a strong resemblance to some of

the figures in the Lone-Dog Winter Counts (those for 1854-’55 and

1866-’67, pages 283 and 285, respectively), in which there is no attempt

understood to signify anything more than a war-dress.

[Illustration: FIG. 1161.--American. Ojibwa.]

Fig. 1161, according to Schoolcraft (_t_), is the Ojibwa drawing

symbolic for an American.

[Illustration: FIG. 1162.--Man. Yakut.]

Bastian (_a_), in Ethnologisches Bilderbuch, says:

Upon a shaman’s drum, from the Yakuts of Siberia, is the figure

of a human form greatly resembling some forms of the American types.

The appendages beneath the arms, given in Fig. 1162, suggest also

some forms of the thunder-bird as drawn by the Ojibwa.

[Illustration: FIG. 1163.--Human forms. Moki.]

Fig. 1163 is a copy of human forms found by Mr. Dellenbaugh in

petroglyphs in Shinumo canyon, Utah. They probably are of Moki

workmanship.

[Illustration: FIG. 1164.--Human form. Navajo.]

Fig. 1164, from Mr. Stevenson’s paper in the Eighth Annual Report of the

Bureau of Ethnology, p. 283, is the form of a man, drawn in the sand in

the Hasjelti ceremony of the Navajo.

[Illustration: FIG. 1165.--Man and woman. Moki.]

The left-hand character of Fig. 1165 is described in Keam’s MS. as

follows:

This is a conventional design of dragon flies, and is often

found among rock etchings throughout the plateau [Arizona]. The

dragon flies have always been held in great veneration by the Mokis

and their ancestors, as they have been often sent by Oman to reopen

springs which Muingwa had destroyed and to confer other benefits

upon the people.

This form of the figure, with little vertical lines added to the

transverse lines, connects the Batolatci with the Ho-bo-bo emblems.

The youth who was sacrificed and translated by Ho-bo-bo reappeared a

long time afterwards, during a season of great drought, in the form

of a gigantic dragon fly, who led the rain clouds over the lands of

Ho-pi-tu, bringing plenteous rains.

Describing the middle character of the figure, he says: “The figure

represents a woman. The breath sign is displayed in the interior. The

simpler design in the right-hand character consists of two triangles,

one upon another, and is called the ‘woman’s head and body.’”

[Illustration: FIG. 1166.--Human form. Colombia.]

Fig. 1166, reproduced by permission from the Century Magazine for

October, 1891, p. 887, is a representation of a golden breastplate

found in the United States of Colombia, and now in the Ruiz-Randall

collection. The human figure is nearly identical with some of those

described and illustrated in the present work as found in other

localities.

Crevaux, quoted by Marcano, (_g_) in speaking of the photographs of

French Guyana, makes these useful suggestions:

The drawings of frogs found by Brown on the Esesquibo

are nothing else than human figures such as the Galihis, the

Roucouyennes, and the Oyampis represent them every day on their

pagaras, their pottery, or their skin. We ourselves, on examining

these figures with legs and arms spread out, thought that they were

meant for frogs, but the Indians told us that that was their manner

of representing man.

In Necropolis of Ancon in Peru, by W. Reiss and A. Stubel, (_a_) are

descriptions of figures _a_ to _g_ in Pl. L, all being painted sepulcher

tablets one-seventh of the actual size. The descriptions are condensed.

The general characteristics of the tablets are that they are in a

tabular form, made of reeds, and covered with a white cotton fabric, the

edges of which are stitched together behind and attached to a pole,

short at top, and projecting to a greater length downwards. On the front

is a slightly sketched design in red and black lines, while a winding or

undulating border usually runs around the sides. Nearly all the space

within this border is occupied by a human figure surrounded by isolated

symbols or ornaments. The head and features of the conventionalized

figure is out of all proportion to the small body, which is often merely

suggested by a few strokes.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. L

TABLETS AT ANCON, PERU.]

_a._ The features and high headdress of a human figure, represented

by concentric black and red lines. To the short arms are attached

outstretched three-fingered hands, the right holding some object, while

body and legs are arbitrarily indicated. The legs are twice reproduced

in black and red lines. The space between the figure and border is

occupied by six simple designs, two black and one red on either side.

_b._ The human figure, comparatively simple and distinct, distinguished

by large ear ornaments, with designs similar to those of the preceding

figure, but varying in number and disposition.

_c._ Highly fantastic figure with diverse ornamentations; the space

in the corners cut off by designs, of which the upper two show a bird

motive, such as frequently occurs on earthenware and woven fabrics.

_d._ This is doubtless meant to represent a figure clothed down to the

feet.

_e._ Here the human figure is formed of black lines, connected at right

angles with complementary red lines. A wide top-piece covers the head,

which consists of two small rectangles, leaving room only to indicate

the eyes, while the mouth, placed rather too low down, is suggested by

a red stroke. The arms are bent downwards; hands and feet with triple

articulation. Within the red and black frame the figure is encircled by

crosses, dots, and a conventional star.

_f._ Human figure filling most of the space, which is inclosed only by

a narrow edging. Surface painting distinguishes the wide body, which

is rounded off below and to which the triangular head is fitted above.

Hands with five, feet with three, articulations; crenelled head gear;

necklace suggested by dots; the corners of the ground-surface filled in

with rectangular sharply-edged ornaments.

_g._ Human figure consisting of two disconnected parts; triangular head

and body; hands and feet with two articulations; frame of red and black

dovetailed teeth.

[Illustration: FIG. 1167.--Human form. Peru.]

Wiener (_i_), describing illustrations reproduced here as Fig. 1167,

says:

The tissue found at Moché, _a_, represents a man with flattened

head, exaggerated ears, and the thumb of the right hand too much

developed. When correlated with that from Ancon, _b_, with its

coarse paintings, it becomes a sort of caligraphy in which all the

letters are traced with the greatest care, while _b_, and also the

sepulchral inscription _c_, found at the same place, become cursive.

The design _a_ of this series presents peculiarities found in Zuñi

drawings on pottery. The appendages from the side of the head among

the latter denote large coils of hair so arranged by tying. Their

significance is that the wearer is an unmarried woman. The remaining

designs also resemble types of human figures found upon Zuñi and Pueblo

pottery, being rather of a decorative character than having special

significance.

HUMAN HEAD AND FACE.

A large number of human faces as drawn by members of different tribes

and stocks of North American Indians appear in the present paper. Some

of them are iconographic and others are highly conventionalized. Other

examples from other regions of the world are also presented under

various headings.

In the present connection it may be useful to examine a series of

drawings from the prehistoric pottery of Brazil in the National Museum

at Rio de Janeiro. Although the U. S. National Museum contains many

specimens of a similar character, some of which have been copied and

published, the Brazilian types show an instructive peculiarity in the

reduction of the face to certain main lines and finally to the eyes, so

that the latter are placed apart and independent in a symmetric field.

The following Figs. 1168 to 1174 are reproduced from Dr. Ladisláu Netto

(_d_), all of them being from Brazil and from paintings and carvings on

Marajo ware.

[Illustration: FIG. 1168.--Human face. Brazil.]

Fig. 1168 shows broken lines without the aid of curves, but gracefully

attached to an instrument, either lance or trident, which present the

outline of the contours of a face.

[Illustration: FIG. 1169.--Human faces. Brazil.]

The characters in Fig. 1169 are somewhat more elaborate. The eyes are

decorated with lines and the contour of the face is round.

[Illustration: FIG. 1170.--Human faces. Brazil.]

The characters in Fig. 1170 are carved human faces, some of which would

not be recognized as such unless shown in the series.

[Illustration: FIG. 1171.--Double-faced head. Brazil.]

The face in Fig. 1171 represents the horizontal projection or plan of

a double-faced head. The central H represents in this case the top of

the head, each of the shafts of the H being neither more nor less than

the double arch of the eyebrows, joined to which the representation of

the nose in a triangular figure may be recognized. The most noticeable

point is that if this surface be applied in imagination to the cranium

of the bifrontal head, of which it seems to be the covering or skin, the

features of the double-faced heads of the Marajo idols are immediately

recognized, including the orifices by which those idols are hung on

cords, which orifices are seen in the dividing line of the two faces.

[Illustration: FIG. 1172.--Funeral urn. Marajo.]

Fig. 1172 presents the general form of decoration found upon vases

bearing figures of the face as above mentioned. It is a funeral urn,

carved and engraved, from Marajo, reduced to one-fifth.

[Illustration: FIG. 1173.--Marajo vase.]

Frequently the face is produced in relief, in which a larger portion of

a vessel is taken to produce more lifelike imitation, as in Fig. 1173.

It is the neck of an anthropomorphic vase of Marajo ornamented with

grooves and lines, red on a white ground, reduced to one-half.

[Illustration: FIG. 1174.--Marajo vases.]

Fig. 1174 _a_, real size, is the neck of a Marajo vase, representing a

human head. The nose and chin are very prominent, the eyes horizontal

and slit in the same direction. This head is remarkable for the relief

of the eyebrows which, after reaching the height of the ears, form these

organs, describing above a second curve in the inverse direction of the

curve of the brow, each brow thus forming an S. There are other heads in

which the eyebrows are prolonged to form the relief of the ears at the

outer extremity. In these cases the whole relief represents a semicircle

more or less irregular, while on the contrary this relief forms the

figure S.

Same figure, _b_, real size, is the neck of an ornithomorphic,

anthropocephalous vase. It has on the face the classic and conventional

T to represent the nose and brows. The eyes are formed by the symbolic

figure equally conventional in the ceramics of the mound-builders of

Marajo, and the ears differ very little from the characters seen in

other figures.

Same figure, _c_, four-fifths real size, is the neck of a Marajo vase

representing, by engraving and painting, all the conventional characters

of the different parts of the human face employed by the mound-builders

of Marajo. This vase preserves perfectly the primitive colors, which

show vermilion lines on a white ground. A double protuberance from each

ear, the design which forms the eyes, and that which surrounds and

outlines the mouth, the nose, and the ears, are characteristic traces

of the decorative art of the human face which few heads present in such

perfection.

Same figure, _d_, four-fifths real size, is the neck of a Marajo vase

more simple than the preceding one, but with more regular and distinct

features.

The Brazilian system above illustrated, which reduces the face to

certain main lines and finally to the eyes, in such manner that the eyes

are placed apart and each is put by itself in a symmetric field, has

its parallel in North America. This is the practice of the Bella Coola

Indians and their neighbors at the present day. They divide the surface,

to be ornamented into zones and fields, by means of broad horizontal and

vertical lines, each field containing, according to its position, now a

complete face, now only an indication of it, the especial indication

being made by the eye. The eyes themselves are given different shapes,

according to the different animals represented, being now large and

round, now oblong and with pointed angles. These peculiarities, which

have become conventional, are retained when the eye is represented

alone, so that by this method it may still be easy to recognize which

animal--for example, a raven or a bear, is intended to be portrayed.

The left-hand character in Fig. 1175, from Champollion (_g_), is the

Egyptian character for a human face. The predominance of the ears

probably has some special significance.

[Illustration: FIG. 1175.--Human heads.]

Schoolcraft (_u_) gives the right-hand character of the same figure as a

man’s head, with ears open to conviction, as made by the Ojibwa.

Both of these may be compared with the exaggerated ears in Fig. 1167.

HAND.

The impression, real or represented, of a human hand is used in several

regions in the world with symbolic significance.

Among the North American Indians the mark so readily applied is of

frequent occurrence, with an ascertained significance, which, however,

differs in several tribes.

Fig. 1176, taken from Copway (_b_), represents the hand, and also

expresses “did so.” This signification of “do,” or action, and hence

“power,” is also given to the same character in the Egyptian and Chinese

ideograms.

[Illustration: FIG. 1176.--Hand. Ojibwa.]

Among several Indian tribes a black hand on a garment or ornament means

“the wearer of this has killed an enemy.” The decoration appears upon

Ojibwa bead belts, and the Hidatsa and Arikara state that it is an old

custom of showing bravery. The character was noticed at Fort Berthold,

and the belt bearing it had been received from Ojibwa Indians of

northern Minnesota. The mark of a black hand drawn of natural size or

less, and sometimes made by the impress of an actually blackened palm,

was also noticed, with the same significance, on articles among the

Hidatsa and Arikara in 1881.

Schoolcraft (_x_) says of the Dakota on the St. Peters river that a red

hand indicates that the wearer has been wounded by his enemy, and a

black hand that he has slain his enemy.

Irving (_b_) remarks, in Astoria, of the Arikara warriors: “Some had the

stamp of a red hand across their mouths, a sign that they had drunk the

life-blood of a foe.”

In other parts of the present paper the significance of the mark is

mentioned and may be briefly summarized here.

Among the Sioux a red hand painted on a warrior’s blanket or robe means

that he has been wounded by the enemy, and a black hand that he has

been in some way unfortunate. Among the Mandan a yellow hand on the

breast signifies that the wearer had captured prisoners.

Among the Titon Dakota a hand displayed meant that the wearer had

engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with an enemy. The impress of a hand,

stained or muddy, upon the body or horse was the Winnebago mark that the

wearer had killed a man.

The drawing of linked fingers or joined hands has been before discussed,

p. 643, and in several petroglyphs illustrated in this paper the

single hand appears. It is a common device on rocks, and doubtless

with varieties of signification, as above mentioned in other forms of

pictograph.

[Illustration: FIG. 1177.--Joined hands. Moki.]

It will suffice now to add that the figure of a hand with extended

fingers is very common in the vicinity of ruins in Arizona as a rock

etching, and is also frequently seen daubed on the rocks with colored

pigments or white clay. But Mr. Thomas V. Keam explains the Arizona

drawings of hands on the authority of the living Moki. In his MS., in

describing Fig. 1177, he says:

The outline of two outstretched hands joined at the wrists and

figure of a hand with extended fingers is very common as a rock

etching.

These are vestiges of the test formerly practiced among young

men who aspired for admission to the fraternity of Salyko. The

Salyko is a trinity of two women and a woman from whom the Hopitu

obtained the first corn. The first test above referred to was that

of putting their hands in the mud and impressing them upon the rock.

Only those were chosen as novices the imprints of whose hands had

dried on the instant.

Le Plongeon (_a_) tells that the tribes of Yucatan have the custom of

printing the impress of the human hand, dipped in a red-colored liquid,

on the walls of certain sacred edifices.

A. W. Howitt, in manuscript notes on Australian pictographs, says:

In very many places there are representations of a human hand

imprinted or delineated upon the rocks or in caverns. In the

mountains on the western side of the Darling river, in New South

Wales, I have observed such, and the aborigines whom I questioned

upon the subject said that these representations were made in sport.

This reply would, however, be also given were any white man to find

and draw their attention to one of the figures which are made in

connection with the initiation ceremonies. The representations of

hands are made in two ways. In one the hand is smeared with red

ocher and water, and impressed upon the rock surface. In the other

the hand, being placed upon the rock, a mouthful of red ocher or

pipe-clay and water is squirted over it. The hand being then removed

there remains its representation surrounded and marked out by the

colored wash.

Thomas Worsnop (_b_) says:

[Illustration: FIG. 1178.--Cave painting, Australia.]

Mr. Winnecke, in 1879, saw several drawings on rocks and in

caves, [Fig. 1178], and describes them as follows:

There are found in several large caves near Mount Skinner and

Ledans hill, in latitude 22° 30′ south and longitude 134° 30′ east.

The natives appear to have selected the smooth surface of granite

rocks inside several large caves, which spots are not subject to

the influence of wind or rain. These caves are resorted to by the

natives during excessive rainy seasons, as indicated by their camp

preparations, and it is beyond doubt that these drawings have

been performed during these periods of forced inactivity by some

artistically inclined native. Those I am alluding to are somewhat

numerous in these particular localities and present a uniform

appearance.

_a_, apparently represents a heart pierced in the center by a

spear. The outline of the object representing the heart has been

delineated with red ocher, whilst the spear has been drawn with

a burnt stick or piece of coal. I have only seen this particular

sketch in one instance, where four distinct drawings of the same

object exactly below and equidistant from each other have been made

in anything but a crude manner, the outline having been carefully

and very distinctly traced on the rocks, showing a degree of

perfection scarcely to be anticipated from these wild inhabitants.

The breadth of the heart is about 5 inches and its length about 6

inches. The length of the spear portion is about 3 feet. [The device

reminds of St. Valentine’s day.]

_b_, consists of two parallel lines about 6 inches apart, with

regular marks between, and probably represents the native’s notion

of a creek with emu tracks traversing its bed. This drawing has been

made with a coal, and is found depicted on smooth rocks in various

localities.

_c_, has been drawn both with coal and red ocher. It is found

in many places, and seems to be a favorite drawing of the natives.

I have found it depicted in several localities in the interior of

Australia. It is generally supposed to represent a hand.

_d._ This figure is made by the natives in the following manner:

Placing their extended hand against a smooth rock, after having

previously moistened the same, they fill their mouths with powdered

charcoal, which they then blow violently along the outline of their

extended hand, thus leaving the portions of rock covered perfectly

clean, whilst the space between their fingers and elsewhere around

about becomes covered with the black substance. This drawing is not

very common. I found several specimens near the Sabdover river. I

have, however, been informed that it has been seen in other and

distant parts of Australia.

Renan (_a_) says in the chapter on the Nomad Semites:

The real monuments of the period were, as in the case with

all people who can not write, the stones which they reared, the

columns erected in memory of some event, and upon which was often

represented a hand, whence the name of _iad_ [finger post].

Major Conder (_c_) writes that in Jerusalem a rough representation of

a hand is marked by the native races on the wall of every house while

building. Some authorities connect it with the five names of God, and

it is generally considered to avert the evil eye. The Moors generally,

and especially the Arabs in Kairwan, apply paintings of red hands above

the doors and on the columns of their houses as talismans to drive away

the envious. Similar hand prints are found in the ruins of El Baird near

Petra. Some of the quaint symbolism connected with horns is supposed to

originate from such hand marks. The same people make the gesture against

the evil eye by extending the five fingers of the left hand.

H. Clay Trumbull (_b_) gives the following:

It is a noteworthy fact that among the Jews in Tunis, near

the old Phenician settlement of Carthage, the sign of a bleeding

hand is still an honored and a sacred symbol as if in recognition

of the covenant-bond of their brotherhood and friendship. “What

struck me most in all the houses,” says a traveler (Chevalier de

Hesse-Wartegg) among these Jews, “was the impression of an open

bleeding hand on every wall of each floor. However white the walls,

this repulsive (yet suggestive) sign was to be seen everywhere.”

The following is extracted from Panjab Notes and Queries, Vol. I, No. 1

(October, 1883), p. 2:

At the Temple of Balasundarí Deví at Tilokpúr, near Náhan, the

priests stamp a red hand on the left breast of the coat of a pilgrim

who visits the temple for the first time to show that he has, as

it were, paid for his footing. If the pilgrim again visits the

temple and can show the stamp he pays only 4 annas as his fee to the

priests.

Gen. A. Hontum-Schindler, Teheran, Persia, in a letter of December 19,

1888, tells:

All through Persia, principally in villages though, a rough

representation of a hand, or generally the imprint of a right hand,

in red, may be seen on the wall or over the door of a house whilst

in building, or on the wall of a mosque, booth, or other public

building. It is probably an ancient custom, although the Persians

connect it with Islam, and they say that the hand represents that of

Albas, a brother of Husain (a grandson of the prophet Mohammed), who

was one of the victims at the massacre of Kerbela in 680, and who

had his right hand cut off by el Abrad ibu Shaibân. In India I have

noticed similar marks, hands, or simply red streaks.

In Journal of the Proc. Royal Soc. Antiq., Ireland, I, 3, fifth series,

1890, p. 247, is the following:

The hand an emblem of good luck in Ireland.--In Maj. Conder’s

“Syrian Stone Lore,” published for the Palestine Exploration

Committee by Bentley & Son (1886), p. 71, occurs the following

passage: “Among other primitive emblems used by the Phenicians

is the hand occurring on votive steles at Carthage, sometimes in

connection with the sacred fish. This hand is still a charm in

Syria, called Kef Miriam, ‘the Virgin Mary’s hand,’ and sovereign

against the evil eye. The red hand is painted on walls, and occurs,

for instance, in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople and elsewhere.

It is common also in Ireland and in India (Siva’s hand) and on

early scepters, always as an emblem of good luck.” What actual

foundation is there for the above statement as regards Ireland?

About twenty years ago the first Monday in January was known in

the south of Ireland as “Handsel Monday,” and looked upon as in

some way indicating the prosperity the year succeeding was to bring

forth. But whether, as the name would seem to imply, this had any

connection with the hand as an emblem of good luck I am unaware.--J.

C.

[Illustration: FIG. 1179.--Irish cross.]

Gen. Forlong (_b_) makes the following remarks:

The “red hand of Ireland” is known alike to Turanians, Shemites,

and Aryans, and from the Americas to farthest Asia. The hand, being

an organ peculiar to man, is in the East a sign of Siva, and seems

to have been identified with his emblem even by the Medes. All men

have usually worshiped and plighted their troth or sworn by manual

signs, so the hand naturally stands as the sign of man himself; but

more than this, Easterns attach a significance to it as an organ

without which the procreating one is useless. In Germany, says J.

Grimm, the hand was _Tyr_, or the son of Odin, “the one-handed,”

for he lost one limb by the biting wintry wolf--that is, he

became powerless to produce.... He was then the “golden-handed,”

fertilizer, whom ancient Irans denoted by their name Zerdosht, and

Irish Kelts placed as a talisman on their Ulster shield.... The

Irish solo-phalik idea is seen in the “crosses” of Clon-Mac-Noise

and Monasterboise, where, as in Fig. 1179, all the fingers are

carefully placed in the center of the circle of fertility. The Vedas

constantly speak of Savatar as “the golden-handed sun,” who lost

this limb owing to his efforts when at sacrifice, and who remained

impotent until the deity restored to him a hand of gold.

Hindus, like the high Asian tribes and the old Mexicans, usually

impress a hand covered with blood or vermilion on the door posts

of their temple--that is, on the Delpheus or “door of life;” and

the great Islamite, Mahmood, when he captured Constantinople, rode

up to the holy feminine shrine of St. Sophia, and reaching up as

high as he could, there unwittingly imprinted this bloody sign of

Great Siva. We must remember how often the hand appears with other

significant objects on the arms of men and nations, and notably so

on Roman standards.... Fig. 1180.

In the old shrines of America, Leslie says, the “sacred hand was

a favorite subject of art,” and Stevens in his Yucatan says, “The

red hand stared us in the face over all the ruined buildings of the

country, ... not drawn or printed, but stamped by the living hand,

the pressure of the palm upon the stone being quite distinct, the

thumb and fingers being extended as we see in the Irish and Hindu

hands.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1180.--Roman standard.]

FEET AND TRACKS.

In the two first illustrations of this group the respective figures of

the man and the eagle are in the act of forming tracks on the ground.

Such tracks are shown in the next two figures, but without the context

might not be recognized as such. The fifth figure is more distinctly

ideographic, showing the foot and leg as in the act of making the

impress, and the eagle’s feather to indicate the kind of track which

would have been made by a running eagle.

[Illustration: FIG. 1181.]

Fig. 1181.--Goes-Walking. Red-Cloud’s Census.

[Illustration: FIG. 1182.]

Fig. 1182.--Running-Eagle. Red-Cloud’s Census.

[Illustration: FIG. 1183.]

Fig. 1183.--Tracks. Red-Cloud’s Census.

[Illustration: FIG. 1184.]

Fig. 1184.--Walking-Bull-Track. Red-Cloud’s Census.

[Illustration: FIG. 1185.]

Fig. 1185.--Eagle-Track. Red-Cloud’s Census.

[Illustration: FIG. 1186.--Feet.]

Fig. 1186, copied from Copway (_b_), gives three characters of which the

first represents “ran,” the second “walked” or “passed,” and the third

“stand,” characters similar both to the tracks and the feet found on

many petroglyphs in North America.

They are also found in the terraces of temples of Thebes, of Karnak, and

especially at Nakhaur in South Bihar.

P. le Page Renouf (_a_), in An Elementary Grammar of the Ancient

Egyptian Language, gives the right-hand character of the same figure as

the generic determinative implying motion.

BROKEN LEG.

This group gives several modes of expressing, pictorially, broken legs.

[Illustration: FIG. 1187.]

Fig. 1187.--Many were thrown from their horses while surrounding

buffalo, and some had their legs broken. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count,

1847-’48. The legs are distorted and the line may refer to the slippery

ice touched by the toes.

[Illustration: FIG. 1188.]

Fig. 1188.--Lone-Horn’s father broke his leg. The-Flame’s Winter Count,

1832-’33. This is a strongly marked representation.

[Illustration: FIG. 1189.]

[Illustration: FIG. 1190.]

Fig. 1189.--A Minneconjou Dakota named Broken-Leg died. The-Flame’s

Winter Count, 1846-’47. The-Flame’s representation is objective, but

Battiste Good gives another more ideographic. The arm in his character,

given in Fig. 1190, is lengthened so as nearly to touch the broken leg,

which is shown distorted, instead of indicating the injury by the mere

distortion of the leg itself. The bird over the head, and connected by a

line with it, probably represents the teal as a name-totem. Perhaps he

was called Broken-Leg after the injury.

[Illustration: FIG. 1191.]

Fig. 1191.--There were a great many accidents and some legs were broken,

the ground being covered with ice. American-Horse’s Winter Count,

1847-’48. Here the fracture is very obvious--too much so to be intended

as objective--rather delineating the idea of the breaking and separation

of the bone.

[Illustration: FIG. 1192.]

Fig. 1192.--Broken-Leg was killed by the Pawnees. His leg had

been broken by a bullet in a previous fight with the Pawnees.

American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1807-’08. Here the leg is entirely

removed from its normal position.

[Illustration: FIG. 1193.--Broken leg. Chinese.]

Dr. Edkins (_g_) gives Fig. 1193, _a_, as a picture of a bent leg

broken, and adds, “The true radical and phonetic for which this stands

as representative is rather _b_, ‘fault,’ ‘move.’”

VOICE AND SPEECH.

This group relates to sounds issuing from the mouth, that is, to voice

and speech:

[Illustration: FIG. 1194.]

Fig. 1194.--The-Elk-that-Holloes-Walking. The-Swan’s Winter

Count, 1860-’61. Interpreter A. Lavary said, in 1867, that

The-Elk-that-Holloes-Walking, then chief of the Minneconjous, was

then at Spotted-Tail’s camp. His father was Red-Fish. He was the

elder brother of Lone-Horn. His name is given as A-hag-a-hoo-man-ie,

translated The-Elk’s-Voice-Walking, compounded of he-ha-ka, elk,

and omani, walk; this according to Lavary’s literation. The correct

literation of the Dakota word meaning elk is heqaka; voice, ho; and

to walk, walking, mani. Their compound would be heqaka ho mani, the

translation being the same as above given.

[Illustration: FIG. 1195.]

Fig. 1195.--Elk-walking-with-his-Voice. Red-Cloud’s Census: This is

explained by the following figure.

[Illustration: FIG. 1196.]

Fig. 1196 is taken from the manuscript drawing book of an Indian

prisoner at St. Augustine, Florida, now in the Smithsonian Institution,

No. 30664. It represents an antelope and the whistling sound produced by

the animal on being surprised or alarmed. It also shows the tracks, and

supplies the idea of walking not exhibited by the preceding two figures.

[Illustration: FIG. 1197.]

Fig. 1197.--Dog-with-good-voice. Red-Cloud’s Census. The peculiar

angular divisions of the line may indicate the explosive character

of a dog’s bark as distinct from a long-drawn howl. Among the many

lines indicating voice which appear in the Dakota pictographs none has

been found identical with this, and therefore it probably has special

significance.

[Illustration: FIG. 1198.]

Fig. 1198.--Bear-that-growls. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure gives a

marked differentiation. The sound of growling does not appear to come

from the mouth, but from the lower part of the neck or the upper part of

the chest, from which the lines here are drawn to emanate. They are also

confined by a surrounding line, to suggest the occluded nature of the

sound.

[Illustration: FIG. 1199.--Speech. Ojibwa.]

Fig. 1199, from Copway (_b_), represents “speak.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1200.--Talk. Mexican.]

The Mexican pictograph, Fig. 1200, taken from Kingsborough (_n_), is

illustrative of the sign made by the Arikara and Hidatsa for “tell” and

“conversation.” “Tell me” is: Place the flat right hand, palm upward,

about 15 inches in front of the right side of the face, fingers pointing

to the left and front; then draw the hand inward toward and against the

bottom of the chin. For “conversation,” talking between two persons,

both hands are held before the breast, pointing forward, palms up, the

edges being moved several times toward one another. Perhaps, however,

the picture in fact only means the common poetical image of “flying

words.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1201.--Talk. Maya.]

Fig. 1201 is from Landa (_b_) and suggests one of the gestures for

“talk,” and more especially that for “sing,” in which the extended and

separated fingers are passed forward and slightly downward from the

mouth--“many voices.” Although late criticisms of the bishop’s work are

unfavorable to its authenticity, yet even if it were prepared by a Maya,

under his supervision, the latter would probably have given him some

genuine native conceptions, and among them gestures would be likely to

occur.

Gustav Eisen (_a_), in describing Fig. 1202, says:

[Illustration: FIG. 1202.--Talk. Guatemala.]

The original, from near Santa Lucia, Guatemala, represents a

sepulchral tablet, on which are seen the portraits of perhaps man

and wife, their different headdresses, etc., indicating decidedly

their different sexes. From the mouths of the respective portraits

extend as usual curved figures with notes or nodes.

DWELLINGS.

Irving (_c_) noticed fifty years ago that each tribe of Indians has a

different mode of shaping and arranging lodges, and especially that the

Omaha make theirs gay and fanciful with undulating bands of red and

yellow or with dressed and painted buffalo skins.

The left-hand upper characters of Fig. 1203 represents Dakota lodges as

drawn by the Hidatsa. These characters when carelessly or rudely drawn

can only be distinguished from personal marks by their position and

their relation to other characters.

[Illustration: FIG. 1203.--Dwellings.]

The right-hand upper characters of the same figure signify, among the

Hidatsa, earth lodges. The circles represent the ground plan of the

lodges, while the central markings are intended to represent the upright

poles, which support the roof on the interior. Some of these are similar

to the Kadiak drawing for island, Fig. 439.

The left-hand lower character of the figure represents buildings erected

by civilized men; the character is generally used by the Hidatsa to

designate government buildings and traders’ stores.

The remaining character is the Hidatsati, the home of the Hidatsa; an

inclosure having earth lodges within it.

[Illustration: FIG. 1204.]

Fig. 1204.--Dakotas and Rees meet in camp together and are at peace.

The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1792-’93. The two styles of dwellings, viz,

the tipi of the Dakotas and the earth lodge of the Arikaras, are

depicted.

[Illustration: FIG. 1205.]

Fig. 1205.--The Dakotas camped on the Missouri river, near the Gros

Ventres, and fought with them a long time. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count,

1792-’93. The Dakota tipi and the Gros Ventre lodge are shown in the

figure. The gun shows that war was raging.

[Illustration: FIG. 1206.]

Fig. 1206.--The Dakotas camped near the Rees and fought with them.

Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1795-’96. This figure is a variant of the

one foregoing.

[Illustration: FIG. 1207.]

Fig. 1207.--Some of the Dakotas built a large house and lived

in it during the winter. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1815-’16.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Made-a-house-winter.” It would seem to be a

larger dwelling than the ordinary tipi, and that wood entered into its

construction. This is made more clear by the figure next following.

[Illustration: FIG. 1208.]

Fig. 1208.--They lived in the same house that they did last winter.

Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1816-’17.

[Illustration: FIG. 1209.]

Fig. 1209.--Adobe houses were built by Maj. J. W. Wham, Indian agent

(afterwards paymaster, U. S. Army), on the Platte river, about 30

miles below Fort Laramie. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1871-’72.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Major-Wham’s-house-built-on-Platte-river

winter.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1210.]

Fig. 1210.--American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1815-’16. The figure is

intended to represent a white man’s house. Other forms are shown in

Lone-Dog’s Winter Count, Chap. X, sec. 2.

[Illustration: FIG. 1211.--Dwelling. Moki.]

Fig. 1211 shows different representations of Moki houses copied from a

petroglyph at Oakley Springs, Arizona.

Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in A Study of the Manuscript Troano, Contrib. N. A.

Ethn., Vol. V, p. 128, gives the following description of Fig. 1212:

[Illustration: FIG. 1212.--Dwelling. Maya.]

The side wall in Fig. 1212 appears to be composed of blocks of

some kind placed one upon another, probably of stone, each bearing

the _Muluc_ character. The character at the top of the wall with a

cross in it, somewhat resembling that in the symbol for _Ezanab_,

is very common in these figures. This probably marks the end of the

beam which was placed on the wall to support the roof. The curved

line running from this to the top portion probably represents the

rafter; the slender thread-like lines (yellow in the original) the

straw or grass with which the roof was thatched.

The checkered part may represent a matting of reeds or brushwood

on which the straw was placed.

[Illustration: FIG. 1213.--House. Egyptian.]

Champollion (_h_) gives the Egyptian characters for house, reproduced in

Fig. 1213.

ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

[Illustration: FIG. 1214.--Eclipse of the sun.]

Fig. 1214.--Dakotas witnessed eclipse of the sun; they were terribly

frightened. The sun is a dark globe and the stars appear. The-Swan’s

Winter Count, 1869-’70.

The left-hand design on the lower line of Pl. XLIX is reproduced from

Kingsborough. “In this year there was a great eclipse of the sun.”

Humboldt infers from this painting that the Mexicans were informed of

the real cause of the eclipses; which would not be at all surprising

considering the many other curious things with which they were

acquainted, the knowledge of which they must have derived from the

West. It is proper to observe that on the 127th page of the Vatican

MS., where a representation of the same eclipse occurs, the disk of the

moon does not appear to be projecting over that of the sun. The Vatican

MS. appears to have been copied from a Mexican painting similar to but

not the same as that which Pedro de los Rios copied, whose notes and

interpretations the Italian interpreter had before his eyes and strictly

followed.

METEORS.

This group shows the pictorial representation of meteors by the Dakotas.

The translations as well as the devices are suggestive.

[Illustration: FIG. 1215.]

Fig. 1215.--A large roaring star fell. It came from the east and

shot out sparks of fire along its course. Cloud-Shield’s Winter

Count, 1821-’22. Its track and the sparks are shown in the figure.

White-Cow-Killer says “One-star-made-a-great-noise winter.”

This and the three following figures evidently refer to the fall of a

single large meteor in the land of the Dakotas some time in the winter

of 1821-’22. The fact can not be verified by scientific records. There

were not many correspondents of scientific institutions in the upper

Missouri region at the date mentioned.

[Illustration: FIG. 1216.]

Fig. 1216.--Large ball of fire with hissing noise (aerolite).

The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1821-’22.

[Illustration: FIG. 1217.]

Fig. 1217.--Dakota Indians saw an immense meteor passing from southeast

to northwest, which exploded with great noise. The-Swan’s Winter Count,

1821-’22.

[Illustration: FIG. 1218.]

Battiste Good says for the same phenomenon:

“Star-passed-by-with-loud-noise winter.” His device is shown in Fig.

1218, showing the meteor, its pathway, and the clouds from which it came.

The five winter counts next cited all undoubtedly refer to the

magnificent meteoric display of the morning of November 13, 1833, which

was witnessed throughout North America and which was correctly assigned

to the winter corresponding with that of 1833-’34. All of them represent

stars having four points, except The-Swan, who draws a globular object

followed by a linear track.

[Illustration: FIG. 1219.]

Fig. 1219.--It rained stars. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1833-’34.

White-Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-stars winter.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1220.]

Fig. 1220.--The stars moved around. American-Horse’s Winter Count,

1833-’34. This shows one large four-pointed star as the characterizing

object and many small stars, also four-pointed.

[Illustration: FIG. 1221.]

Fig. 1221.--Many stars fell. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1833-’34. The

character shows six stars above the concavity of the moon.

[Illustration: FIG. 1222.]

Fig. 1222.--Dakotas witnessed magnificent meteoric showers; much

terrified. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1833-’34.

[Illustration: FIG. 1223.]

Battiste Good calls it “Storm-of-stars winter,” and gives as the device

a tipi with stars falling around it. This is presented in Fig. 1223. The

tipi is colored yellow in the original and so represented in the figure

according to the heraldic scheme.

[Illustration: FIG. 1224.--Meteors. Mexican.]

Fig. 1224 is taken from Kingsborough, I, Pls. XXIX and XXX. The

description, given in Codex Tell.-Rem., VI, p. 148, et seq., is as

follows: Regarding the left-hand device figure, “In the year of Three

Rabbits, or in 1534, Don Antonio de Mendoça arrived as Viceroy of New

Spain. They say that the star smoked.”

Regarding the lower figure: “In the year of Eleven Houses, or in

1529, Nuño de Guzman set out for Yalisco on his march to subdue

that territory; they pretend that a serpent descended from the sky,

exclaiming that troubles were preparing for the natives since the

Christians were directing their course thither.”

THE CROSS.

Referring to the numerous forms of cross delineated in the work of Mr.

W. H. Holmes (_d_), it is to be noted that most of them are equilateral

or the Greek pattern, and that similar ornaments or instruments now used

by the Dakotas are always worn so that the cross upon them stands as if

resting on one foot only and not on two, as is the mode in which St.

Andrew’s cross is drawn.

The “Greek” cross represents to the Dakota the four winds, which issue

from the four caverns in which the souls of men existed before their

incarnation in the human body. All “medicine-men,” i. e., conjurers

and magicians, recollect their previous dreamy life in those places

and the instructions then received from the gods, demons, and sages.

They recollect and describe their preexistent life, but only dream and

speculate as to the future life beyond the grave.

[Illustration: FIG. 1225.--Cross. Dakota.]

The top of the cross is the cold all-conquering giant, the North-wind,

most powerful of all. It is worn on the body nearest the head, the seat

of intelligence and conquering devices. The left arm covers the heart;

it is the East-wind, coming from the seat of life and love. The foot

is the melting burning South-wind, indicating, as it is worn, the seat

of fiery passion. The right arm is the gentle West-wind, blowing from

the spirit land, covering the lungs, from which the breath at last

goes out, gently, but into unknown night. The center of the cross is

the earth and man, moved by the conflicting influences of the gods and

winds. This cross is often illustrated as in Fig. 1225. It is sometimes

drawn and depicted in beadwork and also on copper, as in Fig. 1226,

extracted from the Second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., Pl. LII, Fig. 4, where

it appears cut out of a copper plate found in an Ohio mound.

[Illustration: FIG. 1226.--Cross. Ohio mound.]

But among some of the Indian tribes the true Latin cross is found, viz,

upright with three members of equal length, and the fourth, the foot,

much longer. The use of this symbol antedates the discovery of America,

and is carried far back in tradition and myth. When a missionary first

asked a Dakota the name of this figure, which he drew for him in the

sand, wishing to use the information in his translation of Bible and

Creed, the Dakota promptly replied Sus-be-ca, and retraced the figure

saying “That is a Sus-be-ca.” It was therefore promptly transferred to

Scripture and Creed where it still reads “He was nailed to the Susbeca,”

etc. “God forbid that I should glory save in the Susbeca of our Lord

Jesus Christ.” To the good missionary this was plain and satisfactory;

for the Dakota had demonstrated by tracing it in the sand that Susbeca

was the name of the figure called in English, “cross.” The foregoing

statement is made on the excellent authority of Rev. S. D. Hinman.

But when the Dakota read his new Bible or Creed, he must have been

puzzled or confused to find, “He was nailed to a mosquito-hawk,” or,

“God forbid that I should glory save in the mosquito-hawk of our Lord

Jesus Christ.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1227.--Dragon fly.]

The same disposition of straight lines which is called the Latin cross

was and is used by the Dakota to picture or signify both in pictograph

and gesture sign, the mosquito-hawk, more generally called dragon fly.

The Susbeca or mosquito-hawk is a supernatural being. He is gifted

with speech. He warns men of danger. He approaches the ear of the man

moving carelessly or unconcernedly through the deep grass of the meadow

or marsh--approaches his ear silently and at right angles, as shown in

Fig. 1227_a_, and says to him, now alarmed, “Tci”-“tci”-“tci!”--which

is an interjection equivalent to “Look out!” “You are surely going to

destruction!” “Look out!” “Tci”-“tci”-“tci!”

Now the mosquito-hawk is easily knocked down and caught and has a

temptingly small neck. But woe to the man or woman or child who with the

cruelty commonly practiced on all living things by Indians of all ages

and states, dares to wring off his head. Whoever shall do this before

the winter comes shall be beheaded by the detested Ojibwa. It is true,

for long ago a reckless young warrior feeling annoyed or insulted by

the infernal “Tci”-“tci”-“tci!” so unceremoniously uttered in explosive

breaths near his ear, tried it, and his headless trunk was found ere he

escaped from the swamp.

The cross has its proper significance in this use not only in

representing quite faithfully the shape of the insect but also the angle

of his approach. It is variously drawn, but usually as in Fig. 1227,

_a_, or _b_, and in painting or embroidery, _c_, and sometimes _d_.

One reason for the adoption of the dragon fly as a mysterious and

supernatural being, is on account of its sudden appearance in large

numbers. When in the still of the evening, before the shades of darkness

come, there is heard from the meadow a hum as of the sound of crickets

or frogs, but indistinct and prolonged; on the morrow the Susbeca will

be hovering over it; it is the sound of their coming, but whence no man

kens. See also Fig. 1165 and remarks.

Among the Ojibwa of northern Minnesota the cross is one of the sacred

symbols of the society of the Midē or shamans, and has special reference

to the fourth degree. A neophyte who has been advanced to the third

initiation or degree, is instructed in ritualistic chants purporting to

relate the struggle between Mi'nabō'zho, the mediator between the Ojibwa

and Ki'tshi Ma'nidō, and the malevolent Bear spirit, which contest

occurred when Mi'nabō'zho entered the fourth degree structure at the

time when the first Indian was inducted therein for initiation.

The structure as erected at this day is built in the form of an oblong

square having openings or doors at the four cardinal points. At these

openings Mi'nabō'zho appeared and shot into the inclosure charmed

arrows, to expel the horde of demons occupying the sacred place, and the

Bear spirit was the last to yield to his superior powers. The openings

being opposite to one another, north and south and east and west,

suggested to Mi'nabō'zho the cross, which is now erected whenever a

third degree Midē receives this last and highest honor.

The cross is made of saplings, the upright pole reaching the height of 4

to 6 feet, the transverse arms being somewhat shorter, each being of the

same length as that part of the pole between the arms and the top. The

upper parts are painted white, or besmeared with white clay, over which

are spread small spots of red, the latter suggesting the sacred shell or

mēgis, the symbol of the order. The lower arm or pole is squared, the

surface toward the east being painted white, to denote the source of

light and warmth. The face on the south is green, denoting the source

of the thunder bird who brings the rains and causes the appearance of

vegetation; the surface toward the west is covered with vermilion and

relates to the land of the setting sun, the abode of the dead. The

north is painted black, as that faces the direction from which come

affliction, cold, and hunger.

Illustrations and additional details on this topic are presented in the

paper of Dr. Hoffman (_a_).

In the chart presented in that paper, Pl. B, a midē' structure is also

shown, within which are a number of crosses, each of which designates

the spirit of a deceased midē priest.

Upon several birch-bark scrolls received from Ojibwa midē priests

are characters resembling rude crosses, which are merely intended to

designate wigwams, resembling in this respect similar characters made by

Hidatsa to designate Sioux lodges as shown in Fig. 1203.

[Illustration: FIG. 1228.--Crosses. Eskimo.]

Groups of small crosses incised upon ivory bow drills and representing

flocks of birds, occur on Eskimo specimens, Nos. 45020 and 44211, in

the collection of the U. S. National Museum. They are reproduced in

Fig. 1228. In Figs. 429 and 1129, representing petroglyphs at Oakley

Springs, Arizona, are crosses which are mentioned by Mr. G. K. Gilbert

as signifying stars. The simple cross appears to be the simplest type

of character to represent stellar forms. See Figs. 1219, 1220, 1221 and

1223.

Fig. 28, supra, represents a cross copied from the Najowe Valley group

of colored pictographs, 40 miles west of Santa Barbara, California. The

cross measures 10 inches in length, the interior portion being painted

black, while the outside or border is of a dark red tint. This drawing,

as well as numerous others in close connection, is painted on the walls

of a shallow cave or rock-shelter in the limestone formation.

Fourteen miles west of Santa Barbara, on the summit of the Santa Ynez

mountains, are caverns having a large opening, facing the northwest and

north, in which crosses occur of the types given in Fig. 33, supra.

The interior portion of the cross is of a dull, earthy red, while the

outside line is of a faded black tint. The cross measures nearly a foot

in extent.

[Illustration: FIG. 1229.--Cross. Tulare valley, California.]

At Tulare Indian agency, Tulare valley, California, is an immense

bowlder of granite which has become broken in such a manner that one of

the lower quarters has moved away from the larger mass sufficiently to

leave a passageway 6 feet wide and nearly 10 feet high. The interior

walls are well covered with large, painted figures, while upon the

ceiling are numerous forms of animals, birds, and insects. Among this

latter group is a white cross measuring about 18 inches in length, Fig.

1229, presenting a unique appearance, for the reason that white coloring

matter applied to petroglyphs is, with this single exception, entirely

absent in that region.

One of the most interesting series of rock sculpturings in groups is

that in Owens valley, south of Benton, California. Among these various

forms of crosses occur, and circles containing crosses of various simple

and complex types, as shown in Pls. I to XI and in Mojave desert,

California, illustrated in Fig. 19, but the examples of most interest in

the present connection are the two shown herewith in Fig. 1230, _a_ and

_b_.

[Illustration: FIG. 1230.--Crosses. Owens valley, California]

The larger one, _a_, occurs upon a large bowlder of trachyte, blackened

by exposure, located 16 miles south of Benton, at a locality known as

the Chalk Grade. The circle is a depression about 1 inch in depth, the

cross being in high relief within. Another smaller cross, _b_, found 3

miles north of the one above-mentioned, is almost identical, each of the

arms of the cross, however, extending to the rim of the circle.

In this locality occurs also the form of the cross _c_, in the same

figure, and some examples having more than two cross arms. Other simple

forms clearly represent the human form, but by erosion the arms and body

have become partially obliterated so as to lose all trace of resemblance

to humanity.

In the same figure, _d_, from a rock in the neighborhood, exhibits

the outline of the human form, while in _e_ parts of the extremities

have been removed by erosion so that the resemblance is less striking;

in _f_ a simple cross occurs, which may also have been intended to

represent the same, but through disintegration the extremities have

been so greatly changed or erased that their original forms can not be

determined.

Rev. John McLean (_a_) says: “On the sacred pole of the sun lodge of the

Blood Indians two bundles of small brushwood taken from the birch tree

were placed in the form of a cross. This was an ancient symbol evidently

referring to the four winds.”

Among the Kiatéxamut, an Innuit tribe, a cross placed on the head, as

in Fig. 1231, signifies a Shaman’s evil spirit or demon. This is an

imaginary being under control of the Shaman to execute the wishes of the

latter.

[Illustration: FIG. 1231.--Cross. Innuit.]

Many of the mescal eaters at the Kaiowa mescal ceremony wear the

ordinary Roman Catholic crucifixes, which they adopt as sacred emblems

of the rite, the cross representing the cross of scented leaves upon

which the consecrated mescal rests during the ceremony, while the human

figure is the mescal goddess.

Concerning Fig. 1232, Keam, in his MS., says:

[Illustration: FIG. 1232.--Crosses. Moki.]

The Maltese cross is the emblem of a virgin; still so recognized

by the Moki. It is a conventional development of a more common

emblem of maidenhood, the form in which the maidens wear their hair

arranged as a disk of 3 or 4 inches in diameter upon each side of

the head. This discoidal arrangement of their hair is typical of the

emblem of fructification worn by the virgin in the Muingwa festival,

as exhibited in the head-dress illustration _a_. Sometimes the hair,

instead of being worn in the complete discoid form, is dressed from

two curving twigs and presents the form of two semicircles upon each

side of the head. The partition of these is sometimes horizontal

and sometimes vertical. A combination of both of these styles, _b_,

presents the form from which the Maltese cross was conventionalized.

The brim decorations are of ornamental locks of hair which a maiden

trains to grow upon the sides of the forehead.

The ceremonial employment of the cross by the Pueblo is detailed in Mr.

Stevenson’s paper entitled Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical

Sand-painting of the Navajo Indians, in the Eighth Ann. Rept. Bur.

Ethn., p. 266, where it denotes the scalp-lock.

In the present paper the figure of the cross among the North American

Indians is presented under other headings with many differing

significations. Among other instances it appears on p. 383 as the

tribal sign for Cheyenne; on p. 582 as Dakota lodges; on p. 613 as the

character for trade or exchange; on p. 227 as the conventional sign for

prisoner; on p. 438 for personal exploits; while elsewhere it is used in

simple numeration.

But, although this device is used with a great variety of meanings,

when it is employed ceremonially or in elaborate pictographs by the

Indians both of North and South America, it represents the four winds.

The view long ago suggested that such was the significance of the many

Mexican crosses, is sustained by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in his Notes on

Maya and Mexican MSS., Second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., p. 61, where strong

confirmatory evidence is produced by the arms of the crosses having the

appearance of conventionalized wings, similar to some representations

of the thunder-bird by more northern tribes. Yet the same author, in

his paper on the Study of the MS. Troano, Contrib. N. A. Ethn., V,

144, gives Fig. 1233 as the symbol for wood, thus further showing the

manifold concepts attached to the general form.

[Illustration: FIG. 1233.--Crosses. Maya.]

Bandelier (_a_) thinks that the crosses which were frequently used

before the conquest by the aborigines of Mexico and Central America were

merely ornaments and were not objects of worship, while the so-called

crucifixes, like that on the “Palenque tablet,” were only the symbol of

the “new fire” or close of a period of fifty-two years. He believes them

to be merely representations of “fire-drills,” more or less ornamented.

Mr. W. H. Holmes (_e_) shows by a series representing steps in the

simplification of animal characters that in Chiriqui a symmetrical cross

was developed from the design of an alligator.

[Illustration: FIG. 1234.--Crosses. Nicaragua.]

Carl Bovallius (_a_) gives an illustration, copied here as Fig. 1234, of

pictographs in the island of Ceiba, Nicaragua.

Zamacois (_a_) says that “the cross figured in the religion of various

tribes of the peninsula of Yucatan and that it represented the god of

rain.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1235.--Cross. Guatemala.]

Dr. S. Habel (_f_), describing Fig. 1235, says:

On it is a person in a reclining position, with a single band

tied around his forehead, forming a knot with two pendent tassels.

From his temple rises an ornament resembling the wing of a bird.

The emaciated face, as well as the recumbent position of the body,

indicates a state of sickness. The hair is interwoven behind with

many ribbons forming loops, which are bound together by a clasp,

and then spread out in the shape of a fan. The ear is ornamented

with a circular disk, to the center of which are attached a plume

and a twisted ornament similar to a queue. On the breast is a kind

of brooch, which is hollow like a shell, and in which are imbedded

seven pearls. Around the waist are three rows of a twisted fabric,

which is knotted in front in a bow, the ends descending between

the thighs. Another band, of a different texture, stretches out

horizontally from the region of the above-mentioned knot. Attached

to this girdle is another fabric, of a scaly texture, which

surrounds the thighs. The right leg, below the knee, is encircled

with a ribbon and a rosette. This would seem to be the undress

substitute for the band and pendant. In front of the recumbent

person stands the representation of a skeleton, quite well executed.

Other points noticeable about this skeleton are the hair on the head

and the fact that its hands are fleshy and the fingers and toes have

nails. Like all representations by these sculptures, the skeleton is

also embellished with ornaments.

From the back of the head emanate two objects similar to horns,

which, if they were not differently ribbed, might represent flames.

The ear is ornamented with a circular disk, with a pendant from its

center. A double-ruffled collar surrounds the neck and a serpent

encircles the loins. Both the shoulders and arms are enveloped in

flames. From the mouth emanates a bent staff, touching the first of

a row of ten circles. Beneath the second and third circles are five

bars, three of which are horizontal. The lowest one is the longest,

while the two upper ones are shorter and of different lengths. On

the uppermost of these bars rest two others, crossing each other

obliquely, and touching with their upper ends two of the aforesaid

circles. From the last of these circles descend serpentine lines,

which touch the ground behind the recumbent person.

Gustav Eisen, op. cit., describing Fig. 1236, says:

From near Santa Lucia, Guatemala, is a stone tablet, most likely

a sepulchral tablet, having in its center a forced dead head, with

outstretched tongue. Above the same are seen two crossed bars,

perhaps meant to represent two crossed bones.

[Illustration: FIG. 1236.--Cross. Guatemala.]

W. F. Wakeman (_a_) makes the following remarks:

A cross was used by the people of Erin as a symbol of some

significance at a period long antecedent to the mission of St.

Patrick or the introduction of Christianity to this island. It is

found, not unfrequently, amongst the scribings picked or carved

upon rock surfaces and associated with a class of archaic designs,

to the meaning of which we possess no key. * * * It may be seen on

prehistoric monuments in America, on objects of pottery found by Dr.

Schliemann at Hissarlik and at Mycenæ, and, in more than one form,

on pagan Roman altars still preserved in Germany and Britain. With

the Chinese it was for untold ages a symbol of the earth. The Rev.

Samuel Beal, B. A., rector of Flastone, North Tyrone, professor of

Chinese in University College, London, writes: “Now, the earliest

symbol of the earth was a plain cross, denoting the four cardinal

points; hence we have the word chaturanta, i. e., the four sides,

both in Pâli and Sanscrit, for the earth; and on the Nestorian

tablet, found at Siganfu some years ago, the mode of saying “God

created the earth” is simply this: “God created the +.””

A writer in the Edinburgh Review in an article entitled “The

Pre-Christian Cross,” January, 1870, p. 254, remarks: “The Buddhists

and Brahmins who together constitute nearly half the population of the

world, tell us that the decussated figure of the cross, whether in a

simple or complex form, symbolizes the traditional happy abode of their

primeval ancestors.”

[Illustration: FIG. 1237.--Crosses. Sword-maker’s marks.]

Rudolf Cronau (_c_), describing Fig. 1237, says that in the Berlin

Zeughause are swords of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, bearing

the marks shown in _a_, _b_, _c_, and _d_, while those having the marks

_e_ and _f_ are from swords in the Historical Museum at Dresden.

The remarkable resemblance of some of these characters to forms on

petroglyphs in the three Americas, presented in this paper, will at once

be noticed.

D’Alviella (_c_), remarks:

One of the most frequent forms of the cross is called the gamma

cross, because its four arms are bent at a right angle so as to form

a figure like that of four Greek gammas turned in the same direction

and joined at the base. We meet it among all the peoples of the Old

World, from Japan to Iceland, and it is found in the two Americas.

There is nothing to prevent us from supposing that in the instance

it was spontaneously conceived everywhere, like the equilateral

crosses, circles, triangles, chevrons, and other geometrical

ornaments so frequent in primitive decoration. But we see it, at

least among the peoples of the Old Continent, invariably passing for

talisman, appearing in the funeral scenes or on the tombstones of

Greece, Scandinavia, Numidia, and Thibet, and adorning the breasts

of divine personages--of Apollo and Buddha--without forgetting

certain representations of the Good Shepherd in the Catacombs.

It is, however, impossible within the present limits, to attempt even

a summary of the vast amount of literature on this topic. Perhaps one

symbolic use of the form which is not commonly known is of sufficient

interest to be noted. Travelers say that crosses are exhibited in the

curtains of the monasteries of the Thibetan Buddhists, to mean peace and

quietness. With the same conception the loopholes of the Japanese forts

were in time of peace covered with curtains embroidered with crosses,

which when war broke out were removed.

It is also impossible to refrain from quoting the following, translated

with condensation, from de Mortillet (_a_). The illustration referred to

is reproduced in the present paper by Fig. 1238, the right-hand figure

being from the vase, and that on the left the recognized monogram of

Christ:

[Illustration: FIG. 1238.--Cross. Golasecca.]

There can no longer be any doubt as to the use of the cross as a

religious symbol long before the advent of Christianity. The worship

of the cross, extensive throughout Gaul before the conquest, already

existed during the bronze age, more than a thousand years before

Christ.

It is especially in the sepulchres of Golasecca that this

worship is revealed in the most complete manner, and there, strange

to say, has been found a vessel bearing the ancient monogram of

Christ, designed perhaps 1,000 years before the coming of Jesus

Christ. Is the isolated presence of this monogram of Christ in the

midst of numerous crosses, an entirely accidental coincidence?