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—

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:

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;

The following account is from Doc. Hist. N.Y. (a).

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.

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 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.

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:

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):

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:

Putnam (a) gives one example of this character:

Hind (a) speaks of a special form of notice by the natives of the Labrador peninsula:

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—

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—

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:

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.

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:

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):

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.

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.

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 ihÚⁿuk in the ground, the top leaning in the direction taken. The ihÚⁿuk 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.

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).

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:

Mr. Charles W. Cunningham, formerly of Phoenix, 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):