Part 2

FIGURE 1.--Petroglyphs at Oakley Springs, Arizona 30 2.--Deep carvings in Guiana 42 3.--Shallow carvings in Guiana 43 4.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Beaver 47 5.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Bear 47 6.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Mountain sheep 47 7.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Three Wolf heads 47 8.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Three Jackass rabbits 47 9.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Cotton-tail rabbit 47 10.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Bear tracks 47 11.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Eagle 47 12.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Eagle tails 47 13.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Turkey tail 47 14.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Horned toads 47 15.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Lizards 47 16.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Butterfly 47 17.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Snakes 47 18.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Rattlesnake 47 19.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Deer track 47 20.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Three Bird tracks 47 21.--Rock etchings at Oakley Springs, Arizona: Bitterns 47 22.--Bronze head from the necropolis of Marzabotto, Italy 62 23.--Fragment of bowl from Troja 63 24.--Haida totem post, Queen Charlotte’s Island 68 25.--Haida man, tattooed 69 26.--Haida woman, tattooed 69 27.--Haida woman, tattooed 70 28.--Haida man, tattooed 70 29.--Skulpin (right leg of Fig. 26) 71 30.--Frog (left leg of Fig. 26) 71 31.--Cod (breast of Fig. 25) 71 32.--Squid (Octopus), (thighs of Fig. 25) 71 33.--Wolf, enlarged (back of Fig. 28) 71 34.--Tattoo designs on bone, from New Zealand 74 35.--New Zealand tattooed head and chin mark 75 36.--New Zealand tattooed woman 75 37.--Australian grave and carved trees 76 38.--Osage chart 86 39.--Device denoting succession of time. Dakota 88 40.--Device denoting succession of time. Dakota 89 41.--Measles or Smallpox. Dakota 110 42.--Meteor. Dakota 111 43.--River freshet. Dakota 113 44.--Meteoric shower. Dakota 116 45.--The-Teal-broke-his-leg. Dakota 119 46.--Magic Arrow. Dakota 141 47.--Notice of hunt. Alaska 147 48.--Notice of departure. Alaska 148 49.--Notice of hunt. Alaska 149 50.--Notice of direction. Alaska 149 51.--Notice of direction. Alaska 150 52.--Notice of direction. Alaska 150 53.--Notice of distress. Alaska 152 54.--Notice of departure and refuge. Alaska 152 55.--Notice of departure to relieve distress. Alaska 153 56.--Ammunition wanted. Alaska 154 57.--Assistance wanted in hunt. Alaska 154 58.--Starving hunters. Alaska 154 59.--Starving hunters. Alaska 155 60.--Lean Wolf’s map. Hidatsa 158 61.--Letter to “Little-man” from his father. Cheyenne 160 62.--Drawing of smoke signal. Alaska 161 63.--Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 162 64.--Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 162 65.--Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 162 66.--Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 163 67.--Tesuque Diplomatic Packet 163 68.--Dakota pictograph: for Kaiowa 165 69.--Dakota pictograph: for Arikara 166 70.--Dakota pictograph: for Omaha 166 71.--Dakota pictograph: for Pawnee 166 72.--Dakota pictograph: for Assiniboine 166 73.--Dakota pictograph: for Gros Ventre 166 74.--Lean-Wolf as “Partisan” 168 75.--Two-Strike as “Partisan” 169 76.--Lean-Wolf (personal name) 172 77.--Pointer. Dakota 172 78.--Shadow. Dakota 173 79.--Loud-Talker. Dakota 173 80.--Boat Paddle. Arikara 182 81.--African property mark 182 82.--Hidatsa feather marks: First to strike enemy 184 83.--Hidatsa feather marks: Second to strike enemy 184 84.--Hidatsa feather marks: Third to strike enemy 184 85.--Hidatsa feather marks: Fourth to strike enemy 184 86.--Hidatsa feather marks: Wounded by an enemy 184 87.--Hidatsa feather marks: Killed a woman 184 88.--Dakota feather marks: Killed an enemy 185 89.--Dakota feather marks: Cut throat and scalped 185 90.--Dakota feather marks: Cut enemy’s throat 185 91.--Dakota feather marks: Third to strike 185 92.--Dakota feather marks: Fourth to strike 185 93.--Dakota feather marks: Fifth to strike 185 94.--Dakota feather marks: Many wounds 185 95.--Successful defense. Hidatsa, etc. 186 96.--Two successful defenses. Hidatsa, etc. 186 97.--Captured a horse. Hidatsa, etc. 186 98.--First to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187 99.--Second to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187 100.--Third to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187 101.--Fourth to strike an enemy. Hidatsa 187 102.--Fifth to strike an enemy. Arikara 187 103.--Struck four enemies. Hidatsa 187 104.--Thunder bird. Dakota 188 105.--Thunder bird. Dakota 188 106.--Thunder bird (wingless). Dakota 189 107.--Thunder bird (in beads). Dakota 189 108.--Thunder bird. Haida 190 109.--Thunder bird. Twana 190 110.--Ivory record, Shaman exorcising demon. Alaska 191 111.--Ivory record, Supplication for success. Alaska 192 111_a_.--Shaman’s Lodge. Alaska 196 112.--Alaska votive offering 197 113.--Alaska grave-post 198 114.--Alaska grave-post 199 115.--Alaska village and burial grounds 199 116.--New Zealand grave effigy 200 117.--New Zealand grave-post 201 118.--New Zealand house posts 201 119.--Mdewakantawan fetich 202 120.--Ottawa pipe-stem 204 121.--Walrus hunter. Alaska 205 122.--Alaska carving with records 205 123.--Origin of Brulé. Dakota 207 124.--Running Antelope: Killed one Arikara 208 125.--Running Antelope: Shot and scalped an Arikara 209 126.--Running Antelope: Shot an Arikara 209 127.--Running Antelope: Killed two warriors 210 128.--Running Antelope: Killed ten men and three women 210 129.--Running Antelope: Killed two chiefs 211 130.--Running Antelope: Killed one Arikara 211 131.--Running Antelope: Killed one Arikara 212 132.--Running Antelope: Killed two Arikara hunters 212 133.--Running Antelope: Killed five Arikara 213 134.--Running Antelope: Killed an Arikara 213 135.--Record of hunt. Alaska 214 136.--Shoshoni horse raid 215 137.--Drawing on buffalo shoulder-blade. Camanche 216 138.--Cross-Bear’s death 217 139.--Bark record from Red Lake, Minnesota 218 140.--Sign for pipe. Dakota 219 141.--Plenty buffalo meat. Dakota 219 142.--Plenty buffalo meat. Dakota 220 143.--Pictograph for Trade. Dakota 220 144.--Starvation. Dakota 220 145.--Starvation. Ottawa and Pottawatomi 221 146.--Pain. Died of “Whistle.” Dakota 221 147.--Example of Algonkian petroglyphs, from Millsborough, Pennsylvania 224 148.--Example of Algonkian petroglyphs, from Hamilton Farm, West Virginia 225 149.--Example of Algonkian petroglyphs, from Safe Harbor, Pennsylvania 226 150.--Example of Western Algonkian petroglyphs, from Wyoming 227 151.--Example of Shoshonian petroglyphs, from Idaho 228 152.--Example of Shoshonian petroglyphs, from Idaho 229 153.--Example of Shoshonian petroglyphs, from Utah 230 154.--Example of Shoshonian rock painting, from Utah 230 155.--Rock painting, from Tule River, California 235 156.--Sacred inclosure from Arizona. Moki 237 157.--Ceremonial head-dress. Moki 237 158.--Houses. Moki 237 159.--Burden-sticks. Moki 238 160.--Arrows. Moki 238 161.--Blossoms. Moki 238 162.--Lightning. Moki 238 163.--Clouds. Moki 238 164.--Clouds with rain. Moki 238 165.--Stars, Moki 238 166.--Sun. Moki 239 167.--Sunrise. Moki, 239 168.--Drawing of Dakota lodges, by Hidatsa 240 169.--Drawing of earth lodges, by Hidatsa 240 170.--Drawing of white man’s house, by Hidatsa 240 171.--Hidatsati, the home of the Hidatsa 240 172.--Horses and man. Arikara 240 173.--Dead man. Arikara 240 174.--Second to strike enemy. Hidatsa 240 175.--Third to strike enemy. Hidatsa 240 176.--Scalp taken. Hidatsa 240 177.--Enemy struck and gun captured. Hidatsa 240 178.--Mendota drawing. Dakota 241 179.--Symbol of war. Dakota 241 180.--Captives. Dakota 242 181.--Circle of men. Dakota 242 182.--Shooting from river banks. Dakota 242 183.--Panther. Haida 242 184.--Wolf head. Haida 243 185.--Drawings on an African knife 243 186.--Conventional characters: Men. Arikara 244 187.--Conventional characters: Man. Innuit 244 188.--Conventional characters: Dead man. Satsika 244 189.--Conventional characters: Man addressed. Innuit 244 190.--Conventional characters: Man. Innuit 244 191.--Conventional characters: Man. From Tule River, California 244 192.--Conventional characters: Man. From Tule River, California 244 193.--Conventional characters: Disabled man. Ojibwa 244 194.--Conventional characters: Shaman. Innuit 245 195.--Conventional characters: Supplication. Innuit 245 196.--Conventional characters: Man. Ojibwa 245 197.--Conventional characters: Spiritually enlightened man. Ojibwa 245 198.--Conventional characters: A wabeno. Ojibwa 245 199.--Conventional characters: An evil Meda. Ojibwa 245 200.--Conventional characters: A Meda. Ojibwa 245 201.--Conventional characters: Man. Hidatsa 245 202.--Conventional characters: Headless body. Ojibwa 245 203.--Conventional characters: Headless body. Ojibwa 245 204.--Conventional characters: Man. Moki 245 205.--Conventional characters: Man. From Siberia 245 206.--Conventional characters: Superior knowledge. Ojibwa 246 207.--Conventional characters: An American. Ojibwa 246 208.--Specimen of imitated pictograph 249 209.--Symbols of cross 252

ON THE PICTOGRAPHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

BY GARRICK MALLERY.

INTRODUCTORY.

A pictograph is a writing by picture. It conveys and records an idea or occurrence by graphic means without the use of words or letters. The execution of the pictures of which it is composed often exhibits the first crude efforts of graphic art, and their study in that relation is of value. When pictures are employed as writing the conception intended to be presented is generally analyzed, and only its most essential points are indicated, with the result that the characters when frequently repeated become conventional, and in their later forms cease to be recognizable as objective portraitures. This exhibition of conventionalizing also has its own import in the history of art.

Pictographs are considered in the present paper chiefly in reference to their significance as one form of thought-writing directly addressed to the sight, gesture-language being the other and probably earlier form. So far as they are true ideographs they are the permanent, direct, visible expression of ideas of which gesture-language gives the transient expression. When adopted for syllabaries or alphabets, which is known to be the historical course of evolution in that regard, they have ceased to be the direct and have become the indirect expression of the ideas framed in oral speech. The writing common in civilization records sounds directly, not primarily thoughts, the latter having first been translated into sounds. The trace of pictographs in the latter use shows the earlier and predominant conceptions.

The importance of the study of pictographs depends upon their examination as a phase in the evolution of human culture, or as containing valuable information to be ascertained by interpretation.

The invention of alphabetic writing being by general admission the great step marking the change from barbarism into civilization, the history of its earlier development must be valuable. It is inferred from internal evidence that picture-writing preceded and originated the graphic systems of Egypt, Nineveh, and China, but in North America its use is still modern and current. It can be studied there, without any requirement of inference or hypothesis, in actual existence as applied to records and communications. Furthermore, its transition into signs of sound is apparent in the Aztec and the Maya characters, in which stage it was only arrested by foreign conquest. The earliest lessons of the birth and growth of culture in this most important branch of investigation can therefore be best learned from the Western Hemisphere. In this connection it may be noticed that picture-writing is found in sustained vigor on the same continent where sign-language has prevailed or continued in active operation to an extent unknown in other parts of the world. These modes of expression, _i. e._, transient and permanent idea-writing, are so correlated in their origin and development that neither can be studied with advantage to the exclusion of the other.

The limits assigned to this paper allow only of its comprehending the Indians north of Mexico, except as the pictographs of other peoples are introduced for comparison. Among these no discovery has yet been made of any of the several devices, such as the rebus, or the initial, adopted elsewhere, by which the element of sound apart from significance has been introduced.

The first stage of picture-writing as recognized among the Egyptians was the representation of a material object in such style or connection as determined it not to be a mere portraiture of that object, but figurative of some other object or person. This stage is abundantly exhibited among the Indians. Indeed, their personal and tribal names thus objectively represented constitute the largest part of their picture-writing so far thoroughly understood.

The second step gained by the Egyptians was when the picture became used as a symbol of some quality or characteristic. It can be readily seen how a hawk with bright eye and lofty flight might be selected as a symbol of divinity and royalty, and that the crocodile should denote darkness, while a slightly further step in metaphysical symbolism made the ostrich feather, from the equality of its filaments, typical of truth. It is evident from examples given in the present paper that the North American tribes at the time of the Columbian discovery had entered upon this second step of picture-writing, though with marked inequality between tribes and regions in advance therein. None of them appear to have reached such proficiency in the expression of connected ideas by picture as is shown in the sign-language existing among some of them, in which even conjunctions and prepositions are indicated. Still many truly ideographic pictures are known.

A consideration relative to the antiquity of mystic symbolism, and its position in the several culture-periods, arises in this connection. It appears to have been an outgrowth of human thought, perhaps in the nature of an excrescence, useful for a time, but abandoned after a certain stage of advancement.

A criticism has been made on the whole subject of pictography by Dr. Richard Andree, who, in his work, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, Stuttgart, 1878, has described and figured a large number of examples of petroglyphs, a name given by him to rock-drawings and adopted by the present writer. His view appears to be that these figures are frequently the idle marks which, among civilized people, boys or ignorant persons cut with their pen-knives on the desks and walls of school-rooms, or scrawl on the walls of lanes and retired places. From this criticism, however, Dr. Andree carefully excludes the pictographs of the North American Indians, his conclusion being that those found in other parts of the world generally occupy a transition stage lower than that conceded for the Indians. It is possible that significance may yet be ascertained in many of the characters found in other regions, and perhaps this may be aided by the study of those in North America; but no doubt should exist that the latter have purpose and meaning. Any attempt at the relegation of such pictographs as are described in the present paper, and have been the subject of the study of the present writer, to any trivial origin can be met by a thorough knowledge of the labor and pains which were necessary in the production of some of the petroglyphs described.

All criticism in question with regard to the actual significance of North American pictographs is still better met by their practical use by historic Indians for important purposes, as important to them as the art of writing, of which the present paper presents a large number of conclusive examples. It is also known that when they now make pictographs it is generally done with intention and significance.

Even when this work is undertaken to supply the demand for painted robes as articles of trade it is a serious manufacture, though sometimes imitative in character and not intrinsically significant. All other instances known in which pictures are made without original design, as indicated under the several classifications of this paper, are when they are purely ornamental; but in such cases they are often elaborate and artistic, never the idle scrawls above mentioned. A main object of this paper is to call attention to the subject in other parts of the world, and to ascertain whether the practice of pictography does not still exist in some corresponding manner beyond what is now published.