XI. NOTICES
This is an important division of the purposes for which pictographs are used. The pictographs and the objective devices antecedent to them under this head may be grouped as follows: 1st. Notice of visit, departure, and direction. 2d. Direction by drawing topographic features. 3d. Notice of condition. 4th. Warning and guidance.
SECTION 1.
NOTICE OF VISIT, DEPARTURE, AND DIRECTION.
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the U. S. Geological Survey, discovered drawings at Oakley spring, Yavapai County, Arizona, in 1878. He remarks that an Oraibi chief explained them to him and said that the “Mokis make excursions to a locality in the canyon of the Colorado Chiquito to get salt. On their return they stop at Oakley spring and each Indian makes a picture on the rock. Each Indian draws his crest or totem, the symbol of his gens (?). He draws it once, and once only, at each visit.” Mr. Gilbert adds, further, that--
There are probably some exceptions to this, but the drawings show its general truth. There are a great many repetitions of the same sign and from two to ten will often appear in a row. In several instances I saw the end drawings of a row quite fresh while the others were not so. Much of the work seems to have been performed by pounding with a hard point, but a few pictures are scratched on. Many drawings are weather-worn beyond recognition, and others are so fresh that the dust left by the tool has not been washed away by rain. Oakley spring is at the base of the Vermilion cliff, and the etchings are on fallen blocks of sandstone, a homogeneous, massive, soft sandstone. Tubi, the Oraibi chief above referred to, says his totem is the rain cloud, but it will be made no more, as he is the last survivor of the gens.
A group from Oakley spring, of which Fig. 437 is a copy, furnished by Mr. Gilbert, measures 6 feet in length and 4 feet in height. Interpretations of several of the separated characters are given in Chapter XXI, infra.
Champlain (b) reports:
Quelque marque ou signal par où ayont passé leurs ennemis, ou leurs amis, ce qu’ils cognoissent par de certaines marques que les chefs se donnent d’une nation a l’autre, qui ne sont pas toujours semblables, s’advertisans de temps en temps quand ils en changent; et par ce moyen ils recognoissent si ce sont amis ou ennemis qui ont passé.
A notice of departure, direction, and purpose made in 1810 by Algonquins, of the St. Lawrence River, is described by John Merrick in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society (a), of which the following is an abstract;
It was drawn with charcoal on a chip cut from a spruce tree and wedged firmly into the top of a stake. It represented two male Indians paddling a canoe in an attitude of great exertion, and in the canoe were bundles of baggage and a squaw with a papoose; over all was a bird on the wing ascertained to be a loon. The whole was interpreted by an Indian pilot on the St. Lawrence, to be a Wickheegan or Awickheegan, and that it was left by a party of Indians for the information of their friends. The attitude of exertion showed that the party, consisting of two men, a woman, and a child, were going upstream. They intended to remain during the whole period allotted by Indians to the kind of hunting which was then in season, because they had all their furniture and family in the canoe. The loon expressed the intention to go without stopping anywhere before they arrived at the hunting ground, as the loon, from the shortness of its legs, walking with great difficulty, never alighted on its way.
The following account is from Doc. Hist. N.Y. (a).
When they go to war and wish to inform those of the party who may pass their path, they make a representation of the animal of their tribe, with a hatchet in his dexter paw; sometimes a saber or a club; and if there be a number of tribes together of the same party, each draws the animal of his tribe, and their number, all on a tree from which they remove the bark. The animal of the tribe which heads the expedition is always the foremost.
The three following figures show the actual use of the wikhegan by the Abnaki in the last generation. Wikhegan is a Passamaquoddy word which corresponds in meaning nearly to our missive, or letter, being intelligence conveyed to persons at a distance by marks on a piece of birch bark, which may be either sent to the person or party with whom it is desired to hold communication, or may be left in a conspicuous place for such persons to notice on their expected arrival. In the cases now figured the wikhegan was left as notice of departure and direction. They were made at different times by the brother, now dead, of Big Raven, baptized as Noel Joseph, who lived all alone on Long Lake, a few miles from Princeton, Maine. He would not have anything to do with civilization, and subsisted by hunting and fishing in the old fashion, nor would he learn a word of French or English. When he would go on any long expedition his custom was to tie to a stick conspicuously attached to his wigwam a small roll of birch bark, with the wikhegan on it for the information of his friends.
The upper device of Fig. 438 means, I am going across the lake to hunt deer.
The middle device means, I am going towards the lake and will turn off at the point where there is a pointer, before reaching the lake.
The lower device means, I am going hunting--will be gone all winter, the last information indicated by snowshoes and packed sledge.
The following description of a pictograph on the Pacific coast is extracted from Dr. Gibbs’ (a) account, “Tribes of Western Washington,” etc., Contrib. to N. A. Ethn. I, p. 222, of the Sound tribes.
A party of Snakes are going to hunt strayed horses. A figure of a man, with a long queue or scalp lock, reaching to his heels, denoted Shoshone; that tribe being in the habit of braiding horse or other hair into their own in that manner. A number of marks follow, signifying the strength of the party. A footprint, pointing in the direction they take, shows their course, and a hoof mark turned backward, that they expect to return with animals. If well armed, and expecting a possible attack, a little powder mixed with sand tells that they are ready, or a square dotted about the figures indicates that they have fortified. These pictographs are often an object of study to decipher the true meaning. The shrewder or more experienced old men consult over them. It is not everyone that is sufficiently versed in the subject to decide correctly.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman obtained the original of the accompanying drawing, Fig. 439, from Naumoff, an Alaskan, in San Francisco in 1882; also the interpretation.
The drawing was in imitation of similar ones made by the natives to inform their visitors or friends of their departure for a purpose designated. They are depicted upon strips of wood, which are placed in conspicuous places near the doors of the habitations.
The following is the explanation of the characters: a, the speaker, with the right hand indicating himself and with the left pointing in the direction to be taken; b, holding a boat-paddle, going by boat; c, the right hand to the side of the head, to denote sleep, and the left elevated with one finger erect to signify one night; d, a circle with two marks in the middle, signifying an island with huts upon it; e, same as a; f, a circle to denote another island; g, same as c, with an additional finger elevated, signifying two nights; h, the speaker, with his harpoon, making the sign of a sea-lion with the left hand. The flat hand is held edgewise with the thumb elevated, then pushed outward from the body in a slightly downward curve. At i is represented a sea-lion; j, shooting with bow and arrow; k, the boat with two persons in it, the paddles projecting downward; l, the winter or permanent habitation of the speaker.
The following, Fig. 440, is of a similar nature to the preceding, and was obtained under similar circumstances.
The explanation of the above characters is as follows:
The letters a, c, e, g, represent the person spoken to.
b. Indicates the speaker with his right hand to the side or breast, indicating self, the left hand pointing in the direction in which he is going.
d. Both hands elevated, with fingers and thumbs signifies many, according to the informant. When the hands are thus held up, in sign-language, it signifies ten, but when they are brought toward and backward from one another, many.
f. The right hand is placed to the head to denote sleep--many sleeps, or, in other words, many nights and days; the left hand points downward, at that place.
h. The right hand is directed toward the starting point, while the left is brought upward toward the head--to go home, or whence he came.
The drawing presented in Fig. 441 was made by a native Alaskan, and represents information to the effect that the artist contemplates making a journey to hunt deer. The drawing is made upon a narrow strip of wood, and placed on or near the door of the house, where visitors will readily perceive it.
In this figure the curves a a represent the contour lines of the country and mountain peaks; b, native going away from home; c, stick placed on hilltop, with bunch of grass attached, pointing in the direction he has taken; d, native of another settlement, with whom the traveler remained over night; e, lodge; f, line representing the end of the first day, i. e., the time between two days; rest; g, traveler again on the way; h, making signal that on second day (right hand raised with two extended fingers) he saw game (deer, i,) on a hilltop, which he secured, so terminating his journey; i, deer.
Figs. 442, 443, and 444 were drawn by Naumoff and signify “Have gone home.”
His explanation of this figure is as follows:
When one of a hunting party is about to return home and wishes to inform his companions that he has started, he ascends the hilltop nearest to which they became separated, where he ties a bunch of grass or other light-colored material to the top of a long stick or pole. The lower end of the stick is placed firmly in the ground, leaning in the direction taken. When another hill is ascended, another stick with similar attachment is erected, again leaning in the direction to be taken. These sticks are placed at proper intervals until the village is sighted. This device is employed by Southern Alaskan Indians.
He explained Fig. 443 as follows:
Seal hunters thus inform their comrades that they have returned to the settlement. The first to return to the regular landing place sometimes sticks a piece of wood into the ground, leaning toward the village, upon which is drawn or scratched the outline of a baidarka, or skin canoe, heading toward one or more outlines of lodges, signifying that the occupants of the boat have gone toward their homes.
This device is used by coast natives of Southern Alaska and Kadiak. He explained Fig. 444 as follows:
When hunters become separated, the one first returning to the forks of the trail puts a piece of wood in the ground, on the top of which he makes an incision, into which a short piece of wood is secured horizontally, so as to point in the direction taken.
Maj. Long--Keating’s Long (a)--says:
When we stopped to dine, White Thunder (the Winnebago chief that accompanied me), suspecting that the rest of his party were in the neighborhood, requested a piece of paper, pen, and ink, to communicate to them the intelligence of his having come up with me. He then seated himself and drew three rude figures, which, at my request, he explained to me. The first represented my boat with a mast and flag, with three benches of oars and a helmsman. To show that we were Americans, our heads were represented by a rude cross, indicating that we wore hats. The representation of himself was a rude figure of a bear over a kind of cipher, representing a hunting ground. The second figure was designed to show that his wife was with him; the device was a boat with a squaw seated in it; over her head lines were drawn in a zigzag direction, indicating that she was the wife of White Thunder. The third was a boat with a bear sitting at the helm, showing that an Indian of that name [or of the bear gens] had been seen on his way up the river and had given intelligence where the party were. This paper he set up at the mouth of Kickapoo creek, up which the party had gone on a hunting trip.
An ingenious mode of giving intelligence is practiced at this day by the Abnaki, as reported by H. L. Masta, chief of that tribe, lately living at Pierreville, Quebec. When they are in the woods, to say “I am going to the east,” a stick is stuck in the ground pointing in that direction, Fig. 445, a. “I am not gone far,” another stick is stuck across the former, close to the ground, same figure, b. “Gone far” is the reverse, same figure, c. The number of days’ journey of proposed absence is shown by the same number of sticks across the first; thus, same figure, d, signifies five days’ journey.
Fig. 446, scratched on birch bark, was given to the present writer at Fredericton, New Brunswick, in August, 1888, by Gabriel Acquin, an Amalecite, then 66 years old, who spoke English quite well. The circumstances under which it was made and used are in the Amalecite’s words, as follows:
“When I was about 18 years old I lived at a village 11 miles above Fredericton and went with canoe and gun. I canoed down to Washademoak lake, about 40 miles below Fredericton; then took river until it became too narrow for canoe; then ‘carried’ to Buctoos river; followed down to bay of Chaleur; went up the northwest Mirimachi, and ‘carried’ into the Nepisigiut. There spent the summer. On that river met a friend of my time; we camped there.
“One time while I was away my friend had gone down the river by himself and had not left any wikhe'gan for me. I had planned to go off and left for him this wikhe'gan, to tell where I would be and how long gone. The wigwam at the lower left-hand corner showed the one used by us, with the river near it. The six notches over the door of the wigwam meant that I would be gone six days. The canoe and man nearest to the wigwam referred to my friend, who had gone in the opposite direction to that I intended to travel. Next to it I was represented in my own canoe, with rain falling, to show the day I started, which was very rainy. Then the canoe carried by me by a trail through woods shows the ‘carry’ to Nictaux lake, beside which is a very big mountain. I stayed at that lake for six days, counting the outgoing and returning. As I had put the wikhe'gan in the wigwam before I started, my friend on his return understood all about me, and, counting six from and including the rainy day, knew just when I was coming back, and was waiting for me.”
The chief point of interest in this notice is the ingenious mode of fixing the date of departure. The marks for rain are nearly obliterated, but it flows from the man’s hair. The topography is also delineated.
The following is extracted from James Long’s Expedition (b):
On the bank of the Platte river was a semicircular row of sixteen bison skulls, with their noses pointing down the river. Near the center of the circle which this row would describe, if continued, was another skull marked with a number of red lines.
Our interpreter informed us that this arrangement of skulls and other marks here discovered were designed to communicate the following information, namely, that the camp had been occupied by a war party of the Skeeree or Pawnee Loup Indians, who had lately come from an excursion against the Cumancias, Ietans, or some of the western tribes. The number of red lines traced on the painted skull indicated the number of the party to have been thirty-six; the position in which the skulls were placed, that they were on their return to their own country. Two small rods stuck in the ground, with a few hairs tied in two parcels to the end of each, signified that four scalps had been taken.
When a hunting party of the Hidatsa arrived at any temporary camping ground from which some of them had left on a short reconnoitering expedition, the remainder, having occasion to move, erect a pole and cause it to lean in the direction taken. At the foot of this pole a buffalo shoulder blade or other flat bone is placed, upon which is depicted the reason of departure; e. g. should buffalo or antelope be seen, the animal is drawn with a piece of charred wood or red lead.
When a Hidatsa party has gone on the warpath, and a certain number is detailed to take another direction, the point of separation is taken as the rendezvous. After the return of the first party to the rendezvous, should the second not come up in a reasonable length of time, they will set sticks in the ground leaning in the direction to be taken, and notches are cut into the upper ends of the sticks to represent the number of nights spent there by the waiting party.
A party of Hidatsa who may be away from home for any purpose whatever often appoint a rendezvous, from which point they return to their respective lodges. Should one of the party return to the rendezvous before any others and wish to make a special trip, he will, for the information of the others, place a stick of about 3 or 4 feet in length in the ground, upon the upper end of which a notch is cut, or perhaps a split made for the reception of a thinner piece of twig or branch having a length of about a foot. This horizontal top piece is inserted at one end, so that the whole may point in the direction to be taken. Should he wish to say that the trail would turn at a right angle, to either side, at about half the distance of the whole journey in prospect, the horizontal branch is either bent in that direction or a naturally curved branch is selected having the turn at the middle of its entire length, thus corresponding to the turn in the trail. Any direction can be indicated by curves in the top branch.
No prescribed system of characters is used at the present time by the Ojibwa, in the indication of direction or travel. When anyone leaves camp or home for any particular hunting or berry ground, a concerted arrangement is made by which only those interested can, with any certainty, recognize “blaze” or trail marks.
Three characters cut upon the bark of large pine trees observed in the forest near Red Lake, Minnesota, are shown in Fig. 447. The Ojibwa using such a mark will continue on a trail leading from his home, until he leaves the trail, when a conspicuous tree, or in its absence a piece of wood or bark, is selected upon which a human figure is cut, with one arm elevated and pointing in the direction to be taken. These figures measure about 18 inches in height. Those represented on the two sides of the copy were cut into the bark of a “jack pine” without coloration, and the one in the middle had been rubbed with red chalk upon the wood of the trunk after the bark had been removed and the incision made. The middle figure indicates the direction by its bearings, although the pointers are differently arranged.
Plain sticks are sometimes used by the Ojibwa to indicate direction. These vary in length according to the fancy of the person and the requirements of the case. They are stuck into the ground, and lean in the direction to which notice is invited.
When a preconcerted arrangement is made, scrolls of birch bark are used, upon which important geographic features are delineated, so that the reader can, with little difficulty, learn the course taken by the traveler. For instance, a hunter upon leaving his home, deposits there a scroll bearing marks such as appear in Fig. 448:
a is a stream to be followed to a lake b, where the hunter will erect his lodge c, during his stay. The do-dém (totem) is added, used between persons or parties communicating, to show who was the one that drew it. It is in the nature of a signature.
Fig. 449 shows a still existing use of the wikhegan between a Penobscot Indian and his nephew. It is copied from the original, incised on birch bark, by Nicholas Francis, a Penobscot, of Oldtown, Maine, which was obtained and kindly presented by Miss A. L. Alger of Boston.
Pitalo (Roaring Lion), English name, Noel Lyon, and his old uncle, aged over 70 years, went trapping for beaver in 1885 and camped at d, near Moosehead Lake h, having their supply tent at e. They visited the ponds a and b and knew there were beaver there, and set traps for them, f f. The beaver dams are also shown extending across the outlets of the streams. Noel came back from pond b one day to the camping tent and found this birch-bark wikhegan made by the old uncle, who still used the pictographic method, as he does not know how to write, and by this Noel knew his uncle had gone to pond c to see if there were any beaver there and would be gone one night, the latter expressed by one line g drawn between the two arrows pointing in opposite directions, showing the going and returning on the same trail.
The notable part of the above description is that the wikhegan consisted of the chart of the geographic features before traversed by the two trappers, with the addition of new features of the country undoubtedly known to both of the Indians, but not before visited in the present expedition. This addition exhibited the departure, its intent, direction, and duration.
Sapiel Selmo, a chief of the Passamaquoddy tribe, who gave to the writer the wikhegan copied as Fig. 450, in 1887, was then a very aged man and has since died. He lived at Pleasant point, 7 miles north of Eastport, Maine. He was the son of a noted chief, Selmo Soctomah (a corruption of St. Thomas), who, as shown by a certificate exhibited, commanded 600 Passamaquoddy Indians in the Revolutionary war. When a young man Sapiel, with his father, had a temporary camp, a, at Machias Lake. He left his father and went to their permanent home at Pleasant Point, b, to get meat, and then returned to the first camp (route shown by double track) and found that his father had gone, but that he had left in the temporary wigwam the wikhegan on birch bark, showing that he had killed one moose, the meat of which Sapiel found in the snow, and that the father was going to hunt moose on the other lake (East Machias lake) and would camp there three days, shown by the same number of strokes at c; so he waited for him until he came back.
Josiah Gregg (a) says of the Plains tribes:
When traveling they will also pile heaps of stones upon mounds or conspicuous points so arranged as to be understood by their passing comrades; and sometimes they set up the bleached buffalo heads, which are everywhere scattered over those plains, to indicate the direction of their march, and many other facts which may be communicated by those simple signs.
Putnam (a) gives one example of this character:
A family of five persons were killed--a tall man, a short, fat woman, and three children--at some place to the north. Five sticks were cut of various lengths. The longest being forked or split indicated the man, the thick short one the woman, and three of smaller sizes and lengths the children. They were all scalped, as is shown by the peeling of the bark. There were thirteen Indians, as we are informed by the stick with stripes and thirteen notches; and they have fled south with two prisoners, as we judge from the pointer and little strips of bark seemingly tied together. Sometimes all the intimations would be on one stick or piece of bark. A spy finding, at places well known, some of these mysterious articles, would bring them to the station, where a consultation would be held and conclusion drawn as to the meaning. A spy or hunter would intimate to his friend his want of powder or lead or other want and the place at which he would look for supplies.
Hind (a) speaks of a special form of notice by the natives of the Labrador peninsula:
To indicate their speed and direction on a march, the Nasquapees of the Labrador peninsula thrust a stick in the ground, with a tuft of grass at the top, pointing toward their line of route, and they show the rate at which they are traveling by the greater or less inclination of the stick. This mode of communicating intelligence to those who may follow is universal among Indians; but the excellent and simple contrivance for describing the speed at which they travel is not generally employed as far as I am aware, by other nations.
Mr. Charles G. Leland, in a letter, tells that the English gypsies, at a crossroad, drew the ordinary Latin cross with the long arm pointing in the direction taken. Others pulled up three bunches of grass by the roots and laid the green points in the direction. Others again, at the present time, take a small stick and set it up inclining at an angle of 45 degrees in the line of travel.
Dr. George M. Dawson (a) reports of the Shuswap people of British Columbia--
A rag of clothing, particularly a small piece or pieces of colored or other easily recognizable material from a woman’s dress, left in a forked twig, indicates that a person or party of persons has passed. If the stick stands upright, it means that the hour was noon, if inclined it may either point to the direction of the sun at the time or show the direction in which the person or party went. If it is desired to show both, a larger stick points to the position of the sun, a smaller to that of the route followed. If those for whose information the signs are left are likely to arrive after an interval of several days, a handful of fresh grass or a leafy branch may be left, from the condition of which an estimate of the time which has elapsed can be formed. Such signs are usually placed near the site of the camp fire.
The device to indicate the time of depositing the notice may be compared with that shown in Fig. 446.
SECTION 2.
DIRECTION BY DRAWING TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES.
Fig. 451 is a notice by Micmac scouts, which tribe was then at war with the Passamaquoddy, erected on a tree, to warn the rest of the tribe that ten Passamaquoddy Indians have been observed in canoes on the lake going toward the outlet of the lake and probably down the river. The Passamaquoddy tribal pictograph is shown and the whole topography is correctly drawn.
Notes in literature relating to the skill of the North American Indians in delineating geographic features are very frequent. The following are selected for reference:
Champlain (c), in 1605, described how the natives on the coast drew with charcoal its bays, capes, and the mouths of rivers with such accuracy that Massachusetts bay and Merrimack river have been identified.
Lafitau (d) says of the northeastern tribes of Indians--
Ils tracent grossierement sur des écorces, on sur le sable, des Cartes exactes, et ausquelles il ne manque que la distinction des degrés. Ils conservent même de ces sortes de Cartes Geographiques dans leur Trésor public, pour les consulter dans le besoin.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, (a) in 1793, spoke of the skilled manner of chart-making by an Athabascan tribe, in which the Columbia river was drawn.
An interesting facsimile of a map with which the treaty of Hopewell, in 1875, made by the Cherokees, is connected, appears in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 40.
Hind (b) writes:
On lake Tash-ner-nus-kow, Labrador, was found a “letter” stuck in a cleft pole overhanging the bank. It was written on birchbark, and consisted of a small map of the country, with arrows showing the direction the writer had taken, some crosses indicating where he had camped, and a large cross to show where he intended to make his first winter quarters. It was probably written by some Nasquapees as a guide to others who might be passing up the river or hunting in the country.
The Tegua Pueblos, of New Mexico, “traced upon the ground a sketch of their country, with the names and locations of the pueblos occupied in New Mexico,” a copy of which, “somewhat improved,” is given by Lieut. Whipple (c).
A Yuma map of the Colorado river, with the names and locations of tribes within its valley, is also figured in the last mentioned volume, page 19. The map was originally traced upon the ground.
A Piute map of the Colorado river, which was obtained by Lieut. Whipple, is also figured in the same connection.
Lean-Wolf, of the Hidatsa, who drew the picture of which Fig. 452 is a copy, made a trip on foot from Fort Berthold to Fort Buford, Dakota, to steal a horse from the Dakotas encamped there. The returning horse tracks show that he was successful and that he rode home. The following is his explanation of the characters:
Lean-Wolf is represented at a by the head only of a man to which is attached the outline of a wolf; b, Hidatsa earth lodges, circular in form, the spots representing the pillars supporting the roof--Indian village at Fort Berthold, Dakota; c, human footprints, the course taken by the recorder; d, the Government buildings at Fort Buford (square); e, several Hidatsa lodges (round), the occupants of which had intermarried with the Dakotas; f, Dakota lodges; g, a small square--a white man’s house--with a cross marked upon it to represent a Dakota lodge, which denotes that the owner, a white man, had married a Dakota woman, who dwelt there; h, horse tracks returning to Fort Berthold; i, the Missouri river; j, Tule creek; k, Little Knife river; l, White Earth river; m, Muddy creek; n, Yellowstone river; o, Little Missouri river; p, Dancing Beard creek.
The following illustration, Fig. 453, is the chart of the field of a battle between Ojibwas and Sioux with its description. The illustration, made by Ojibwa, the old Indian elsewhere mentioned, was drawn on birch bark, while the details of the description were oral. The locality referred to is above the mouth of Crow river, near Sauk rapids, Minnesota.
In the description a is the Mississippi river; b, Crow river; c, branch of Crow river; d, e, f, Crow lakes; g, Rice lake; h, Clear Water lake; i, Clear Water river; j, Sauk river; k, Big Sauk lake; l, Big prairie lake; m, Osakis lake; n, Sauk rapids; o and p, canoe and deer-hunting and fishing grounds; q, 1 man and 2 women killed (Ojibwas); r, Sauk Center; s, copses of timber--known as timber islands--on the prairie.
The chart refers to an episode of war in 1854, when 3 Ojibwa were pursued by 50 Dakota. Many of the lakes appear to be duplicated in name, simply because no special name for them was known.
Dr. Hoffman tells how at Grapevine springs, Nevada, in 1871, the Paiute living at that locality informed the party of the relative position of Las Vegas, the objective point. The Indian sat upon the sand and with his hands formed an oblong ridge to represent Spring mountain, and southeast of this ridge another gradual slope, terminating on the eastern side more abruptly; over the latter he passed his fingers to represent the side valleys running eastward. He then took a stick and showed the direction of the old Spanish trail running east and west over the lower portion of the last-named ridge. When this was completed, with a mixture of English, Spanish, Paiute, and gesture signs, he told that from where they were now they would have to go southward east of Spring mountain to the camp of Paiute Charlie, where they would have to sleep; then indicated a line southeastward to another spring (Stump’s) to complete the second day; then he followed the line representing the Spanish trail to the east of the divide of the second ridge above named, where he left it, and passing northward to the first valley he thrust the short stick into the ground and said, “Las Vegas.”
Mr. W. von Streeruwitz, of the Geological Survey of Texas, contributes the copy of a map, evidently the work of Indians, which is received too late for reproduction. The map is roughly scratched into the flat surface of a large granite block, and is an approximately correct sketch of a pass and the nearest surrounding. The rock is situated in the pass above the so-called rattlesnake or mica tank, in a spur on the west side of the Van Horn mountains, El Paso county, Texas. An Indian trail passes near the very rough and weathered rear part of the rock, which on this side shows weak traces of some scratched-in drawings, which are nearly weathered off, made no doubt with the purpose to lead the attention of passing parties to the other side of the rock upon which the map is drawn. An old trail leads from the Rio Grande across the Eagle mountains to this pass and in the shortest line from the Green river valley to the northern main range of the Van Horn and from there east to the Davis mountains, formerly Apache mountains, and thence through the southern extension of the Guadeloupe mountains to this range and into New Mexico; also through the Sierra Carrizo to the Sierra Diablo; so that this trail must be regarded as one of the best warpaths for raids across the Rio Grande. An arrowhead at the upper end of the trail points out water (small or doubtful supply), as far as could be ascertained from drawings made by Apaches.
Following are modes of exhibiting pictographically topographic features, Fig. 454:
a, from Copway’s Ojibway Nation, p. 136, represents “mountains.”
b is the Chinese character for “mountain,” from Edkins, p. 14. “A picture of the object. More anciently, two upright cones or triangles connected at their bases.”
c is the representation by the Dakotas of a gap in the mountains, taken from Red-Cloud’s census.
d, from Copway, p. 135, represents “islands.”
e, from the same, p. 134, is a representation of the character for “sea” or “water,” probably a large body of water, e. g., lake, such as the Ojibwa were familiar with.
f is from the same authority, p. 134. It shows the character for “river” or “stream.”
g gives two Chinese characters for “river,” “stream,” from Edkins, p. 14. Three parallel lines drawn downward express “flowing” in all cases.
h is the Chinese character for “flowing water,” from Edkins, p. 23. “In the Chwen wen three strokes descending indicate the appearance of flowing water as seen in a river. The two outside strokes are broken in the middle.”
The same authority, p. 155, gives another character, i, with the same meaning as the last. The author says: “It is supposed to be turned on end. It is better to regard the old form with its three descending lines as a picture of water flowing downward.”
k, from Copway (a), represents the character for “land.” It is a turtle, and refers to a common cosmologic myth concerning the recovery of land after the deluge.
G. Holm (a) gives the following account, translated and condensed, descriptive of Fig. 455, a wooden map made by the natives of the east coast of Greenland:
In reference to map making I will only remark that many are inclined to enlarge the scale as they approach the better known places, which in fact is quite natural, as they would not otherwise find room for all details. As a natural result, map drawing in the form of ground plat is something quite new to them. Their mode of representing their land is by carving it on wood. This has the advantage that not only the contour of the land, but also its appearance and rock forms, can in a certain degree be represented.
The block of wood brought back represents the tract between Kangerdluarsikajik, east of Sermiligak, and Sieralik, north of Kangerdlugsuatsiak. The mainland continues from one side of the wooden block to the other, while the islands are located on the accompanying block without regard to the distance between them in reference to the mainland. All places where there are old ruins of houses, and therefore good storage places, are marked on the wood map, which also shows the points where a kayak can be carried over the ground between two fiords when the sea ice blocks the headland outside. This kind of models serves to represent the route the person in question has followed, inasmuch as during his recital he moves the stick, so that the islands are shown in their relative positions. The other wooden map, which was prepared by request, represents the peninsula between Sermiligak and Kangerdluarsikajik.
A and B represent the tract between Kangerdluarsikajik (immediately east of Sermiligak) and Sieralik (slightly north of Kangerdlugsuatsiak). B represents the coast of the mainland, and is continuous from one side of the block to the other, while the outlying islands are represented by the wooden block of A, on which the connecting pieces between the various islands must be imagined as being left out. While the narrator explains the map he moves the stick to and fro, so as to get the islands into the right position in reference to the mainland.
Kunit explained the map to me. The names of the islands on A are: a, Sardlermiut, on the west side of which is the site of an old settlement; b, Nepinerkit (from napavok), having the shape of a pyramid; c, Ananak, having the site of an old settlement on the southwest point. (NOTE.--Others give the name Ananak to the cape on the mainland directly opposite, calling the island Kajartalik.) d, Aputitek; e, Itivdlersuak; f, Kujutilik; g, Sikivitik.
For B I obtained the following names, beginning at the north, as in the case of the islands: h, Itivdlek, where there are remains of a house; i, Sierak, a small fiord, in which salmon are found; k, Sarkarmiut, where there are remains of a house; l, Kangerdlugsuatsiak, a fiord of such length that a kayak can not even in a whole day row from the mouth to the head of the fiord and back again; m, Erserisek, a little fiord; n, Nutugat, a little fiord with a creek at the bottom; o, Merkeriak, kayak portage from Nutugkat to Erserisek along the bank of the creek, when the heavy ice blocks the headland between the two fiords; p, Ikerasakitek, a bay in which the land ice goes straight out to the sea; q, Kangerajikajik, a cape; r, Kavdlunak, a bay into which runs a creek; s, Apusinek, a long stretch where the land ice passes out into the sea; t, Tatorisik; u, Iliartalik, a fiord with a smaller creek; v, Nuerniakat; x, Kugpat; y, Igdluarsik; z, Sangmilek, a little fiord with a creek; aa, Nutugkat; bb, Amagat; cc, Kangerdluarsikajik, a smaller fiord; dd, Kernertuarsik.
C represents the peninsula between the fiords Sermiligak and Kangerdluarsikajik.
SECTION 3.
NOTICE OF CONDITION.
In the curious manuscript of Gideon Lincecum, written with Roman characters in the Choctaw language about 1818, and referring to the ancient customs of that tribe, appears the following passage (p. 276):
They had a significant and very ingenious method of marking the stakes so that each iksa could know its place as soon as they saw the stake that had been set up for them. Every clan had a name, which was known to all the rest. It was a species of heraldry, each iksa having its coat of arms. The iksas all took the name of some animal--buffalo, panther, dog, terrapin, any race of animals--and a little picture of whatever it might be, sketched on a blazed tree or stake, indicated the clan to which it belonged. They could mark a tree when they were about to leave a camp, in their traveling or hunting excursions, with a set of hieroglyphs, that any other set of hunters or travelers who might pass that way could read, telling what iksa they belonged to, how long they had remained at that camp, how many there were in the company, if any were sick or dead, and if they had been successful or otherwise in the hunt. Thus, drawn very neatly on a peeled tree near the camp, a terrapin; five men marching in a row, with bows ready strung in their hands, large packs on their backs, and one man behind, no pack, bow unstrung; one circle, half circle, and six short marks in front of the half circle; below, a bear’s head, a buffalo head, and the head of an antelope. The reading is, “Terrapin iksa, 6 men in company, one sick; successful hunt in killing bear, buffalo, and antelope; that they remained at the camp a moon and a half and six days, and that they have gone home.”
Among the Abnaki of the Province of Quebec, as reported by Masta, their chief, cutting the bark off from a tree on one, two, three, or four sides near the butt means “Have had poor, poorer, poorest luck.” Cutting it off all around the tree means “I am starving.” Smoking a piece of birch bark and hanging it on a tree means “I am sick.”
Tanner’s Narrative (c) mentions regarding the Ojibwa that, in cases where the information to be communicated is that the party mentioned is starving, the figure of a man is sometimes drawn, and his mouth is painted white, or white paint may be smeared about the mouth of the animal, if it happens to be one, which is his totem.
Fig. 456 is a copy of a drawing incised on birch bark by the old Passamaquoddy chief, Sapiel Selmo, who made comments upon it as follows: Two hunters followed the river a until it branches off b, c. Indian d takes one river and its lakes and small branches, and the other hunter (not figured in the chart) follows the other branch and also claims its small streams and lakes. Sometimes during the winter they visit one another. If it happen that the other hunter was away from his wigwam e and if the visiting hunter wishes to leave word with his friend and wishes to inform him of his luck, he makes a picture on a piece of birch bark and describes such animals he has killed with the number of animals as seen in f and g (figure of moose’s head) which, with two crosses to each, means 20 moose. He killed in each hunt altogether 40. h is a whole moose, also with two crosses, and means 20, and also the figure of a caribou i with one cross means 10 caribou, and also a figure of a bear with four crosses j means 40 bears, and k shows a figure of bear with one cross which means 10 bears, and also a sable l with five crosses means 50 sables. If he wish to inform him he is in poor luck and hungry, he marked a figure of an Indian with a pot on one hand, the pot upside down; this means hunger. A figure of an Indian in lying position means sickness.
Fig. 457 was also incised on birch bark by Sapiel Selmo and described by him.
Two Indian hunters follow the river to hunt. They go together as far as the river’s forks and then separate. One went to the river c. The other follows river e and kills a moose. They both build their winter wigwams.
Indian b went to hunt and found a bear’s den under the foot of a big tree. He attempted to stab the bear, but missed the vital part. The bear got hold of him, bit him severely, and mortally wounded him. He went to his wigwam h and thinks he is going to die, so he makes his mark or wikhegan on a birch-bark. He makes notches j on the bark to mean his tracks and also marks a tree as in f and also a bear as in g. His friend d came to visit him and found him lying dead in his wigwam, and also found the marks on the piece of birch-bark, which he read and knew at once his partner was killed by the bear, and he followed his bear tracks, and he also found the bear dead.
a. Main river. b. One of the Indians who goes up c, branch of river. d. The other Indian who goes on e, another branch of river. f. Tree above the bear’s den. g. Bear. h. Wigwam of Indian b. i. Moose which Indian d killed. j. Tracks of Indian b. k. Bear’s den under the tree. l. Indian d’s wigwam.
Fig. 458 originally scraped on birch bark tells its own story, but was described by Sapiel Selmo, who drew it, thus:
Two Indian hunters, b and c, went to hunt and follow river, a. They continued together as far as d, where the river branches off. Indian c follows the east branch e. He went as far as lake f, where he built his wigwam g. Indian c is very unlucky; he doesn’t kill any bears or moose, so he became very hungry. Indian b, who had followed the north branch and built his wigwam, l, near lake k, went to visit Indian c, who was away at the time, but b found mark on the birch bark, a pot upside down, h; this means hunger. He also makes his own mark, i, a moose’s head, showing success. He appoints lake j, where he killed moose, and wants him, c, to come to his, b’s, wigwam l.
o, lower lake, not connected with the story, but doubtless drawn to complete the topography. The two trails, m and n, are designated by notches showing foot-path or snow-shoe tracks. The Abnaki have footpaths or snow-shoe tracks where the line of kelhign sisel, or sable dead falls, extends from one hunting camp to another, between two lakes or rivers.
The Ottawa and the Pottawatomi Indians indicate hunger and starvation by drawing a black line across the breast or stomach of the figure of a man. (See Fig. 1046.) This drawing is either incised upon a piece of wood, or drawn on it with a mixture of powdered charcoal and glue water, or red ocher. The piece of wood is then attached to a tree or fastened to a pole, and erected near the lodge on a trail, where it will be observed by passers by, who are thus besought to come to the rescue of the sufferer who erected the notice.
Fig. 459 illustrates information with regard to distress in another village, which occasioned the departure of the party giving the notification. The drawing was made in 1882 by the Alaskan, Naumoff, in imitation of drawings used at his home. The designs are traced upon a strip of wood, which is then stuck upon the roof of the house belonging to the draftsman.
a, the summer habitation, showing a stick leaning in the direction to be taken; b, the baidarka, containing the residents of the house; the first person is observed pointing forward, indicating that they “go by boat to the other settlement”; c, a grave stick, indicating a death in the settlement; d, e, summer and winter habitations, denoting a village.
The drawing, Fig. 460, also made in 1882, by a native Alaskan, in imitation of originals familiar to him in Alaska, is intended to be placed in a conspicuous portion of a settlement which has been attacked by a hostile force and finally deserted. The last one to leave prepares the drawing upon a strip of wood to inform friends of the resort of the survivors.
a represents three hills or ranges, signifying that the course taken would carry them beyond that number of hills or mountains; b, the draftsman, indicating the direction, with the left hand pointing to the ground, one hill, and the right hand indicating the number two, the number still to be crossed; c, a circular piece of wood or leather, with the representation of a face, placed upon a pole and facing the direction to be taken from the settlement; in this instance the drawing of the character denotes a hostile attack upon the town, for which misfortune such devices are sometimes erected; d, e, winter and summer habitations; f, storehouse, erected upon upright poles. The latter device is used by Alaskan coast natives generally.
The design shown in Fig. 461 is in imitation of drawings made by natives of Southern Alaska to convey to the observer the information that the draftsman had gone away to another settlement, the inhabitants of which were in distress. The drawings were made on a strip of wood which was placed at the door of the house, where it might be seen by visitors or inquirers.
Naumoff gave the following explanation: a, a native making the gesture of indicating self with the right hand and with the left indicating direction of going; b, the native’s habitation; c, scaffold used for drying fish; upon the top of a pole is placed a piece of wood tied so that the longest end points in the direction to be taken by the relief party; d, the baidarka conveying it; e, a native of the settlement to be visited; f, summer habitation; g, “shaman stick,” or grave stick, erected to the memory of a recently deceased person, the cause which has necessitated the journey; h, winter habitation. This, together with f, indicates a settlement.
Fig. 462, also drawn by Naumoff, means “ammunition wanted.”
When a hunter is tracking game and exhausts his ammunition, he returns to the nearest and most conspicuous part of the trail and sticks his ihú^nŭk in the ground, the top leaning in the direction taken. The ihú^nŭk is the pair of sticks arranged like the letter A, used as a gun-rest. This method of transmitting the request to the first passer is resorted to by the coast people of Southern Alaska.
Fig. 463, also drawn by Naumoff, means “discovery of bear; assistance wanted.”
When a hunter discovers a bear and requires assistance, he ties together a bunch of grass, or other fibrous matter, in the form of the animal and places it upon a long stick or pole which is erected at a conspicuous point. The head of the effigy is directed toward the locality where the animal was last seen.
This device is used by most of the Alaskan Indians.
Fig. 464 was also drawn by Naumoff, and signifies “starving hunters.”
Hunters who have been unfortunate, and are suffering from hunger, scratch or draw on a piece of wood characters similar to those figured, and place the lower end of the stick in the ground on the trail where there is the greatest chance of its discovery. The stick is inclined toward their shelter. The following are the details of the information contained in the drawing:
a, A horizontal line denoting a canoe, showing the persons to be fishermen; b, a man with both arms extended signifying nothing, corresponding with the gesture for negation; c, a person with the right hand to the mouth, signifying to eat, the left hand pointing to the house occupied by the hunters; d, the shelter.
The whole signifies that there is nothing to eat in the house. This is used by natives of Southern Alaska.
Fig. 465, with the same signification and from the same hand, is similar to the preceding in general design. This is placed in the ground near the landing place of the canoemen, so that the top points toward the lodge. The following is the explanation of the characters:
a, Baidarka, showing double projections at bow, as well as the two men, owners, in the boat; b, a man making the gesture for nothing (see in this connection Fig. 983); c, gesture drawn, denoting to eat, with the right hand, while the left points to the lodge; d, a winter habitation.
This is used by the Alaskan coast natives.
SECTION 4.
WARNING AND GUIDANCE.
The following description of an Ojibwa notice of a murderer’s being at large is extracted from Tanner’s Narrative: (d).
As I was one morning passing one of our usual encamping places I saw on shore a little stick standing in the bank and attached to the top of it a piece of birchbark. On examination I found the mark of a rattlesnake with a knife, the handle touching the snake and the point sticking into a bear, the head of the latter being down. Near the rattlesnake was the mark of a beaver, one of its dugs, it being a female, touching the snake. This was left for my information, and I learned from it that Wa-me-gon-a-biew, whose totem was She-she-gwah, the rattlesnake, had killed a man whose totem was Muk-kwah, the bear. The murderer could be no other than Wa-me-gon-a-biew, as it was specified that he was the son of a woman whose totem was the beaver, and this I knew could be no other than Net-no-kwa.
An amusing instance of the notice or warning, “No thoroughfare,” is presented in Fig. 466. It was taken in 1880 from a rock drawing in Canyon de Chelly, New Mexico, by Mr. J. K. Hillers, photographer of the U. S. Geological Survey.
The design on the left is undoubtedly a notice in the nature of warning, that, although a goat can climb up the rocky trail, a horse would tumble down.
During his connection with the geographic surveys west of the one hundredth meridian, Dr. Hoffman observed a practice among the Tivátikai Shoshoni, of Nevada, of erecting heaps of stones along or near trails to indicate the direction to be taken and followed to reach springs of water. Upon slight elevations of ground, or at points where a trail branched into two or more directions, or at the intersection of two trails, a heap of stones would be placed varying in height according to the elevation requisite to attract attention. Upon the top of this would be fixed an elongated piece of rock so placed that the most conspicuous point projected and pointed in the course to be followed. This was continued sometimes at intervals of several miles unless indistinct portions of a trail or intersections demanded a repetition at shorter distances. A knowledge of this custom proved very beneficial to the early prospectors and pioneers.
Fig. 467 is a copy, one-sixteenth actual size, of colored petroglyphs found by Dr. Hoffman in 1884 on the North fork of the San Gabriel river, also known as the Azuza canyon, Los Angeles county, California.
The bowlder upon which the paintings occur measures 8 feet long, about 4 feet high, and the same in width. The figures are on the eastern side of the rock, so that the left arm of the human figure on the right points toward the north.
Fig. 468 is a map drawn on a scale of 1,000 yards to the inch, showing the topography of the immediate vicinity and the relative positions of the rocks bearing the paintings.
The stream is hemmed in by precipitous mountains, with the exception of two points marked c c, over which the old Indian trail passed in going from the Mojave desert on the north to the San Gabriel valley below, this course being the nearest for reaching the mission settlements at San Gabriel and Los Angeles. In attempting to follow the water course the distance would be greatly increased and a rougher trail encountered. Fig. 467, painted on the rock marked b on the map, shows characters in pale yellow upon a bowlder of almost white granite partly obliterated by weathering and annual floods, though still enough remains to indicate that the right-hand figure is directing the observer to the northeast, although upon taking that course it would be necessary to round the point a short distance to the west. It may have been placed as a notification of direction to those Indians who might have come up the canyon instead of on the regular trail. Farther west, at the spot marked a on the map, is a granite bowlder bearing a large number of paintings, part of which have become almost obliterated. These were drawn with red ocher (ferric oxide). A selection of these is shown in Fig. 469.
This is on the almost vertical western face of the rock. These characters also appear to refer to the course of the trail, which might readily be lost on account of the numerous mountain ridges and spurs. The left-hand human figure appears to place its hand upon a series of ridges, as if showing pantomimically the rough and ridged country over the mountains.
The middle figure is making a gesture which in its present connection may indicate direction of the trail, i. e., toward the left, or northward in an uphill course, as indicated by the arm and leg, and southward, or downward, as suggested by the lower inclination of the leg and lower forearm and hand on the right of the painting.
These illustrations, as well as other pictographs on the same rock, not now represented, exhibit remarkable resemblance to the general type of Shoshonean drawing, and from such evidence as is now attainable it is probable that they are of Chemehuevi origin, as that tribe at one time ranged far to the west, though north of the mountains, and also visited the valley and settlements at Los Angeles to trade. It is also known that the Mojaves came at stated periods to Los Angeles as late as 1845, and the trail indicated at point a of the map would appear to have been their most practicable and convenient route. There is strong evidence that the Moki sometimes visited the Pacific coast and might readily have taken this same course, marking the important portions of the route by drawings in the nature of guideboards.
The following curious account is taken from The Redman, Carlisle, October, 1888:
A ranchman visiting a deserted camp of Piegans found the following notice:
We called at this ranch at dinner time. They treated us badly, giving us no dinner and sending us away. There is a head man who has two dogs, one of which has no tail. There are two larger men who are laborers. They have two pairs of large horses and two large colts, also another smaller pair of horses and two ponies which have two colts.
The notice was composed thus: A circle of round stones represented the horses and ponies, the latter being smaller stones; the stones outside of the circle meant there were so many colts. Near the center was a long narrow stone, upon the end of which was a small one. This denoted the head man or owner, whose two dogs were shown by two pieces of bark, one with a square end while the other had a twig stuck in for a tail. Two other long narrow stones, larger than the first, stood for the laborers; these had no small stones on them. Some sticks of wood, upon which was a small pile of buffalo chips, meant that dinner was ready; and empty shells turned upside down told they got nothing to eat, but were sent away.
Mr. Charles W. Cunningham, formerly of Phœnix, Arizona, reports the finding of petroglyphs in Rowe canyon, one-half mile from the base of Bradshaw mountain, Arizona. The characters are pecked upon its vertical wall of hard porphyry, covering a space between 12 or 15 feet in length and about 30 feet above the surface of the earth. They consist of human figures with outstretched arms, apparently driving animals resembling sheep or goats, while at the head of the procession appears the figure of a bear. The explanation given seems to be a notification to Indian herders that in going through the canyon they should be careful to guard against bears or possibly other dangerous animals, as the trail or canyon leads down to some water tanks where the herders may habitually have driven the stock.
D’Albertis (b) mentions of the Papuans that a warning not to enter a dwelling is made by erecting outside of it a stick, on the top of which is a piece of bark or a cocoanut, and in Yule island these warnings or taboo sticks are furnished with stone heads.
When a Tartar shaman wished to be undisturbed he placed a dried goat’s-head, with its prominent horns, over a wooden peg outside of his tent and then dropped the curtain. No one would dare to venture in.
The following is quoted from Franz Keller (b):
In the immense primeval forests, extending between the Ivahy and the Paranapanama, the Paraná and the Tibagy, the rich hunting grounds of numerous Coroado hordes, one frequently encounters, chiefly near forsaken palm sheds, a strange collection of objects hung up between the trees on thin cords or cipós, such as little pieces of wood, feathers, bones, and the claws and jaws of different animals.
In the opinion of those well versed in Indian lore these hieroglyphs are designed as epistles to other members of the tribe regarding the produce of the chase, the number and stay of the huntsmen, domestic intelligence, and the like; but this strange kind of composition, reminding one of the quippus (knotted cords), of the old Peruvians, has not yet been quite unraveled, though it is desirable that it should be, for the naïve son of the woods also uses it sometimes in his intercourse with the white man.
Settlers in this country, on going in the morning to look after their very primitive mills near their cottages, have frequently discovered them going bravely, but bruising pebbles instead of the maize grains, while on the floor of the open shed names and purposes of the unwelcome nocturnal visitors have been legibly written in the sand. Among the well-drawn zigzag lines were inserted the magnificent long tail feathers of the red and blue macaw, which are generally used by the Coroados for their arrows; and, as these are the symbols of war and night attacks, the whole was probably meant for a warning and admonition ad hominem: “Take up your bundle and go or beware of our arrows.”
XII. COMMUNICATIONS
Under this heading notes and illustrations are grouped of transmitted drawings, which were employed as letters and missives now are by people who possess the art of writing. To the drawings are added some descriptions of objects sent for the same purposes. These are sometimes obviously ideographic, but often appear to be conventional or arbitrary. It is probable that the transmittal or exchange of such objects anteceded the pictorial attempt at correspondence, so that the former should be considered in connection with the latter. The topic is conveniently divided by the purposes of the communications, viz, (1) declaration of war, (2) profession of peace and friendship, (3) challenge, (4) social and religious missives, (5) claim or demand.
SECTION 1.
DECLARATION OF WAR.
Le Page du Pratz (a), in 1718, reported the following:
The Natchez make a declaration of war by leaving a hieroglyphic picture against a tree in the enemy’s country, and in front of the picture they place, saltierwise, two red arrows. At the upper part of the picture at the right is the hieroglyphic sign which designates the nation that declares war; next, a naked man, easy to recognize, who has a casse-tête in his hand. Following is an arrow, drawn so as in its flight to pierce a woman, who flees with her hair spread out and flowing in the air. Immediately in front of this woman is a sign belonging to the nation against which war is declared; all this is on the same line. That which is below is not so clear or so much relied upon in the interpretation. This line begins with the sign of a moon (i. e., month) which will follow in a short time. The days that come afterward are indicated by straight strokes and the moon by a face without rays. There is also a man who has in front of him many arrows which seem directed to hit a woman who is in flight. All that announces that when the moon will be so many days old they will come in great numbers to attack the designated nation.
Lahontan (a) writes:
The way of declaring war by the Canadian Algonquian Indians is this: They send back to the nation that they have a mind to quarrel with a slave of the same country, with orders to carry to the village of his own nation an axe, the handle of which is painted red and black.
The Huron-Iroquois of Canada sent a belt of black wampum as a declaration of war.
Material objects were often employed in declaration of war, some of which may assist in the interpretation of pictographs. A few instances are mentioned:
Capt. Laudonnière (a) says: “Arrows, to which long hairs are attached, were stuck up along the trail or road by the Florida Indians, in 1565, to signify a declaration of war.”
Dr. Georg. Schweinfurth (a) gives the following:
I may here allude to the remarkable symbolism by which war was declared against us on the frontiers of Wando’s territory. * * * Close on the path, and in full view of every passenger, three objects were suspended from the branch of a tree, viz, an ear of maize, the feather of a fowl, and an arrow. * * * Our guides readily comprehended and as readily explained the meaning of the emblems, which were designed to signify that whoever touched an ear of maize or laid his grasp upon a single fowl would assuredly be the victim of the arrow.
In the Notes on Eastern Equatorial Africa, by MM. V. Jacques (a) and É. Storms, it is stated that when a chief wishes to declare war he sends to the chief against whom he has a complaint an ambassador bearing a leaden bullet and a hoe. If the latter chooses the bullet, war ensues; if the hoe, it means that he consents to enter into negotiations to maintain peace.
Terrien de Lacouperie, op. cit., pp. 420, 421, reports:
The following instance in Tibeto-China is of a mixed character. The use of material objects is combined with that of notched sticks. When the Li-su are minded to rebel they send to the Moso chief (who rules them on behalf of the Chinese Government) what the Chinese call a muhki and the Tibetans a shing-tchram. It is a stick with knife-cut notches. Some symbols are fastened to it, such, for instance, as a feather, calcined wood, a little fish, etc. The bearer must explain the meaning of the notches and symbols. The notches may indicate the number of hundreds or thousands of soldiers who are coming; the feather shows that they arrive with the swiftness of a bird; the burnt wood, that they will set fire to everything on their way; the fish, that they will throw everybody into the water, etc. This custom is largely used among all the savage tribes of the region. It is also the usual manner in which chiefs transmit their orders.
SECTION 2.
PROFESSION OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP.
The following account of pictorial correspondence leading to peace was written by Governor Lewis Cass, while on one of his numerous missions to the Western tribes, before 1820:
Some years before, mutually weary of hostilities, the chiefs of the Ojibwas and the Dakotas met and agreed upon a truce. But the Sioux, disregarding the solemn contract which they had formed, and actuated by some sudden impulse, attacked the Ojibwas and murdered a number of them.
On our arrival at Sandy lake I proposed to the Ojibwa chiefs that a deputation should accompany us to the mouth of the St. Peters, with a view to establish a permanent peace between them and the Sioux. The Ojibwas readily acceded to this, and ten of their principal men descended the Mississippi with us. The computed distance from Sandy lake to the St. Peters is 600 miles. As we neared this part of the country we found our Ojibway friends cautious and observing.
The Ojibwa landed occasionally to examine whether any of the Sioux had recently visited that quarter. In one of these excursions an Ojibwa found in a conspicuous place a piece of birch bark, made flat by fastening between two sticks at each end, and about 18 inches long by 2 broad.
This bark contained the answer of the Sioux nation. So sanguinary had been the contest between these two tribes that no personal communication could take place. Neither the sanctity of office nor the importance of the message could protect the ambassador of either party from the vengeance of the other.
Some time preceding, the Ojibwas, anxious for peace, had sent a number of their young men into these plains with a similar piece of bark, upon which they represented their desire. This bark had been left hanging to a tree, in an exposed situation, and had been found and taken away by a party of Sioux.
The proposition had been examined and discussed in the Sioux villages, and the bark contained their answer. The Ojibwa explained to us with great facility the intention of the Sioux.
The junction of the St. Peters with the Mississippi, where the principal part of the Sioux reside, was represented, and also the American fort, with a sentinel on duty, and a flag flying.
The principal Sioux chief was named The-Six, alluding, I believe, to the band of villages under his influence. To show that he was not present at the deliberation upon the subject of peace, he was represented on a smaller piece of bark, which was attached to the other. To identify him, he was drawn with six heads and a large medal. Another Sioux chief stood in the foreground, holding a pipe in his right hand and his weapons in his left. Even we could not misunderstand that; like our own eagle with the olive branch and arrows, he was desirous for peace, but prepared for war.
The Sioux party contained fifty-nine warriors, indicated by fifty-nine guns, drawn upon one corner of the bark.
The encampment of our troops had been removed from the low grounds upon the St. Peters to a high hill upon the Mississippi. Two forts were therefore drawn upon the bark, and the solution was not discovered until our arrival at St. Peters.
The effect of the discovery of the bark upon the minds of the Ojibwas was visible and immediate.
The Ojibwa bark was drawn in the same general manner, and Sandy lake, the principal place of their residence, was represented with much accuracy. To remove any doubts respecting it, a view was given of the old northwestern establishment, situated upon the shore, and now in the possession of the American Fur Company.
No proportion was preserved in their attempt at delineation. One mile of the Mississippi, including the mouth of the St. Peters, occupied as much space as the whole distance to Sandy Lake, nor was there anything to show that one part was nearer to the spectator than another.
The above pictorially professed attitude of being ready for either peace or war may be compared with the account in Champlain--Voyages (d)--of the chief whose name was Mariston, but he assumed that of Mahigan Atticq, translated as Wolf Deer. He thereby proclaimed that when at peace he was mild as a deer, but when at war was savage as a wolf.
In Davis’ Conquest of New Mexico (a) it is stated that Vargas’ Expedition in 1694 was met by the Utes, who hoisted a deerskin in token of peace.
The following “speech of an Ojibwa chief in negotiating a peace with the Sioux, 1806,” from Maj. Pike’s (a) Expeditions, etc., shows the pictographic use of the pipe as a profession of peace:
My father, tell the Sioux on the upper part of the river St. Peters that they mark trees with the figure of a calumet; that we of Red lake who may go that way should we see them, that we may make peace with them, being assured of their pacific disposition when we shall see the calumet marked on the trees.
D’Iberville, in 1699, as printed in Margry, IV, 153, said that the Indians met by him near the mouth of the Mississippi river indicated their peaceful and friendly purposes by holding up in the air a small stick of whitened wood. The same authority, in the same volume, p. 175, tells that the Oumas bore a white cross as a similar declaration; and another journal, in the same volume, p. 239, describes a stick also so borne as being fashioned like a pipe. The actual use of the pipe in profession of peace and friendship is mentioned in several parts of the present paper. See, also, the passport mentioned on p. 214 and wampum, p. 225.
Lieut. Col. Woodthorpe, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. Gr. Br. and I., XI, p. 211, says of the wild tribes of the Naga Hills, on the northeastern frontier of India:
On the road to Niao we saw on the ground a curious mud figure of a man in slight relief presenting a gong in the direction of Senua. This was supposed to show that the Niao men were willing to come to terms with Senua, then at war with Niao. Another mode of evincing a desire to turn away the wrath of an approaching enemy and induce him to open negotiations is to tie up in his path a couple of goats, sometimes also a gong, with the universal symbol of peace, a palm leaf planted in the ground hard by.
G. W. Bloxam (a) gives the following description of Fig. 470:
It represents a message of peace and good news from the King of Jebu to the King of Lagos, after his restoration to the throne on the 28th of December, 1851. It appears complicated, but the interpretation is simple enough. First we find eight cowries arranged in pairs, and signifying the people in the four corners of the world, and it will be observed that, while three of the pairs are arranged with their faces upwards, the fourth and uppermost, i. e., the pair in the most important position, are facing one another, thus signifying that the correspondents, or the people of Jebu and Lagos, are animated by friendly feeling towards each other; so, too, there are two each of all the other objects, meaning, “you and I,” “we two.” The two large seeds or warres, a, a, express a wish that “you and I” should play together as intimate friends do, at the game of “warre,” in which these seeds are used and which is the common game of the country, holding very much the same position as chess or draughts with us; the two flat seeds, b, b, are seeds of a sweet fruit called “osan,” the name of which is derived from the verb, “san,” to please [Mem. Notice the rebus] they, therefore, indicate a desire on the part of a sender of the message to please and to be pleased; lastly, the two pieces of spice, c, c, signify mutual trust. The following is the full meaning of the hieroglyphic:
Of all the people by which the four corners of the world are inhabited, the Lagos and Jebu people are the nearest.
As “warre” is the common play of the country, so the Jebus and Lagos should always play and be friendly with each other.
Mutual pleasantness is my desire; as it is pleasant with me so may it be pleasant with you.
Deceive me not, because the spice would yield nothing else but a sweet and genuine odor unto god. I shall never deal doubly with you.
SECTION 3.
CHALLENGE.
H. H. Bancroft (a), in Native Races, says that the Shumeias challenged the Pomos (in central California) by placing three little sticks notched in the middle and at both ends, on a mound which marked the boundary between the two tribes. If the Pomos accept they tie a string round the middle notch. Heralds then meet and arrange time and place and the battle comes off as appointed.
The sending of material objects was the earliest and most natural mode for low cultured tribes to communicate when out of sight and hearing. Such was the system in use among the Scythians at the time of the invasion of their land by Darius. The version of the story in Herodotus is that commonly cited, but there is another by Pherecydes of Heros, who relates that Idanthuras, the Scythian king, when Darius had crossed the Ister, threatened him with war, sending him not a letter, but a composite symbol, which consisted of a mouse, a frog, a bird, an arrow, and a plow. When there was much discussion concerning the meaning of this message, Orontopagas, the chiliarch, maintained that it was a surrender; for he conjectured the mouse to mean their dwelling, the frog their waters, the bird their air, the arrow their arms, and the plow their country. But Xiphodres offered a contrary interpretation, thus: “Unless like birds we fly aloft, or like mice burrow under the ground, or like frogs take ourselves to the water, we shall never escape their weapons, for we are not masters of their country.”
SECTION 4.
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS MISSIVES.
Fig. 471 is a letter, one-half actual size, written by an Ojibwa girl, the daughter of a Midē', to a favored lover, requesting him to call at her lodge. This girl had taken no Midē' degrees, but had simply acquired her pictographic skill from observation in her home.
The explanation of the figure is as follows:
a. The writer of the letter, a girl of the Bear totem, as indicated by that animal, b.
e and f. The companions of a, the crosses signifying that the three girls are Christians.
c and g. The lodges occupied by the girls. The lodges are near a large lake, j, a trail leading from g to h, which is a well-traveled road.
The letter was written to a man of the Mud Puppy totem, as indicated in d.
i. The road leading to the lodge occupied by the recipient of the letter.
k and l. Lakes near which the lodges are built.
In examining c, the writer’s hand is seen protruding from an opening to denote beckoning and to indicate which lodge to visit. The clear indications of the locality serve as well as if in a city a young woman had sent an invitation to her young man to call at a certain street and number.
Fig. 472 is a letter sent by mail from a Southern Cheyenne, named Turtle-following-his-Wife, at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, Indian Territory, to his son Little-Man, at the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota. It was drawn on a half-sheet of ordinary writing paper, without a word written, and was inclosed in an envelope, which was addressed to “Little-Man, Cheyenne, Pine Ridge Agency,” in the ordinary manner, written by some one at the first named agency. The letter was evidently understood by Little-Man, as he immediately called upon Dr. V. T. McGillycuddy, Indian agent at Pine Ridge Agency, and was aware that the sum of $53 had been placed to his credit for the purpose of enabling him to pay his expenses in going the long journey to his father’s home in Indian Territory. Dr. McGillycuddy had, by the same mail, received a letter from Agent Dyer, inclosing $53, and explaining the reason for its being sent, which enabled him also to understand the pictographic letter. With the above explanation it very clearly shows, over the head of the figure to the left, the turtle following the turtle’s wife united with the head of the figure by a line, and over the head of the other figure, also united by a line to it, is a little man. Also over the right arm of the last-mentioned figure is another little man in the act of springing or advancing toward Turtle-following-his-Wife, from whose mouth proceed two lines, curved or hooked at the end, as if drawing the little figure toward him. It is suggested that the last mentioned part of the pictograph is the substance of the communication, i. e., “come to me,” the larger figures with their name totems being the persons addressed and addressing. Between and above the two large figures are fifty-three round objects intended for dollars. Both the Indian figures have on breechcloths, corresponding with the information given concerning them, which is that they are Cheyennes who are not all civilized or educated.
Sagard (a) tells of the Algonkins of the Ottawa river, that when a feast was to be given, the host sent to each person whose presence was desired a little stick of wood, peculiar to them (i. e., probably marked or colored) of the length and thickness of the little finger, which he was obliged to show on entering the lodge, as might be done with a card of invitation and admission. The precaution was seemingly necessary both for the host’s larder and the satisfaction of the guests, as on an occasion mentioned by the good brother, each of the guests was provided with a big piece of sturgeon and plenty of “sagamite huylée.” There was probably some principle of selection connected with totems or religious societies on such occasions, not told by the narrator, as the ordinary custom among Indians is to keep open house to all comers, who generally were the aboriginal “tramps,” with the result of waste and subsequent famine.
The Rev. Peter Jones (b), an educated Ojibwa missionary, in speaking of the eastern bands of the Ojibwa says:
Their method of imploring the favor or appeasing the anger of their deities is by offering sacrifices to them in the following order: When an Indian meets with ill-luck in hunting, or when afflictions come across his path, he fancies that by the neglect of some duty he has incurred the displeasure of his munedoo, for which he is angry with him; and in order to appease his wrath, he devotes the first game he takes to making a religious feast, to which he invites a number of the principal men and women from the other wigwams. A young man is generally sent as a messenger to invite the guests, who carries with him a bunch of colored quills or sticks, about 4 inches long. On entering the wigwam he shouts out “Keweekomegoo;” that is, “You are bidden to a feast.” He then distributes the quills to such as are invited; these answer to the white people’s invitation cards. When the guests arrive at the feast-maker’s wigwam the quills are returned to him; they are of three colors, red, green, and white; the red for the aged, or those versed in the wahbuhnoo order; the green for the media order, and the white for the common people.
Mr. David Boyle (b) refers to the above custom, and quotes Rev. Peter Jones, also giving as illustrations copies of the quills and sticks presented by Dr. P. E. Jones which had been brought by his father, the author above mentioned, from the Northwest fifty years ago. These are reproduced in Fig. 473.
When the ceremony of the Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa is to be performed, the chief midē' priest sends out a courier to deliver to each member an invitation to attend. These invitations consist of sticks of cedar, or other wood when that can not be found, measuring from 4 to 6 inches in length and of the thickness of an ordinary lead pencil. They may be plain, though the former custom of having one end painted red or green is sometimes continued. The colored band is about the width of one-fifth of the length of the stick. It is stated that in old times these invitation sticks were ornamented with colored porcupine quills, or strands of beads, instead of with paint.
The courier detailed to deliver invitations is also obliged to state the day, and locality of the place of meeting. It is necessary for the invited member to present himself and to deposit the invitation stick upon the floor of the inclosure in which the meeting is held; should he be deprived of the privilege of attending, he must return the stick with an explanation accounting for his absence.
Fig. 474 exhibits the sticks without coloration.
Another mode of giving invitations for the same ceremony is by sending around a piece of birch bark bearing characters similar to those in Fig. 475, taken from Copway, p. 136.
The characters, beginning at the left hand, signify as follows: Medicine house; great lodge; wigwam; woods; lake; river; canoe; come; Great Spirit.
Copway remarks as follows:
“In the above, the wigwam and the medicine pale, or worship, represent the depositories of medicine, record, and work. The lodge is represented with men in it; the dots above indicate the number of days.
“The whole story would thus read:
‘Hark to the words of the Sa-ge-mah'. The Great Medicine Lodge will be ready in eight days. Ye who live in the woods and near the lakes and by streams of water come with your canoes or by land to the worship of the Great Spirit.’”
The above interpretation is too much adapted to the ideas and language of Christianity. The more simple and accurate expression would change the rendition from “worship” and “Great Spirit” to the simple notice about holding a session of the Grand Medicine Society.
Fig. 476, drawn by a Passamaquoddy, shows how the Indians of the tribe would now address the President of the United States, or the governor of Maine for help, and formerly would have made wikhegan for transmittal to a great chief having power over them. They say by this: “You are at the top of the pole, so no one can be higher than you. From this pole you can see the farthest of your country and can see all your children, and when any of your children come to see you they must work hard to get where you are, on top of the high pole. They must climb up this pole to reach you. You must pity them because they come long ways to see you, the man of power on the high pole.” This kind of wikhegan the old men called kinjemeswi waligoh, homage or salutation to the great chief. It was always in the old time accompanied by a belt of wampum.
A highly interesting illustration and account of a diplomatic packet from the pueblo of Tesuque appears in Schoolcraft (g), and in the same series (h) is a pictograph from the Caroline islands still more in point.
A. W. Howitt (c) reports:
Messengers in central Australia were sent to gather people together for dances from distances even up to 100 miles. Such messengers were painted with red ocher and wore a headdress of feathers.
In calling people together for the ceremonies of Wilyaru or Mindari the messengers were painted with diagonal stripes of yellow ocher, and had their beards tied tightly into a point. They carried a token shaped like a Prince of Wales feather, and made of emu feathers tied tightly with string.
The sending of a handful of red ocher tied up in a small bundle signifies the great Mindari or peace festival. In giving notice of the intention to “make some young men” the messenger takes a handful of charcoal and places a piece in the mouth of each person present without saying a word. This is fully understood to mean the “making of young men” at the Wilyaru ceremony.
The following is a description of a Turkish love letter, which was obtained by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (a) in 1717:
I have got for you a Turkish love letter. * * * The translation of it is literally as follows. The first piece you should pull out of the purse is a little pearl, which must be understood in this manner:
Pearl Fairest of the young. Clove You are as slender as the clove. You are an unblown rose. I have long loved you and you have not known it. Jonquil Have pity on my passion. Paper I faint every hour. Pear Give me some hope. Soap I am sick with love. Coal May I die and all my years be yours. A rose May you be pleased and your sorrows mine. A straw Suffer me to be your slave. Cloth Your price is not to be found. Cinnamon But my fortune is yours. A match I burn, I burn! My flame consumes me. Gold thread Don’t turn away your face from me. Hair Crown of my head. Grape My two eyes. Gold wire I die; come quickly.
And, by way of postscript:
Pepper Send me an answer.
You see this letter is all in verse, and I can assure you there is as much fancy shown in the choice of them as in the most studied expressions of our letters, there being, I believe, a million of verses designed for this use. There is no color, no flower, no weed, no fruit, herb, pebble, or feather that has not a verse belonging to it; and you may quarrel, reproach, or send letters of passion, friendship, or civility, or even of news without ever inking your fingers.
The use by Turks and Persians of flower letters or communications, the significance of which is formed by the selection and arrangement of flowers, is well known. A missive thus composed of flowers is called sélam, but the details are too contradictory and confused to furnish materials for an accurate dictionary of the flower language, though dictionaries and treatises on it have been published. (See Magnat.) Individual fancy and local convention, it seems, fix the meanings.
A Japanese girl who decides to discourage the further attentions of a lover sends to him, instead of the proverbial “mitten” of New England, a sprig of maple, because the leaf changes its color more markedly than any other. In this connection it is told that the Japanese word for love also means color, which would accentuate the lesson of the changing leaf.
MESSAGE STICKS.
The following extracts are made from Curr’s (a) Australian Race:
I believe every tribe in Australia has its messenger, whose life, whilst he is in the performance of his duties, is held sacred in peace and war by the neighboring tribes. His duties are to convey the messages which the tribe desires to send to its neighbors, and to make arrangements about places of meeting on occasions of fights or corroborees. In many tribes it is the custom to supply the messenger when he sets out with a little carved stick, which he delivers with his message to the most influential man of the tribe to which he is sent. This carved stick he often carries whilst traveling stuck in the netted band which the blacks wear round the head. I have seen many of them, and been present when they were received and sent, and have some from Queensland in my possession at present. They are often flat, from 4 to 6 inches long, an inch wide, and a third of an inch thick; others are round, of the same length, and as thick as one’s middle finger. When flat their edges are often notched, and their surface always more or less carved with indentations, transverse lines, and squares; in fact, with the same sort of figures with which the blacks ornament their weapons throughout the continent; when round, fantastic lines are cut around them or lengthwise. I have one before me at this moment which is a miniature boomerang, carved on both sides, notched at the edges, and colored with red ocher. Any black could fashion sticks of this sort in an hour or two. Some of my correspondents have spoken of them as a sort of writing, but when pressed on the subject have admitted that their surmise, all the circumstances weighed, was not tenable. The flat sticks especially have that sort of regularity and repetition of pattern which wall papers exhibit. That they do not serve the purpose of writing or hieroglyphics I have no hesitation in asserting; and I may remark that in all cases which have come under my notice the messenger delivered his message before he presented the carved stick. That done the recipient would attempt to explain to those about him how the stick portrayed the message. Still this eminently childish proceeding leads one to consider whether the most savage mind does not contain the germ of writing. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, in his Discovery and Conquest of New Spain, relates that, when his country sent verbal messages by Mexican bearers to distant tribes, the messengers who had seen the Spaniards write always asked to be supplied with a letter, which, of course, neither they nor the people to whom they were sent could read.
Fig. 477 reproduces the illustration of the message sticks published in the work above mentioned.
Vol. I, p. 306.--In the Majanna tribe messengers are sent with a notched or carved stick, and the bearer has to explain its meaning. If it be a challenge to fight, and the challenge is accepted, another stick is returned.
Vol. II, p. 183.--The bearer of an important communication from one party to another often carries a message stick with him, the notches and lines on which he refers to whilst delivering his message. This custom, which prevails from the north coast to the south, is a very curious one. No black fellow ever pretends to be able to understand a message from a notched stick, but always looks upon it as confirmatory of the message it accompanies.
Vol. II, p. 427.--Message sticks are in use, the marks carved on them being a guaranty of the messenger, the same as a ring with us in former times.
Vol. III, p. 263.--Message sticks are used by the Maranoa river tribe. An informant has in his possession a reed necklace attached to a piece of flat wood about 5 inches long; on the wood are carved straight and curved lines, and this piece of wood was sent by one portion of the tribe to another by a messenger, the two parties being about 60 miles apart. The interpretation of the carving was: “My wife has been stolen; we shall have to fight; bring your spears and boomerangs.” The straight lines, it was explained, meant spears and the curved ones boomerangs; but the stealing of the wife seems to have been left to the messenger to tell.
A. W. Howitt (a) gives a further account on this topic:
The messenger carries with him as the emblems of his missions a complete set of male attire, together with the sacred humming instrument, which is wrapped in a skin and carefully concealed from women and children. It is, therefore, in such cases, the totem which assembles the whole community.
In the Adjadura tribe of South Australia the ceremonies are ordered to be held by the headman of the whole tribe by his messenger, who carries a message stick marked in such a manner that it serves to illustrate his message; together with this there is also sent a sacred humming instrument.
Drs. Houzé and Jacques (a) give a different view of the significance of the marks on message sticks:
It proves very difficult to discover the signification of the notched message sticks. The Europeans have not succeeded in deciphering them. Some marks may represent a whole history. The following anecdote on this subject is reported by M. Cauvin (according to J. M. Davis, Aborigines of Victoria, v. I, p. 356, note): A European, having formed the project of establishing a new station, started from Edward river with a herd of cattle and some Indians. When, all being arranged, the colonist was on the point of returning home, one of the young blacks requested him to take a letter to his father, and, on the consent of his patron, he gave him a stick about a foot long covered with notches and signs. On arriving home the colonist went to the camp of the blacks and delivered the letter to the father of his young follower, who, calling around him the whole encampment, to the great surprise of the European, read from this stick a daily account of the doings of the company from the departure from Edward river until the arrival at the new station, describing the country which they had traversed and the places where they had camped each night.
The Queenslanders did not give Drs. Houzé and Jacques such a long translation of their message sticks, but they informed them that one of the sticks related to the crossing from Australia into America, which is recounted by Tambo, the author of the message. An illustration of it is presented on p. 93 of the above cited work of Houzé and Jacques, but is not sufficiently distinct for reproduction.
WEST AFRICAN AROKO.
G. W. Bloxam (b) says of the aroko, or symbolic letters, used by the tribe of Jebu, in West Africa, describing Fig. 478:
This is a message from a native general of the Jebu force to a native prince abroad. It consists of six cowries. Six in the Jebu language is E-fà, which is derived from the verb fà, to draw. They are arranged two and two, face to face, on a long string; the pairs of cowries set face to face indicate friendly feeling and good fellowship; the number expresses a desire to draw close to the person to whom the message is sent [note the rebus]; while the long string indicates considerable distance or a long road. This is the message: “Although the road between us be very long, yet I draw you to myself and set my face towards you. So I desire you to set your face towards me and draw to me.”
On p. 298 he adds:
Among the Jebu in West Africa odd numbers in their message are of evil import, while even numbers express good will. Thus a single cowrie may be sent as an unfavorable answer to a request or message.
The same author writes, on p. 297, describing Fig. 479:
It is a message from His Majesty Awnjale, the King of Jebu, to his nephew abroad; and here we find other substances besides cowries included in the aroko. Taking the various articles in order, commencing from the knot, we observe four cowries facing in the same direction, with their backs to the knot; this signifies agreement. Next a piece of spice, a, which produces when burnt a sweet odor and is never unpleasant; then come three cowries facing in the same direction; then a piece of mat, b; then a piece of feather, c; and, lastly, a single cowrie turned in the same direction as all the others. The interpretation is:
“Your ways agree with mine very much. Your ways are pleasing to me and I like them.
“Deceive me not, because the spice would yield nothing else but a sweet and genuine odor unto God.
“I shall never deal doubly with you all my life long.
“The weight of your words to me is beyond all description.
“As it is on the same family mat we have been sitting and lying down together, I send to you.
“I am, therefore, anxiously awaiting and hoping to hear from you.”
The following account of “African Symbolic Messages,” condensed from the paper of the Rev. C. A. Gollmer, which appeared in Jour. Anthrop. Inst. of Gr. Bn. and I., XIV, p. 169, et. seq., is highly interesting as showing the ideography attached to the material objects transmitted. The step in evolution by which the graphic delineation of those objects was substituted for their actual presence was probably delayed only by the absence of convenient material, such as birch bark, parchment, or other portable rudimentary form of paper on which to draw or paint, or at least by the want of a simple invention for the application of such material:
The natives in the Yoruba country, West Africa, in the absence of writing, and as a substitute for it, send to one another messages by means of a variety of tangible objects, such as shells, feathers, pepper, corn, stone, coal, sticks, powder, shot, razors, etc., through which they convey their ideas, feelings, and wishes, good and bad, and that in an unmistakable manner. The object transmitted is seen, the import of it known and the message verbally delivered by the messenger sent, and repeated by one or more other persons accompanying the messenger for the purpose as the importance of the message is considered to require.
Cowry shells in the symbolic language are used to convey, by their number and the way in which they are strung, a variety of ideas. One cowry may indicate “defiance and failure;” thus: A cowry (having a small hole made at the back part, so as to be able to pass a string through it and the front opening) strung on a short bit of grass fiber or cord, and sent to a person known as a rival, or one aiming at injuring the other, the message is: “As one finger can not take up a cowry (more than one are required), so you one I defy; you will not be able to hurt me, your evil intentions will come to nothing.”
Two cowries may indicate “relationship and meeting;” thus: Two cowries strung together, face to face, and sent to an absent brother or sister, the message is: “We are children of one mother, were nursed by the same breasts.”
Two cowries may indicate “separation and enmity;” thus: Two cowries strung back to back and sent to a person gone away, the message is: “You and I are now separated.”
Two cowries and a feather may indicate “speedy meeting;” thus: Two cowries strung face to face, with a small feather (of a chicken or other bird) tied between the two cowries, and sent to a friend at a distance, the message is: “I want to see you, as the bird (represented by the feather) flies straight and quickly, so come as quickly as you can.”
The following fivefold painful symbolic message was sent by D., whilst in captivity at Dahomey, to his wife, who happened to be staying with Mr. Gollmer, at Badagry, at the time. The symbols were a stone, a coal, a pepper, corn, and a rag. During the attack of the King of Dahomey, with his great army of Amazons and other soldiers, upon Abeokuta in March, 1852, D., one of the native Christians and defenders of his town, home, and family, was taken captive and carried to Dahomey, where he suffered much for a long time. Whilst waiting for weeks to know the result his wife received the symbolic letter which conveyed the following message:
The stone indicated “health” (the stone was a small, common one from the street); thus the message was: “As the stone is hard, so my body is hardy, strong--i. e., well.”
The coal indicated “gloom” (the coal was a small piece of charcoal); thus the message was: “As the coal is black, so are my prospects dark and gloomy.”
The pepper indicated “heat” (the pepper was of the hot cayenne sort); thus the message was: “As the pepper is hot so is my mind heated, burning on account of the gloomy prospect--i. e., not knowing what day I may be sold or killed.”
The corn indicated “leanness” (the corn was a few parched grains of maize or Indian corn); thus the message was: “As the corn is dried up by parching; so my body is dried up or become lean through the heat of my affliction and suffering.”
The rag indicated “worn out;” thus (the rag was a small piece of worn and torn native cloth, in which the articles were wrapped) the message was: “As the rag is, so is my cloth cover--i. e., native dress, worn and torn to a rag.”
A tooth brush may indicate “remembrance;” thus: It is a well-known fact that the Africans in general can boast of a finer and whiter set of teeth than most other nations. And those Europeans who lived long among them know from constant observation how much attention they pay to their teeth, not only every morning, but often during the day. The tooth brush made use of is simply a piece of wood about 6 to 9 inches long, and of the thickness of a finger. One end of the stick, wetted with the saliva, is rubbed to and fro against the teeth, which end after awhile becomes soft. This sort of tooth brush is frequently given to friends as an acceptable present, and now and then it is made use of as a symbolic letter, and in such a case the message is: “As I remember my teeth the first thing in the morning, and often during the day, so I remember and think of you as soon as I get up, and often afterwards.”
Sugar may indicate “peace and love;” in the midst of a war this good disposition was made known from one party to another by the following symbol: A loaf of white sugar was sent by messengers from the native church at A. to the native church at I., and the message was: “As the sugar is white, so there is no blackness (i. e., enmity) in our hearts towards you; our hearts are white (i. e., pure and free from it). And as the sugar is sweet, so there is no bitterness among us against you; we are sweet (i. e., at peace with you) and love you.”
A fagot may indicate “fire and destruction;” when a fagot (i. e., a small bundle of bamboo poles, burnt on one end) is found fastened to the bamboo fence inclosing a compound, or premises, it conveys the message: “Your house will be burnt down”--i. e., destroyed.
Powder and shot are often made use of and sent as a symbolic letter; the message is to either an individual or a people, viz: “As we can not settle the quarrel, we must fight it out” (i. e., “we shall shoot you, or make war upon you”).
A razor may indicate “murder.” A person suspected and accused of having by some means or other been the cause of death of a member of a family, the representative of that family will demand satisfaction by sending the symbolic objects, viz, a razor or knife, which is laid outside the door of the house of the accused offender and guilty party, and the message is well understood to be: “You have killed or caused the death of N., you must kill yourself to avenge his death.”
The following examples indicate a still further step in evolution by which the names of the objects or of the numbers are of the same sound as words in the language the significance of which constitutes the real message. This objective rebus corresponds with the pictorial rebus so common in Mexican pictographs, and which is well known to have borne a chief part in the development of Egyptian and other ancient forms of writing.
Three cowries with some pepper may indicate “deceit;” thus: Three cowries strung with their faces all looking one way (as mentioned before) with an alligator pepper tied to the cowries. Eru is the name of the pepper in the native language, which in English means “deceit.” The message may be either a “caution not to betray one another,” or, more frequently, an accusation of having deceived and defrauded the company.
Six cowries may indicate “attachment and affection;” thus: Efa in the native language means “six” (cowries implied); it also means “drawn,” from the verb fa, to draw. Mora is always implied as connected with Efa; this means “stick to you,” from the verb mo, to stick to, and the noun ara, body--i. e. you. Six cowries strung (as before mentioned) and sent to a person or persons, the message is: “I am drawn (i. e. attached) to you, I love you,” which may be the message a young man sends to a young woman with a desire to form an engagement.
Rev. Richard Taylor (b) says:
The Maori used a kind of hieroglyphical or symbolical way of communication; a chief, inviting another to join in a war party, sent a tattooed potato and a fig of tobacco bound up together, which was interpreted to mean that the enemy was a Maori and not European by the tattoo, and by the tobacco that it represented smoke; he therefore roasted the one and eat it, and smoked the other, to show he accepted the invitation, and would join him with his guns and powder. Another sent a waterproof coat with the sleeves made of patchwork, red, blue, yellow, and green, intimating that they must wait until all the tribes were united before their force would be waterproof, i. e., able to encounter the European. Another chief sent a large pipe, which would hold a pound of tobacco, which was lighted in a large assembly, the emissary taking the first whiff, and then passing it around; whoever smoked it showed that he joined in the war.
SECTION 5.
CLAIM OR DEMAND.
Stephen Powers (b) states that the Nishinam of California have the following mode of collecting debts:
When an Indian owes another, it is held to be in bad taste, if not positively insulting, for the creditor to dun the debtor, as the brutal Saxon does, so he devises a more subtle method. He prepares a certain number of little sticks, according to the amount of the debt, and paints a ring around the end of each. These he carries and tosses into the delinquent’s wigwam without a word and goes his way; whereupon the other generally takes the hint, pays the debt, and destroys the sticks.
The San Francisco (California) Western Lancet, XI, 1882, p. 443, thus reports:
When a patient has neglected to remunerate the shaman [of the Wikehumni tribe of the Mariposan linguistic stock] for his services, the latter prepares short sticks of wood, with bands of colored porcupine quills wrapped around them at one end only, and every time he passes the delinquent’s lodge a certain number of them are thrown in as a reminder of the indebtedness.
G. W. Bloxam (c) describes Fig. 480 thus:
Among the Jehu of West Africa two cowries facing one another signify two blood relations; two cowries, however, back to back may be sent as a message of reproof for nonpayment of debt, meaning: “You have given me the back altogether; after we have come to an arrangement about the debt you have owed me, I will also turn my back against you.”
The same authority, p. 299, describes Fig. 481:
It consists of two cowries face to face, followed by one above facing upwards, and is a message from a creditor to a bad debtor, meaning: “After you have owed me a debt you kicked against me; I also will throw you off, because I did not know that you could have treated me thus.”
Prof. Anton Schrifner (a) describing Fig. 482, says:
On this plank the cuts marked b signify the number of reindeer required. Opposite these cuts are placed the hand marks, a, of various Samoyeds of whom the reindeer are demanded. At the bottom is found the official mark, c, of the Samoyed chief who forwarded this board to the various Samoyed settlements in place of a written communication.