Garrick Mallery

The employment of pictographs to designate tribes, groups within tribes, and individual persons has been the most frequent of all the uses to which they have been applied. Indeed, the constant need that devices to represent the terms styled by grammarians proper names should be readily understood for identification has, more than any other cause, maintained and advanced pictography as an art, and in some parts of the world has evolved from it syllabaries and afterwards alphabets. From the same origin came heraldry, which in time designated with absolute accuracy persons and families for the benefit of letterless people. Trade-marks have the same history.

From the earliest times men have used emblems to indicate their tribes or clans. Homer makes no clear allusion to their manifestation at the poetic siege of Troy; but even if his Greeks did not bear them, other nations of the period did. The earlier Egyptians carried images of bulls and crocodiles into battle, probably at first with religious sentiments. Each of the twelve tribes of Israel had a special ensign of its own, which is now generally considered to have been totemic. The subjects of Semiramis adopted doves and pigeons as their token in deference to their queen, whose name meant “dove.”

At later dates Athens chose an owl for her sign, as a compliment to Minerva; Corinth, a winged horse, in memory of Pegasus and his fountain; Carthage, a horse’s head, in homage to Neptune; Persia, the sun, because its people worshiped fire; Rome, an eagle, in deference to Jupiter. These objects appear to have been carved in wood or metal. There is no evidence of anything resembling modern flags, except, perhaps, in parts of Asia, until the Romans began to use something like them about the time of CÆsar. But these small signs had no national or public character so as to be comparable with the eagles on the Roman standard; nor was any floating banner associated with ruling power until Constantine gave a religious meaning to the labarum.

Emblems also were often adopted by political and religious parties, e.g., the cornstalks and slings of the Mazarinists and anti-Mazarinists during the Fronde, the caps and hats in the Swedish diet in 1788, the scarf of the Armagnacs, and the cross of the Burgundians. The topic of emblems is further discussed in Chapter XVIII.

As with increased culture clans and tribes have become nations, so there has been an evolution by which the ensigns of bands and orders have been discontinued and replaced by the emblems of nationalities. Frederic Marshall (a) well says: “Images of animals, badges, war cries, cockades, liveries, coats of arms, tokens, tattooing, are all replaced practically by national ensigns.” This change is toward the higher and nobler significance and employment, all members of the community being protected and designated by the simple exhibition of a single emblem.

This chapter is naturally divided into (1) Pictorial tribal designations, (2) Gentile and clan designations, (3) Significance of tattoo, (4) Designations of individuals.

SECTION 1.
PICTORIAL TRIBAL DESIGNATIONS.

Capt. de Lamothe Cadillac (a) writing in the year 1696 of the Algonquians of the Great Lake region near Mackinac, etc., describes the emblems on their canoes as follows: “On y voit la natte de guerre le corbeau, l’ours on quelque autre animal * * * estant l’esprit qui doit conduire cette enterprise.”

This, however, was a mistake as applicable to the time when it was written. The animals used as emblems may originally have been regarded as supernatural totemic beings, but had probably become tribal designations.

IROQUOIAN TRIBAL DESIGNATIONS.

Bacqueville de la Potherie (c) says that a treaty with the French in Canada, about 1700, was “sealed” with the “proper arms,” pictorially drawn, of the Indian tribes which were parties to it. The following is a copy of the original statement in its archaic form:

Monsieur de Callieres, de Champigni, & de VaudreÜil, en signerent le TraitÉ, que chaque Nation scella de ses propres armes. Les Tsonnontouans & les Onnontaguez designerent une araignÉe, le Goyogouin un calumet, les Onneyouts un morceau de bois en fourche, une pierre au milieu, un OnnontaguÉ mit un Ours pour les Aniez, quoi qu’ils ne vinrent pas. Le Rat mit un Castor, les Abenaguis un ChevreÜil, les Outaouaks un LiÉvre, ainsi des autres.

From this it appears that—

The Seneca and Onondaga tribes were represented by a “spider.” [This was doubtless a branching tree, so badly drawn as to be mistaken for a spider.]

The Cayuga tribe, by a calumet.

The Oneida tribe, by a forked stick with a stone in the fork. [The forked stick was really designed for the fork of a tree.]

The Mohawk tribe, by a bear.

Le Rat, who was a representative Huron of Mackinaw, by a beaver.

The Abnaki, by a deer.

The Ottawa, by a hare.

Several other accounts of the tribal signs of the Iroquois are published, often with illustrations, e.g., in Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York (a), with the following remarks:

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.

Another account of interest, which does not appear to have been published, was traced and contributed by Mr. William Young, of Philadelphia. It is a deed from the representatives of the Six Nations (the Tuscaroras then being admitted) to the King of Great Britain, dated November 4, 1768, and recorded at the recorder’s office, Philadelphia, in Deed Book I, vol. 5, p. 241. Nearly all of these accounts and illustrations are confused and imperfect. An instructive blunder occurs in the translated signature representing the Mohawk tribe in the above mentioned deed. It is called “The Steel,” which could hardly have been an ancient tribal name, but after study it was remembered that the Mohawks have sometimes been called by a name properly translated the “Flint people.” By some confusion about flint and steel, which were still used in the middle of the last century to produce sparks of fire, perhaps assisted by the pantomime of striking those objects together, the one intended to be indicated, viz, the flint, was understood to be the other, the steel, and so these words were written under the figure, which was so roughly drawn that it might have been taken for a piece of flint or of steel or, indeed, anything else.

EASTERN ALGONQUIAN TRIBAL DESIGNATIONS.

The illustrations in Fig. 483 were drawn in 1888 by a Passamaquoddy Indian, in Maine, near the Canada border. The Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Amalecite are tribal divisions of the Abnaki, who formerly were also called Tarrateens by the more southern New England tribes and Owenunga by the Iroquois. The Micmacs are congeners of the Abnaki, but not classed in their tribal divisions. All the four tribes belong to the Algonquian linguistic stock.

Fig. 483.—Eastern Algonquian tribal designations.

Fig. 483 a is the tribal emblem of the Passamaquoddy. It shows two Indians in a canoe, both using paddles and not poles, following a fish, the pollock. The variation which will appear in the represented use of poles and paddles in the marks of the Algonquian tribes in Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, etc., is said to have originated in the differing character of the waters, shoal or deep, sluggish or rapid, of the regions of the four bodies of Indians whose totems are indicated as next follows, thus requiring the use of pole and paddle, respectively, in a greater or less degree. The animals figured are in all cases repeated consistently by each one of the several delineators, and in all cases there is some device to show a difference between the four canoes, either in their structure or in their mode of propulsion, but these devices are not always consistent. It is therefore probable that the several animals designated constitute the true and ancient totemic emblems, and that the accompaniment of the canoes is a modern differentiation.

b The Maresquite or Amalecite emblem. Two Indians in a canoe, both with poles, following a muskrat.

c The Micmac emblem. Two Indians, both with paddles, in a canoe built with high middle parts familiarly called “humpback,” following a deer.

d The Penobscot emblem. Two Indians in a canoe, one with a paddle and the other with a pole, following an otter.

In Margry (a) is an account, written about 1722, of the “Principal divisions of the Sioux and their distinctive marks,” thus translated:

There are from twenty to twenty-six villages of Scioux and they comprise the nations of the prairies:

(1) The Ouatabatonha, or Scioux des RiviÈres, living on the St. Croix river or Lake de la Folle-Avoine which is below, and 15 leagues from the Serpent river. Their distinctive sign is a bear wounded in the neck.

(2) The Menesouhatoba, or Scioux des Lacs, having for their mark a bear wounded in the neck.

(3) The Matatoba, or Scioux des Prairies, having for their mark a fox with an arrow in its mouth.

(4) The Hictoba, or Scioux de la Chasse, having for their symbol the elk.

(5) The Titoba, or Scioux des Prairies, whose emblem is the deer. It bears a bow on its horns.

We have as yet had no commerce save with five nations. The Titoba live 80 leagues west of Sault Saint-Antoine.

The above early, though meager, notice will serve as an introduction to the following series of pictorial tribal signs, all drawn by Sioux Indians, and many of them representing tribal divisions of the Siouan linguistic stock. The history and authority of the several “Winter Counts” mentioned are referred to supra, chapter X, section 2. Red-Cloud’s census and the Oglala roster are also described below. Explanations of some figures are added which have no reference to the present topic, but which seemed necessary and could not be separated and transferred to more appropriate division without undue multiplication of figures and text.

ABSAROKA OR CROW.

Fig. 484.—Absaroka.

Fig. 484.—Dakota and Crow, Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1819-’20. In an engagement between the Dakotas and the Crows both sides expended all of their arrows, and then threw dirt at each other. A Crow is represented on the right, and is distinguished by the manner in which the hair is worn. Hidatsa and Absaroka are represented with striped or spotted hair, which denotes the red clay they apply to it.

The custom which prevails among these tribes, and is said to have originated with the Crows, is to wear a wig of horse hair attached to the occiput, thus resembling the natural growth, but much increased in length. These wigs are made in strands having the thickness of a finger, varying from eight to fifteen in number, and held apart and in place by means of thin cross strands, thus resembling coarse network. At every intersection of strands of hair and crossties, lumps of pine gum are attached to prevent disarrangement and as in itself ornamental, and to these lumps dry vermilion clay is applied by the richer classes and red ocher or powdered clay by the poorer people.

Pictures drawn by some of the northern tribes of the Dakota show the characteristic and distinctive features for a Crow Indian to be the distribution of the red war paint which covers the forehead.

Fig. 485.—Absaroka.

Fig. 485.—Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1830-’31. The Crows were approaching a village at a time when there was a great deal of snow on the ground and intended to surprise it, but, some herders discovering them, the Dakotas went out, laid in wait for the Crows, surprised them, and killed many. A Crow’s head is represented in the figure.

The Crow is designated not only by the arrangement of back hair, before mentioned, but by a topknot of hair extending upward from the forehead, brushed upward and slightly backward. See also the seated figure in the record of Running Antelope, in Fig. 820, infra.

Fig. 486.—Absaroka.

Fig. 486.—The Dakotas surrounded and killed ten Crows. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1857-’58.

The hair is somewhat shortened and not intentionally foreshortened, which was beyond the artist’s skill.

Fig. 487.—Absaroka.

Fig. 487.—The Dakotas killed a Crow and his squaw who were found on a trail. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1839-’40.

This is a front view. The union line signifies husband and wife.

ARAPAHO.

Fig. 488.—Arapaho.

Fig. 488.—Arapaho, in the Dakota language, magpi-yato, blue cloud, is here shown by a circular cloud, drawn in blue in the original, inclosing the head of a man. Red-Cloud’s census.

ARIKARA OR REE.

Fig. 489.—Arikara.

Fig. 489 is the tribal sign of the Arikara, made by the Dakota, taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1823-’24, which he calls “General-——-first-appeared-and-the-Dakotas-aided-in-an-attack-on-the-Rees winter,” also “Much corn winter.”

The gun and the arrow in contact with the ear of corn show that both whites and Indians fought the Rees. The ear of corn signifies “Ree” or Arikara Indians, who are designated in gesture language as “corn shellers.”

Fig. 490.—Arikara.

Fig. 490.—A Dakota kills one Ree. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1874-’75. Here the ear of corn, the conventional sign for Arikara, has become abbreviated.

ASSINIBOIN.

Fig. 491.—Assiniboin.

Fig. 491 is the tribal designation for Assiniboin or Hohe made by the Dakota, as taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1709-’10.

The Hohe means the voice, or, as some say, the voice of the musk ox, and the device is the outline of the vocal organs, according to the Dakota concept, and represents the upper lip and roof of the mouth, the tongue, the lower lip, and chin and neck. The view is lateral, and resembles the sectional aspect of the mouth and tongue.

BRULÉ.

Fig. 492.—BrulÉ.

Fig. 492.—A BrulÉ, who had left the village the night before, was found dead in the morning outside the village, and the dogs were eating his body. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1822-’23.

The black spot on the upper part of the thigh shows he was a BrulÉ.

Fig. 493.—BrulÉ.

Fig. 493.—A BrulÉ was found dead under a tree, which had fallen on him. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1808-’10.

Again the burnt thigh is suggested by the black spot.

The significance of these two figures is explained by the gesture sign for BrulÉ as follows: Rub the upper and outer part of the right thigh in a small circle with the open right hand, fingers pointing downward. These Indians were once caught in a prairie fire, many burned to death, and others badly burned about the thighs; hence the name Si-caⁿ-gu, burnt thigh, and the sign. According to the BrulÉ chronology, this fire occurred in 1763, which they call “The-people-were-burned winter.”

CHEYENNE.

Fig. 494.—Cheyenne.

Fig. 494.—The Cheyenne who boasted that he was bullet and arrow proof was killed by white soldiers, near Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in the intrenchments behind which the Cheyennes were defending themselves after they had escaped from the fort. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1878-’79.

Fig. 495.—Cheyenne.

The marks on the arm constitute the tribal pictographic emblem. It is explained by the gesture sign as follows: Pass the ulnar side of the extended index finger repeatedly across extended finger and back of the left hand. Fig. 495 illustrates this gesture sign. Frequently, however, the index is drawn across the wrist or forearm, or the extended index, palm upward, is drawn across the forefinger of the left hand (palm inward), several times, left hand stationary, right hand is drawn toward the body until the index is drawn clear off; then repeat. Some Cheyennes believe this to have reference to the former custom of cutting the arms as offerings to spirits, while others think it refers to a more ancient custom of cutting off the enemy’s fingers for necklaces, and sometimes to cutting off the whole hand or forearm as a trophy to be displayed as scalps more generally are.

Fig. 496.—Cheyenne.

Fig. 496 is from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1785-’86. In that record this is the only instance where the short vertical lines below the arrow signify Cheyenne. In all others those marks are numerical and denote the number of persons killed. That these short lines here signify Cheyenne is explained by the foregoing remarks.

Fig. 497.—Cheyenne.

Fig. 497.—Picket-Pin went against the Cheyennes. A picket-pin is represented in front of him and is connected with his mouth by the usual line. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1790-’91.

The black band across his face denotes that he was brave and had killed enemies. The cross is the symbol for Cheyenne. This mark stands for the scars on their arms or stripes on their sleeves, and also to the gesture sign for this tribe. The cross is, therefore, the conventionalized form both for the emblem and the gesture.

DAKOTA OR SIOUX.

Fig. 498.—Dakota.

Fig. 498.—Standing-Bull, the great grandfather of the present Standing-Bull, discovered the Black Hills. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1775-’76. He carried home with him a pine tree of a species he had never seen before. In this count the Dakotas are usually distinguished by the braided scalp lock and the feather they wear at the crown of the head, or by the manner in which they brush back and tie the hair with ornamented strips. Many illustrations are given in the present paper in which this arrangement of the hair is shown more distinctly.

With regard to the designation of this tribe by paint it seems that pictures made by the northern Dakotas represent themselves as distinguished from other Indians by being painted red from below the eyes to the end of the chin. But this is probably rather a special war painting than a tribal design.

HIDATSA, GROS VENTRE, OR MINITARI.

Fig. 499.—Hidatsa.

Fig. 499 shows the tribal designation of the Gros Ventres by the Dakotas, on the authority of Battiste Good, 1789-’90.

Two Gros Ventres were killed on the ice by the Dakotas. The two are designated by two spots of blood on the ice, and killed is expressed by a blood-tipped arrow against the figure of the man above. The long hair, with a red forehead, denotes the Gros Ventre. In other Dakota records the same style of painting the forehead red designates the Arikara and Absaroka Indians. The horizontal band, which is blue in the original, signifies ice.

KAIOWA.

Fig. 500.—Kaiowa.

Fig. 500 shows the tribal designation of the Kaiowa by the Dakota, taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good, 1814-’15. He calls the winter “Smashed-a-Kaiowa’s-head-in winter.” The tomahawk with which it was done is in contact with the Kaiowa’s head.

The sign for Kaiowa is sometimes made by passing one or both hands, naturally extended, in short horizontal circles on either side of the head, together with a shaking motion, the conception being “rattle-brained” or “crazy heads.” The picture is drawn to represent the man in the attitude of making this gesture, and not the involuntary raising of the hands upon receiving the blow, such attitudes not appearing in Battiste Good’s system.

Fig. 501.—Kaiowa.

This gesture is illustrated in Fig. 501.

MANDAN.

Fig. 502.—Mandan.

Fig. 502.—Two Mandans killed by Minneconjous. The peculiar arrangement of the hair distinguishes the tribe. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1789-’90.

MANDAN AND ARIKARA.

Fig. 503.—Mandan and Arikara.

Fig. 503.—The Mandans and Rees made a charge on a Dakota village. An eagle’s tail, which is worn on the head, stands for Mandan and Ree. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1783-’84.

The mark on the tipi, which represents a village, is not, as it at first sight appears, a hatchet, but a conventional sign for “it hit.” See Fig. 987 and accompanying remarks.

OJIBWA.

Carver (a), writing in 1776-’78, tells that an Ojibwa drew the designation of his own tribe as a deer. The honest captain of provincial troops may have mistaken a clan mark to be a tribal mark, but the account is mentioned for what it is worth, and the context serves to support the statement.

OMAHA.

Fig. 504.—Omaha.

Fig. 504 is the tribal designation of the Omahas by the Dakotas, taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good, for the year 1744-’45. The pictograph is a human head with cropped hair and red cheeks. It is a front view. This tribe cuts the hair short and uses red paint upon the cheeks very extensively. This character is of frequent occurrence in Battiste Good’s count.

Fig. 505.—Omaha.

Fig. 505.—The Dakotas killed an Omaha in the night. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1806-’07.

This is a side view of the same. The illustration does not show the color of the cheeks.

Fig. 506.—Omaha.

Fig. 506.—The Dakotas and Omahas made peace. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1791-’92.

The Omaha is on the right and the Dakota on the left.

PAWNEE.

Fig. 507.—Pawnee.

Fig. 507 is the tribal designation of the Pawnee by the Dakotas, taken from Battiste Good’s Winter Count for the year 1704-’05.

He says: The lower part of the legs are ornamented with slight projections resembling the husks on the bottom of an ear of corn.

Fig. 508.—Pawnee.

Fig. 508.—BrulÉs kill a number of Pawnees. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1873-’74.

This is the abbreviated or conventionalized form of the one preceding.

Fig. 509.—Pawnee.

Fig. 509.—They killed many Pawnees on the Republican river. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1873-’74.

Here the arrangement of the hair makes the distinction.

In this connection it is useful to quote Dunbar (a):

The tribal mark of the Pawnees in their pictographic or historic painting was the scalp lock dressed to stand nearly erect or curving slightly backwards, somewhat like a horn. This, in order that it should retain its position, was filled with vermillion or other pigment, and sometimes lengthened by means of a tuft of horse hair skillfully appended so as to form a trail back over the shoulders. This usage was undoubtedly the origin of the name Pawnee. * * * It is most probably derived from pÁ-rik-i, a horn, and seems to have been once used by the Pawnees themselves to designate their peculiar scalp lock. From the fact that this was the most noticeable feature in their costume, the name came naturally to be the denominative term of the tribe.

PONKA.

Fig. 510.—Ponka.

Fig. 510.—The Ponkas came and attacked a village, notwithstanding peace had just been made with them. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1778-’79.

Some elk hair which is used to form a ridge about 8 inches long and 2 in breadth, worn from the forehead to the back of the neck, and a feather, represent Ponka. Horse tracks are used for horses. Attack is indicated by marks which represent bullet marks, and which convey the idea that the bullet struck. The marks are derived from the gesture-sign “it struck.” See Chapter XVIII, section 4.

Fig. 511.—Ponka.

Fig. 511.—An Indian woman, who had been unfaithful to a white man to whom she was married, was killed by an Indian named Ponka. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1804-’05.

The emblem for Ponka is the straight elk hair ridge.

SHOSHONI.

Dr. George Gibbs (b) describes a pictograph made by one of the Indian tribes of Oregon and Washington, upon which “the figure of a man with a long queue or scalp lock reached to his heels denoted a Shoshoni, that tribe being in the habit of braiding horse or other hair into their own in that manner.”

This may be correct regarding the Shoshoni Indians among the extreme northwestern tribes, but the mark of identification could not be based upon the custom of braiding with their own hair that of animals, to increase the length and appearance of the queue, as this custom also prevails among the Absaroka, Hidatsa, and Arikaa Indians, respectively, as before mentioned in this work.

Tanner’s Narrative (e) gives additional information on this topic regarding the absence of any tribal sign in connection with a human figure.

In Sketches of Northwestern Mongolia, (a) are the tamga or seals of Kirghise tribes, of which Fig. 513 is a copy.

The explanation given is as follows: a. Kipchaktamga: letter alip. b. Arguin tamga: eyes. c. Naiman tamga: posts (of door). d. Kong-rat, Kirei, tamga: vine. e. Nak tamga: prop. f. Tarakti tamga: comb. g. Tyulimgut tamga: pike.

SECTION 2.
GENTILE AND CLAN DESIGNATIONS.

The clan and totemic system formerly called the gentile system undoubtedly prevailed anciently in Europe and Asia, but first became understood by observations of its existence in actual force among the aborigines of America and Australia, and typical representations of it are still found among them. In Australia it is called kobong. An animal or a plant, or sometimes a heavenly body was mythologically at first and at last sociologically connected with all persons of a certain stock, who believe, or once believed, that it was their tutelar god and they bear its name.

Each clan or gens took as a badge or objective totem the representation of the tutelar daimon from which it was named. As most Indian tribes were zootheistic, the object of their devotion was generally an animal—e.g., an eagle, a panther, a buffalo, a bear, a deer, a raccoon, a tortoise, a snake, or a fish, but sometimes was one of the winds, a celestial body, or other impressive object or phenomenon.

American Indians once generally observed a prohibition against killing the animal connected with their totem or eating any part of it. For instance, most of the southern Indians abstained from killing the wolf; the Navajo do not kill bears; the Osage never killed the beaver until the skins became valuable for sale. Afterward some of the animals previously held sacred were killed; but apologies were made to them at the time, and in almost all cases the prohibition or taboo survived with regard to certain parts of those animals which were not to be eaten on the principle of synecdoche, the temptation to use the food being too strong to permit entire abstinence. The Cherokee forbade the use of the tongues of the deer and bear for food. They cut these members out and cast them into the fire sacramentally. A practice still exists among the Ojibwa as follows: There is a formal restriction against members of the bear clan eating the animal, yet by a subdivision within the same clan an arrangement is made so that sub-clans may among them eat the whole animal. When a bear is killed, the head and paws are eaten by those who form one branch of the bear totem, and the remainder is reserved for the others. Other Indian tribes have invented a differentiation in which some clansmen may eat the ham and not the shoulder of certain animals, and others the shoulder and not the ham.

It follows, therefore, that sometimes the whole animal is designated as a clan totem, and also that sometimes only parts of it is selected. Many of the devices given in this paper under the heading of personal names have this origin. The following figures show a selection of parts of animals that may further illustrate the subject. It must, however, be borne in mind that some of the cases may be connected with individual visions or with personal adventures and not directly with the clan system. In the absence of detailed information in each instance discrimination is impossible.

Schoolcraft says that the Ojibwa always placed the totemic or clan pictorial mark upon the adjedatig or grave-post, thereby sinking the personal name which is not generally indicative of the totem. The same practice is found in other tribes. The Pueblos depict the gentile or totemic pictorial sign upon their various styles of ceramic work.

c. Bear’s-Ears was killed in a fight with the Rees. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1793-’94.

This is another and more graphic delineation of the animal’s ears.

d. Bear-Head. Red-Cloud’s Census.

e. Bear-Paw. Red-Cloud’s Census. The paws of the bear are considered to be a delicacy.

f. Bear-Brains. Red-Cloud’s Census.

g. Bear-Nostrils. Red-Cloud’s Census.

h. Hump. Red-Cloud’s Census. The hump of the buffalo has been often praised as a delicious dish.

i. Elk-Head. Red-Cloud’s Census.

Fig. 515 represents carved uprights in a house of the Kwakiutl Indians, British Columbia, taken from a work of Dr. Franz Boas (b).

Mr. Herbert Spencer (a) considers all forms of tattoo to be originally tribal marks, and draws from that assumption additional evidence for his favorite theory of the deification of a dead tribal chief. Miss A. W. Buckland (a), in her essay on tattooing, follows in the same track, although recognizing modern deviations from the rule. A valuable article in the literature of the subject entitled “Tattooing among civilized people,” by Dr. Robert Fletcher should be consulted. Also A tatuagem em Portugal, by Rocha Peixoto.

Dr. C. N. Starcke (a) lays down the law still more distinctly, thus:

Prof. Frederick Starr (a) makes these remarks:

After careful study of the topic, less positive and conclusive authority is found for this explanation of tattooing than was expected, considering its general admission.

The great antiquity of tattooing is shown by reference to it in the Old Testament, and in Herodotus, Xenophon, Tacitus, Ammianus, and Herodian. The publications on the topic are so numerous that the notes now to be presented are by no means exhaustive. They mainly refer to the Indian tribes of North America with only such comparatively recent reports from other lands as seem to afford elucidation.

TATTOO IN NORTH AMERICA.

G. Holm (b) says of the Greenland Innuit that geometric figures consisting of streaks and points, are used in tattooing on the breasts, arms, and legs of the females.

H. H. Bancroft (b) says:

William H. Gilder (a) reports:

An early notice of tattooing in the territory now occupied by the United States, mentioned in Hakluyt (d), is in the visit of the Florida chief, Satouriona, in 1564, to RÉnÉ LaudonniÈre. His tattooed figure was drawn by Le Moyne, TabulÆ VIII, IX.

Capt. John Smith (a) is made to say of the Virginia Indians:

FrÈre Gabriel Sagard (b) says (about 1636) of the Hurons that they tattooed by scratching with a bone of bird or fish, a black powder being applied to the bleeding wounds. The operation was not completed at once, but required several renewals. The object was to show bravery by supporting great pain as well as to terrify enemies.

In the Jesuit Relation for 1641, p. 75, it is said of the Neuter Nation that on their bodies from head to foot they marked a thousand diverse figures with charcoal pricked into the flesh on which beforehand they have traced lines for them.

Lemoyne D’Iberville, in 1649, Margry (b), remarked among the Bayogoulas that some of the young women had their faces and breasts pricked and marked with black.

In the Jesuit Relation for 1663, p. 28, there is an account that the head chief of the Iroquois, called by the French Nero, had killed sixty enemies with his own hand, the marks of which he bears printed on his thigh, which, therefore, appears covered over with black characters.

Joutel, in Margry (c), speaks of tattooing among the Texas Indians in 1687. Some women make a streak from the top of the forehead to chin, some make a triangle at the corners of their eyes, others on the breast and shoulders, others prick the lips. The marks are indelible.

Bacqueville de la Potherie (b) says of the Iroquois:

M. Bossu (a) says of tatooing among the Osages in 1756:

James Adair (a) says of the Chikasas in 1720:

Sir Alex. Mackenzie (b) tells that the Slave and Dog Rib Indians of the Athabaskan stock practiced tatooing. The men had two double lines, either black or blue, tattooed upon each cheek from the ear to the nose.

In James’s Long (c) it is reported that—

Rev. J. Owen Dorsey (a) says:

The female Mide' of the Ojibwa frequently tattoo the temples, forehead, or cheeks of sufferers from headache or toothache, which varieties of pain are believed to be caused by some malevolent manido or spirit. By this operation such demons are expelled, the ceremony being also accompanied by songs and gesticulations of exorcism. Relief is sometimes actually obtained through the counterirritant action of the tattooing, which is effected by using a small bunch of needles, though formerly several spicules of bone were tied together or used singly.

One old Ojibwa woman who was observed in 1887 had a round spot over each temple, made there to cure headache. The spots were of a bluish-black color, and about five-eighths of an inch in diameter. Another had a similar spot upon the nasal eminence, and a line of small dots running from the nostrils, horizontally outward over either cheek, two-thirds of the distance to the ears.

The men of the Wichita wore tattoo lines from the lips downward, and it is a significant fact that their tribal sign means “tattooed people,” the same expression being used to designate them in the language of several neighboring tribes. This would imply that tattooing was not common in that region. The Kaiowa women, however, frequently had small circles tattooed on their foreheads, and the Sixtown Choctaws still are distinguished by perpendicular lines tatooed on the chin.

Mr. John Murdoch (b) reports of the Eskimo:

TATTOO ON THE PACIFIC COAST.

During the summer of 1884 Dr. Hoffman met, at Port Townsend, Washington, a party of Haida Indians from Queen Charlottes island, who were encamped there for a short time. Most of them were tattooed after the manner of the Haidas, the breast, back, forearm, and legs bearing partial or complete designs of animate forms relating to totems or myths. Some of the persons had been tattooed only in part, the figures upon the forearms, for instance, being incomplete, because the operation at a previous “potlatch” or festival had to be suspended on account of the great length of time required, or on account of an extra inflammatory condition of the affected parts.

Among this party of Haidas was Makde'gos, the tattooer of the tribe, whose work is truly remarkable. The designs made by him are symmetrical, while the lines are uniform in width and regular and graceful in every respect. In persons tattooed upon the breast or back the part operated upon is first divided into halves by an imaginary vertical line upon the breast through the middle of the sternum and upon the back along the middle of the vertebral column. Such designs are drawn double, facing outward from this imaginary line. One side is first drawn and completed, while the other is merely a reverse transfer, made immediately afterwards or at such future time as the operation of tattooing may be renewed.

The colors are black and red, the former consisting of finely powdered charcoal, gunpowder, or India ink, while the latter is Chinese vermilion. The operation was formerly performed with sharp thorns, spines of certain fishes, or spicules of bone; but recently a small bunch of needles is used, which serves the purpose to better effect.

As is well known, the black pigments, when picked into the human skin, become rather bluish, which tint, when beneath the yellowish tinge of the Indian’s cuticle, appears of an olive or sometimes a greenish-blue shade. The colors, immediately after being tattooed upon the skin, retain more or less of the blue-black shade; but by absorption of the pigment and the persistence of the coloring matter of the pigmentary membrane the greenish tint soon appears, becoming gradually less conspicuous as time progresses, so that in some of the oldest tattooed Indians the designs are greatly weakened in coloration.

Upon the bodies of some persons examined the results of ulceration are conspicuous. This destruction of tissue is the result of inflammation caused by the tattooing and the introduction under the skin of so great a quantity of irritating foreign matter that, instead of designs in color, there are distinct, sharply defined figures in white or nearly white cicatrices, the pigmentary membrane having been totally destroyed by the ulceration.

In Fig. 518 two forms of the thunderbird are presented, copied from the right and left forearms and hands, respectively, of a Haida woman. The right hand device is complete, but that on the left, copied from the opposite forearm and hand, is incomplete, and it was expected that the design would be entirely finished at the “potlatch” which was to be held in the autumn of 1884. In the completed design the transverse curve in the body of the tail was red, as also the three diagonal lines upon the body of the bird running outward from the central vertical toward the radial side of the hand. The brace-shaped lines within the head ornament had also been tattooed in red.

Another instance of the interrupted condition of tattooed designs is presented in Fig. 520. The figure upon the forearm and hand is that of the bear totem, and was made first. At a subsequent festival the bear heads were tattooed upon the fingers, and, last of all, the body was tattoed upon the middle finger, leaving three yet to be completed.

Sometimes the simple outline designs employed in tattooing are painted upon property belonging to various persons, such as boats, housefronts, etc. In such instances colors are employed that could not be used in tattooing. One fine example of such is presented in Pl. XXIV and another of more elaborate design in Pl. XXV.

The back of the man in the same figure has the wolf (wasko), split in halves and tattooed between his shoulders, which is shown enlarged in Fig. 531. Wasko is a mythological being of the wolf species, similar to the chu-chu-hmexl of the Makah Indians, an antediluvian demon supposed to live in the mountains.

Other notices about the tattooing of the Indians of the Pacific slope of North America are subjoined.

Stephen Powers (c) says the Karok (California) squaws tattoo in blue three narrow fern leaves perpendicularly on the chin, one falling from each corner of the mouth and one in the middle.

The same author reports, page 76:

Also on page 96:

On page 148, of the KÁstel Pomo:

Of the Wintuns he says, page 233: “The squaws all tattoo three narrow lines, one falling from each corner of the mouth and one between.”

The same author says, on page 109:

Blue marks tattooed upon a Mohave woman’s chin denote that she is married. See Whipple (f).

Mr. Gatschet reports that very few Klamath men now tattoo their faces, but such as are still observed have but a single line of black running from the middle of the lower lip to the chin. Half-breed girls appear to have but one perpendicular line tattooed down over the chin while the full-blood women have four perpendicular lines on the chin.

In Bancroft’s Native Races (c), it is stated that the Modoc women tattoo three blue lines, extending perpendicularly from the center and corners of the lower lip to the chin.

The same author on pages 117 and 127 of the same volume says:

The Chippewas have tattooed cheeks and foreheads. Both sexes have blue or black bars or from one to four straight lines to distinguish the tribe to which they belong. They tattoo by entering an awl or needle under the skin and drawing it out, immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wounds. * * * On the Yukon river among the Kutchins, the men draw a black stripe down the forehead and the nose, frequently crossing the forehead and cheeks with red lines and streaking the chin alternately with red and black, and the women tattoo the chin with a black pigment.

Stephen Powers, in Overland Monthly, XII, 537, 1874, says of the Normocs:

Dr. Franz Boas (c) says:

TATTOO IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Dr. im Thurn (c) says:

Herndon and Gibbon (a), p. 319, report:

Paul Marcoy (b) says of the PassÉs, Yuris, BarrÉs, and Chumanas, of Brazil, that they mark their faces (in tattoo) with the totem, or emblem of the nation to which they belong. It is possible at a few steps distant to distinguish one nation from another.

EXTRA-LIMITAL TATTOO.

Ancient monarchs adopted special marks to distinguish slaves; likewise for vengeance as an indelible and humiliating brand, a certain tattoo denounced him who had fallen into disgrace with a sovereign. Two monks having censured the iconoclastic frenzy of the emperor Theophilus, he ordered to be imprinted on their foreheads eleven iambic verses; Philip of Macedon, from whom a soldier had solicited the possession of a man saved by him from shipwreck, ordered that on his forehead should be drawn signs indicative of his base greed; Caligula, without any object, commanded the tattooing of the Roman nobles.

In the period of the decline of Rome, tattooing was extensively practiced. Regulative laws prescribed the adopted symbols which were a proof of enlistment in the ranks and on which the military oath was taken. The purpose of this ordinance, which continued in force for a long time, was similar to that which authorized the marking of the slaves, since, the spirit of the people having become degenerated, the army was composed of mercenaries who, if they should run away, must be recognized, pursued, and captured. Until recently the practice, though more as a mark of manhood, was followed by the soldiers of the Piedmontese army.

ÉlisÉe Reclus (a) says:

The following is from Rev. Richard Taylor (c) about the New Zealanders, Te Ika a Maui:

The accompanying illustration, Fig. 534, is taken from a bone obtained from a mound in New Zealand, by Prof. I. C. Russell, formerly of the U.S. Geological Survey. He says that the Maori formerly tattooed the bones of enemies, though the custom now seems to have been abandoned. The work consists of sharp, shallow lines, as if made with a sharp-pointed steel instrument, into which some blackish pigment has been rubbed, filling up some of the markings, while in others scarcely a trace remains.

In connection with the use of the tattoo marks as reproduced on artificial objects see Fig. 734.

In RÉvue d’Ethnographie (a) (translated) it is published that—

The illustration above mentioned is reproduced as Fig. 536.

In the same article, p. 112, is the following, referring to Fig. 537:

At Roembati tattooing is called “gomanroeri” and at Sekar “bÉti.” They do it there with bones of fish, with which they prick many holes in the skin until the blood flows, and then smear on it in spots the soot from pans and pots, which, after the staunching of the blood, leaves an ineffaceable bluish spot or streak. Besides the breast and upper arm they also tattoo in the same way the calf of the leg, and in some cases the forehead, as a mere ornamentation, both of men and women—children only in very exceptional cases.

The Bonggose and Sirito are much tattooed over the breast and shoulder. At SaoekorÈm, a DorÉ settlement, a few women were seen tattooed on the breast and in the face. At DorÉ it is called “pa,” and is done with thorns, and charcoal is rubbed over the bloody spots; only here and at Mansinam is it a sign of mourning; everywhere else it merely serves as ornamentation.

At Ansoes it does not occur much, and is principally in the face; it is there called “toi.” It is found somewhat more commonly on Noord-JapÈn, and then on shoulder and upper arm. In Tarfia, Tana-mÉrah, and Humboldt bay but few persons were tattooed, mostly on the forehead.

The tattooing is always the work of women, generally members of the family, both on men and on women. First the figure is drawn with charcoal, and if it suits the taste then begins the pricking with the thorn of a citrus or a fine bone of some animal. It is very painful and only a small spot can be pricked at one time, so long as the tattooee can stand it. If the pain is too violent, the wounds are gently pressed with a certain leaf that has been warmed, in order to soothe the pain, and the work is continued only after three or four days. No special names are given to the figures; those are chosen which suit the taste. Children are never tattooed at the wish of the parents; it is entirely a matter of individual choice.

Mr. Forbes, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. G. B. and I., August, 1883, p. 10, says that in Timor Laut, an island of the Malay archipelago—

Prof. Brauns, of Halle, reports, Science, III, No. 50, p. 69, that among the Ainos of Yazo the women tattoo their chins to imitate the beards of the men.

Carl Bock (a) says:

In Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, London, 1876, p. 94, it is said that in Mangaia, of the Hervey group, the tattoo is in imitation of the stripes on the two kinds of fish, avini and paoro, the color of which is blue. The legend of this is kept in the song of InÁ.

ElisÉe Reclus (b) says:

In L’Anthropologie (a), 1890, T. I, No. 6, p. 693, it is thus reported:

Mr. O’Reilly, the professional tattooer of New York, in a letter, says that he is familiar with the tattoo system of Burmah, and that, besides the ruling principle of ordeal, the Burmese use special tattoo marks to charm and to bring love. They also believe that tattooing the whole person renders the skin impenetrable to weapons.

In Zeitschrift fÜr Ethnologie (a) it is recounted of the Badagas in the Nilgiri mountains, India:

Pl. XXVII shows the subchiefs or partisans of the Oglala at the time of the roster in 1883.

a. Represents Tatanka-he-luta, Red-horn-Bull. The bull’s horns have been made bloody by goring.

b. Represents Cetan-watakpe, Charging-Hawk. This subchief also appears with a slightly different form of “charging” in Red-Cloud’s Census, in which the bird is represented head downward.

Fig. 541.—Charging-Hawk, from Red-Cloud’s Census, No. 142. On careful examination the bird is seen to be not erect, as at first appears, but is swooping down.

c. Represents Wiyaka-aopazan, Wears-the-Feather. The feather in its conventional form is presented twice, once connected by a line with the mouth and also over the war club as in common with other pictures of this series. The same person is represented next below.

Fig. 542.—Feather-on-his-Head, from Red-Cloud’s Census, No. 86. In this case the feather droops while it is erect in the figure next above. No significance is indicated in the slight variation.

d. Represents Pankeskahoksila, Shell-Boy. The shell is the circular object over the head of the small human figure, which is without the proper number of legs, showing perhaps that he can not march, and his open, weaponless hands say that he is not a warrior, i.e., he is a boy. The object, now translated shell, was originally a large excrescence on the trunk of a tree which was often cut away by the Dakotas, hollowed out and used as a bowl.

e. Mato-niyanpi, The-Bear-spares-him. The bear passing through the marks of several tracks indicates an incident not explained, in which the subchief was in danger.

f. Represents Cetan-maza, Iron-Hawk. The bird is colored blue, as before explained.

g. Represents Kangi-luta, Red-Crow.

h. Represents Situpi-ska, White-Tail. The bird is probably one of the hawks, as is more distinctly indicated in the representation of the same name as follows:

l. Represents Tatanka-najin, Standing-Buffalo-Bull.

m. Represents Tasunke-inyanke, His-Running-Horse. This man was probably the owner of a well known racing pony.

Fig. 547, drawn and explained by an Oglala Dakota, exhibits four erect pipes, to show that he had led four war parties.

Fig. 548 is a copy of a drawing made by Lean-Wolf, when second chief of the Hidatsa, to represent himself. The horns on his head-dress show that he is a chief. The eagle feathers on his war bonnet, arranged in the special manner portrayed, also show high distinction as a warrior. His authority as “partisan,” or leader of a war party, is represented by the elevated pipe. His name is also added, with the usual line drawn from the head. He explained the outline character of the wolf, having a white body with the mouth unfinished, to show that it was hollow, nothing there; i.e., lean. The animal’s tail is drawn in detail and dark, to distinguish it from the body.

The character for “partisan” is also shown in Lone-Dog’s Winter Count for the year 1842-’43.

Fig. 549 gives three examples, actual size, of a large number of similar designs scratched on the rocks of Kejimkoojik lake, Nova Scotia. They were at first considered to be connected with the ceremonial or mystery lodges, many sketches of which appear on the same rocks, and examples of which are given in Figs. 717 and 718. Undoubtedly there is some connection between the designs, but those now under consideration are recognized by the Indians of the general locality as the elaborate forms of head dress sometimes so extended as to become masks, which are still worn by a few of the Micmac and Abnaki women. Those women are or were of special authority and held positions in social and religious ceremonies. Their ornamental head coverings therefore were insignia of their rank. The modern specimens seen by the present writer are elaborately wrought with beads, quills, and embroidery on fine cloth, velvet or satin, but were originally of skin. The patterns still used show some fantastic connection with those of the rock drawings of this class, and again the latter reproduce some of the tracings on the ground plans of the mystery lodges before mentioned. The feathery branches of trees appearing on both of the two classes of illustrations are in the modern head coverings actual feathers. The first of the three figures shows the branch or feather inside of the pattern, and the other two have them outside, in which variation the bushes or branches of the medicine lodges show a similar proportion. The third sketch, in addition to the exterior feathers, shows flags or streamers, which in the ceremonial head gear in present use is imitated by ribbons.

If there had been any doubt remaining of the interpretation of this class of drawing it would be removed by the presence of a number of contiguous and obviously contemporary sketches of which Fig. 550 is an example. Here the female chieftain or, perhaps, priestess appears in a ceremonial robe, with her head completely covered by one of these capote masks. The researches made not only establish the significance of this puzzling class of designs, but also show that their authors were of the Abnaki or Micmac branches of the Algonquian linguistic family.

The upper right-hand drawing of the three trees with peculiar devices near their several roots was also printed from one of the Kejimkoojik rocks. It became intelligible to the present writer after examination of a silver disk in the possession of Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, of Calais, Maine, which, not long before, had been owned by the head chief of the Passamaquoddy tribe, whose title had been modernized into “governor.” The disk, which is copied in the upper left-hand corner, was probably not of Indian workmanship, but appeared to have been ordered from a silversmith to be made from a Passamaquoddy design. It was known to represent the three superior officers of the tribe mentioned and had been worn by a former governor as a prized sign of his rank. The middle device is for the governor and the right and left for the officers next in rank to him. The devices at the roots of the trees of the drawing before mentioned are noticeably similar. They may have been made, as were most of the other characters on the Kejimkoojik rocks, by the Micmacs, in which case it would seem that they designated their chiefs by emblems similar to those used by their congeners of the Passamaquoddy tribe or some member of the last-named tribe may have drawn the emblem on the rocks in the Micmac territory. In any case there is encouragement in the attempt to decipher petroglyphs from the fact that the tree drawing in Nova Scotia, which seemed without significance, was readily elucidated by a metal inscription found in Maine, the interpretation being verified through living Indians, not only in the two geographic divisions mentioned, but also by the Amalecites in New Brunswick.

Father P. J. De Smet (b), referring to the Piegan and Blackfeet or Satsika, describes the great Tail-Bearer:

The following description of a Chilkat ceremonial shirt, with the illustration reproduced in Fig. 552, is taken from Niblack (c):

It represents a cloak with a neck opening, ornamented in red cloth with the totemic design of the Orca or Killer. It is in the form of a truncated cone, with no openings for the arms.

The same author gives description accompanying Pl. X, Figs. 33 and 34, of ceremonial blankets and coats. The first-mentioned drawing is reproduced here as Fig. 554:

The design on the blanket shown represents Hoorts, the bear.

Fig. 555 is described thus: “A ceremonial shirt or coat of similar workmanship as the blanket just described, is trimmed on the collar and cuffs with sea-otter fur.”

Pls. LXV and LXVI of the Codex Mendoza, in Vol. I of Lord Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico, exhibit the devices and insignia of the soldiers who advanced step by step to higher command, according to their military achievements. The chief criterion, indeed the only one mentioned for these steps and promotions, was the number of prisoners severally taken by the soldiers in war. From the large number of degrees in rank and titles of valor expressed in the above-mentioned plates, a number have been selected and copies of them, exact in drawing, size, and coloration, are presented here in Pls. XXVIII and XXIX. The quaint text relating to them is in Kingsborough (p).

A. W. Howitt (e) says:

The same author, p. 78, reports:

SIGNS OF INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS.

Prince Maximilian of Wied, (b) gives an account explanatory of Figs. 558 and 559:

The following scheme, used by the Dakotas, is taken from Mrs. Eastman’s Dahcotah. Colors are not given, but red undoubtedly predominates, as is known from personal observation.

A spot upon the larger web denotes that the wearer has killed an enemy. Fig. 560.

Fig. 561 denotes that the wearer has cut the throat of his enemy and taken his scalp.

Fig. 562 denotes that the wearer has cut the throat of his enemy.

Fig. 563 denotes that the wearer was the third that touched the body of his enemy after he was killed.

Fig. 564 denotes that the wearer was the fourth that touched the body of his enemy after he was killed.

Fig. 565 denotes that the wearer was the fifth that touched the body of his enemy after he was killed.

Fig. 566 denotes that the wearer has been wounded in many places by the enemy.

The following variations in the scheme were noticed in 1883 among the Mdewakantanwan Dakotas, near Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

Feathers of the eagle are used as among the other bands of Dakotas.

A plain feather is used to signify that the wearer has killed an enemy, without regard to the manner in which he was slain.

When the end is clipped transversely, and the edge colored red, it signifies that the throat of the enemy was cut.

A black feather denotes that an Ojibwa woman was killed. Enemies are considered as Ojibwas, that being the tribe with which the Mdewakantanwan Dakotas have been most in collision.

When a warrior has been wounded a red spot is painted upon the broad side of a feather. If the wearer has been shot in the body, arms, or legs, a red spot is painted upon his clothing or blanket, immediately over the locality of the wound. These red spots are sometimes worked in porcupine quills, or in cotton fiber as now obtained from the traders.

Belden (a) says:

Boller (a) in Among the Indians, p. 284, describes a Sioux as wearing a number of small wood shavings stained with vermilion in his hair, each the symbol of a wound received.

Lynd (c) gives a device differing from all the foregoing, with an explanation:

It should be noted that all the foregoing signs of individual achievements are given by the several authorities as used by the same body of Indians, the Dakota or Sioux. This, however, is a large body, divided into tribes, and it is possible that a different scheme was used in the several tribes. But the accounts are so conflicting that error in either observation or description or both is to be suspected.

Rev. J. Owen Dorsey (b) explains the devices on the shield of a Teton Dakota:

Irving (a), in Astoria, says of the Arikara:

Prince Maximilian, of Wied (c), thus reports on the designations of the Mandans connected with the present topic:

The Hidatsa scheme of designating achievements was obtained by Dr. Hoffman, at Fort Berthold, North Dakota, during 1881, and now follows:

A feather, to the tip of which is attached a tuft of down or several strands of horse hair, dyed red, denotes that the wearer has killed an enemy and that he was the first to touch or strike him with the coup stick. Fig. 567 a.

A feather bearing one red bar made with vermillion, signifies the wearer to have been the second person to strike the fallen enemy with the coup stick. Same Fig. b.

A feather bearing two red bars signifies that the wearer was the third person to strike the body. Same Fig. c.

A feather with three bars signifies that the wearer was the fourth to strike the fallen enemy. Fig. 568 a. Beyond this number honors are not counted.

A red feather denotes that the wearer was wounded in an encounter with an enemy. Fig. 568 b.

A narrow strip of rawhide or buckskin is wrapped from end to end with porcupine quills dyed red, though sometimes a few white ones are inserted to break the monotony of color. This strip is attached to the inner surface of the rib or shaft of the quill by means of very thin fibers of sinew, and signifies that the wearer killed a woman belonging to a hostile tribe. It is shown in Fig. 568 c. In very fine specimens the quills are directly applied to the shaft without resorting to the strap of leather.

Similar marks denoting exploits are used by the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara Indians. The Hidatsa claim to have been the originators of the devices.

The following characters are marked upon robes and blankets, usually in red or blue colors, and often upon the boat paddles. Frequently an Indian has them painted upon his thighs, though this is generally resorted to only on festal occasions or for dancing.

In Fig. 572, a signifies among the Hidatsa and Mandans that the wearer was the first person to strike a fallen enemy with a coup stick. It signifies among the Arikara simply that the wearer killed an enemy.

b represents among the Hidatsa and Mandans the second person to strike a fallen enemy. It represents among the Arikara the first person to strike the fallen enemy.

c denotes the third person to strike the enemy, according to the Hidatsa and Mandan; the second person to strike him according to the Arikara.

d shows among the Hidatsa and Mandan the fourth person to strike the fallen enemy. This is the highest and last number; the fifth person to risk the danger is considered brave for venturing so near the ground held by the enemy, but has no right to wear a mark therefor.

The same mark among the Arikara represents the person to be the third to strike the enemy.

e, according to the Arikara, represents the fourth person to strike the enemy.

According to the Hidatsa, the wearer of the mark f had figured in four encounters; in those recorded by the marks in each of the two lateral spaces he was the second to strike the fallen enemy, and the marks in the upper and lower spaces signify that he was the third person upon two other occasions.

Fig. 576, drawn by a Hidatsa, means that the owner of the robe or record on which it appears had taken a scalp. Fig. 577, also drawn by a Hidatsa, means that the bearer struck the enemy in the order above mentioned and took his scalp and his gun.

The drawing reproduced on Pl. XXX was made by a Hidatsa at Fort Berthold, North Dakota. It represents several dancing figures, upon which the several marks of personal achievements can be recognized. The fourth figure of the upper row shows the wearer to have been the second person to strike an enemy upon four different occasions. Upon the right-hand figure of the lower row two distinct marks will be observed; that upon the wearer’s left leg indicating him to have been the second to strike an enemy upon two different occasions; and the mark upon the right leg, that he was twice the second person to strike enemies, and twice the third person to perform that exploit.

Paul Kane (a) says that among the Cree Indians red earth was spotted on a leg to indicate that the wearer had been wounded.

Prof. Dall (b) tells of the Sitka-Kwan:

PROPERTY MARKS.

This topic, upon which much interesting material has been collected in many geographic and ethnologic divisions of the earth, can not include objectively or pictorially many genuine and distinctive illustrations from the North American Indians. The reason for this paucity is that the individual Indian had very little property. Nearly everything which could be classed as personal property belonged to his tribe or, more generally, to his clan or gens. Yet articles of a man’s personal manufacture, such as arrows, were often marked in such a manner as to be distinguished. Those marks, many examples of which are upon arrows in the U.S. National Museum, are not of sufficient general interest to be reproduced here. They are not valuable unless they are connected with the makers or owners by a concurrence of the devices with the signs adopted by persons or by classes, the evidence of which can not now except in rare instances be procured. Most of the devices mentioned seem to have degenerated into mere ornamentation, which might be expected, because the arrows are not of great antiquity, and during recent years the records which could have been used for their identification have decayed as authorities even when they have remained in the immediate family, having escaped sale and robbery.

As a general rule neither a man nor a family, in the modern sense, had any property in land, which belonged to a much larger sociologic division, but on their arrival in California Europeans noticed among the Indians there a device to assert rights in realty by the use of distinctive marks. It is not clear whether these marks were merely personal or were tribal or gentile.

According to Mr. A. F. Coronel, of Los Angeles, California, the Serrano Indians in that vicinity formerly practiced a method of marking trees to indicate the corner boundaries of patches of land. The Indians owning areas of territory of whatever size would cut lines upon the bark of the tree corresponding to lines drawn on their own faces, i.e., lines running outward and downward over the cheeks, or perhaps over the chin only, tattooed in color. These lines were made on the trees on the side facing the property, and were understandingly recognized by the whole tribe. This custom still prevailed when Mr. Coronel first located in southern California about the year 1843.

Among the Arikara Indians a custom prevails of drawing upon the blade of a canoe or bull-boat paddle such designs as are worn by the chief and owner to suggest his personal exploits. This has to great extent been adopted by the Hidatsa and Mandans. The marks are chiefly horseshoes and crosses, as in Fig. 578, referring to the capture of the enemy’s ponies and to coups in warfare. The entire tribe being intimately acquainted with the courage and actions of all its members, imposition and fraud in the delineation of any character are not attempted, as such would surely be detected, and the impostor would be ridiculed if not ostracised.

Fig. 578.—Boat paddle. Arikara.

The brands upon cattle in Texas and other regions of the United States where ranches are common illustrate the modern use of property marks. A collection of these brands made by the writer compares unfavorably for individuality and ideography with the genuine marks of Indians for similar purposes.

The following translation from Kunst and Witz der Neger in Das Ausland (a), describing Fig. 579, is inserted for comparison:

Sir John Lubbock (a) tells that many of the arrows found at Nydam, Slesvick, had owner’s marks on them, now reproduced in Fig. 580 as a and c, resembling those on the modern Esquimaux arrows shown in the same figure as b.

Prof. Anton Schiefner (b) gives a remarkable parallel between the Runic alphabet and the property marks of the Finns, Lapps, and Samoyeds.

PERSONAL NAMES.

The names of Indians as formerly adopted by or bestowed among themselves were generally connotive. They very often refer to some animal and predicate an attribute or position of that animal. On account of their sometimes objective and sometimes ideographic nature, they almost invariably admit of being expressed in sign language; and for the same reason they can readily be portrayed in pictographs. The device generally adopted by the Dakotan tribes to signify that an object drawn in connection with a human figure was a totemic or a personal name of the individual, is to connect that object with the figure by a line drawn to the head or, more frequently, to the mouth of the latter. The same tribes make a distinction to manifest that the gesture sign for an object gestured is intended to be the name of a person and not introduced for any other purpose by passing the index forward from the mouth in a direct line after the conclusion of the sign for the object. This signifies “that is his name,” the name of the person referred to.

As a general rule, Indians were named in early infancy according to a tribal system, but in later life each generally acquired a new name, or perhaps several names in succession, from some special exploits or adventures. Frequently a sobriquet is given which is not complimentary. All of the names subsequently acquired as well as the original names are so connected with material objects or with substantive actions as to be expressible in a graphic picture and also in a pictorial sign. In the want of alphabet or syllabary they used the same expedient to distinguish the European invaders. A Virginian was styled Assarigoa, “Big Knife.” The authorities of Massachusetts were called by the Iroquois, Kinshon, “a fish,” doubtless in allusion to the cod industry and the fact that a wooden codfish then hung, as it did long afterwards, in the state house at Boston, as an emblem of the colony and state.

The determination to use names of this connotive character is shown by the objective translation, whenever possible, of such European names as it became necessary for them to introduce frequently into their speech. William Penn was called Onas, that being the word for feather-quill in the Mohawk dialect. The name of the second French governor of Canada was De Montmagny, erroneously translated to be “great mountain,” which words were correctly translated by the Iroquois into Onontio, and this expression becoming associated with the title has been applied to all successive Canadian governors, though the origin having been generally forgotten, it has been considered to be a metaphorical compliment.

The persistence of titles is shown by the fact that the Abnaki of New Brunswick to-day call Queen Victoria, “King James,” with a feminine addition.

Gov. Fletcher was named by the Iroquois Cajenquiragoe, “the great swift arrow,” not because of his speedy arrival at a critical time, as has been supposed, but because they had somehow been informed of the etymology of his name, “arrow-maker” (Fr. flÉchier). A notable example of the adoption of a graphic illustration from a similarity in the sound of the name to known English words is given in the present paper, in Fig. 919, where Gen. Maynadier is represented as “many deer.”

While, as before said, some tribes give names to children from considerations of birth and kinship according to a fixed rule, others conferred them after solemn deliberation. Even these were not necessarily permanent. A diminutive form is frequently bestowed by the affection of the parent. On initiation into one of the cult associations a name is generally received. Until this is established a warrior is liable to change his name after every fight or hunt. He will sometimes only acknowledge the name he has himself assumed, perhaps from a dream or vision, though he may be habitually called by an entirely different name. From that reason the same man is sometimes known under several different epithets. Personal peculiarity, deformity, or accident is sure to fix a name against which it is vain to struggle. Girls do not often change names bestowed in their childhood. The same precise name is often given to different individuals in the same tribe, but not so frequently in the same band, whereby the inconvenience would be increased. For this reason it is often necessary to specify the band, sometimes also the father. For instance, when the writer asked an Indian who Black-Stone, a chief mentioned in the Lone-Dog winter counts, was, the Indian asked, first, what tribe was he; then, what band; then, who was his father; and, except in the case of very noted persons, the identity is not proved without an answer to these questions. A striking instance of this plurality of names among the Dakotas was connected with the name Sitting-Bull, belonging to the leader of the hostile band, while one of that name was almost equally noted as being the head soldier of the friendly Dakotas at Red-Cloud Agency.

The northeastern tribes sometimes formally resurrected the name of the dead and also revived it by adoption. See Jes. Rel., 1639, p. 45, and 1642, p. 53.

Among the peculiarities connected with Indian personal names, far too many for discussion here, is their avoidance of them in direct address, terms of kinship or relative age taking their place. Maj. J. W. Powell states that at one time he had the Kaibab Indians, a small tribe of northern Arizona, traveling with him. The young chief was called by white men “Frank.” For several weeks he refused to give his Indian name and Maj. Powell endeavored to discover it by noticing the term by which he was addressed by the other Indians, but invariably some kinship term was employed. One day in a quarrel his wife called him Chuarumpik (“Yucca-heart”). Subsequently Maj. Powell questioned the young chief about the matter, who explained and apologized for the great insult which his wife had given him and said that she was excused by great provocation. The insult consisted in calling the man by his real name.

Everard F. im Thurn (g) gives the following account of the name-system of the Indians of Guiana, which might have been written with equal truth about some tribes of North America:

A large proportion of the pictographs of several names next to be presented are from Red-Cloud’s Census, the history of which is as follows:

A pictorial census was prepared in 1884 under the direction of Red-Cloud, chief of the Dakota at Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota Territory. The 289 persons enumerated, many of whom were heads of families, were the adherents of Red-Cloud and did not represent all the Indians at that agency. Owing to a disagreement the agent refused to acknowledge that chief as head of the Indians at the agency, and named another as the official chief. Many of the Indians exhibited their allegiance to Red-Cloud by having their names attached in their own pictorial style to a document showing their votes and number. This filled seven sheets of ordinary manila paper and was sent to Washington. While in the custody of Dr. T. A. Bland, of that city, it was loaned by him to the Bureau of Ethnology to be copied by photography. The different sheets were apparently drawn by different persons, as the drawings of human heads vary enough to indicate individuality. This arrangement seems to imply seven bands or, perhaps, gentes.

Dr. V. T. McGillicuddy, who at the time was Indian agent at Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota, in correspondence gives the impression that the several pictographs representing names were attached as signatures by the several individuals to a subscription list for Dr. Bland, before mentioned, who was the editor of The Council Fire, in support of that publication and with an agreement that each should give 25 cents. The document in that view would be a subscription list, but the subscribers were, in fact, the adherents of Red-Cloud. Whatever was the motive for this collection of pictured names, its interest consists in the mode of their portrayal, together with the assurance that they were the spontaneous and genuine work of the Indians concerned.

In addition to the personal names which immediately follow, a considerable number of the 289 pictographic names appear elsewhere in this paper under the various heads of Tribal Designations, Ideography, Conventionalizing, Customs, special Comparison, etc.

Interspersed among the personal names taken from the above mentioned list are others selected from the Oglala Roster, the origin of which is explained above, and the several winter counts of The-Flame, The-Swan, American-Horse, and Cloud-Shield, mentioned, respectively, in Chap. X, Sec. 2. The authority is in each case attached to the pictograph with the translation of the Indian name, and in some cases with the name in the original.

Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, in Vol. XXXIV of the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in the American Anthropologist for July, 1890, gives valuable notes on the subject of Indian personal names and also has made oral suggestions to the present writer. Some of those may be considered with reference to the list now presented. He thinks that the frequent use of color names is from a mythical or symbolic significance attributed to the colors. Also the word translated “iron,” or “metal,” is connected with the color blue, the object called iron being always painted blue when colors are used, and that color is mystically connected with the water powers of the Dakotan mythology. The frequent use of the terms “Little” and “Big,” with or without graphic differentiation, may be as the terms young and old, junior and senior, are employed by civilized people, but the expressions in other cases may refer to the size of the animals seen in the visions of fasting which have determined the names.

Explanations on parts of the pictographs not strictly connected with the personal name are annexed for the reason before indicated and the objects connected by the names are to some extent arranged in classes.

OBJECTIVE.

In the figures immediately following the delineation is objective. It is sometimes interesting to note the different modes of representing the same object or concept.

METAPHORIC.

With regard to the errors arising from bad translation, an example may be given, relating to a name the explanation of which has often been asked. A former chief of the Oglala was called “Old-man-afraid-of-his-Horses,” by the whites, and his son is known as “Young-man-afraid-of-his-Horses.” A common interpretation about “afraid-of-his-horses” is that the man valued his horses so much that he was afraid of losing them. The representative of the name, however, stated to the writer that the correct name was Ta-shunka Kokipapi, and that the true meaning was “He-whose-horse-they-fear”; literally “His-horse-they-fear-it.”

A large number of pictorially rendered Indian names attached to deeds and treaties have been published, e.g., in Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York (b). Few of them are of interest, and they generally suggest the assistance of practiced penmen. In the collections mentioned some of the Dutch marks are in the same general style as those of the Indians.

Mr. P. W. Norris, late of the Bureau of Ethnology, had a buffalo robe containing a record of exploits, which was drawn by Black-Crow, a Dakota warrior. The successful warrior is represented in each instance upright, the accompanying figure being always in a recumbent posture, representing the enemy who was slain. The peculiar feature of these pictographs is that instead of depicting the victim’s personal name with a connecting line, the object denoting his name is placed above the head of the victor in each instance, and a line connects the character with his mouth. The latter thus seems to proclaim the name of his victim. A pipe is also figured between the victor and the vanquished, showing that he is entitled to smoke a pipe of celebration.

A copy of the whole record was shown to the Mdewakantanwan Dakotas, near Fort Snelling, Minnesota, in 1883, and the character reproduced in Fig. 638, about which there was the most doubt, was explained as signifying “many tongues,” or Loud-Talker.

The circle at the end of the line running from the mouth contains a number of lanceolate forms, one-half of each of which is black, the other white. They have the appearance of feathers, but also may represent tongues and signify voice, sound issuing from the mouth, and correspond in some respect to those drawn by the Mexicans with that significance, of which examples are given in this work, Chap. XX, Sec. 2. The considerable number of these tongue-like figures suggests intensity and denotes loud voice, or, as given literally, “loud talker,” that being the name of the victim.

It is, however, to be noted that “Shield,” an Oglala Dakota, contends that the character signifies Feather-Shield, the name of a warrior formerly living at the Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota.

Designation of an object, as a name, by means of a connecting line is mentioned in Kingsborough (a). Pedro de Alvarado, one of the companions of Cortez, was red-headed. Designating him, the Mexicans called him Tonatihu, the “Sun,” and in their picture-writing his name was represented by their conventional character for the sun attached to his person by a line.

Other examples are now presented both of the linear connection and of the iconographic figuration by the old Mexicans.

In Kingsborough (b) is a pictograph of Chimalpopoca, which name signifies a smoking shield, here reproduced as Fig. 639 (a). The smoking shield is connected with the head by a line, and the form of smoke should be noticed in comparison with the representation of flame and of voice by the same pictors.

The same authority and volume, p. 135 (illustration in Vol. I, Pt. 4, Pl. V), gives the name and illustration (reproduced in the same Fig., b) of Ytzcohuatl, the signification of which name is a serpent armed with knives. The knives refer to the Itzli stone.

In the same volume, p. 137, is the name Face of Water, with the corresponding illustration in Vol. I, Pt. 4, Pl. 12 (here Pl. XII c). The drops of water are falling profusely from the face.