  Before writing was invented by a people there were attempts in its direction which are mentioned in other chapters of this paper. Human forms were drawn pictorially in the act of making gesture signs and in significant actions and attitudes and combinations of them. Other natural objects, as well as those purely artificial, which represented work or the result of work, were also drawn with many differing significations. When any of these designs had become commonly adopted on account of its striking fitness or even from frequent repetition with a special signification, it became a conventional term of thought-writing, with substantially the same use as when, afterward, the combinations of letters of an alphabet into words became the arbitrary signs of sound-writing. While the designs thus became conventional terms, their forms became more and more abbreviated or cursive until in many cases the original concept or likeness was lost. Sometimes when a specimen of the original form is preserved, its identity in meaning with the current form can be ascertained by correlation of the intermediate shapes. The original ideography is often exhibited by exaggeration. For instance, a loud voice has been sometimes indicated by a human face with an enormous mouth. Hearing, among the Peruvians, was early expressed by a man with very large ears; then by a head with such ears, and afterwards by the form of the ears without the head. Soon such forms became so conventionalized as to be practically ideographic writing. In the same manner a numeral cipher has become the representation of a mathematical quantity, a written musical note shows a kind and degree of sound, and other pictured signs give values of weights and measures. All of these signs express ideas independent of any language and may be understood by peoples speaking all diversities of language. So also the idea of smallness and subjection may be conveyed by drawing an object in an obviously diminished size, of which examples are given in this chapter. Another expedient, illustrations of which also appear, is by repetition and combination, with reference to which the following condensed remarks of James Summers (a) are in point: The earliest Chinese characters were pictorial; but pictures could not be made which would clearly express all ideas. One of the means devised to express concepts that could not be indicated by a simple sketch, was to combine two or more familiar pictures. For instance, a man with a large eye represents “seeing;” two men, “to follow;” three men, “many;” two men on the ground, “sitting.” All other means failing, the present great mass of characters was formed by a principle from which the class is called “phonetic;” because in the characters classed under it, while one part (called the “radical”) preserves its meaning, the other part (called the “phonetic” or “primitive”) is used to give its own sound to the whole figure. This part does sometimes, however, convey also its symbolic meaning as well as its sound. But while the original mode of expressing ideas required various devices, when an idea had become established in pictography there always appeared an attempt to simplify the figure and reduce it in size, so as to require less space in the drafting surface and also to lessen the draftsman’s labor. This was more obvious in the degree in which the figure was complicated and of frequent employment. For convenience the subject is divided into: 1. Conventional devices. 2. Syllabaries and alphabets. SECTION 1.
CONVENTIONAL DEVICES. PEACE. Among the North American Indians and in several parts of the world where, as among the Indians, the hand-grasp in simple salutation has not been found, the junction of the hands between two persons of different tribes is the ceremonial for union and peace, and the sign for the same concept is exhibited by the two hands of one person similarly grasped as an invitation to, or signification of, union and peace. The ideogram of clasped hands to indicate peace and friendship is found in pictographs from many localities. The exhibition and presentation of the unarmed hand may have affected the practice, but the concept of union by linking is more apparent. Fig. 1011. Fig. 1011.—The Dakotas made peace with the Cheyenne Indians. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1840-’41. Here the hands shown with fingers extended, and therefore incapable of grasping a weapon, are approaching each other. The different coloration of the arms indicates different tribes. The device on the right is a rough form of the forearm of the Cheyenne marked as mentioned several times in this work. Fig. 1012.—The Dakotas made peace with the Pawnees. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1858-’59. The man on the left is a Pawnee. Fig. 1013.—A Mandan and a Dakota met in the middle of the Missouri River, each swimming halfway across. They shook hands there and made peace. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1791-’92. Mulligan, post interpreter at Fort Buford, says that this was at Fort Berthold, and is an historic fact; also that the same Mandan long afterwards, killed the same Dakota.
Fig. 1014.—The Omahas came and made peace to get their people whom the Dakotas held as prisoners. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1804-’05. The attitudes and expressions are unusually artistic. The uniting line may only intensify the idea of a treaty resulting in peace, but perhaps recognizes the fact that the Omaha (on the left) and Dakota belong to the same Siouan stock. The marks on the Omaha are not tribal, but refer to the prisoners—the marks of their bonds. Fig. 1015.—The Dakotas made peace with the Crows at Pine Bluff. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1816-’17. The arrow shows they had been at war. The Indian at the left is a Crow. The distinctive and typical arrangement of the hair of the several tribes in this and the preceding figure are worthy of note. Fig. 1016.—The Dakotas made peace with the Pawnees. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1814-’15. The man with the marked forehead, blue in the original, is a Pawnee, the other is a Dakota, whose body is smeared with clay. The four arrows show that they had been at war, and the clasped hands denote peace. Fig. 1017.—They made peace with the Gros Ventres. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1803-’04. But one arrow is shown, indicating that the subject in question was war, but that it was not waged at the time, as would have been shown by two opposed arrows. Fig. 1018.—Dakotas made peace with the Crow Indians. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1851-’52. Here the representatives of the two tribes show their pipes crossed, indicating exchange as is expressed by a common gesture sign. Fig. 1019.—Made peace with Gen. Sherman and others at Fort Laramie. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1867-’68. This is the adoption of the white man’s flag, as the paramount symbol on recognition of which peace was made. WAR. Fig. 1020.—The Dakotas were at war with the Cheyennes. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1834-’35. The Cheyenne is the man with stripes on his arm. The two arrows shot in opposite directions form one of the conventional symbols for war. Fig. 1021 is taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1840-’41. He names it “Came-and-killed-five-of-Little-Thunder’s-brothers winter.” He explains that the five were killed in an encounter with the Pawnees. The capote or headdress, always but not exclusively worn by Dakota war parties, is shown, and is the special symbol of war as also given in several other places in the same record. The five short vertical lines below the arrow signify that five were killed. Fig. 1022.—War-Eagle. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure shows a highly abbreviated conventional symbol. The pipe used in the ceremonial manner explained on page 539 et seq. means war and not peace, and the single eagle feather stands for the entire bird often called the war-eagle. The adoption of a mat or mattress as an emblem of war or a military expedition is discussed and illustrated, supra, p. 553, Fig. 782. In the Jesuit Relation for 1606, p. 51, it is narrated that “The Huron and Northern Algonkin chiefs, when their respective war parties met the enemy, distributed among their warriors rods which they carried for the purpose, and the warriors stuck them in the earth as a token that they would not retreat any more than the rods would.” In their pictographs the rods became represented by strokes which were not only numerical, but signified warriors. CHIEF. Fig. 1023.—Naca-haksila, Chief-Boy. From the Oglala Roster. The large pipe held forward with the outstretched hand is among the Oglalas the conventional device for chief. This is explained elsewhere by the ceremonies attendant on the raising of war parties, in which the pipe is conspicuous. That the human figure is a boy is indicated by the shortness of the hair and the legs. Fig. 1024.—War Chief. Passamaquoddy. Fig. 1024, drawn by a Passamaquoddy Indian, shows the manner of representing a war chief by that tribe: It signifies a chief with 300 braves. The relative magnitude of the leading human figure indicates his rank. In this particular compare Figs. 137, 138, and 142. The device is common in the Egyptian glyphs. Dr. Worsnop, op. cit., makes the following remarks about a similar device in Australia: At Chasm island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, indenting Australia, the third person of a file of thirty-two painted on the rock was twice the height of the others, and held in his hand something resembling the waddy, or wooden sword, of the natives of Port Jackson, and was probably intended to represent a chief. They could not as with us, indicate superiority by clothing or ornament, since they wear none of any kind, and therefore, with the addition of a weapon similar to the ancients, they seem to have made superiority of persons the principal emblem of superior power, of which, indeed power is usually a consequence in the very early stages of society. The exhibition of horns as a part of the head dress, or pictorially displayed as growing from the head, is generally among the tribes of Indians an emblem of power or chieftancy. It is distinctly so asserted by Schoolcraft, vol. I, p. 409, as regards the Ojibwa, and by Lafitau, vol. II, 21, both authors presenting illustrations. The same concept was ancient and general in the eastern hemisphere. The images of gods and heads of kings were thus adorned, as at a later day were the crests of the dukes of Brittany. Some writers have suggested that this symbol was taken from the crescent moon, others that it referred to the vigor of the bull. Col. Marshall (a), however, gives an instance of special derivation. He says that the Todas, when idle, involuntarily twist and split branches of twigs and pieces of cane into the likeness of buffalo horns, because they dream of buffalo, live on and by it, and their whole religion is based on the care of the cow. COUNCIL. Fig. 1025 is taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1851-’52. In that year the first issue of goods was made to the Dakotas, and the character represents a blanket surrounded by a circle to show how the Indians sat awaiting the distribution. The people are represented by small lines running at right angles to the circle. Fig. 1026.—The-Good-White-Man returned and gave guns to the Dakotas. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1799-1800. The circle of marks represents the people sitting around him, the flint-lock musket the guns. Fig. 1027.—Council at Spotted-Tail agency. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1875-’76. Here the circle composed of short lines pointing to the center takes the conventional form frequently used to designate a council. Fig. 1028.—Surrounds-them. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure is introduced in this place to show the distinction made by an antagonistic “surround” and the peaceable ring depicted immediately before. Fig. 1029.—The Dakotas had a council with the whites on the Missouri river below the Cheyenne agency, near the mouth of Bad creek. They had many flags which the Good-White-Man gave them with their guns, and they erected them on poles to show their friendly feelings. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1805-’06. This was perhaps their meeting with the Lewis and Clarke expedition. The curved line is drawn to represent the council lodge, which they made by opening several tipis and uniting them at their sides to form a semicircle. The small dashes are for the people. This is a compromise between the Indian and the European mode of designating an official assemblage. PLENTY OF FOOD. Fig. 1030.—The Dakotas have an abundance of buffalo meat. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1856-’57. This is shown by the full drying pole on which it was the usage after successful hunts to hang the pieces of meat to be dried for preservation. Fig. 1031.—The Oglalas had an abundance of buffalo meat and shared it with the BrulÉs, who were short of food. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1817-’18. The buffalo hide hung on the drying pole, with the buffalo head above it, indicates an abundance of meat, as in the preceding figure. Fig. 1032 is taken from Battiste Good’s Winter Count for the year 1745-’46, in which the drying-pole is as usual supported by two forked sticks or poles. This is a variant of the two preceding figures. Fig. 1033.—Immense quantities of buffalo meat. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1845-’46. This is another form of drying-pole in which a tree is used for one of the supports. The pieces of meat would not be recognized as such without explanation by the preceding figures. Fig. 1034 is taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1703-’04. The forked stick being one of the supports of the drying pole or scaffold, indicates meat. The irregular circular object means “heap,” i.e., large quantity, buffalo having been very plentiful that year. The buffalo head denotes the kind of meat stored. This is an abbreviated form of the device before presented, and affords a suggestive comparison with some Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chinese letters, both in their full pictographic origin and in their abbreviation. Fig. 1035.—The Dakotas had unusual quantities of buffalo. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1816-’17. This representation of a buffalo hide or side is another sign for abundance of meat, and is the most abbreviated and conventional of all, with the same significance, in the collections now accessible. Fig. 1036.—The Dakotas had unusual abundance of buffalo. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1861-’62. This is another mode of expressing the same abundance. The buffalo tracks, shown by the cloven hoofs, are coming up close to the tipi. Fig. 1037.—They had an abundance of corn, which they got at the Ree villages. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1823-’24. The symbol shows the maize growing, and also is the tribal sign for Arikara or Ree. FAMINE. Fig. 1038.—The Dakotas had very little buffalo meat, but plenty of ducks in the fall. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1811-’12. The bare, drying pole is easily interpreted, but the reversed or dead duck would not be understood without explanation. Fig. 1039.—Food was very scarce and they had to live on acorns. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1813-’14. The tree is intended for an oak and the dots beneath it for acorns. Fig. 1040.—A year of famine. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1787-’88. They, i.e., the Dakotas, lived on roots, which are represented in front of the tipi. Fig. 1041.—They could not hunt on account of the deep snow, and were compelled to subsist on anything they could get, as herbs (pÉzi) and roots. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1790-’91.
Fig. 1042.—They had to sell many mules and horses to get food, as they were starving. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1868-’69. White-Cow-Killer calls it “Mules-sold-by-hungry-Sioux winter.” The figure is understood as a conventionalized sign by reference to the historic fact mentioned. The line of union between the horses’ necks shows that the subject-matter was not a horse trade, but that both of the animals, i.e., many, were disposed of. Fig. 1043.—Kingsborough (l) gives the pictograph recording that “In the year of One Rabbit and A.D. 1454 so severe a famine occurred that the people died of starvation.” It is reproduced in Fig 1043. STARVATION. Fig. 1044.—Many horses were lost by starvation, as the snow was so deep they couldn’t get at the grass. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1865-’66. Fig. 1045, from the record of Battiste Good for the year 1720-’21, signifies starvation, denoted by the bare ribs. This design is abbreviated and conventionalized among the Ottawa and Pottawatomi Indians. Among the latter a single line only is drawn across the breast, shown in Fig. 1046. This corresponds also with one of the Indian gesture-signs for the same idea. See also the Abnaki sign of starvation, a pot upside down, in Fig. 456, supra. HORSES. Fig. 1047.—They caught many wild horses south of the Platte river. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1811-’12. This figure shows a horse in the process of being caught by a lasso.
Fig. 1048.—Many wild horses caught. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1812-’13. Fig. 1049.—Dakotas first used a lasso for catching wild horses. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1812-’13. In these two figures the lasso is shown without the animal, thus becoming the conventional sign for wild horse. Fig. 1050.—Crow Indians stole 200 horses from the Minneconjou Dakotas, near Black Hills. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1849-’50. This figure is inserted to show in the present connection the lunules, which signify unshod horses. The Indians never shod their ponies, and the hoof marks may be either of wild horses, herds of which formerly roamed the prairies, or the common horses brought into subjection. Fig. 1051.—Blackfeet Dakotas stole some American horses having shoes on. Horseshoes seen for the first time. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1802-’03. The horseshoe here depicted is the conventional sign for the white man’s horse. HORSE STEALING. Fig. 1052.—Runs-off-the-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. “Runs off” in the parlance of the plains means stealing. Fig. 1053.—Runs-off-the-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure explains the one preceding. The man has in his hand a lariat or perhaps a lasso. Fig. 1054.—Drags-the-Rope. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is a variant of the last figure, without, however, the exhibition of anything, such as tracks, to indicate horses.
Fig. 1055.—Dog, an Oglala, stole seventy horses from the Crows. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1822-’23. Each of the seven tracks stands for ten horses. A lariat, which serves the purpose among others of a long whip, and is usually allowed to trail on the ground, is shown in the man’s hand. Fig. 1056.—Sitting-Bear, American-Horse’s father, and others, stole two hundred horses from the Flat Heads. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1840-’41. A trailing lariat is in the man’s hand. Fig. 1057.—Brings-lots-of-horses. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is a further step in conventionalizing. The lariat is but slightly indicated as connected with the horse track on the lower left-hand corner. Fig. 1058.—The Utes stole all of the BrulÉ horses. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1874-’75. The mere indication of a number of horse tracks without any qualifying or determinative object means that the horses are run off or stolen. This becomes the most conventionalized form of the group. Fig. 1059.—Steals-Horses. Red-Cloud’s Census. In this figure the horse tracks themselves are more rude and conventionalized. The Prince of Wied mentions, op. cit., p. 104, that in the Sac and Fox tribes the rattle of a rattlesnake attached to the end of the feather worn on the head signifies a good horse stealer. The stealthy approach of the serpent, accompanied with latent power, is here clearly indicated. Fig. 1060.—Making-the-Hole stole many horses from a Crow tipi. Such is the translation in Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1849-’50. The man is cutting the hole with a knife. Through the orifice thus made he obtains access to the horse. But it is more probable that the single tipi represents a village into which the horse-thief effected an entrance and ran off the horses belonging to it. KILL AND DEATH. Fig. 1061.—Male-Crow, an Oglala, was killed by the Shoshoni. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1844-’45. The bow in contact with the head of the victim is frequently the conventional sign for “killed by an arrow.” This is not drawn in the Winter Counts on the same principle as the touching with a lance or coup stick, elsewhere mentioned in this paper, but is generally intended to mean killed, and to specify the manner of killing, though in fact before the use of firearms the “coup” was often counted by striking with a bow. Fig. 1062.—Kills-in-tight-place. Red-Cloud’s Census. This man has evidently been enticed into an ambush, to which his tracks lead. Fig. 1063.—Uncpapas kill two Rees. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1799-1800. The object over the heads of the two Rees, projecting from the man figure, is a bow, showing the mode of death. The hair of the Arickaras is represented. This is clearly conventional and would not be understood from the mere delineation. Fig. 1064.—Kills-by-the-camp. Red-Cloud’s Census. The camp is shown by the tipi, and the idea of “kill” by the bow in contact with the head of the victim. Fig. 1065.—Kills-Two. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here is the indication of number by upright lines united by a horizontal line, as designating the same occasion and the same people, two of whom are struck by the coup stick. Fig. 1066.—Feather-Ear-Rings was killed by the Shoshoni. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1842-’43. The four lodges and the many blood-stains intimate that he was killed in a battle when four lodges of Shoshoni were killed. Again appears the character for successful gunshot wound, before explained in connection with Fig. 987. Fig. 1067.—Kills-the-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here there appears to be a bullet mark in the middle of the paw representing the middle of the whole animal. The idea of death may be indicated by the reverse attitude of the paws, which are turned up, corresponding with the slang expression “toes up,” to indicate death. Fig. 1068.—They killed a very fat buffalo bull. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1835-’36. This figure is introduced to show an ingenious differentiation. The rough outline of the buffalo’s forequarters is given sufficiently to show that the arrow penetrates to an unusual depth, which indicates the mass of fat, into the region of the buffalo’s respiratory organs, and therefore there is a discharge of blood not only from the point of entrance of the arrow, but from the nostrils of the animal. No device of an analogous character is found among five hundred of the Dakotan pictographs studied, so that the designation of abnormal fat is made evident. Fig. 1069.—They killed many Gros Ventres in a village which they assaulted. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1832-’33. The single scalped head shows the killing. This conventional sign is so common as hardly to require notice. Fig. 1070.—Killed. Dakota. Fig. 1070, taken from Mrs. Eastman’s Dakota (e), shows the Dakota pictograph for “killed”: a is a woman and b a man killed, and c and d a boy and girl killed. Fig. 1071.—Life and death. Ojibwa. Fig. 1071, taken from Copway (g), gives two characters which severally represent life and death, the black disk representing death and the simple circle life. Fig. 1072.—Dead. Iroquois. In Doc. Hist. N. Y. (d), is the illustration now copied as Fig. 1072 with the statement that it shows the fashion of painting the dead among the Iroquois; the first two are men and the third is a woman, who is distinguished only by the waistcloth that she wears. The device is further explained by the following paragraphs from the same volume, on p. 6, which add other details: When they have lost any men on the field of battle they paint the men with the legs in the air and without heads, and in the same number as they have lost; and to denote the tribe to which they belonged, they paint the animal of the tribe of the deceased on its back, the paws in the air, and if it be the chief of the party that is dead, the animal is without the head. If there be only wounded, they paint a broken gun which, however, is connected with the stock, or even an arrow, and to denote where they have been wounded, they paint the animal of the tribe to which the wounded belong with an arrow piercing the part in which the wound is located; and if it be a gunshot they make the mark of the ball on the body of a different color. Fig. 1073.—Dead man. Arikara. Fig. 1073.—This is drawn by the Arikara for “dead man” and perhaps suggests the concept of nothing inside, i.e., no life, with a stronger emphasis than given to “lean” in Fig. 903, supra. It must be noted, however, that the Hidatsa draw the same character for “man” simply. La Salle, in 1680, wrote that when the Iroquois had killed people they made red strokes with the figure of a man drawn in black with bandaged eyes. As this bandaging was not connected with the form of killing, it may be conjectured that it ideographically meant death—the light of life put out. For other devices to denote “Kill,” see Figs. 93 and 94. SHOT. In this group the figures show obvious similarity yet seem to be graphic, or at least ideographic, but on examining the text of the several records conventionality is developed. Fig. 1074.—Shot-at. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here is shown the discharge of guns and lines of passage of the bullets, one of which is graphically displayed passing the neck of the human figure, but without either graphic mark of wound or the conventional sign for “hit” or “it struck.” He was shot at by many enemies, but was not hit. Fig. 1075.—Shot. Red-Cloud’s Census. There is no doubt that this man, a Dakota, was actually shot with an arrow. Fig. 1076.—Shot-at-his-horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here again are the flashes made by the discharge of guns and the horse tracks showing horses, but no specific indication of hitting. The mark within the right-hand horse track may be compared with the passing bullet in Fig. 1074. The horse was shot at but not hit. Fig. 1077.—Shot-his-horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure is to be correlated with the last one, as it shows actual hitting and blood flowing from the wound. Fig. 1078.—Shot-in-front-the-lodge. Red-Cloud’s Census. Without explanation derived from the context this figure would not be understood. The right hand character means several bows united. Between these and the tipi is the usual device for blood flowing vertically downwards, meaning a fatal shot, and the device displayed horizontally and touching the tipi means that the man shot belonged to that tipi or lodge, in front of which he was shot.
COMING RAIN. Mr. Keam in his MS. describes Fig. 1079 as two forms of the symbol of Aloseka, which is the bud of the squash. The form seen in the upper part of the figure, drawn in profile, is also used by the Moki to typify the east peak of the San Francisco mountains, the birthplace of the Aloseka; when the clouds circle, it presages the coming rain. In the rock carvings the curving profile is further conventionalized into straight lines and assumes the lower form. The collection of characters given in Figs. 1080 and 1081 are selected from a list published by Maj. C. R. Conder (b). That list includes all the Hittite designs distinctly deciphered which are so far known, and they are divided by the author into two plates, one giving the “Hittite emblems,” as he calls them, “of known sound,” and which are all compared with the Cypriote, and some with the cuneiform, Egyptian, and other characters; and the other comprising the “Hittite emblems of uncertain sound.” The collection is highly suggestive for comparison of the significance of many forms commonly appearing in several lands and also as a study of conventionalizing. In these respects its presentation renders it unnecessary to dwell as much as would otherwise be required upon the collections of Egyptian and cuneiform characters, with which students are more familiar and which teach substantially the same lessons. HITTITE EMBLEMS OF KNOWN SOUND. Fig. 1080.—Hittite emblems of known sound. a, a crook. Cypriote u. b, apparently a key. Cypriote ke. Compare the cuneiform emblem ik, “to open.” c, a tiara. Cypriote ko; Akkadian ku, “prince;” Manchu chu, “lord.” d, another tiara, apparently a variant of c. e, hand and stick. Cypriote ta, apparently a causative prefix, like the Egyptian determinative; Chinese ta, “beat.” f, an herb. Cypriote te; Akkadian ti, “live;” Turkish it, “sprout;” ot, “herb.” g, the hand grasping. Cypriote to. Compare the Egyptian, cuneiform and Chinese signs for “touch,” “take,” “have.” Akkadian tu, “have.” h, apparently a branch. Cypriote pa. Compare Akkadian pa, “stick” (Lenormant). i, apparently a flower. Cypriote pu. Compare the Akkadian emblem pa, apparently a flower. Akkadian pu, “long;” Tartar boy, “long,” “growth,” “grass;” Hungarian fu, “herb.” j, a cross. Cypriote lo; Carian h. k, a yoke. Cypriote lo and le; Akkadian lu, “yoke.” l probably represents rain. Compare the Egyptian, Akkadian, and Chinese emblems for “rain,” “storm,” “darkness.” m seems to represent drops of water equivalent to the last. Cypriote re. n, possibly the “fire-stick.” Cypriote ri. Occurs as the name of a deity. Akkadian ri, “bright,” the name of a deity. o, two mountains. Cypriote me or mi. The emblem for “country.” p resembles the cuneiform sign for “female.” q, this is the sign of opposition in cuneiform, in Chinese and Egyptian. Cypriote mu or no (nu, “not”). r, a pot. Cypriote a or ya. Compare the Akkadian a, “water.” s, a snake. Perhaps the Cypriote ye. t, apparently a sickle. Cypriote sa. Compare the Tartar sa, se, “knife.” u, the open hand. Cypriote se. Akkadian sa, “give.” Tartar saa, “take.” v resembles the cuneiform and Chinese emblem for “breath,” “wind,” “spirit.” Cypriote zo or ze. Occurs as the name of a god. Akkadian zi, “spirit.” w resembles the Chinese, cuneiform, and Egyptian emblem for heaven. Akkadian u. It may be compared with the Carian letter u or o. x, the foot, used evidently as a verb, and resembles the cuneiform du. Probably may be sounded as in Akkadian and used for the passive (du, “come” or “become”). HITTITE EMBLEMS OF UNCERTAIN SOUND. Fig. 1081.—Hittite emblems of uncertain sound. y, a serpent. Occurs in the name of a god. z, perhaps a monument. It recalls the Cypriote ro. aa, apparently a monument. bb, probably the sun (ud or tam). cc, apparently a house. dd, perhaps the sole of the foot. ee, a donkey’s head. Probably the god Set. ff, a ram’s head. Probably with the sound gug or guch and the meaning “fierce,” “mighty.” gg, a sheep’s head. Probably lu or udu. hh, a dog or fox head. ii, a lion’s head. Only on seals. jj, a demon’s head. Used specially in a text which seems to be a magic charm. kk, two legs. Resembles the cuneiform dhu, and means probably “go” or “run.” ll, two feet. Probably “stand;” or “send,” as in Chinese. mm, apparently an altar. nn, perhaps a bundle or roll. oo, apparently a knife or sword; perhaps pal. pp, apparently a tree. qq, apparently the sacred artificial tree of Asshur. rr, a circle. Compare the cuneiform sa, “middle.” ss, twins. As in Egyptian. tt resembles the Chinese emblem for “small.” uu, a pyramid or triangle. vv, apparently a hand or glove, pointing downwards. Possibly tu or dun for “down.” ww, apparently a ship, like the cuneiform ma. Appears only on seals. xx, only once found on the Babylonian bowl, and seems to represent the inscribed bowl itself. SECTION 2.
SYLLABARIES AND ALPHABETS. It is worthy of observation that the Greeks used the same word, ???fe??, to mean drawing and writing, suggesting their early identity. Drawing was the beginning of writing, and writing was a conventionalized drawing. The connection of both with gesture signs has been noticed above. A gesture sign is a significant but evanescent motion, and a drawing is produced by a motion which leaves significant marks. When man became proficient in oral language, and desired to give permanence to his thoughts, he first resorted to the designs of picture-writing, already known and used, to express the sounds of his speech. The study of different systems of writing—such as the Chinese, the Assyrian, and the Egyptian—shows that no people ever invented an arbitrary system of writing or originated a true alphabet by any fixed predetermination. All the known graphic systems originated in picture-writing. All have passed through the stage of conventionalism to that commonly called the hieroglyphic, while from the latter, directly or after an intermediate stage, sprang the syllabary which used modifications of the old ideograms and required a comparatively small number of characters. Finally, among the more civilized of ancient races the alphabet was gradually introduced as a simplification of the syllabary, and still further reduced the necessary characters. The old ideograms were, or may be supposed to have been, intelligible to all peoples without regard to their languages. In this respect they resembled the Arabic and Roman numerals which are understood by many nations of diverse speech when written while the sound of the words figured by them is unintelligible. Their number, however, was limited only by the current ideas, which might become infinite. Also each idea was susceptible of preservation in different forms, and might readily be misinterpreted; therefore the simplicity and precision of alphabetic writing amply compensated for its exclusiveness. The high development of pictorial writing in Mexico and Central America is well known. Some of these peoples had commenced the introduction of phonetics into their graphic system, especially in the rendering of proper names, which probably also was the first step in that direction among the Egyptians. But Prof. Cyrus Thomas (b) makes the following remark upon the Maya system, which is of general application: It is certain, and even susceptible of demonstration, that a large portion, perhaps the majority, of the characters are symbols. The more I study these characters the stronger becomes the conviction that they have grown out of a pictographic system similar to that common among the Indians of North America. The first step in advance appears to have been to indicate, by characters, the gesture signs. It is not possible now to discuss the many problems contained in the vast amount of literature on the subject of the Mexican and Central American writing, and it is the less necessary because much of the literature is recent and easily accessible. With regard to the Indian tribes north of Mexico, it is not claimed that more than one system of characters resembling a syllabary or alphabet was invented by any of them. The Cherokee alphabet, so called, was adopted from the Roman by Sequoya, also called George Gist, about A.D. 1820, and was ingenious and very valuable to the tribe, but being an imitation of an old invention it has no interest in relation to the present topic. The same is manifestly true regarding the Cree alphabet, which was of missionary origin. The exception claimed is that commonly, but erroneously, called the Micmac hieroglyphics. The characters do not partake of the nature of hieroglyphs, and their origin is not Micmac. THE MICMAC “HIEROGLYPHICS.” The Micmac was an important tribe, occupying all of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton island, Prince Edward island, the northern part of New Brunswick, and the adjacent part of the province of Quebec, and ranging over a great part of Newfoundland. According to Rev. Silas T. Rand, op. cit., Megum is the singular form of the name which the Micmacs use for themselves. Rev. Eugene Vetromile (a) translates “Micmacs” as “secrets practicing men,” from the Delaware and old Abnaki word malike, “witchcraft,” and says the name was given them on account of their numerous jugglers; but he derives Mareschite, which is an Abnaki division, from the same word and makes it identical with Micmac. The French called them Souriquois, which Vetromile translates “good canoe men.” They were also called Acadians, from their habitat in Acadie, now Nova Scotia. The first reference in literature with regard to the spontaneous use by Indians of the characters now called the “Micmac hieroglyphs” appears in the Jesuit Relations of the year 1652, p. 28. In the general report of that year the work of Father Gabriel Druillettes, who had been a missionary to the Abnaki (including under this term the Indians of Acadia, afterwards distinguished as Micmacs), is dwelt upon in detail. His own words, in a subordinate report, appear to have been adopted in the general report of the Father Superior, and, translated, are as follows: Some of them wrote out their lessons in their own manner. They made use of a small piece of charcoal instead of a pen, and a piece of bark instead of paper. Their characters were novel, and so particuliers [individual or special] that one could not know or understand the writing of the other; that is to say, that they made use of certain marks according to their own ideas as of a local memory to preserve the points and the articles and the maxims which they had remembered. They carried away this paper with them to study their lesson in the repose of the night. No further remark or description appears. It is interesting to notice that the abbÉ J. A. Maurault, (a) after his citation of the above report of Father Druillettes, states in a footnote translated as follows: We have ourselves been witnesses of a similar fact among the TÊtes-de-Boule Indians of the River St. Maurice where we had been missionaries during three years. We often saw during our instructions or explanations of the catechism that the Indians traced on pieces of bark, or other objects very singular hieroglyphs. These Indians afterward passed the larger part of the following night in studying what they had so written, and in teaching it to their children or their brothers. The rapidity with which they by this manner learnt their prayers was very astonishing. The Indians called by the AbbÉ Maurault the TÊtes-de-Boule or Round Heads, are also known as Wood Indians, and are ascertained to have been a band of the Ojibwa, which shows a connection between the practice of the Ojibwa and that of the Micmacs, both being of the Algonquian stock, to mark on bark ideographic or other significant inscriptions which would assist them to memorize what struck them as of special interest and importance, notably religious rites. Many instances are given in the present paper, and the spontaneous employment of prayer sticks by other persons of the same stock is also illustrated in Figs. 715 and 716. The next notice in date is by PÈre ChrÉtien Le Clercq (a), a member of the Recollect order of Franciscans who landed on the coast of GaspÉ in 1675, learned the language of the Micmacs and worked with them continuously for several years. It would appear that he observed and took advantage of the pictographic practice of the Indians, which may have been continued from that reported by Father Druillettes a few years earlier with reference to the same general region, or may have been a separate and independent development in the tribe with which Father Le Clercq was most closely connected. His quaint account is translated as follows: Our Lord inspired me with this method the second year of my mission, when, being greatly embarrassed as to the mode in which I should teach the Indians to pray, I noticed some children making marks on birch bark with coal, and they pointed to them with their fingers at every word of the prayer which they pronounced. This made me think that by giving them some form which would aid their memory by fixed characters, I should advance much more rapidly than by teaching on the plan of making them repeat over and over what I said. I was charmed to know that I was not deceived, and that these characters which I had traced on paper produced all the effect I desired, so that in a few days they learned all their prayers without difficulty. I cannot describe to you the ardor with which these poor Indians competed with each other in praiseworthy emulation which should be the most learned and the ablest. It costs, indeed, much time and pains to make all they require, and especially since I enlarged them so as to include all the prayers of the church, with the sacred mysteries of the trinity, incarnation, baptism, penance, and the eucharist. There is no description whatever of the characters. Fig. 1082.—Title page of Kauder’s Micmac Catechism. The next important printed notice or appearance of the Micmac characters is in the work of Rev. Christian Kauder, a Redemptorist missionary, the title page of which is given in Fig. 1082. It was printed in Vienna in 1866 and therefore was about two centuries later than the first recorded invention of the characters. During those two centuries the French and therefore the Roman Catholic influences had been much of the time dormant in the habitat of the Micmacs (the enforced exodus of the French from Acadie being about 1755). Father Kauder was one of the most active in the renewal of the missions. He learned the Micmac language, probably gathered together such “hieroglyphs” on rolls of bark as had been preserved, added to them parts of the Greek and Roman alphabet and other designs, and arranged the whole in systematic and grammatic form. After about twenty years of work upon them he procured their printing in Vienna. A small part of the edition, which was the first printed, reached the Micmacs. The main part, shipped later, was lost at sea in the transporting vessel. Fig. 1083.—The Lord’s Prayer in Micmac hieroglyphics. Fig. 1083 shows the version of the Lord’s Prayer, published by Dr. J. G. Shea (a) in his translation of Le Clercq’s First Establishment of the Faith in New France, this and the preceding figure being taken from the Bibliography of the Languages of the N. A. Indians by Mr. J. C. Pilling, of the Bureau of Ethnology. The publication of Father Kauder was a duodecimo in three parts: Catechism, 144 pages; religious reflections, 109 pages; and hymnal, 208 pages. They are very seldom found bound together, and a perfect copy of either of the parts or volumes is rare. On a careful examination of the hieroglyphs, so called, it seems evident that on the original substratum of Micmac designs or symbols, each of which represented mnemonically a whole sentence or verse, a large number of arbitrary designs have been added to express ideas and words which were not American, and devices were incorporated with them intended to represent the peculiarities of the Micmac grammar as understood by Kauder, and it would seem of a universal grammar antedating VolapÜk. The explanation of these additions has never been made known. Kauder died without having left any record or explanation of the plan by which he attempted to convert the mnemonic characters invented by the Indians into what may be considered an exposition of organized words (not sounds) in grammatical form. An attempt which may be likened to this was made by Bishop Landa in his use of the Maya characters, and one still more in point was that of the priests in Peru, mentioned in connection with Figs. 1084 and 1085, infra. The result is that in the several camps of Micmacs visited by the present writer in Cape Breton island, Prince Edward island, and Nova Scotia, fragments of the printed works are kept and used for religious worship, and also many copies on various sheets and scraps of paper have been made of similar fragments, but their use is entirely mnemonic, as was that of their ancient bark originals. Very few of the Indians who in one sense can “read” them currently in the Micmac language, have any idea of the connection between any one of the characters and the vocables of the language. When asked what a particular character meant they were unable to answer, but would begin at the commencement of the particular prayer or hymn, and when arrested at any point would then for the first time be able to give the Micmac word or words which corresponded with that character. This was not in any religious spirit, as is mentioned by Dr. Washington Matthews, in his Mountain Chant, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, with reference to the Navajo’s repeating all, if any, of the chant, but because they only knew that way to use the script. In that use they do as is mentioned of the Ojibwa, supra. The latter often by their bark script keep the memory of archaic words, and the Micmac keep that of religious phrases not well understood. A few, and very few, of the characters, which were constantly repeated, and were specially conspicuous, were known as distinct from the other characters by one only of the Indians examined. It apparently had never occurred to any of them that these same characters, which in their special mnemonic connection represented Micmac words, could be detached from their context and by combination represent the same words in other sentences. Therefore, the expression “reading,” used in reference to the operation, is not strictly correct. In most cases the recitation of the script was in a chant, and the musical air of the Roman Catholic Church belonging to the several hymns and chants was often imitated. The object, therefore, which has been expressed in the above quoted accounts of Fathers Druillettes and Le Clercq had been accomplished regarding the then extant generation of Indians two hundred years before Father Kauder’s publication. That object was for Indians under their immediate charge to learn in the most speedy manner certain formulÆ of the church, by the use of which it was supposed that they would gain salvation. The formation of an alphabet, or even a syllabary, by which the structure of the language should be considered and its vocal expression recorded, was not the object. It is possible that there was an objection to the instruction of the Indians in a modern alphabet by which they might more readily learn either French or English, and at the same time be able to read profane literature and thereby become perverted from the faith. These missionaries certainly refrained, for some reason, not only from instructing the heathen in any of the languages of civilization, but also from teaching them the use of an alphabet for their own language. It is probable that Father Kauder had some idea of reducing the language of the Micmacs to a written form, based not upon verbal or even syllabic notation, but upon some anomalous compromise between their ideographic original or substratum and a grammatic superstructure. If so, he entirely failed. The interesting point with regard to this remarkable and unique attempt is, that there is undoubtedly a basis of Indian designs and symbols included and occluded among the differentiated devices in the three volumes mentioned, which arbitrarily express thoughts and words by a false pictographic method, instead of sentences and verses. But the change from the pictorial forms to those adopted, if not as radical as that from the Egyptian hieroglyphs to the Roman text, resembles that from the archaic to the modern Chinese. Therefore it would follow that the present form of the characters is not one which the Indians would learn more readily than an alphabet or a syllabary, and that is the ascertained fact. At Cow bay, a Micmac camp, about 12 miles from Halifax, an aged chief who in his boyhood at Cape Breton island was himself instructed by Father Kauder in these characters, explained that Kauder taught them to the boys by drawing them on a blackboard and by repetition, very much in the manner in which a schoolmaster in civilized countries teaches the alphabet to children. The actual success of the Cherokees in the free and general use of Sequoya’s Syllabary, which was not founded on pictographs, but on signs for sounds, should be noted in this connection. Among the thousands of scratchings on the Kejemkoojik rocks, many of which were undoubtedly made by the Micmac, only two characters were found resembling any in Kauder’s volumes, and those were common symbols of the Roman Catholic Church, and might readily have been made by the Frenchmen, who also certainly left scratchings there. Altogether after careful study of the subject it is considered that the devices in Father Kauder’s work are so intrinsically changed, both in form and intent, from the genuine Micmac designs that they can not be presented as examples of Indian pictography. Connected with this topic is the following account in the Jesuit Relations of 1646, p. 31, relative to the Montagnais and other Algonquians of the St. Lawrence river, near the Saguenay: “They confess themselves with admirable frankness; some of them carry small sticks to remind them of their sins; others write, after their manner, on small pieces of bark.” This is but the application of the ideographic writing on birch bark by the converts to the ceremonies and stories of the Christian religion, as the same art had been long used for their aboriginal traditions. Fig. 1084.—Religious story. Sicasica. Examples of pictographic work, done in a spirit similar to that above mentioned, are given by Wiener (g), describing the illustrations of which Figs. 1084 and 1085 are copies, one-fifth real size. In the most distant part of Peru, in the valley of Paucartambo, at Sicasica, the history of the passion of Christ was found written in the same ideographic system that the Indians of Ancon and the north of the coast were acquainted with before the conquest. (Fig. 1084.) The drawings were made with a pencil, probably first dipped in a mixture of gum and mandioc flour. This tissue is of a dark brown and the designs are of a very bright red. Fig. 1085.—Religious story. Sicasica. The second series, Fig. 1085, which was found at Paucartambo, was written in an analogous system on old Dutch paper. The designs are red and blue. In an article by Terrien de Lacouperie (f) is the following condensed account, part of which relates to Fig. 1086, and may be compared with the priestly inventions above mentioned: Fig. 1086.—Mo-so MS. Desgodins. PÈre Desgodins was able, in 1867, to make a copy of eleven pages from a manuscript written in hieroglyphics, and belonging to a tom-ba or tong-ba, a medicine man among the Mo-sos. These hieroglyphics are not, properly speaking, a writing, still less the current writing of the tribe. The sorcerers or tong-bas alone use it when invited by the people to recite these so-called prayers, accompanied with ceremonies and sacrifices, and also to put some spells on somebody, a specialty of their own. They alone know how to read them and understand their meaning; they alone are acquainted with the value of these signs, combined with the numbers of the dice and other implements of divination which they use in their witchcraft. Therefore, these hieroglyphics are nothing else than signs more or less symbolical and arbitrary, known to a small number of initiated who transmit their knowledge to their eldest son and successor in their profession of sorcerers. Such is the exact value of the Mo-so manuscripts; they are not a current and common writing; they are hardly a sacred writing in the limits indicated above. However, they are extremely important for the general theory of writing, inasmuch as they do not pretend to show in that peculiar hieroglyphical writing any survival of former times. According to these views, it was apparently made up for the purpose by the tom-bas or medicine men. This would explain, perhaps, the anomalous mixture of imperfect and bad imitations of ancient seal characters of China, pictorial figures of animals and men, bodies and their parts, with several Tibetan and Indian characters and Buddhist emblems. It is not uninteresting to remark here that a kind of meetway or toomsah, i.e., priest, has been pointed out among the Kakhyens of Upper Burma. The description is thus quoted: “A formal avenue always exists as the entrance to a Kakhyen village. * * * On each side of the broad grassy pathway are a number of bamboo posts, 4 feet high or thereabouts, and every 10 paces or so, taller ones, with strings stretching across the path, supporting small stars of split rattan and other emblems. There are also certain hieroglyphics which may constitute a kind of embryo picture-writing but are understood by none but the meetway or priest.” PICTOGRAPHS IN ALPHABETS. Mr. W. W. Rockhill, in Am. Anthrop., IV, No. 1, p. 91, notices the work of M. Paul Vial, missionary, etc., De la langue et de l’Écriture indigÈnes au YÛnÂn, with the following remarks: PÈre Vial has published a study upon the undeciphered script of the Lolos of Western China, of which the first specimen was secured some twelve years ago by E. Colborne Baber. Prof. Terrien de Lacouperie endeavored to establish a connection between these curious characters and the old Indian script known as the southern Ashoka alphabet. The present, PÈre Vial’s, work gives them a much less glorious origin. He says of them: “The native characters were formed without key, without method. It is impossible to decompose them. They are written not with the strokes of a brush, but with straight, curved, round, or angular lines, as the shape chosen for them requires. As the representation could not be perfect, they have stopped at something which can strike the eye or mind—form, motion, passion, a head, a bird’s beak, a mouth, right or left, lightness or heaviness; in short, at that portion of the object delineated which is peculiarly characteristic of it. But all characters are not of this expressive kind; some even have no connection with the idea they express. This anomaly has its reason. The native characters are much less numerous than the words of the language, only about thirty per cent. Instead of increasing the number of ideograms, the Lolos have used one for several words. As a result of this practice the natives have forgotten the original meaning of many of their characters.” A summary of the original cuneiform characters, numbering one hundred and seventy, gives many of them as recognizable sketches of objects. The foot stands for “go,” the hand for “take,” the legs for “run,” much as in the Egyptian and in the Maya and other American systems. The bow, the arrow, and the sword represent war; the vase, the copper tablet, and the brick represent manufacture; boats, sails, huts, pyramids, and many other objects are used as devices. W. St. Chad Boscawen (a) says: Man’s earliest ventures in the art of writing were, as we are well aware, of a purely pictorial nature, and even to this day such a mode of ideography can be seen among some of the Indian tribes. * * * There is no reasonable doubt but that all the principal systems of paleography now in vogue had their origin at some remote period in this pictorial writing. In so primitive a center as Babylonia we should naturally expect to find such a system had been in vogue, and in this we are not disappointed. Fig. 1087.—Pictographs in alphabets. Fig. 1087 is presented as a brief exhibit of the pictographs in some inchoate alphabets.
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