Garrick Mallery

The imagination is stimulated and developed by the sense of sight more than by any other sense, perhaps more than by all of the other senses combined. The American Indians, and probably all savages, are remarkable for acute and critical vision, and also for their retentive memory of what they have once seen. When significance is once attached to an object seen, it will always be recalled, though often with false deductions. Therefore, like deaf-mutes, who depend mainly on sight, the American Indians have developed great facility in communicating by signs, and also in expressing their ideas in pictures which are ideographic though seldom artistic. This tendency has likewise affected their spoken languages. Their terms express with wonderful particularity the characters and relations of visible objects, and their speeches, which are in a high degree metaphoric, become so by the figurative presentation in words of such objects accompanied generally by imitative signs for them, and often by their bodily exhibition.

The statement once made that the aboriginal languages of North America are not capable of expressing abstract ideas is incorrect, but the tendency to use tangible and visible forms for such ideas is apparent. This practice was most marked in reference to religious subjects, which were often presented under the veil of symbols, as has been the common expedient of most peoples who have emerged from the very lowest known stages of human culture, but have not attained the highest.

Many instances appear in this work in which pictures expressive of an idea present more than mere portraitures of objects, which latter method has been styled imitative or iconographic writing.

It is, however, impossible to classify with scientific precision the pictured ideograms collected, for the reason that many of them occupy intermediate points in any scheme that would be succinct enough to be practically useful. In the arrangement of the present chapter the division is made into: 1st. Abstract ideas expressed pictorially. 2d. Signs, symbols, and emblems. 3d. Significance of colors. 4th. Gesture and posture signs depicted. When any of the graphic representations of ideas have become successful, i.e., commonly adopted, it soon becomes more or less conventionalized. Chapter XIX is devoted specially to that branch of the general subject.

SECTION 1.
ABSTRACT IDEAS EXPRESSED PICTORIALLY.

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

The second step was when a special quality or characteristic of an object, generally an animal, became employed to express a general quality, i.e., an abstract idea. It can be readily seen how, among the Egyptians, a hawk with bright eye and lofty flight might be selected to express divinity and royalty, and that the crocodile should denote darkness, while a slightly further advance in metaphors made the ostrich feather, from the equality of its filaments, typical of truth. All peoples whose rulers used special objective designations of their rank, made those objects the signs for power, whether they were crowns or umbrellas, eagle feathers, or colored buttons. A horse meant swiftness, a serpent life—or immortality when drawn as a circle—a dog was watchfulness, and a rabbit was fecundity. It is evident from examples given in the present paper that the American tribes at the time of the Columbian discovery had entered upon this second step of picture-writing, though with marked inequality between tribes and regions in advance therein. None of them appear to have reached such proficiency in the expression of connected ideas by picture, as is shown in the sign-language existing among some of them, which may be accounted for by its more frequent use required by the constant meeting of many persons speaking different languages. There is no more necessary connection between abstract ideas and sounds, the mere signs of thought that strike the ear, than there is between the same ideas and signs addressed only to the eye. The success and scope of either mode of expression depends mainly upon the amount of its exercise, in which oral language undoubtedly has surpassed both sign-language and picture-writing.

The examples now following in this chapter are by no means all the graphic representations of abstract ideas collected. Indeed many others are contained in the work under other headings, but the following are selected for grouping here with an attempt at order. In the popular definition, or want of definition, some of them would be classed as symbols.

AFTER.

Fig. 845.—Charge after.

Fig. 845.—Charge after; Red-Cloud’s Census.

Here is suggested the order in a charge upon an enemy, apparently a Crow. The concept is not the general charge of a number of warriors upon the Crows, but the succession between themselves of the men who made that charge. The person whose name is represented probably followed in but did not lead some celebrated charge.

Fig. 846.—Killed after.

Fig. 846.—John Richard shot and killed an Oglala named Yellow-Bear, and the Oglalas killed Richard before he could get out of the lodge; American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1871-’72. This occurred in the spring of 1872. As the white man was killed after the Indian, he is placed behind him in the figure. The bear’s head is shown.

AGE—OLD AND YOUNG.

OLD.

Fig. 847.—Old-Horse.

Fig. 847.—Old-Horse; Red-Cloud’s Census. Here the old age is shown by the wrinkles and projecting lips.

Fig. 848.—Old-Mexican.

Fig. 848.—Old-Mexican; Red-Cloud’s Census. The man in European dress is bent and supported by a staff, thus depicting the gesture-sign mentioned in connection with Fig. 994. The Dakota had probably received his name from killing an aged Mexican.

YOUNG.

Fig. 849.—Young-Rabbit.

Fig. 849.—Young-Rabbit, a Crow, was killed in battle by Red-Cloud. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1861-’62. Here the youth of the Rabbit is expressed by diminutive size and short legs.

Fig. 850.—Bad-Boy.

Fig. 850.—Bad-Boy. Red-Cloud’s Census. The boyhood is expressed by the short hair and short scalp lock.

BAD.

Fig. 851.—Bad-Horn.

Fig. 851.—Bad-Horn. Red-Cloud’s Census. The bad quality of the horn is expressed by its decayed and broken condition and its distorted curve.

Fig. 852.—Bad-Face.

Fig. 852.—Bad-Face, a Dakota, was shot in the face. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1794-’95. The bad face may have been broken out with blotches of disease before the shot, or the scars may have been the result of the shot, which gave occasion for a new name, as is common. The idea of “bad” is often expressed by an abnormality, especially one which disfigures.

Fig. 853.—Bad. Ojibwa.

Fig. 853, taken from Copway (d), represents “bad.” The concept appears to be the preponderance of “below” to “above.”

BEFORE.

Fig. 854.—Got there first.

Fig. 854.—Got there first. Red-Cloud’s Census. The figure portrays a successful escape of an unmounted Indian from a chase by enemies on horseback. The chased man gets home to his tipi before being overtaken by his pursuers, whose horses’ tracks are shown.

BIG.

Fig. 855.—Big-Turnip.

Fig. 855.—Big-Turnip. Red-Cloud’s Census. The plant is also known as the navet de prairie. The large size of the specimen, as compared with the human head, is apparent.

Fig. 856.—Big-Crow.

Fig. 856.—A Minneconjou Dakota, named Big-Crow, was killed by the Crow Indians. Swan’s Winter Count, 1859-’60. He had received his name from killing a Crow Indian of unusual size. The bird is portrayed much larger than similar objects in the Winter Count, from which it is taken.

Fig. 857.—Grasp.

Fig. 857.—Grasp. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here the indication of size and strength of the hand is suggested by one hand growing out from another, a species of duplication. To have drawn two distinct hands would only have been normal and not suggestive of unusual power of grip.

Fig. 858.—Big-Hand.

Fig. 858.—Big-Hand. From Red-Cloud’s Census. Here the fingers are widely separated and displayed.

Fig. 859.—Big-Thunder.

Fig. 859.—Big-Thunder. From Red-Cloud’s Census. Here the size or power is suggested by implication. The double or two-voiced thunder is big thunder.

Fig. 860.—Big-Voice.

Fig. 860.—Big-Voice. From Red-Cloud’s Census. In this figure there are still more voices than in the preceding.

CENTER.

Fig. 861.—Center-Feather.

Fig. 861.—Upi-Yaslate. Center-Feather. The Oglala Roster. This is the indication of a particular feather, i.e., the middle tail feather of a bird, probably of an eagle, the tail feathers of which bird are represented in many pictographs in this paper. There was some reason for the selection of the center feather for the name, and to indicate the center three feathers were depicted with a line touching the middle one.

DEAF.

Fig. 862.—Deaf-Woman.

Fig. 862.—Wi-nugin-kpa, Deaf-Woman. The Oglala Roster. The ears are covered by a line, i.e., are closed, and the ear most in view is connected with the crown of the head, to show that the name is expressed.

DIRECTION.

This title has been selected as being the most comprehensive one for the five following figures. The first shows a moccasin with a serpentine track, at the farthest end of which is an angular design, indicating leadership as well as the direction taken. This suggests the leader of a war party conducting his band over an uncertain trail. The second is explanatory of the first. That the chief goes in front is indicated in a manner the reverse of that which would appear in the designs common in our military text-books. He is supposed to be in the opening in the angle of the advance and not at its apex. The third figure shows a steadfast leadership in the determined straight direction of attack against the enemy. This is still more ideographically represented by the single strong straight line showing that he “Don’t turn” in the fourth figure of this group.

Fig. 863.—Direction.

Fig. 863.—Warrior. Red-Cloud’s Census. The name does not give any idea of the design.

DISEASE.

FAST.

The following figures clearly indicate rapidity of motion:

Fig. 881.—Fast-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census.

Fig. 882.—Fast-Elk. Red-Cloud’s Census.

FEAR.

The following ideograms for the concept of fear show respectively an elk, a bear, and a bull surrounded by a circle of hunters. It would seem that the latter were supposed to be afraid to attack the animals when at bay in hand-to-hand fight, but stood off in a circle until they had killed the enraged beast, or at least wounded it sufficiently to allow of approach without danger.

FRESHET.

This small group shows the Dakotan modes of portraying the freshets of the rivers on the banks of which they lived, which were often disastrous. Each of the three figures pictures differently the same event.

GOOD.

Fig. 891.—Good-Weasel. Red-Cloud’s Census. The character is represented with two waving lines passing upward from the mouth in imitation of the gesture sign, good talk, as made by passing two extended and separated fingers (or all fingers separated) upward and forward from the mouth. This gesture is made when referring either to a shaman or to a Christian clergyman. It is connected with the idea of “mystic” frequently mentioned in this work.

HIGH.

Various modes of delineating this idea are represented as follows:

LEAN.

LITTLE.

LONE.

MANY, MUCH.

OBSCURE.

OPPOSITION.

The following two figures, 925 and 926, are introduced to show the opposition in attitude, which would not be understood without knowledge of the fact that these are perhaps the only instances in a collection of nearly three hundred in which the characterizing faces are turned to the right, all others being turned to the left. This shows the opposite of normality, i.e., opposition, as suggested in each case, with a different shade of meaning.

POSSESSION.

PRISONER.

Fig. 935 is taken from Mrs. Eastman (d), and shows a Dakota method of recording the taking of prisoners. a and c are the prisoners, a being a female as denoted by the presence of mammÆ, and c a male; b is the person making the capture. It is to be noted that the prisoners are without hands, to signify their helplessness.

In Doc. Hist. New York (c) is the following description of Fig. 936:

SHORT.

SIGHT.

SLOW.

TALL.

TRADE.

UNION.

The Dakotas often express this concept by uniting two or more figures by a distinct inclusive line below the figures. This sometimes means family relationship and sometimes common membership in the same tribe.

WHIRLWIND.

Fig. 966.—Whirlwind.

Fig. 966 is a copy of part of the decoration on a pot taken from a mound in Missouri, published in Second Annual Report of the Bureau Ethnology, Pl. LIII, fig. 11. On the authority of Rev. S. D. Hinman, it is the conventional device among the Dakotas to represent a whirlwind.

WINTER—COLD—SNOW.

SECTION 2.
SIGNS, SYMBOLS, AND EMBLEMS.

The terms sign, symbol, and emblem are often used interchangeably and therefore incorrectly. Many persons ascribe an occult and mystic signification to symbols, probably from their general religious and esoteric employment. All characters in Indian picture-writing have been loosely styled symbols, and, as there is no logical distinction between the characters impressed with enduring form and when merely outlined in the ambient air, all Indian gestures, motions, and attitudes, intended to be significant, might with equal appropriateness be called symbolic. But an Indian sign-talker or a deaf-mute represents a person by mimicry, and an object by the outline of some striking part of its form, or by the pantomime of some peculiarity in its actions or relations. Their attempt is to bring to mind the person or thing through its characteristics, not to distinguish the characteristics themselves, which is a second step. In the same manner a simple pictorial sign attempts to express an object, idea, or fact without any approach to symbolism. Symbols are less obvious and more artificial than mere signs, are not only abstract, but metaphysical, and often need explanation from history, religion, and customs. They do not depict, but suggest subjects; do not speak directly through the eye to the intelligence, but presuppose in the mind knowledge of an event or fact which the sign recalls. The symbols of the ark, dove, olive branch, and rainbow would be wholly meaningless to people unfamiliar with the Mosaic or some similar cosmology, as would the cross and the crescent be to those ignorant of history.

The loose classification by which symbols would include every gesture or pictorial sign that naturally or conventionally recalls a corresponding idea, only recognizes the fact that every action and object can, under some circumstances, become a symbol. And indeed lovers of the symbolic live in, on, and by the symbols which they manufacture.

A curious instance of the successful manufacture of a symbol by the ingenuity of one man is in the one now commonly pictured of a fish to represent Christ. The fish for obvious reasons has been connected with Eurasian mythology, and therefore was a heathen symbol many centuries before the Christian era; indeed, probably before the creed of the Israelites had become formulated. It was used metaphorically or emblematically by the early Christians without the apparent propriety of the lamb-bearing shepherd, the dove, and other emblems or symbols found in the catacombs, and Didron (b) says that only in the middle of the fourth century Optatus, bishop of Milesia, in Africa, declared the significance of the letters of the Greek word for fish, ??T?S, to be the initials of ??s??? ???st?? Te?? ???? S?t??, which acrostic was received with acclamation, and new characteristics were from time to time invented, adding force to the thenceforth commonly displayed symbol. It may be noted that when symbols, which were generally religious, received acceptance, they were soon used objectively as amulets or talismans.

This chapter is not intended to be a treatise on symbolism, but it is proper to mention the distinction in the writer’s mind between a pictorial sign, an emblem, and a symbol; though it is not easy to preserve accurate discrimination in classification of ideographic characters. To partly express the distinction, nearly all of the characters in the Winter Counts in this work are regarded as pictorial signs, and the class represented by tribal and clan designations, insignia, etc., is considered to belong to the category of emblems. There is no doubt, however, that true symbols exist among the Indians, as they must exist to some extent among all peoples not devoid of poetic imagination. Some of them are shown in this work. The pipe is generally a symbol of peace, although in certain positions and connections it signifies preparation for war, and, again, subsequent victory. The hatchet is a common symbol for war, and joined hands or approaching palms denote peace. The tortoise has been clearly used as a symbol for land, and many other examples can be admitted. Apart from the exaggerations of Schoolcraft, true symbolism is found among the Ojibwa, of which illustrations are presented. The accounts of the ZuÑi, Moki, and Navajo, before mentioned, show the constant employment of symbolic devices by those tribes which are notably devoted to mystic ceremonies. Nevertheless the writer’s personal experience is that when he has at first supposed a character to be a genuine symbol, better means of understanding has often proved it to be not even an ideograph, but a mere objective representation. In this connection the remarks on the circle, in Lone-Dog’s Winter Count for 1811-’12, and those on the cross infra, may be in point.

The connection, to the unlettered Indian, between printed words, pictures, and signs, was well illustrated through the spontaneous copial, by a Cheyenne, of the ornate labels on packages of sugar and coffee, which he had seen at a reservation, and the lines of which he rather skillfully and very ingeniously repeated on a piece of paper when sending to a post-trader to purchase more of the articles. The printed label was to him the pictorial sign for those articles.

The following remarks are quoted from D’Alviella (a):

The emblem writers, so designated, have furnished an immense body of literature, and apparently have considered such pictures as those of the Winter Counts in the present work and also all symbols to be included in their proper scope. The best summary on the subject is by Henry Greene (a), from which the following condensed extract is taken:

The following remarks of the same author (b) are presented in this connection, though they pass beyond the scope of either symbols or emblems into other divisions of pictography, as classified in the present work:

Emblems do not necessarily require any analogy between the objects representing and the objects or qualities represented, but may arise from pure accident. They may bear any meaning that men may choose to attach to them, so their value still more than that of symbols depends upon extrinsic facts and not intrinsic features. After a scurrilous jest the beggar’s wallet became the emblem of the confederated nobles, the Gueux of the Netherlands; and a sling, in the early minority of Louis XIV, was adopted from the refrain of a song by the Frondeur opponents of Mazarin.

The several tribal designations for Sioux, Arapaho, Cheyenne, etc., are their emblems, precisely as the star-spangled flag is that of the United States, but there is no intrinsic symbolism in them. So the designs for individuals, when not merely translations of their names, are emblematic of their family totems or personal distinctions, and are no more symbols than are the distinctive shoulder-straps of an army officer.

The point urged is that while many signs can be used as emblems and both can be converted by convention into symbols or be explained as such by perverted ingenuity, it is futile to seek for that form of psychological exuberance in the stage of development attained by the greater part of the American tribes. All predetermination to interpret their pictographs on the principles of symbolism as understood or pretended to be understood by its admirers, and as are sometimes properly applied not only to Egyptian hieroglyphics, but to Mexican, Maya, and some other southern pictographs, results in mooning mysticism.

The following examples are presented as being either symbols or emblems, according to the definition of those terms, and therefore appropriate to this section. More will be found in Chapter XX, on Special Comparisons, and indeed may appear under different headings; e.g., Battiste Good symbolizes hunting by a buffalo head and arrow, Fig. 321, and war by a special head-dress, Fig. 395.

Sir A. Mackenzie (c) narrates that in 1793 he found among the Athabascans an emblem of a country abounding in animals. This was a small round piece of green wood chewed at one end in the form of a brush, which the Indians use to pick the marrow out of bones.

Mr. Frank H. Cushing, in notes not yet reduced to final shape for publication, gives two excellent examples of symbols among the ZuÑi:

The following is reported by Dr. W. H. Dall (e), and explains how the otter protruding his tongue is the emblem of Shaman:

With this account from the Pacific coast a similar determination of emblems by the Indians in the northeastern parts of the United States may be compared. The objects seen by them in their fasting visions not only were decisive of their names but were held to show the course of their lives. If a youth saw an eagle or bear he was destined to be a warrior; if a deer he would be a man of peace; and a turkey buzzard or serpent was the sign that he would be a medicine man. The figures of those animals therefore were respectively the emblems of the qualities and dispositions implied. See Fig. 159, supra, for a drawing of the Sci-Manzi or “Mescal Woman” of the Kaiowa as it appears on a sacred gourd rattle used in the mescal ceremony of that tribe, with description.

In Kingsborough (h) is the record that “in the year of Ten Houses, or 1489, a very large comet, which they name Xihuitli, appeared.”

In the same work and Codex, Pls. 10, 12, and 33, are three characters, somewhat differing, representing earthquakes, which, according to the text in Vol. VI, p. 137, et seq., occurred in Mexico in the years A.D. 1461, 1467, and 1542. The concept appears to be that of the disruption and change of the position of the several strata of soil, which are indicated by the diverse coloration. These characters are reproduced in the present work in Pl. XLIX as the three on the right hand in the lower line.

Fig. 980 is reproduced by permission from Lieut. H. R. Lemly (a), U.S. Army, who calls it a “stone calendar.” It is the work of the Chibcha Indians of the United States of Colombia, and its several parts, some of which are to be compared with similar designs in other regions, are explained as follows:

The characters b and f below, markedly resemble one given by Pipart (a), with the same signification. It referred to the preparation of the ground for sowing.

Wiener (f) gives the following summary of prominent Peruvian symbols:

Fig. 981 is presented to show another collection of engraved symbols, some of which with different execution resemble some found in North America. It is a bronze tablet found in Syria in the collection of M. PÉretiÉ, and is described by Maj. Claude R. Conder, R. F. (a):

Didron (c) thus remarks upon the emblems in the Roman catacombs:

Edkins (b) says respecting the Chinese:

D’Alviella (b) furnishes this poetical and truthful suggestion:

SECTION 3.
SIGNIFICANCE OF COLORS.

The use of color to be considered in studies of pictography is probably to be traced to the practice of painting on the surface of the human body. This use is very ancient. The Ethiopians in the army of Xerxes applied vermillion and white plaster to their skins, and the German tribes when first known in history inscribed their breasts with the figures of divers animals. The North British clans were so much addicted to paint (or perhaps tattoo) that the epithet Picti was applied to them by the Romans. In this respect comparisons may be made with the Wichita, who were called by the French Pawnees PiquÉs, commonly rendered in English Pawnee Picts, and Marco de NiÇa, in Hakluyt, (e) says that Indians in the region of Arizona and New Mexico were called Pintados “because they painted their faces, breasts, and arms.” The general belief with regard to the employment of paint in the above and similar cases is that the colors had a tribal significance by which men became their own flags; the present form of flag not having great antiquity, as Clovis was the first among western monarchs to adopt it. Then the theory became current that colored devices, such as appeared on ensigns and on clothing, e.g., tartans, were imitated from the painted marks on the skin of the tribesmen. In this connection remarks made supra about tattoo designs are applicable. There is but little evidence in favor of the theory, save that fashions in colored decorations probably in time became tribal practices and so might have been evolved into emblems. But it is proper to regard such colorations as primarily ornamental, and to remember that even in England as late as the eighth century some bands of men were so proud of their decorated bodies that they refused to conceal them by clothes.

This topic may be divided into: 1. Decorative use of color. 2. Idiocrasy of colors. 3. Color in ceremonies. 4. Color relative to death and mourning. 5. Colors for war and peace. 6. Colors designating social status.

DECORATIVE USE OF COLOR.

The following notes give instances of the use of painting which appear to be purely decorative:

Fernando Alarchon, in Hakluyt, (f) says of the Indians of the Bay of California: “These Indians came decked after sundry fashions, some came with a painting that couered their face all ouer, some had their faces halfe couered, but all besmouched with cole and euery one as it liked him best.”

John Hawkins, in Hakluyt, (g) speaking of the Florida Indians, tells of “Colours both red, blacke, yellow, and russet, very perfect, wherewith they so paint their bodies and Deere skinnes which they weare about them, that with water it neither faded away nor altereth in color.”

Maximilian of Wied (f), reports:

Even in the midst of winter the Mandans wear nothing on the upper part of the body, under their buffalo robe. They paint their bodies of a reddish brown colour, on some occasions with white clay, and frequently draw red or black figures on their arms. The face is, for the most part, painted all over with vermillion or yellow, in which latter case the circumference of the eyes and the chin are red. There are, however, no set rules for painting, and it depends on the taste of the Indian dandy; yet, still, a general similarity is observed. The bands, in their dances and also after battles, and when they have performed some exploit, follow the established rule. In ordinary festivals and dances, and whenever they wish to look particularly fine, the young Mandans paint themselves in every variety of way, and each endeavors to find out some new mode. Should he find another dandy painted just like himself, he immediately retires and makes a change in the pattern, which may happen three or four times during the festival. If they have performed an exploit, the entire face is painted jet black.

A colored plate in the report of the Pacific Railroad Expedition (f) shows the designs adopted by the Mojave Indians for painting the body. These designs consist of transverse lines extending around the body, arms, and legs, or horizontal lines or different parts may partake of different designs. Clay is now generally used.

Everard F. im Thurn (h) describes the painting of the Indians of Guiana as follows:

Kohl (a) says of the Indians met by him around Lake Superior that “The young men only paint—no women. When they become old they stop and cease to pluck out their beards which are an obstacle in painting.” It is probable that the custom of plucking the hairs originated in the attempt to facilitate face and body painting.

Herndon (b) gives the following report from the valley of the Amazon:

According to Dr. J. J. von Tschudi (b):

F. J. Mouat, M.D., in Jour. Roy. Geogr. Soc., (a) says that Andaman Islanders rub red earth on the top of the head, probably for the purpose of ornamentation. This fashion is similar to that of some North American Indian tribes which rub red pigment on the parting of the hair.

Marcano (e) says:

Fig. 982 shows examples of these stamps. The most noteworthy thing about them is that they reproduce the types of certain petroglyphs, particularly of those of the upper Cuchivero (see Figs. 152 and 153, supra).

It is to be noted that at least one instance is found of the converse of the Piaroa practice, by which the face-marks are used as the designs of pictographs on inanimate objects. The Serranos, near Los Angeles, California, formerly cut lines upon the trees and posts marking boundaries of land, these lines corresponding to those adopted by the owner as facial decorations.

A suggestion appropriate to this branch of the topic is presented in the answer communicated in a personal conversation of a Japanese lady who was asked why she blackened her teeth: “Any dog has white teeth!” An alteration of the physical appearance is itself a distinction, and the greater the difference between the decorated person and the want of decoration in others the greater the distinction. Modern milliners, dressmakers, tailors and hatters, and their patrons pursue the same ends of fashionable distinction which are exhibited in rivalry for priority and singularity. These arbitrary fluctuations of fashion, which are seen equally in the Mandan and the millionaire, the Pueblan and the Parisian, are to be considered with reference to the supposed tribal significance of colors before mentioned. So far as they originated in fashion they changed with fashion, and the studies made in the preparation of this paper tend to a disbelief in their distinctness and stability. The conservatism of religious and of other ceremonial practices and of social customs preserved, however, a certain amount of consistency and continuity.

IDEOCRASY OF COLORS.

It has often been asserted that there was and is an intrinsic significance in the several colors. A traditional recognition of this among the civilizations connected with modern Europe is shown by the associations of death and mourning with black, of innocence and peace with white, danger with red, and epidemic disease officially with yellow. A comparison of the diverse conceptions attached to the colors will show great variety in their several attributions.

The Babylonians represented the sun and its sphere of motion by gold, the moon by silver, Saturn by black, Jupiter by orange, Mars by red, Venus by pale yellow, and Mercury by deep blue. Red was anciently and generally connected with divinity and power both priestly and royal. The tabernacle of the Israelites was covered with skins dyed red, and the gods and images of Egypt and Chaldea were of that color, which to this day is the one distinguishing the Roman Pontiff and the cardinals.

In ancient art each color had a mystic sense or symbolism, and its proper use was an essential consideration. With regard to early Christian art Mrs. Clement (a) furnishes the following account:

The associations with the several colors above mentioned differ widely from those in modern folk-lore; for instance, those with green and yellow, the same colors being stigmatized in the old song that “green’s forsaken and yellow’s forsworn.”

The Hist. de Dieu, by Didron (d), contains the following:

A note in the Am. Journal of Psychology, Vol. I, November, 1887, p. 190, gives another list substantially as follows:

COLOR IN CEREMONIES.

The colors attributed to the cardinal points have been the subject of much discussion. Some of these special color schemes of the North American Indians are now mentioned.

Mr. James Stevenson, in an address before the Anthropological Society of Washington, D. C.; Dr. Washington Matthews, U.S. Army, in the Fifth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 449; and Mr. Thomas V. Keam, in a MS. contribution, severally report the tribes mentioned below as using in their ceremonial dances the respective colors designated to represent the four cardinal points, viz:

Mr. Stevenson, in his paper on the Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis, in the Eighth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, agrees with Dr. Matthews regarding the ceremonial scheme of the Navajo colors symbolic of the cardinal points, as follows: “The eagle plumes were laid to the east, and near by them white corn and white shell; the blue feathers were laid to the south, with blue corn and turquoise; the hawk feathers were laid to the west, with yellow corn and abalone shell; and to the north were laid the whippoorwill feathers, with black beads and corn of all the several colors.”

In A Study of Pueblo Architecture, by Mr. Victor Mindeleff, in the Eighth Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, the prayers of consecration by the Pueblos are addressed thus:

Mr. Frank H. Cushing, in ZuÑi Fetiches, Second Ann. Rep., Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 16-17, gives the following:

Mr. A. S. Gatschet (a), in Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., gives the symbolic colors of the Isleta Pueblo for the points of the compass, as “white for the east; from there they go to the north, which is black; to the west, which is blue; and to the south, which is red.”

Mr. James Mooney, in Seventh Ann. Rep., Bureau Ethnology, p. 342, says that the symbolic color system of the Cherokees is:

In the ceremonies of the Indians of the plains it is common that the smoke of the sacred pipe should be turned first directly upward, second directly downward, and then successively to the four cardinal points, but without absolute agreement among the several tribes as to the order of that succession. In James’ Long (i), it is reported that in a special ceremony of the Omaha regarding the buffalo the first whiff of smoke was directed to them, next to the heavens, next to the earth, and then successively to the east, west, north, and south. The rather lame explanation was given that the east was for sunrise, the west for sunset, the north for cold country, and the south for warm country.

The Count de Charencey, in Des Couleurs considÉrÉs comme symboles des Pointes de l’Horizon, etc., and in Ages ou Soleils, gives as the result of his studies that in Mexico and Central America the original systems were as follows:

Mr. John Crawford (a) says:

Boturini (a) gives the following arrangement of the “symbols of the four parts or angles of the world,” comparing it with that of Gemelli:

Herrera (a) speaks only of the year symbols and colors, and, although he does not directly connect them, indicates his understanding in regard thereto by the order in which he mentions them:

From this statement Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in Notes on certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts, Third Ann. Rep., Bureau of Ethnology, concludes that Herrera’s arrangement would presumably be as follows:

Combining these several lists it would appear that Calli, color green, was Fire and West or Earth and East; Tochtli, color blue, was Earth and South or Air and North; Acatl, color red, was Water and East or Water and West; Tecpatl, color yellow, was Air and North or Fire and South.

The foregoing notes leave the symbolic colors of the cardinal points in a state of confusion, and on calm reflection no other condition could be expected. Taking the idea of the ocean blue, for instance, and recognizing the impressive climatic effects of the ocean, the people examined may be in any direction from the ocean and to each of them its topographic as well as color relation differs. If it shall be called blue, the color blue may be north, south, east, or west. So as to the concepts of heat and cold, however presented in colors by the fancy, heat being sometimes red and sometimes yellow, cold being sometimes considered as black by the manifestation of its violent destruction of the tissues and sometimes being more simply shown as white, the color of the snow. Also the geographic situation of the people must determine their views of temperature. The sun in tropical regions may be an object of terror, in Arctic climes of pure beneficence, and in the several seasons of more temperate zones the sun as fire, whether red or yellow, may be destructive or life-giving. Regarding the symbols of the cardinal points it seems that there is nothing intrinsic as to colors, but that the ideograms connected with the topic are local and variant. As the ancient assignments of color to the cardinal points are not established and definite among people who have been long settled in their present habitat, the hope of tracing their previous migration by that line of investigation may not be realized.

The following account of the degree posts of the Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa is condensed from an article by Dr. Hoffman in the Am. Anthropologist for July, 1889:

In the same article is the following account of face coloring in the Mide' degrees:

The religious and ceremonial use of the color red by the New Zealanders is mentioned by Taylor (d):

Mr. S. Gason reports in Worsnop, op. cit.:

A few notes of other ceremonial and religious uses of color are presented.

Capt. John G. Bourke (f) says that the Moki employ the colors in prayers—yellow for pumpkins, green for corn, and red for peaches. Black and white bands are typical of rain, and red and blue bands, of lightning.

In James’s Long (k), it is mentioned of the Omaha that the boy who goes to fast on the hill top to see his guardian spirit, as a preparation rubs his body over with whitish clay, but the same ceremonial among the Ouenebigonghelins near Hudson bay is described by Bacqueville de la Potherie (d), with the statement that the postulant paints his face black.

Peter Martyr (a) says the natives of the Island of Hispaniola [Haiti] when attending a festival at the religious edifice, go in a procession having their bodies and faces painted in black, red, and yellow colors. Some had feathers of the parrot and other birds, with which they decorated themselves. The women had no decoration.

PÉnicaut’s Relation, A.D. 1704, in Margry (f), gives an account of decorations of the victims who die with the grand chief, or Sun of the Natchez. Their faces were painted vermilion, as the author says, “lest they by paleness should show their fear.” Though the practice may have thus originated as a mere expedient, red thus used would become in time a sacrificial color.

But the color red can not always be deduced from such an origin. It is connected with the color of fire and of blood. The Romans on great festivals painted the face of Jupiter Capitolinus with vermilion. They painted in the same way all the statues of the gods, demi-gods, heroes, fauns, and satyrs. Pan is described by Virgil in Ecl. X, line 27:

Pan, deus ArcadiÆ venit, quem vidimus ipsi
Sanguineis ebuli baccis minioque rubentem.

These verses are rendered with spirit by R. C. Singleton, Virgil in English Rhythm, London, 1871, though the translator wrote “cinnabar” instead of “red lead” and might as well have used the correct word, “minium,” which has the same prosodial quantity as cinnabar.

Pan came, the god of Arcady, whom we
Ourselves beheld, with berries bloody red
Of danewort, and with cinnabar aglow.

In Chapman’s translation of Homer’s hymn to Pan the god is again represented stained with red, but with the original idea of blood.

A lynx’s hide, besprinkled round about
With blood, cast on his shoulders.

By imitation of greatness and the semblance of divinity the faces of generals when they rode in triumph, e.g., Camillus as mentioned by Pliny, quoting Verrius, were painted red.

On the tree which supports the Vatican figure of the Apollo Belvedere are traces of an object supposed to be the st?a de?f????, which was composed of bushy tufts of Delphian laurel bound with threads of red wool into a series of knots and having at each end a tassel. This is an old sign of consecration and is possibly connected with the traditional gipsy sign of mutual binding in love signified by a red knot, as mentioned in a letter from Mr. Charles G. Leland.

The Spaniards distinguished red as the color par excellence, and among many of the savage and barbaric peoples red is the favorite and probably once was the sacred color.

COLOR RELATIVE TO DEATH AND MOURNING.

Charlevoix (a) says of the Micmacs that “their mourning consisted in painting themselves black and in great lamentations.”

Champlain (f), in 1603, described the mourning posts of the northeastern Algonquian tribes as painted red.

Keatings’ Long (g) tells that the Sac Indians blackened themselves with charcoal in mourning and during its continuance did not use any vermilion or other color for ornamentation.

Some of the Dakota tribes blackened the whole face with charcoal for mourning, but ashes were also frequently employed.

Col. Dodge (a) says that the Sioux did not use the color green in life, but that the corpses were wrapped in green blankets. The late Rev. S. D. Hinman, who probably was, until his death within the last year, the best authority concerning those Indians, contradicts this statement in a letter, declaring that the Sioux frequently use the color green in their face-painting, especially when they seek to disguise themselves, as it gives so different an expression. If it is not used as generally as blue or yellow the reason is that it is seldom found in the clays which were formerly relied upon and therefore it required compounding. Also they do not use green as painting or designation for the dead, but red, that being their decoration for the “happy hunting ground.” But the color for the mourning of the survivors is black.

Thomas L. McKenny (a) says the Chippeway men mourn by painting their faces black.

The Winnebago men blacken the whole face with charcoal in mourning. The women make a round black spot on both cheeks.

Dr. Boas, in Am. Anthrop. (a), says of Snanaimuq, a Salish tribe:

In Bancroft (d) it is mentioned that the Guatemalan widower dyed his body yellow.

Carl Bock (b) describes the mourning solemnities in Borneo as being marked chiefly by white, the men and women composing the mourning processions being enveloped in white garments, and carrying white flags and weapons and ornaments, all of which were covered with white calico.

A. W. Howitt (h) says of the Dieri of Central Australia:

A. C. Haddon (b) tells that among the western tribes of Torres strait plastering the body with gray mud was a sign of mourning.

ElisÉe Reclus (c) says: “In sign of mourning the Papuans daub themselves in white, yellow, or black, according to the tribes.”

D’Albertis (d) reports that the women of New Guinea paint themselves black all over on the death of a relation, but that there are degrees of mourning among the men, e.g., the son of the deceased paints his whole body black, but other less related mourners may only paint the face more or less black. In Vol. II, p. 9, a differentiation is shown, by which in one locality the women daubed themselves from head to foot with mud. The same author says, in the same volume, p. 378, that the skulls preserved in their houses are always colored red and their foreheads frequently marked with some rough design.

In Armenia, as told in The Devil Worshipers of Armenia, in Scottish Geog. Mag., viii, p. 592, widows dress in white.

In Notes in East Equatorial Africa, Bull. Soc. d’Anthrop. de Brux. (b), it is told that in the region mentioned the women rub flour over their bodies on the death or departure of the husband.

Sir G. Wilkinson (a) writes that the ancient Egyptians in their mourning ceremonies wore white fillets, and describes the same use of the color white in the funeral processions painted on the walls of Thebes.

Dr. S. Wells Williams (a) reports of the Chinese mourning colors that “the mourners are dressed entirely in white or wear a white fillet around the head. In the southern districts half-mourning is blue, usually exhibited in a pair of blue shoes and a blue silken cord woven in the queue, instead of a red one; in the northern provinces white is the only mourning color seen.”

Herr von Brandt, in the Ainos and Japanese, Journal of the Anthrop. Inst. G. B. and I. (e), tells that the coffins of the deceased Mikados were covered with red, that is, with cinnabar.

COLORS FOR WAR AND PEACE.

These colors, respecting the Algonquian Indians, are mentioned in 1763, as published in Margry, to the effect that red feathers on the pipe signify war, and that other colors [each of which may have a modifying or special significance] mean peace.

W. W. H. Davis (b) recounts that “in 1680 the Rio Grande Pueblos informed the Spanish officers that they had brought with them two crosses, one painted red, which signified war, and the other white, which indicated peace, and they might take their choice between the two.”

Capt. de Lamothe Cadillac (b), writing in the year 1696 of the Algonquians of the Great Lake region near Mackinac, etc., describes their decorations for war as follows:

Schoolcraft (r) says that blue signifies peace among the Indians of the Pueblo of Tesuque.

The Dakota bands lately at Grand river agency had the practice of painting the face red from the eyes down to the chin when going to war.

The Absaroka or Crow Indians generally paint the forehead red when on the warpath. This distinction of the Crows is also noted by the Dakota in recording pictographic narratives of encounters with the Crows.

Haywood (e) says of the Cherokees:

H. H. Bancroft (e) tells that when a Modoc warrior paints his face black before going into battle it means victory or death, and that he will not survive a defeat. In the same volume, p. 105, he says that when a Thlinkit arms himself for war he paints his face and powders his hair a brilliant red. He then ornaments his head with a white eagle feather as a token of stern, vindictive determination.

Mr. Dorsey reports that when the Osage men go to steal horses from the enemy they paint their faces with charcoal. [Possibly this may be for disguise, on the same principle that burglars use black crape.] The same authority gives the following description of the Osage paint for war parties:

The following extract is from Belden (b):

John Lawson (a) says of the North Carolina Indians:

De Brahm, in documents connected with the History of South Carolina (a), reports that the Indians of South Carolina “painted their faces red in token of friendship and black in expression of warlike intentions.”

Rev. M. Eells (a) says of the Twana Indians of the Skokomish reservation that when about to engage in war “they would tamanamus in order to be successful and paint themselves with black and red, making themselves as hideous as possible.”

The U.S. Exploring Expedition (b), referring to a tribe near the Sacramento river, tells that the chief presented them with a tuft of white feathers stuck on a stick about 1 foot long, which was supposed to be a token of friendship.

Dr. Boas, in Am. Anthrop. (b), says of the Snanaimuq that before setting out on war expeditions they painted their faces red and black.

Peter Martyr (b) says of the Ciguaner Indians:

Curr (c) tells that the Australians whitened themselves with white clay when about to engage in war. Some African tribes, according to Du Chaillu, also paint their faces white for war.

Haddon (c) says of the western tribe of Torres straits:

When going to fight the men painted their bodies red, either entirely so or partially, perhaps only the upper portion of the body and the legs below the knees, or the head and upper part of the body only. The body was painted black all over by those who were actually engaged in the death dance.

Du Chaillu (c) tells that among the Scandinavians there were peace and war shields, the former white and the latter red. When the white was hoisted on a ship it was a sign for the cessation of hostility, in the same manner that a flag of the same color is now used to procure or mark a truce. The red shield displayed on a masthead or in the midst of a body of men was the sign of hostility.

COLOR DESIGNATING SOCIAL STATUS.

The following extract is translated, from Peter Martyr (c):

Mr. Dorsey reports of the Osages that all the old men who have been distinguished in war are painted with the decorations of their respective gentes. That of the Tsicu wactake is as follows: The face is first whitened all over with white clay; then a red spot is made on the forehead and the lower part of the face is reddened; then with the fingers the man scrapes off the white clay, forming the dark figures by letting the natural color of the face show through.

H. H. Bancroft (f), citing authorities, says the central Californians (north of San Francisco bay) formerly wore the down of Asclepias (?) (white) as an emblem of royalty; and in the same volume, p. 691, it is told that the natives of Guatemala wore red feathers in their hats, the nobles only wearing green ones.

The notes immediately following are about the significant use of color, not readily divisible into headings.

Belden (c) furnishes the following remarks:

As narrated by H. H. Bancroft, the Los Angeles county Indian girls paint the cheeks sparingly with red ocher when in love. This also prevails among the Arikara, at Fort Berthold, Dakota.

La Potherie (e) says that the Indian girls of a tribe near Hudson bay, when they have arrived at the age of puberty, at the time of its sign, daub themselves with charcoal or a black stone, and in far distant Yucatan, according to Bancroft (h), the young men restricted themselves to black until they were married, indulging afterwards in varied and bright colored figures.

The color green is chiefly used symbolically as that of grass, with reference to which Father De Smet’s MS. on the dance of the Tinton Sioux contains these remarks: “Grass is the emblem of charity and abundance; from it the Indians derive the food for their horses and it fattens the wild animals of the plains, from which they derive their subsistence.”

Brinton (d) gives the following summary:

Marshall (b) gives as the explanation why certain gracious official documents are sealed with green that the color expresses youth, honor, beauty, and especially liberty.

H. M. Stanley (a) gives the following use of white as a sign of innocence: “Qualla drew a piece of pipeclay and marked a broad white band running from the wrist to the shoulder along each arm of Ngalyema, as a sign to all men present that he was guiltless.”

H. Clay Trumbull (a) says:

Mr. Mooney, in the Seventh Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, shows that to the Cherokee the color blue signifies grief or depression of spirits, a curious parallel to the colloquial English phrase “has the blues” and wholly opposite to the poetical symbol of blue for hope.

The notes above collected on the general topic of color symbolism might be indefinitely extended. Those presented, however, are typical and perhaps sufficient for the scope of the present work. In regarding ideography of colors the first object is to expunge from consideration all merely arbitrary or fanciful decorations, which is by no means easy, as ancient customs, even in their decadence or merely traditional, preserve a long influence. But as a generalization it seems that all common colors have been used in historic times for nearly all varieties of ideographic expression by the several divisions of men, and that they have differed fundamentally in the application of those colors. Yet there was an intelligent origin in each one of those applications of color. With regard to mourning the color black is now considered to be that of gloom. It was still earlier expressed by casting ashes or earth over the head and frame, and possibly the somber paint was adopted for cleanliness, the concept being preserved and indeed intensified by durable blackness instead of the mere transient dinginess of dirt, although the actual defilement by the latter is thereby only symbolized. This gloom is the expression of the misery of the survivors, perhaps of their despair as not expecting any happiness to the dead or any hope of a meeting in another world. Other lines of thought are shown by blue, considered as the supposed sky or heavenly home of the future, and by green, as suggesting renewal or resurrection, and those concepts determine the mourning color of some peoples. Red or yellow may only refer to the conceptions of the colors of flames, and therefore might simply be an objective representation of the disposition of the corpse, which very often was by cremation. But sometimes these colors are employed as decoration and display to proclaim that the dead go to glory. White, used as frequently by the populations of the world as other funeral colors, may have been only to assert the purity and innocence of the departed, an anticipation of the flattering obituary notices or epitaphs now conventional in civilized lands.

With regard to the color red, it may be admitted that it originally represents blood; but it may be, and in fact is, used for the contradictory concepts of war and peace. It is used for war as suggesting the blood of the enemy, for peace and friendship to signify the blood relation or blood covenant, the strongest tie of love and friendship.

So it would seem that, while colors have been used ideographically, the ideas which determined them were very diverse and sometimes their application has become wholly conventional and arbitrary. A modern military example may be in point which has no connection with the well-known squib of an English humorist. One of the officers of the U.S. Army of the last generation when traveling in Europe was much disgusted to observe that a green uniform was used in some of the armies for the corps of engineers and for branches of the service other than rifles or tirailleurs. He insisted that the color naturally and necessarily belongs to the Rifles, because the soldiers of that arm when clad with that color were most useful as skirmishers in wooded regions. This reason for the selection of green for the riflemen who composed a part of the early army of the United States is correct, but in the necessity for the distinction of special uniforms for the several component parts of a military establishment, whether in Europe or America, the original and often obsolete application of color was wholly disregarded and colors were selected simply because they were not then appropriated by other branches of the service. So in the late formation of the signal corps of the U.S. Army, the color of orange, which had belonged to the old dragoons, was adopted simply because it was a good color no longer appropriated.

With these changes by abandonment and adoption comes fashion, which has its strong effect. It is even exemplified where least expected, i.e., in Stamboul. Every one knows that the descendants of the Prophet alone are entitled to wear green turbans, but a late Sultan, not being of the blood of Mohammed, could not wear the color, so the emirs who could do so carefully abstained from green in his presence and the color for the time was unfashionable.

As the evolution of clothing commenced with painting and tattooing, it may be admitted that what is now called fashion must have had its effect on the earlier as on the later forms of personal decoration. Granting that there was an ideographic origin to all designs painted on the person, the ambition or vanity of individuals to be distinctive and to excel must soon have introduced varieties and afterward imitations of such patterns, colors, or combinations as favorably struck the local taste. The subject therefore is much confused.

An additional suggestion comes from the study of the Mexican codices. In them color often seems to be used according to the fancy of the scribe. Compare pages 108 and 109 of the Codex Vaticanus, in Kingsborough, Vol. II, with pages 4 and 5 of the Codex Telleriano Remensis, in part 4 of Kingsborough, Vol. I, where the figures and their signification are evidently the same, but the coloration is substantially reversed.

A comparison of Henry R. Schoolcraft’s published coloration with the facts found by the recent examination of the present writer is set forth with detail on page 202, supra.

In his copious illustrations colors were exhibited freely and with stated significance, whereas, in fact, the general rule in regard to the birch-bark rolls is that they were never colored at all; indeed, the bark was not adapted to coloration. His colors were painted on and over the true scratchings, according to his own fancy. The metaphorical coloring was also used by him in a manner which, to any thorough student of the Indian philosophy and religions, seems absurd. Metaphysical significance is attached to some of the colored devices, or, as he calls them, symbols, which could never have been entertained by a people in the stage of culture of the Ojibwa, and those devices, in fact, were ideograms or iconograms.

SECTION 4.
GESTURE AND POSTURE SIGNS DEPICTED.

Among people where a system of ideographic gesture signs has prevailed it would be expected that their form would appear in any mode of pictorial representation used with the object of conveying ideas or recording facts. When a gesture sign had been established and it became necessary or desirable to draw a character or design to convey the same idea, nothing could be more natural than to use the graphic form or delineation which was known and used in the gesture sign. It was but one more step, and an easy one, to fasten upon bark, skins, or rocks the evanescent air pictures of the signs.

In the paper “Sign language among the North American Indians,” published in the First Ann. Rep. of the Bureau of Ethnology, a large number of instances were given of the reproduction of gesture lines in the pictographs made by those Indians, and they appeared to be most frequent when there was an attempt to convey subjective ideas. It was suggested, therefore, that those pictographs which, in the absence of positive knowledge, are the most difficult of interpretation were those to which the study of sign-language might be applied with advantage. The topic is now more fully discussed. Many pictographs in the present work, the meaning of which is definitely known from direct sources, are noted in connection with the gesture-signs corresponding with the same idea, which signs are also understood from independent evidence or legitimate deduction.

Dr. Edkins (c) makes the following remarks regarding the Chinese characters, which are applicable also to the picture-writing of the North American Indians, and indeed to that of all peoples among whom it has been cultivated:

Fig. 983 is a copy of a colored petroglyph on a rock in the valley of Tule river, California, further described on page 52, et seq., supra.

a, a person weeping. The eyes have lines running down to the breast, below the ends of which are three short lines on either side. The arms and hands are in the exact position for making the gesture for rain. See h in Fig. 999, meaning eye-rain, and also Fig. 1002. It was probably the intention of the artist to show that the hands in this gesture should be passed downward over the face, as probably suggested by the short lines upon the lower end of the tears. It is evident that sorrow is portrayed.

b, c, d, six persons apparently making the gesture for “hunger” by passing the hands towards and backward from the sides of the body, suggesting a gnawing sensation. The person, d, shown in a horizontal position, may possibly denote a “dead man,” dead of starvation, this position being adopted by the Ojibwa, Blackfeet, and others as a common device to represent a dead body. The varying lengths of head ornaments denote different degrees of status as warriors or chiefs.

e, f, g, h, i. Human forms of various shapes making gestures for negation, or more specifically “nothing, nothing here,” a natural and universal gesture made by throwing one or both hands outward toward either side of the body. The hands are extended, and, to make the action apparently more emphatic, the extended toes are also shown on e, f, g, and i. The several lines upon the leg of i probably indicate trimmings upon the leggings.

The character at j is strikingly similar to the Alaskan pictographs (see b of Fig. 460), indicating self with the right hand, and the left pointing away, signifying to go.

k. An ornamented head with body and legs. It may refer to a Shaman, the head being similar to the representations of such personages by the Ojibwa and Iroquois.

Similar drawings occur at a distance of about 10 miles southeast of this locality as well as at other places toward the northwest, and it appears probable that the pictograph was made by a portion of a tribe which had advanced for the purpose of selecting a new camping place, but failed to find the quantities of food necessary for sustenance, and therefore erected this notice to inform their followers of their misfortune and determined departure toward the northwest. It is noticeable that the picture is so placed upon the rock that the extended arm of j points toward the north.

The following examples are selected from a large number that could be used to illustrate those gesture signs known to be included in pictographs. Others not referred to in this place may readily be noticed in several parts of the present paper where they appear under other headings.

WATER.

The common Indian gesture for river or stream—water—is made by passing the horizontal flat hand, palm down, forward and to the left from the right side in a serpentine manner.

The Egyptian character for the same is d in Fig. 999, taken from Champollion’s Dictionary (b). The broken line is held to represent the movement of the water on the surface of the stream. When made with one line less angular and more waving it means water. It is interesting to compare with this the identical character in the syllabary invented by a West African negro, Mormoru Doalu Bukere, for water, e, in Fig. 999, mentioned by Dr. Tylor (b).

The abbreviated Egyptian sign for water as a stream is f, in Fig. 999, taken from Champollion, loc. cit., and the Chinese for the same is as in g, same figure.

In the picture writing of the Ojibwa the Egyptian abbreviated character, with two lines instead of three, appears with the same signification.

CHILD.

The Arapaho sign for child, baby, is the forefinger in the mouth, i.e., a nursing child, and a natural sign of a deaf-mute is the same. The Egyptian figurative character for the same is seen in Fig. 1004 a. Its linear form is b, same figure, and its hieratic is c, Champollion (c).

These afford an interpretation to the ancient Chinese form for son, d in same figure, given in Journ. Royal Asiatic Society, I, 1834, p. 219, as belonging to the Shang dynasty, 1756-1112 B.C., and the modern Chinese form, e, which, without the comparison, would not be supposed to have any pictured reference to an infant with hand or finger at or approaching the mouth, denoting the taking of nourishment. Having now suggested this, the Chinese character for birth, f in same figure, is understood as a parallel expression of a common gesture among the Indians, particularly reported from the Dakota, for born, to be born; viz, place the left hand in front of the body a little to the right, the palm, downward and slightly arched, then pass the extended right hand downward, forward, and upward, forming a short curve underneath the left, as in Fig. 1005 a. This is based upon the curve followed by the head of the child during birth, and is used generically. The same curve, when made with one hand, appears in Fig. 1005 b.

It may be of interest to compare with the Chinese child the Mexican abbreviated character for man, Fig. 1004 g, found in Pipart (c). The character on the right is called the abbreviated form of the one by its side.

The Chinese character for man is Fig. 1004 h, and may have the same obvious conception as a Dakota sign for the same signification: “Place the extended index pointing upward and forward before the lower portion of the abdomen.”

A typical sign made by the Indians for no, negation, is as follows:

The hand extended or slightly curved is held in front of the body, a little to the right of the median line; it is then carried with a rapid sweep a foot or more farther to the right.

The sign for none, nothing, sometimes used for simple negation, is made by throwing both hands outward from the breast toward their respective sides.

With these compare the two forms of the Egyptian character for no, negation, the two upper characters of Fig. 1006 taken from Champollion (d). No vivid fancy is needed to see the hands indicated at the extremities of arms extended symmetrically from the body on each side.

Also compare the Maya character for the same idea of negation, the lowest character of Fig. 1006, found in Landa (a). The Maya word for negation is “ma,” and the word “mak,” a six-foot measuring rod, given by Brasseur de Bourbourg in his dictionary, apparently having connection with this character, would in use separate the hands as illustrated, giving the same form as the gesture made without the rod.

Another sign for nothing, none, made by the Comanche is: Flat hand thrown forward, back to the ground, fingers pointing forward and downward. Frequently the right hand is brushed over the left thus thrown out.

Compare the Chinese character for the same meaning, the upper character of Fig. 1007. This will not be recognized as a hand without study of similar characters, which generally have a cross-line cutting off the wrist. Here the wrist bones follow under the crosscut, then the metacarpal bones, and last the fingers, pointing forward and downward.

Leon de Rosny (a) gives the second and third characters in Fig. 1007 as the Babylonian glyphs for “hand,” the upper being the later and the lower the archaic form.