■■?f.1i W- J-HOFFMAN BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME PROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg W. Sag* 1S91 A>//JJSS. ^^/ySsS- 1924 101 157 521 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9241 01 1 57521 J-'ti-i^ An OJibwa scribe. Zlie Hntbropological Seriee EDITED BY PROFESSOR FREDERICK STARR OP THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THE BEGII^I^IE"GS OF WRITIIifG The Anthropological Series. Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. By Otis Tufton Mason, A. M., Ph. D. ** Professor Mason tells the stoiy of woman's work most interestingly, and his volume is a noble tribute to women." — Boston Advertiser, • " Mr. Mason's volume secures for woman her glory as a civilizer in the past, and by no means denies her a glori- ous future." — N. Y. Tribune. The Pygmies. By A. de Quatrefages. Translated by Prof. Frederick Starr. The Beginnings of Writing. By W. J. Hoffman, M. D. IN PREPARATION. The South Sea Islanders. By Dr. SCHMELTZ. The Zuni. By Frank Hamilton Gush- ing. The Aztecs. By Mrs. Zelia Nuttall. New York ; D. Al'PLETON & Cn., 72 Fifth Avenue. THE BEGI^OTNGS OF WRITING BY WALTEE JAMES HOFFMAN, M. D. OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGT, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Pkof. FREDERICK STARR NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1895 Copyright, 1895, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. Blectrottpkd and Printed AT THE ApPLKTON PrESS, U. S. A. EDITOR'S mTRODUCTION. 'No single achievement of man is more im- portant than the art of writing. The problem presented was, How may the thought of to-day be carried over to to-morrow ; how may knowl- edge of the deeds of the present be transmitted to coming generations in visible, comprehensible form ? Primitive man began to solve the prob- lem. At first he used tangible reminders, like quipus and wampum belts. Picture writing was developed with pictures, part pictures, and symbols to represent ideas. No matter how highly developed, the characters in pictography are always ideograms — representations of ideas. Later, the character, which had been a picture representing an idea, became a phonogram rep- resenting a sound. Phonograms may represent whole words, syllables, or the simplest sound (V) vi BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. elements. Sucli as represent simple sound ele- ments may be called letters, and a series of these representing all the simple sounds of any language is an alphabet. From reminders, through picture writing, to phonetic writing with an alphabet, sijch is the course of the development. Dr. Hoffman, in The Beginnings of Writing, presents the first steps in this development, especially as they are shown among North American tribes. Our native peoples made much use of reminders ; they drew truly ex- pressive pictures ; they developed complicated systems of pictography, adequate even to the writing of real books ; some peoples of Mexico and Central America were passing from the use of ideograms to phonograms. This transition period is most interesting to the student. Our author is peculiarly qualified for writing this book. He is one of the most enthusiastic and successful workers in American ethnology. Born in 1846, in Pennsylvania, he became a prac- tising physician there in 1866. In 1870 he went to Europe as surgeon of the Prussian army in EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. yii the Franco-Prussian War. Returning to this country, he accompanied Lieutenant Wheeler's expedition into Nevada and Arizona in 1871. In 1872 he was surgeon at a Dakota post, where he was able to study Siouan life. Later, in con- nection with Professor Hayden's Survey and in the Bureau of Ethnology, he continued field work and study among our Indian tribes. With indefatigable zeal and energy he has made in- vestigations into American linguistics, pictogra- phy, and religions, and has published a number of important contributions to our knowledge in these directions. Much of the materials used by Colonel Mallery in his reports on pictography were collected by Dr. HoflEman. From such a worker we are justified in expecting a valuable and interesting work. CONTENTS. CHAPTS6 PAOB I. — Pictography 1 II. — PlCTOOEAPHS ON StONE — GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBU- TION : 1. United Stittes and Canada 7 2. Mexico and Central America 16 3. South America 17 4. Canary Islands and Africa 18 5. Asia and Europe . 20 III. — PiCTOGEAPHS ON MATERIALS OTHER THAN STONE : 1. Ivory, bone, and shell 23 3. Birch bark, wood, and native paper . . .25 a. Birch-bark records of the Ojibwa . . .25 b. Wooden tablets of the Easter Islands . 39 c. Maguay paper of the Maya and Nahuatl . . 30 d. Papyrus of the Egyptians 33 3. Skins and textile fabrics 34 4. Tattooing 36 5. Quipus 40 6. Notched sticks 41 IV. — Interpretation of Pictographs: 1. Ideography 42 a. Metonymy 45 i. Synecdoche 47 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE c. Metaphor 49 d. Enigma 50 3. Abstract ideas 50 V. — Symbols 55 1. Time symbols 56 3. Totemio and tribal designations and marks of per- sonal distinction 63 3. Mystic or sacred attributes 74 4. Proper names 83 a. Personal 85 b. Geographic 89 5. Personal exploits 93 VI. — Gesture Signs and Attitudes 98 Speech 110 Singing 114 Sight 117 Hearing 120 Eating . . 121 Negation 132 To kill— dead 125 Fire, flame, smoke 127 Lighting 130 VII. — Mnemonic Signs : 1. Signification of colours 132 3. Quipus or knotted strings 136 3. Notched sticks 140 VIII. — Growth of Conventional Signs . . . 145 IX. — Comparisons I54 X. — Phonograms I73 1. Syllabaries 178 3. Alphabets 192 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. PULL-PAGE PLATES. I. An Ojibwa scribe II. Hidatsa dancers, bearing marks of valour III. Mexican pictographio writing . IV. Cherokee " Alphabet " . . . . PACING PAGE Frontispiece. 73 176 179 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. pro. PAGE 1. Inscription on Dighton Rock, Mass. . . 8 2. Pictograph at Tule Reservation, California . 14 3. Etching on Innuit drill bow 23 4. Hidatsa pictograph on the shoulder-blade of a bison . 22 5 Mnemonic song of an Ojibwa medicine-m: 6." .Earning, New Mexico m . . .26 . 45 7. Combat (Dakota) .... . 46 8. Writing (Egyptian) . 46 9. Horse (Arikara) . . . 47 10. Sign for pipe . 51 11. Meat stored in a pit . . 51 13. Character denoting pain . 53 13. Snow 58 14. December (Maya) .... . 59 15. One month . 60 16. Morning . 61 17. Morning . 63 xii BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. FlO. PAGE 18. Night (Egyptian) 63 19. Night (Mexican) .63 30. Hunter's grave-post 64 31. Ojibwa love letter 66 33. Arikara 68 33. Assiniboine. . . . . . 68 34. Crows (liilled) 68 35. Mark of distinction . . 71 36. Mark of distinction 73 37. Mark of distinction .73 38. Magic power of transportation 75 39. Feast given by medicine-man 76 30. Charmed arrow . 76 31. Sacred otter . . 77 33. Bear manido . .... . . 77 33. Arm raised in invocation 78 34. Herbalist . . 79 35. God of medicine, Easter Islands 79 36. Easter Island god and goddess 81 37. A Mexican scribe . , .... 81 38. "Old Mexican" 84 39. " Running Antelope " 85 40. " Red Cloud " 85 41. Coatlichan 86 43. Coatlichan, variant 87 43. "Snake-foot" 87 44. Snake-foot, variant 87 45. Itzcoatl, variants 87 46. Itzcoatl 88 47. Nezahualcoyotl 88 48. Colhuacan 90 49. Chapiiltepeo 00 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii FIQ. PAGE 50. Texeoco 91 51. Tepetlaoztoc 91 52. Libya, hieroglyphic 93 53. Wabeno destroying an enemy 93 54. Ojibwa hunting record . .... 95 55. Hittite inscription at Hamath 103 56. Alaskan hunting record 103 57. Record of departure (Innuit) . . . 105 58. Nothing to eat (Innuit) . . . . . 106 59. Supplication (Ojibwa) 107 60. Supplication (Egyptian) 108 61. Chapolin (Mexican) 109 63. Mexican illustration of time, speech, etc. . . . 113 63. Deities communicating with shamans .... 113 64. Conversation between two shamans . . . .118 65. Conversation (Ojibwa) ... ... 114 66. Singing (Ojibwa) . 114 67. Frog croaking (Ojibwa) 115 68. Singing Eagle (Mexican proper name) .... 115 69. Singing (Mexican) " 116 70. Searching Cloud (Dakota) 117 71. Seeing (Mexican) 117 73. "Out of hearing "(Dakota) .... .130 73. Eating (Easter Islands) 133 74. Eating (Mexican) 132 75. Drink (Mexican) 133 76. Negation (Maya) 133 77. Negation (Egyptian) 134 78. "On the left "(Egyptian) 134 79. Innuit votive ofEering 135 80. Fire jugglers (Ojibwa) 137 81. "White Boar of Fire "(an Ojibwa deity) . . . .138 xiv BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Fia. PAGE 83. Making fire (Mexican) 129 83. Lightning 131 84. Innuit seal hunters 146 85. Man (Innuit) 146 86. Various types of human form 146 87. Signs for negation 147 88. Negation (Moki) 148 89. Man and woman — dead (Ojibwa) ... . 148 90. Woman (Dakota) 149 91. The goddess Tanit 149 93. The goddess Tanit, variant 149 93. Man {Egyptian) 151 94. Sun (Ojibwa) . 153 95. Sun (Moki) 153 96. Travelling (Ojibwa) 154 97. Footprints of the bear 155 98. Travelling age . . . 155 99. Chief 156 100. Water (Moki) . 156 101. Water (Mexican) 157 103. Water (Egyptian) . 157 103. Cross and beans, for playing game (Mexican) . . 158 104. Travelling on foot and by boat (Mexican) . . . 159 105. Water (Egyptian) 159 106. Clouds and rain . . 160 107. Clouds and rain 160 108. Earthquake . 163 109. Feast (Ojibwa) 165 110. Cultivated ground (Mexican) . . ... 168 111. Hetur, "the house of the aged one" .... 169 113. Pictographic title of Latin Paternoster (Mexican) . . 174 113. Hittite and Cypriote characters 187 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. CHAPTER I. PICTOGEAPHY. It is more than probable that primitive man, in attempting to record and transmit graph- ically his thoughts, selected for pictorial de- lineation such objects within his environment as were most frequently encountered in his struggle for existence. The simple representa- tion of animals or birds would thus be made to indicate success in hunting ; or, depicted upon a conspicuous rock, notify others that game so indicated was to be found in that locality. In time, by extending his art, he in- troduced objects of actual or imaginary form ; such as relate to the celestial bodies, mythic beings, atmospheric and terrestrial phenomena, 2 1 2 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. demons of disease, and the deities that produce the rain, snow, and the seasons. Having attained this stage in the objective representation of ideas, some of the characters depicted were made so as to represent motion, condition, or special attributes, and the at- tempted reproduction of gesture signs still fur- ther aided in the suggestion of subjective ideas. The next advancement appears in the form of rebus or image-writing (designated by Dr. Brinton as ikonomatic), in which several objects were combined, the initial or individual sound of each of which was made to suggest a com- plete word of itself, and perhaps in no wise having special relation to either of the compo- nent elements of which it consisted. After es- tablishing a phonetic system, the characters by further conventionalising became phonograms or letters. In the light of recent investigation it seems but a short stride in passing from the rudely drawn object to the finished alphabetic char- acter, but the interval of time taken for the transformation is immense. At the dawn of PICTOGRAPHY. 3 history Egypt was already possessed of a sys- tematic MeroglypMc system, and it was only during the Shang dynasty that the Chinese still had recourse to objective delineation sufficient to show the origin of some of their more modern characters. Recent philologic research proves that the origin of various Oriental characters and alphabets must be sought in the primitive objective forms from which they were evolved. It has been affirmed that the discovery and adaptation of alphabetic writing was the period of transition from barbarism to civilisation. This is specially true as pertains to a people by whom such advancement was made independently, and without undue influence from more cultured neighbours. As various nations and tribes pass through practically similar stages of intellectual development, however remote from and inde- pendent of one another, it is to be perceived that the several stages of the pictorial, syllabic, and alphabetic representations of thought and sound were not contemporaneous, but were de- veloped in different portions of the world at various periods of time. 4 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Even ia America, wMcli presents tlie most' interesting field for the scientific investigation of pictography, and where different systems pre- vailed among various tribes, it is diflBcult to conceive what degree of advancement might or might not have been attained during the inter- val of time that has elapsed since the arrival of the first European conquerors up to the present day. The wholesale destruction, by fanatics, of Mexican records, is well known ; and it is now extremely difficult to obtain assistance from the natives in attempting interpretations of the few remaining pictorial codices and other records, although specialists in Mexican literature are making gratifying progress in that direction, and from their researches it is ascertained that much of the history is becoming more and more intelligible. It is found, too, that ikonomatic writing prevailed to great extent, particularly as relates to personal and geographic names. Much of the literature pertains to chronology and cult practices, in both of which symbolism was extensively resorted to. Among the Mayas of Yucatan, a people PICTOGRAPHY. 5 whose literature shared a fate similar to that of their neighbours, evidence of phoneticism has been detected ; but as only four of their books are available in printed form, scholars have had but slight opportunity for careful research, and for determining to what extent this prevailed. Picture writing, which survives among some of the Indian tribes north of Mexico, presents several typical forms of development. Several reasons may be assigned for this, foremost among which is varying artistic ability ; next, the subject of the record, whether relating to the chase or to social cnstoms in which zoomor- phic or other familiar forms predominate ; then, again, to medico-religious practices, as portrayed by members of cult societies ; lastly, fidelity of reproduction of the object intended, is frequent- ly limited or modified by the nature of the ma- terials used. A comparison of pictographs apparently an- tedating historic times (or such as are now unin- telligible to the modern Indians within whose territory they may occur) presents similar dif- ferences in graphic execution, and the class of 6 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. subjects portrayed, as do those of more recent date. The numbers and general resemblance of various characters in pictographs within certain areas are often sufficiently persistent to suggest the existence of a type of artistic execution, which type, in several instances, is found to survive even at the present day. By such means we are enabled to trace, with a certain degree of accuracy, the pictorial relationship between the old records and those of modern times ; and con- sequently the linguistic family, of which the supposed authors of the former were tribal members. The geographical distribution of such types assists us, furthermore, in identify- ing to a certain extent the former distribution of linguistic stocks or families, over areas now unoccupied by tribes belonging to those families. Such remains are found generally upon rocks, the enduring qualities of the stone being better able to withstand the effects of time ; although at present we find pictographs of ancient date which are recorded on materials of a nature readily liable to destruction or decay. CHAPTER IL pict0geaph8 on stone— geographical disteibution. United States and Canada. In presenting a brief resume of the better- known petroglyphs in America and in foreign localities, it has been deemed appropriate to in- clude therewith painted records on stone, as such naturally come under the general desig- nation of pictographs. Throughout the area of country formerly oc- cupied by the various tribes constituting the Algonkian linguistic family — extending from Hudson Bay to South Carolina, and from Nova Scotia to the Rocky Mountains — are numerous petroglyphs presenting similarities sufficient to suggest pictorial relationship. As these repe- titions of design occur within the so-called Al- gonkin area, and are conspicuously absent in 7 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. other areas, this type of artistic delineation may be designated the Algonkian type. The northernmost examples occur in Nova Scotia ; and, apart from several unimportant locali- ties southeastward, the next and perhaps best - known petro- glyph, known as Dighton Rock, is that in the Taunton River, near the town of Dighton, Massa- chusetts. The large boulder upon which the petroglyphs were depicted is but a short distance from the shore, but, owing to gradual erosion PICTOGRAPHS ON STONE. 9 and the brushing off of mud. and sand by visit- ors, the figures are becoming indistinct (Fig. 1). This was at one time firmly believed to have been the work of the Northmen,* and a large number of illustrations have been published at various times ; the most interesting collection, however, being that in Eafn's Antiquitates Americanse, of which the oldest copy bears the date of 1680 ; this was made by Dr. Danforth. Cotton Mather furnished the next drawing, but there is scarcely any resemblance between the two. Dr. Greenwood's copy of 1730 is difllerent from either of the preceding. In 1768 Mr. Ste- phen Sewell made a drawing of the record, which was followed twenty years later by an- other made by James Winthrop. Since then, at various intervals, drawings have been made and published, but an examination of the en- tire series clearly indicates that in some in- stances there was either careless drawing or * The stone had been the property of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, but was recently presented by that body to the authorities of Taunton, Mass.— Personal letters from Count de Sponneck, Danish minister at Washington, D. C. 10 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. the work of persons not possessed of artistic ability. An interesting petroglyph, now rapidly going to destruction, is tliat locally known as the "In- dian God Rock." The sculpturings are upon the face of an immense boulder on the bank of the Alleghany River, seven miles south of Franklin, Pa. Among the finest examples of deep sculpturing are those in the Susquehanna River, near Conovsdngo, Md. The figures, as well as all of the preceding, resemble the Algon- kian type, and are unusually deep, being from three fourths to one and a fourth inch in depth, and present a polished, smooth surface, as if finished by rubbing with fine sand, after the sculptured portions had been completed. The boulders upon which the petroglyphs occur are in a shallow part of the river, and may have been on the route of an ancient aboriginal crossing. Farther up the river, at Safe Harbor, Pa., is another series of petroglyphs of a more dis- tinctly Algonkian type, resembling, in fact, characters found among the birch-bark records PICTOGRAPHS ON STONE. H of living Ojibwa Indians. The principal mark- ings consist of footprints of the deer, turkey, bear, and outlines of men and birds, cMef among which is the eagle, though drawn to represent the Algonkian deity the Thunder-bird. These boulders are located in a portion of the river which was until recently the head waters for the resort of shad ; and as the petroglyphs partake rather of a hunting record, it is probable that the Indians formerly congregated at this point to fish ; this belief is further strengthened by the fact that the river at this point would be most unsuitable for crossing. Petroglyphs of similar type occur also throughout the Alleghany Mountains as far south as the Kanawha River, but beyond that point are found painted records of another type. It is worthy of note, that in nearly every instance where Algonkian petroglyphs occur they are inscribed upon rocks and boulders low down on the shore of water courses, and even upon rocks situated in the water ; whereas the coloured pictographs of the southern Atlantic are generally upon high or conspicuous cliffs 12 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. or rocks, where in some instances they may be observed at a great distance. The local char- acter of the country, in the latter area, may be the primary reason for the selection of such sites. Other Algonkian petroglyphs occur quite abundantly throughout Ohio, and at intervals towards the west and northwest, as far as the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming ; those in the latter region having been identified as the work of the Blackfeet Indians, although this tribe has been for a long time located in Mon- tana. Prom the Rio Grande River, in New Mexico, westward to the Pacific Ocean, and northward throughout the several States as far as Idaho, one finds great numbers of sculptured and painted records of the highest interest. Many of those in New Mexico and Arizona are appar- ently the work of the Shinumo Indians ; but the greater number, covering the cliffs and walls of the tributary canons of the Colorado River, ap- pear much older, and are unrecognisable to the Indians of the present day. PICTOGRAPHS ON STONE. 13 In California, on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, and at several localities in the Santa Ynez Mountains, near Santa Barbara, are various coloured pictographs of apparently dif- ferent periods of time ; but among the latter are some that have been made since the ar- rival of Europeans, as is indicated by the por- trayal of the figure of a horse carrying a bale of goods. At the Tale Indian Reservation, among the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, occurs what is without doubt the largest and most interesting painted record yet found (Fig. 2). The chief interest lies in the fact that quite a number of the outlines of human figures are de- picted either in the act of making gesture signs, or in expressive postures, which give us an in- terpretation of the subject, as intended by the authors. This record will be more fully de- scribed and analysed in another chapter. In Owen's Valley, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, scattered over a sandy, arid desert for a distance of thirty miles, are numer- ous petroglyphs upon immense basaltic boul- li BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. ders. The characters consist chiefly of circles, concentric rings, dumb-bell-shaped figures, and circles with almost every variety of interior £=--. « PICTOGRAPHS ON STONE. I5 decoration, resembling figures found in tlie country of tlie Shinumo (Moqui) and Tusayan Indians, where they are usually drawn to desig- nate dancing masks. Animal forms and foot- prints also occur, similar in many respects to those found among the petroglyphs occurring in New Mexico, Nevada, and Idaho. This group of petroglyphs is the most elab- orately sculptured of any yet examined or re- ported within the United States. The figures, as a rule, appear as if cut out by means of a gouge, and have a depth of from half an inch to one and a half inch, with corresponding width, the surfaces smooth, appearing to have been rubbed with fine sand. The Indians now occupying the adjacent less arid regions pretend to know nothing of the his- tory or import of the petroglyphs, nor of the people who made them ; but as they are located within the area occupied by Shoshonian tribes (and because some tribes of this linguistic fam- ily continue the art of delineation of various fig- ures in textile fabrics and on pottery, similar to some of those among the petroglyphs), the group 16 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. has, for convenience, been classed with the Sho- shonian type. On the coast of southeastern Alaska are a few pecked records on stone, which indicate the outline of animate forms, such as occur among the slate and wood carvings of the Tshilkat and Haida Indians. These petroglyphs are without doubt of recent workmanship, and are the only ones thus far reported from that region. Mexico and Central America. But few petroglyphs have been reported from Mexico and Central America. Coloured pictographs, upon the interior walls of temples, are mentioned as having been found in Yuca- tan, and these will be referred to in connection with the codices — the religious and chronologic records on maguey paper. Dr. Bransford* furnishes some illustrations of sculpturings in Nicaragua, representing ani- mal forms, while mention is made, also, of * ArohsBological Researches in Nicaragua, Smitlisonian Con- tributions to Knowledge, No. 383, Washington, 1883. PICTOGRAPHS ON STONE. 17 petroglyphs, on the Isthmus, which resemble those of British Guiana.* South Ameeica. The sculpturings described from British Guiana are generally found along water courses, and are supposed to have aided travellers in se- lecting proper channels. They consist chiefly of human heads and faces, some with lines radi- ating therefrom ; outlines of what appear to be monkeys, rings, and concentric circles. Many of the latter appear very similar to some found in the Shoshonian area of the United States, as well as to the petroglyphs of the Canary Islands. Dr. Ladislau Netto, of Rio de Janeiro, pre- sents numerous illustrations of petroglyphs found in Brazil, f some bearing evidence of hav- ing been sculptured since the advent of Euro- peans. An attempted interpretation is given, * Everhard F. im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, Lon- don, 1883. f InvestigagSes sobre a Archeologia Brazileira. In Arohivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, vi, 1885. 3 18 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. and comparisons made between some figures and conventionalised forms of tlie human face as found upon ancient pottery. Canary Islands and Africa. A great number of petroglypbs found in the Canary Islands * are of peculiar interest be- cause of their resemblance to many of those in Owen's Yalley, California. The coincidence of the frequent reproduction of types is remark- able. The prevailing forms consist of every variety of combination of circles and concentric rings ; interior divisions of circles by various arrangements of straight and zigzag lines ; and various dumb-bell forms, etc. In the desert portion of southern Algeria, at Tyout and Moghar, one finds a number of glyphs representing men and animals ; f and in the southern portion of Africa, in the country of the Hottentots and Bushmen, are found a num- * S. Berthelot, in Bulletin de la Sooiete de Geographie de Paris, sixieme ser., ix, 1875. f Revue Geographique Internationale, Paris, 1884. PICTOGRAPHS ON STONE. 19 ber of coloured pictographs, representing hunt- ing scenes.* The monumental hieroglyphics of Egypt de- mand notice, not only because that system is one of the oldest, but because it is one of the most elaborate and advanced. The glyphs, made in intaglio, relievo, and intaglio-relievo, were divided into two classes, pure and linear ; the former being a pure and distinct objective portrayal, the latter a reduction of the former, so that although there is some abbreviation and conventionalising, still not sufficient to lose entirely the character of its prototype. The hieroglyphs are arranged in vertical columns and horizontal lines — from left to right, right to left — beginning from that direction towards which the heads of the animals are pointed. Exceptions occur, however. The earliest inscription extant was erected by Sent, "a king of the second dynasty, to the memory of Shera, who appears to have been * Richard Andree in Mittheilungen der Anthropologisohen Gesellschaft in Wien, xvii, 1887. Bmil Holub, Journal Anthro- pological Institute Great Britain and Ireland, x, London, 1880. 20 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. his grandson. According to M. Mariette, King Sent must have lived about the year 4700 B. c." [Brugsch places the date about 4000 a. c.J, and it is shown by Dr. Taylor * that even this record of sixty or seventy centuries ago presents conclusive evidence that " hieroglyphic writing was already an ancient graphic system, with long ages of previous development stretching out behind it, into a distant past of almost in- conceivable remoteness." The last monumental hieroglyphic date, ac- cording to Griiddon, was recorded A. d. 216. Hieroglyphic writing occurs also upon papy- rus and linen, but of this particular mention will be made elsewhere. Asia and Eueope. Strahlenberg reported petroglyphs from the Yenisei River, Siberia, f and numerous refer- ences are made by various travellers and au- * Isaac Taylor, Hist, of Alphabets, i, London, 1883, 56, 57. f Philip John von Strahlenberg, An Historico-Geographical Description of Russia, Siberia, and Great Tartary, London, 1738, 3 vols. 4to. PICTOGRAPHS ON STONE. 21 thors to sculpturings occurring in Scandinavia, Scotland, and the north of England, Spain, and some of the mountain portions of central Eu- rope. The Hittite hieroglyphs found on stones at Hamath, at Aleppo, and on monuments in vari- ous parts of Asia Minor and Syria, present characters in which an affinity to the Cypriote syllabary is discovered. The Hittite glyphs consist of the portrayal of various animate and inanimate forms, and are arranged, like the early Greek, to read from right to left, left to right, and the words read vertically in syllables in the line. The lines are read from that side towards which the faces are directed. The Hittite characters are explained, in part, by the Cypriote syllabic characters, and, accord- ing to Major Conder, there are even some simi- larities in the primitive forms of the Chinese.* * Journal of Transactions of the Victoria Institute, xxiv. CHAPTER III. PICTOGEAPHS ON MATEEIALS OTHER THAN STONE. Ivory, Bone, and Shell. The Innuit, or Eskimo, of Alaska, prepare pieces of walrus ivory for drill bows, upon the smooth sides of which they incise various char- acters, representing habitations, men, animals, fish, and other forms, in order to present graphically hunting expeditions and various social and religious practices. These characters are generally small, but they evince a degree of artistic execution not surpg,psed by any of tlie tribes of Indians north of Mexico. The inci- sions are made by means of a sharp-pointed piece of iron or steel, the lines frequently being stained by having some dark substance rubbed into them, thus leaving them coloured so as to 23 PICTOGRAPnS OX IVORY, BONE, AND SHELL. 03 resemble rude etchings— by which name they are here designated. Fig. 3 represents a por- tion of an Innuit drill bow, the explanation of the characters upon which will be given further on. Pieces of bone are sometimes so utilised, but probably only when ivory is not to be had. Fio. 3.— Etching on Innuit Drill Bow. The most interesting fact in connection with these etchings is the frequent evidence of at- tempts made at the reproduction of gesture signs, clearly indicating ideas which it would be impossible to record otherwise. In this manner the interpretation of many of the etchings be- comes intelligible, even without the assistance of the author's explanation. The only noteworthy example of the use of bone by the prairie tribes of Indians is that in which pictographs are drawn upon the shoulder-blades of the buffalo and other large animals. This is done chiefly when Indians 24 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. are on the hunt, and wish to leave for others of their band some intimation of the course of travel. The illustration in Fig. 4 is a repro- duction of a Hidatsa dravsring made to intimate to others the object of a hunting trip and of its result. The expla- nation of the charac- ters is given in con- nection with speech, under the caption of ' ' Gesture Signs and Attitudes." The use of shell, in the manufacture of wampum is well known. Wampum records are purely Fig. 4.-Hidatsa pictograph on a mnemouic, and Were Buffalo Shoulder-blade. used at treaties and tribal councils. Shells were used also in the manufacture of gorgets, or breast ornaments ; the most elaborate examples being found in the mounds of the lower Mississippi Val- V ^ MiJ H It ^ PICTOGRAPHS ON BIRCH-BARK RECORDS. 25 ley. Some of the carved shells from this region resemble Mexican workmanship. An- other interesting example of shell work is the ornamented buckskin mantle supposed to have been the property of Powhatan. The designs upon the skin are composed of small shells, secured by means of fibre or sinew. Birch-Baek Records. Exclusive of the Maya and Nahuatl codices, the most interesting pictographic records in America are those of the Ojibwa Indians. Some of these birch-bark scrolls are claimed to have been in their possession since their tribal disin- tegration at La Pointe, Minn., several centuries ago ; certain it is that the language employed (in the interpretation of the mnemonic and other characters upon the records) is of an archaic form, and is not entirely intelligible either to the modern Indian or to the shamans professing ac- qiiaintance therewith. The practice of recording mnemonic charac- ters, and of making various records connected with cult ceremonies, war, love, and hunting. 26 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. has not been entirely discontinued. Of the sev- eral varieties of records made, nearly all are the work of members of cult societies. The largest specimens are made by securing together an in- definite number of pieces of bark. These speci- mens pertain to the Ojibwa cosmogony and gene- sis of mankind as well as to the several degrees of the so-called "Grand Medicine Society." The next in importance are the mnemonic songs used by the priests or shamans at ceremonials, incan- tations, the exorcism of demons, and at the ini- tiation of new members into the above-named so- Fig. 5.— Mnemonic Song of an Ojibwa Medicine-man. ciety. The other classes, as already intimated, relate to war, hunting, and love. Fig. 5 is a reproduction of the type of characters employed in mnemonic songs, and incised upon birch bark. PICTOGRAPHS ON BIRCH-BARK RECORDS. 27 (See explanation and interpretation on later page.) The mnemonic songs present the most inter- esting pictographs, and evince the highest de- gree of graphic skill attained by the Ojibwa. Almost every form of simple or complex ideo- grams is here portrayed, presenting types of simple objective delineation as well as abstract ideas and various attributes, thought to be al- most beyond the range of portrayal, v^ithout the aid of a more advanced method of writing. The most curious fact, however, and one of the high- est value in the study and interpretation of these pictographs, is the evidence of the use of what may (for want of a more appropriate designa- tion) be termed determinatives. In the Egyp- tian and other Oriental systems both ideograms and phoQograms were used simultaneously, and the need of determinatives became necessary in connection with certain classes of words. The Ojibwa, however, had at no time reached that advancement in the graphic art ; and these char- acters, taking the part of determinatives, are found thus far to have been employed only in 28 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. designating objects pertaining to spiritual, su- pernatural, and medical attributes and powers. This was the beginning of a new departure in pictography, and it is but reasonable to presume that, had it not been arrested by contact with civilisation, it might soon have become more highly evolved, and finally reached the phonetic stage. Of great interest also is the frequent occur- rence of the portrayal of the human figure in the attitude of making gesture signs, in which re- spect there is also considerable resemblance to many of the characters of the Egyptians and to the ancient Chinese. Birch bark is used for writing also in Cash- mere, as has been abundantly observed by the Oriental traveller Mr. F. Jagor,* who has ob- served also in India and elsewhere the use of palm and other similar leaves. The usual method is to inscribe the characters with a finely pointed style of steel or other hard substance ; * Remarks made to the present writer during a recent conver- sation with Mr. Jagor. PICTOGRAPHS ON WOODEN TABLETS. 29 the writing is afterwards rubbed over with a com- position of grease and powdered charcoal, simi- lar to rubbing the ink upon an engraved plate. By this means the indentations become distinctly visible. Wooden Tablets op the Easter Islands AND OP Egypt. The natives of the Easter Islands were pos- sessed of a system of elaborate picture writing. Pieces of hard wood from four to six inches in length and half as broad were prepared by making parallel shallow grooves, in which the delicate outlines of human figures, animate forms, and plants were incised. The ridges be- tween the grooves prevented the figures from becoming defaced by friction. The most inter- esting point in connection with these records is, that the initial character is at the lower left-hand corner, the succeeding ones running towards the right side, at the end of which the specimen must be turned upside down, and the reading continued until the end is reached, when the record is again held as at the beginning. This, 30 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. then, is in the style of the ancient Greek hou- strophedon. Wooden tablets were used by the ancient Egyptians, inscriptions being made by means of black and red colours ; but such remains are of rare occurrence on account of the destructibility of the material. Maguey Paper of the Maya and Kahuatl. The pictorial records or codices of Yucatan and Mexico were drawn upon fibrous paper, made from the leaves of the maguey plant. As already stated, but four of the known Maya codices have been published. The Mexican ma- terial is more extensive, and the records are ac- cessible to the student. The books of the Mayas were upon paper made of vegetable fibre and doubled into folds, the writing running from side to side as they were folded. These folds were enclosed in broad covers, which were some- times decorated. It is a recognised fact that the ancient Mexi- cans had advanced beyond the mere portrayal of objects, and that apart from making portions of PICTOGRAPHS ON MAGUEY PAPER. 31 their records intelligible (by the attempted re- production of gesture signs and pantomime), evi- dence of a system of writing is recognised which stands apparently between the ideographic and purely phonetic systems. This system is desig- nated by Dr. Brinton as ikonomatic, or "image writing." In this the objects employed to repre- sent a complex word or character, each furnishes its first syllable, or more, to suggest the sound required for the complex character, and may have no other relation to the general result. Some of the codices present interesting pic- torial histories of industries, social customs, pur- suits, vocations, and military rank and achieve- ments. Some of the exploits and achievements are indicated in a rude, heraldic manner, similar to that of the Indians, and to some of the Eu- ropean natives of early historic times. In the interpretation of these figures, colours play an important part ; and it is suggested by Dr. Brinton* that phonetic values may be as- signed to them, and in this respect the ikono- * Essays of an Americanist, Philadelphia, 1890, p. 223. 32 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. matic writing of the Mexicans is peculiar, al- though, while resembling the Egyptian in the fact of its being polychromatic, the Egyptian polychromes do not have a phonetic value, but are used as determinatives. In many of the pictures the native artist at- tempted simply to reproduce, as nearly as pos- sible, the colour of the object represented : thus, water was in blue ; deep water sometimes both blue and green in combination, green indicating greater depth ; mountains brown or green, and vegetation green. The pictographic characters are usually drawn in black outline, subsequent to which the other colours were applied. Papykxis of the Egyptians. It has been suggested that in Egypt the use of linen for writing purposes antedated the use of papyrus. Cloth having once become an arti- cle of wearing apparel, it was soon also employed to wrap the dead, and upon such mummy cover- ings numerous ancient remains of hieroglyphic writing have been discovered. The material which the ancient Egyptians PAPYRUS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 33 used to write upon was a delicate membrane, obtained by unrolling the fibrous stem of the papyrus {Cypreus papyrus Linn., an aquatic plant once very common, but now almost extinct in the Nile). This material, apparently very delicate and fragile, is most enduring, as the numerous specimens extant testify. The part of the plant used consisted of the thin coats or films of the stalks, those nearest the centre being the most desirable and endur- ing. A layer of these was spread out carefully upon a hard, smooth surface, and another layer pasted across it in a transverse direction. After being pressed smooth and dried in the sun, the sheet was completed by polishing the surface with some hard and smooth substance. The writing was done with a brush or pointed reed pen, while the inks were of such durability as to be legible even now after an interval of sev- eral thousand years. When painted or written, as in minor struc- tures (and not sculptured), the figures were usually in black or red, and other colours were applied as symbols to signify special ideas or 4 34 BEGINNIKGS OF WETTING. subjects, as various objects in I^ature, and the colours of different peoples. Upon tbe papyri are found the gradual changes of the hiero- glyphic picture writing into hieratic, and from hieratic into demotic. The characters became gradually reduced from pure figurative types into linear forms, which in turn became more and more abbreviated and conventionalised, so as to result in the above-named systems. Com- parisons made in another chapter will more fully illustrate this advancement. Skins and Textile Fabeics. The various tent-dwelling tribes scattered over the Great Plains were probably more ad- dicted to, and more proficient in, the art of painting upon buffalo, antelope, and other skins than any other of our aborigines. This may be accounted for because of the abundance of the material, and the ease with which the skins were transported in the frequent journeys made by these Indians in pursuit of migratory game. Of recent years, however, muslin and pieces of canvas are used for the same purpose. SKINS AND TEXTILE FABRICS. 35 These painted records consist generally of personal exploits ; but there are others in which the most important event of each successive year is noted, such event being of sufficient im- portance to be considered tribal. These chrono- logical records are designated " winter counts," as each event covers that period of time between the end of one summer and the beginning of the next. There are at least six of these winter counts known to have been obtained from the Dakota Indians, and others are reported as having been seen in the possession of warriors deputed for the purpose. The oldest counts are upon buf- falo skin ; the initial figure, representing the first winter, or year, being drawn in the middle, while each successive figure follows in close order, spirally, towards the border. The ar- rangement differs in different records, so that the spiral arrangement may be towards the left in some, and towards the right, in others. Recently, copies on muslin have also been ob- tained. The winter counts are records of tribal inter- . 36 BEGINNINaS OP WRITING. est ; smaller records portray the exploits of in- dividuals. The latter are frequently drawn upon the tent, so as to be readily seen by the passer-by. The services of experts are frequently de- manded, as not all warriors are artists. There are instances in which a warrior desired to de- pict the most important events of his life, but, being unable to draw a satisfactory figure of a horse, he would have an Indian expert draw all the horses necessary for the entire record, while he himself would add the figure of his own per- son and that of his antagonist in various atti- tudes necessary. Many of the prairie tribes use, also, dyed porcupine quills and horsehair in ornamenting bark, buckskin, or buffalo skin. The ancient Egyptians sometimes wrote on linen with a brush or reed pen, but the common material consisted of papyrus, as has already been described. Tattooing. Tattooing appears to have been practised among nearly all the Indian tribes, though TATTOOING. 37 cliiefly in connection with mystic rites, and for tlie exorcism of demons believed to cause dis- ease. The Ukiah, of California, had short trans- verse marks tattooed along the inner side of the forearm, by which the value of strings of shell money was estimated. Among a neigh- bouring tribe, the Maidu, women had tattooed upon the forehead a small round spot, by which, in case of war, they could be identified by their friends, and ransomed. The most elaborate system of artistic tattoo- ing, however, exclusive of the Japanese and Burmese, is found among the Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte's Island. Both men and wom- ■ en have various figures of totemic and mythic animals and birds tattooed upon the breast, back, forearm, and leg. The tattooing is performed only at certain ceremonies and by persons skilled in the art. The operation is scarcely ever completed at one session because of its painfulness, and the in- flammatory action following it (often resulting in ulceration). The tattooing is performed by using a small bundle of needles, spicules of 38 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. bone, or fish spines, by whicli the skin is pricked over the design previously drawn in powdered charcoal, gunpowder, and sometimes in vermilion. The designs upon the breast or back are double— i. e., a single figure is duplicated in such manner as to face outward towards either side from the median line. In this wise the thunder-bird, or eagle, becomes a double-headed eagle, incidentally resembling that of Russia, Austria, and the Holy Roman Empire, which had its origin in the Orient, the prototype being a bas-relief of the Hittite sculpture.* Many of the tattooed figures are so highly convention- alised that their interpretation and origin must be sought in the mythology and cult practices. The same designs are frequently repeated also on the totem posts, slate ornaments, and small carvings in wood and metal. The practice, both of tattooing and carving, * The Empire of the Hittites. By William Wright, London, 1884, p. 68. " The symbol first appeared on a coin struck in 1217 A. D., by Malek Salah Mahmoud. It first appeared on the arms of the German emperor in 1345." Ibid., p. 68, foot-note. TATTOOma. 39 as well as the adoption of forms of certain mythic animals and fish, has been gradually assumed by the tribes along the mountains of British Columbia northward into Alaska. Many of the carved designs resemble, in a marked degree, certain forms found in the is- lands of the South Pacific and in Mexico. Among the Kavuya Indians of California the tattoo design worn by a landowner former- ly served as a property mark, by being cut or painted upon trees or posts selected to indicate the boundaries. Such marks were equivalent to the owner's name, and were known to the rest of the tribe. In New Zealand the facial decorations of a dead man were reproduced upon the trees near his grave ; while among the Yakuts and Bush- men the facial marks, or even totems, were furthermore employed as property marks, the Bushmen carving them upon growing squashes and melons. 40 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. Quipus, OR Knotted Strings and Cords. The most rudimentary method of recalling to memory events, accounts, and numbers was the practice of tying knots in thongs and strings, or twisted fibre. This mnemonic system was common in different parts of the world, but at- tained various degrees of development. From the fact that knotted cords are pictorially repre- sented in the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptians, it is safe to assume that that people were familiar with the practice, and probably had recourse to it in remote times. The Peruvians appear to have possessed the most elaborate arrangement of tying and knot- ting coloured cords, by means of which accounts and records were kept, and statistical and other information preserved, for transmission from one place to another. The Chinese, also, had use of knotted strings, the history of the origin of which is mythic. More of this subject will be presented in connection with mnemonic signs. notched sticks. 41 Notched Sticks. To cut or notch a stick is without doubt the oldest form of mnemonic methods. An Indian notches his coup stick to note the number of scalps taken ; or he may gash a short stick, or cane, to keep tally of the days spent on a journey. The rural Pennsylvanian dairyman kept a stick for each family supplied with milk, whereon he indicated, by notches, the pints and quarts disposed of. The Clog Almanac and the Exchequer tallies of Great Britain are other instances of recourse to the mnemonic system. CHAPTER IV. inteepeetation of pictogbaphs. Ideogkaphy. Upon examining carefully the available material relating to the pictographs of the North American Indians, the Nahuatl, and the Maya we fail to discover any very pronounced parallels as compared with the known Oriental systems of picture writing. The foreign sys- tems, especially the Egyptian, had become com- pletely phonetic and to a certain extent alpha- betic ; the Chinese and others had reached the stage of syllabic systems ; but among the American aborigines there obtains a system of pictorial ideography which is just in that stage of development where a study of the origin of pictographs is made possible. Ideographic signs are retained even in our 43 INTERPRETATION OF PICTOGRAPHS. 43 own language, as in the digits I, II, III, etc., wMcli Grotenfend regards as pictur' s of fingers, as implied by their very name. Ihe zodiacal and astronomic signs are ideograms. The well- known symbol, ti, is the Caduceus of Mercury entwined by two serpents ; while the IX, de- noting Jupiter, is the arm grasping a thunder- bolt. The zodiacal signs, pictorially repre- sented, are said to be found on the zodiac of Dendera, circa 700 b. c. Peter of Dacia, about the year a. d. 1300, published an almanac, of which there is a copy in the Savilian Library at Oxford, and from which, it is believed, originated the " homo signorum " (man of signs), so common in later almanacs. In this old copy the influence of the planets is thus described : " Jupiter atque Venus boni, Satumusque malignus ; Sol et Mercurius aun Luna sunt mediocris." * It has already been stated that the art of representing things and ideas graphically varies * Book of Days. London and Edinburgh, 1883, ii, p. 10. 44 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. greatly among different tribes. The Innuit of littoral Alaska are remarkably clever in giving lifelike attitudes and specific ckaracteristics to animate forms. The Ojibwa, on the contrary, exhibit greater advancement in the incorpora- tion of gestures and the suggestion of abstract ideas in connection with graphic devices. The Nahuatl, or Aztecs, exhibit upon the codices evidence of a higher order, and had attained a system of ikonomatic or "rebus" writing al- most approaching a purely syllabic form ; while the Maya of Yucatan had gone a step further, and reached that point — if we may rely upon recently reported discoveries — where the vowel point became separated from the syllable, and attached as a suffix or prefix to other forms. In the following pages are presented various examples and types of pictographs, to illustrate the method pursued by the Indians. Apart from the direct representation of ob- jects, the methods of conveying ideas symbolic- ally may be divided into four classes, viz., by metonomy, by synecdoche, by metaphor, and by enigma. INTERPRETATION OP PICTOGRAPHS. 45 By Metonomy. This method of pictography is employed by the Indians, and signifies the substitution of one thing for another, as the instrument for the work accomplished, or the effect produced. A common illustration is the portrayal of a blood- stained war club, or tomahawk, to signify that some of the enemy were killed. An interesting illustration is taken from a petroglyph, in New Mexico (see Fig. 6), representing two figures, one of them being that of a horse placed al- most upside down, while the other is the outline of a goat drawn as if going upward at an angle of at least f or- FiG. 6.— Warning. New Mexico. ty-five degrees. These figures are at the base of a steep, broken bluff, and near the bottom of a rocky and exceedingly steep trail. The illustration is a notice of warning also, and intimates to the beholder that a goat may ^ H^ 46 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. be able to climb the cliff, but that a horse would fall. The representation of the crescent to denote month (Ojibwa), or the transverse curve of the crescent to indicate the end of a lunation (Egyp- tian), are examples also of the same method. The Dakota represent tattle or combat by placing two arrows point to point with a short vertical bar between as the ob- > I < ■■ ject against which the missiles FiQ. 7. -Combat are directed (Fig. 7). The idea (Dakota). of writing, to write, is well por- trayed in the hieroglyphic records by present- ing the figures of the materials employed, as in Fig. 8 ; the left-hand character representing the reed used in writing, the ink-well being visi- ble in the middle of the group, Fia a-writing ^iiiie a line connects it with the (Egyptian). scribe's palette, on which are two depressions in which the red and black inks are poured for use. te INTERPRETATION OP PICTOGRAPHS. 47 By Synecdoche. By this term is meant the substitution of the part of an object or idea, for the whole. This is very common in Indian picture writing, and some examples are here presented. Among the Arikara Indians ^\ /^ the representation of a horse- „ ^ shoe signifies the unshod hoof fig. 9.-ho.s6 *-" (Ankara). (Fig. 9, a) of an Indian pony, distinguished from the so-called American or Eastern horse wearing iron shoes, as indicated in Fig. 9, 5, in which the short lines at either arm of the shoe indicate the heels of the shoe. In both ancient petroglyphs and modern pictographs various kinds of ordinary game are represented by footprints, and sometimes by portions of the body, to indicate special char- acteristics : thus the wild turkey is represented by the three-toed imprint of a turkey's foot ; the deer, elk, and buffalo, by hoofprints of various sizes ; and bear by the outline of a bear's paw, with but slight indications (if any) 48 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. of claws, to signify the black bear, and large claws, to designate the grizzly. FrecLuently the head only is drawn to repre- sent the species of game intended : this is spe- cially practised when portraying deer, elk, or moose, as the difference in the horns can then be noted. In many of the Ojibwa records the idea of locomotion (to go, to run, to come) is recorded by simply portraying the outline of the sole of the foot, or drawing the lower legs in the attitude of walking. This is common also in the Mexican codices, but the drawings are made with greater care, as in the portrayal of to run, in which the attitude of the lower extremities is correctly given, one leg being thrown back as in running ; whereas in walk- ing the two legs and feet are placed exactly as an inverted "A?" indicating less speed or haste than in the former. The Egyptian and Hittite inscriptions likewise portray legs in the act of walking, to denote locomotion. This method of representing ideas by the partial portrayal of the object intended is ex- INTERPRETATION OF PICTOGRAPHS. 49 ceedingly prevalent among the prairie Indians, in the designation of personal names. In this the human head only is drawn, and above it, usually only part of the animal, bird, or inani- mate object used to designate the name of the person indicated below. The two figures are usually connected by a line, one end of which emanates from the mouth, to further designate its reference to a personal name. By Metaphor. Gliddon,* in his classification of hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, mentions two methods of portraying ideas : the first of these is by meta- phor, the second by enigma. As illustrative of metaphor, the idea of mother is represented by the outline of a vulture, because this bird was said to nourish its young with its own blood ; a king by a bee, because this insect is subject to monarchical government ; a priest by a jackal, to indicate his watchfulness over sacred things. * George R. Gliddon, Ancient Egypt, etc., New York, 1843, p. 22. 5 50 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. By Enigma. As an example of enigma we find an ibis, representing the god Thoth Hermes — owing to a supposed mystical connection between the bird and the deity ; a branch of lotus, or other parts of this flower, indicated the upper region, or Upper Egypt— while a tuft of papyrus/ symbol- ised the lower region, or Lower .figypt ; a sphinx (always male in Egypt, with a lion's body and a man's head) represente^ ""^^ of the sun, and a short line at- fig. le.-Mom- ing. tached at right angles thereto, at the eastern end, would indicate sunrise— morn- ing ; one at the middle to mark the zenith, rep- resented mid-day ; and one at the western end, sunset — evening. The figure was based upon, and was intended to represent, the gesture signs for the same idea. Indians making gestures relating to different times of the day make them as if facing the south, possibly because the sun is always south- ward of the tribes under consideration, and be- cause it is less inconvenient (in using the right hand and arm) to make the signs for sun, moon, and day, from left to right, than in the opposite direction. In some of the Ojibwa mnemonic records we * Copway, The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of the Ojibway Nation, London, 1850. 62 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. find characters, as represented in Fig. 17, in which the hand is passed a short distance from the eastern horizon towards the -^'^'\/ zenith, the gesture signifying Fro.ir.-Morning. ^^^ing sun, and, by metonomy, morning. The sign for east, as it relates to the Mide' Society, is also similarly portrayed. Night is represented by the Arikara and Hidatsa Indians by drawing the background of a smaU pictographic record black. The Ojibwa represent the same idea by a crescent in black ; or, if uncoloured, by placing a star beneath the curve, usually drawn to designate sky. The Egyptian symbol for y^ -j^ ^\ night is much like the Ojibwa, Fig. i8.-Night j^ coQception as Well as execu- (Egyptian). ^ tion, as shown in Fig. 18. The star is shown suspended be- FiG. i9.-Night neath the character for sky. (Mexican). The Mexicans * represented night by a drawing of the sky, to which was * Kingsborough, Tol. iii, in Codox Mendoza. SYMBOLS. 63 attached one or more circles or "eyes" de- noting stars, as in Fig. 19. ToTEMic AND Tribal Designations. Among the various Indian tribes are found divisions, constituting clans or gentes, the mem- bers of each of which believe themselves re- lated by blood on account of descent from a common ancestor. Siich a mythic progenitor is represented by his zoomorphic form ; and In- dians in recording their own names upon hunt- ing records, missives to other Indians, or, as designated upon grave-posts and totem-posts, make use of the totem name rather than the specific name by which they are usually desig- nated. The carved totem-posts of the Haida and other Northwest coast Indians are good il- lustrations, and an examination of any of these posts wUl develop the fact that the carvings usually relate to some mythologic history, but that the figure surmounting the whole repre- sents the totem of the owner of the post, or perhaps even of the maker. The Innuit of southern Alaska erect grave- 64 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. boards to the memory of departed friends, upon which are portrayed the profession of the deceased as well as his most important posses- sions. The profession, or pursuit in life, desig- nates him as being a member of one of the two clans, a hunter of aquatic or of land 1 tz animals. Fig. 20 is a reduced copy f r of the characters drawn upon a board, by an Innuit. The upper character represents the deceased to have been a hunter, and is observed ^ in his haidarJca, or boat, with a com- ^"~" panion. Beneath the body of the boat are two projections signifying the paddles. The crosslike figure is a rack for drying fish and skins. The pole projecting from the top Fio 20- ^^^ short lines attached to it, de- gfa"v°e-post. noting streamers of calico or cloth. The next figure is that of a fox, while the second from the bottom is a land otter. The lower figure represents the hunter's summer habitation. These temporary dwell- ings are erected at some distance from the set- SYMBOLS. 65 tlement, and furthermore denote the resort of a skin-hunter ; whereas the fishermen reside in dome-shaped structures nearer the shore. This differentiation in the shape of roofs of habitations pertains to their pictographic repre- sentation and not to their actual form. In like manner the head-board, erected to the memory of a woman, has displayed upon it various articles used by her in life, as knives, scissors, sewing utensils, and a basket ; though in such instances there is no reference to any special division of the tribe. Among the Ojibwa and Menomoni Indians the figure of the totem of a dead man is drawn upside down upon the grave - post. Under ordinary circumstances the totem may be dis- tinguished from the form used on mnemonic records of cult ceremonies, by being designated without any extra indications, as lines, dots, etc. ; if of religious or shamanistic signification, the totem has drawn across it a straight line to signify magic or religious power, or short zig- zag lines attached to the body to denote the same power or attribute. 66 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. In a letter drawn upon birch bark (which was sent by an Ojibwa girl to a favoured lover, at White Earth, Min- nesota) appear the totems of each of the persons interested. A reduced copy is herewith presented in Fig. 21. The his- i tory and significa- ; tion of the charac- i ters are as follows : i J The writer of the 3 missive is a girl of 3 the Bear totem, as indicated by the rep- resentation of that symbol at the left hand upper corner. The symbol beneath is that of the "Mud Puppy " totem, of which the recipient of the letter was a member. The line beginning at the lower middle of the SYMBOLS. 67 pictograph signifies one trail leading to another, which runs from the Bear totem's camp, to the right, to a point between two lakes, at which another trail branches off towards the top to two triangular bodies denoting tents. Three girls are encamped here, they having become members of the Catholic Church, as is indicated by the three crosses placed bestween the tents and the figure of the Bear. In the figure of the left-hand tent is a small square — an opening in the habitation — from which is seen protruding an arm, with the hand towards the ground, beckoning. The arm is that of the writer of the letter, who is making the gesture — to come ; this is made by the Indians by holding the palm of the hand down and for- ward, and drawing the extended index finger towards the place occupied by the speaker, thus indicating the path npon the ground to be fol- lowed by the person called. This is contrary in execution to our gesture for the same idea, as we usually elevate the finger, and draw it backward towards the body, closing it in to- wards the palm at the same time. 68 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Fio. 22.— Arikara. The Arikara have long been recognised by the surrounding tribes as the corn-raising In- dians, and are therefore designa- ted by the Dakota by the out- line of an ear of corn, as in Fig. 22. The Assiniboines are also de- picted by a figure which is in- tended to represent the mouth, tongue, and chin, as in Fig. 23, because of the voice, being termed "loud call- ers." The Crow Indians are indicated by the top- knot of hair brushed upward C^ from the forehead, and by the ^^ forehead being painted red. The I latter, shown in Fig. 24, is from one of the Dakota records, and signifies that four Crows were killed in a fight, death being in- timated by there being no bodies attached. Among the Ojibwa the same idea is represented in ex- actly the reverse — i. e., by a headless body. Fia. 23. -Asslnl- boine. FiQ. 24.— Crows (killed). SYMBOLS. 69 In the above, the darker line at the top of the head represents the red forehead, as war paint ; and the character is thus distinguishable from one very similar (though without the dark foreheads) to denote four drowned Sioux, the transverse line signifying the surface of the water. The Dakotas represent the Crow or Absa- roka Indians by a tall topknot of hair brushed upward and backward from the forehead. It is well known that this is a practice generally followed by the Crows, and recognised in sign language by many other tribes as a sign dis- tinct from that ordinarily used, by imitating, with the hands, the movement of wings as in flyihg. The Sioux have, in some records, designated the Omaha tribe by painting the cheeks red, on account of facial decoration with that colour ; and in other pictographs they repre- sent a tuft of hair extending backward over the crown, from the forehead to the occiput, in imitation of the headdress of coloured elk hair. 70 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Many tribes designate graphically other tribes by appending totemic characters. This is especially common in Mexican picture writing, in which the country, family, or some other designation is attached to the outline of the human figure. In a battle between the Acolhuas and the Tepaneques, the latter are indicated by the figure of a stone {tetl), surmounted by a flag (pantU), representing the name ikonomatically. In Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, various nationalities are indicated by the colour of the skin ; and at Karnak are engraved a number of human forms, with Mongolian or Turanian features, long queues, and turned-up shoes, as used among the Tartar peoples, indicating, ac- cording to some Egyptologists, the Hittites. Under the designation of colours, reference was made to various styles of marking feathers, to denote different exploits. Further reference to such marks, as made by the Dakotas, are given herewith, in which colours do not- bear any special significance, although black or red pigments are usually employed because of their SYMBOLS. • 71 greater abundance in Nature, or because of their availability. The designation, upon the eagle head plume, of a spot in red as large as a dime, signifies that the wearer was wounded by a buUet. Sometimes the spot is painted upon that part of the body where the wound was actually in- flicted. If the wearer was wounded by an arrow, he splits the tip of the eagle plume. A V-shaped cut made into the side of the broad web of the feather, and the edge of the cut stained red, denote that the wearer killed an enemy, cut his throat, and scalped him. To signify only that the throat was cut, the feather is cut off diagonally, about two inches from the tip, and the edge painted red. The confederated Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa, of North Dakota, employ several ingenious devices to denote several degrees of bravery. A mark Fio. 25.— like that in Fig. 25 signifies *that the Mark ot distinctioQ. one upon whose person, blanket, or other property it may be depicted, has success- fully defended himself against the enemy on # 72 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. the open prairie. Two or three such marks are sometimes combined by simply elongating one pair of lines and increasing the cross lines ; thus the figure becomes more difficult of com- prehension. The designation of an inverted fl or horse- shoe denotes that the person wearing it upon his blanket or painted upon the thigh has captured an enemy's pony ; if the ends of the inverted XI has short cross lines, it signifies the animal to have been a white man's horse, as the short cross lines denote the heels of the iron horseshoe. These marks are frequently painted upon the boat paddle used by the squaw, showing evidence of pardonable pride in her husband's exploits. When, on an expedition or war party, an enemy may be shot, the one firing the ^hot is not deemed as brave as the first four who run forward and strike the fallen body with a bow, or coup stick. The first to reach the enemy and touch him is entitled to wear a mark sim- ilar in shape to that represented in Fig. 26. This is worn upon the blanket, or, on festal oc- SYMBOLS. 73 casions, it may be painted upon the tMgh — as may also those marks above described. The second person to reach and touch the enemy makes the above cross and one ^^^ short bar between any two arms, as ^"^ in Fig. 27 ; the third person adds a M^rk o7 -I -I J , 1 -1 • 1.-1 distinction. second bar to the preceding, and the fourth person a third bar. These marks are understood by all of the Indians named, as well as some neigh- Mlrk^oT distinction. bouring tribes, and no attempt at fraudulent decoration could be made without detention and ridicule, or possible punishment. Among some of the prairie tribes it is cus- tomary to sometimes imprint upon a war pony the outline of a hand in red ochre. This is done by those who have been wounded in battle. One who is expert in stealing horses from the enemy is entitled to tie to the tip of his eagle plume the rattle of a rattlesnake, thus symbolising stealth and bravery. In Cheyenne pictographs, marks of valour, or rather vows, are sometimes represented, which 74 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. in gesture signs liave become a tribal designa- tion. Short transverse bars are drawn across the back of the forearm, denoting gashes made in fulfilment of a vow for success in war. Mtstic or Sacred Attributes. As already intimated, the Ojibwa mnemonic records present ample evidence of the occa- sional use of certain marks, or lines, to serve in the capacity of determinatives — certainly not like those of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, nor even as pronounced as those which appear to have been employed by the Mayas — suffi- ciently persistent and conspicuous to indicate that the Ojibwa were on the verge of a tran- sition from pure ideography to a modified form of ikonomatic writing. These marks or lines are added to the ordi- nary representation of any object, either ani- mate or inanimate, to designate that such object is of a mystic or supernatural nature ; that spiritual attributes are possessed by the human form so designated, or that an animal or bird is thus portrayed as mythic, or as a deity. The SYMBOLS. V5 use of such special designations occurs only in connection with the ritualistic records of the cult societies, and the mnemonic songs or rec- ords of the shamans or medicine men To farther illustrate the above suggestion some examples may be here reproduced. Fig. 28 represents a leg and foot, the two cross lines being determinatives, and indicate that the person by whom the cn: ideograph was made, or perhaps re- w* f erred to, is possessed of magic power Magic pow- m • . 1 • m , . er of trans- sufflcient to transport him sell or his portation. influence for good or for evil through unlimited space. The leg drawn without the cross lines suggests nothing beyond the mere representation of that extremity ; but, when in- clined at a slight angle, either to the right or left, it may denote a pipe, and as such occurs frequently in thp sacred records of the Ojibwa Indians. In Fig. 29 is shown a circle, above which is the outline of an arm and hand grasping it. Within are thjree zigzag lines, while below and to the right are a number of loops or semicir- 76 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. cles. The hand thus grasps a dish, the zigzag lines denoting magic or sacred influence, while the semicircles are intended to sig- nify articles of food, the whole being symbolical of a feast, given by the recorder of the chant, at a meeting of a cult society, the mystic or sacred character of which is thus indicated. The disc without the zigzag lines, might be taken for quite a variety of ideas, as the Ojib- was represent in such manner a shaman's hand reaching into the soil, to extract therefrom medicinal roots and plants ; a hand holding a drum, as at a ceremonial dance ; a flat rattle, or a tambourine, as employed by the juggler and the wdbeno at ceremonies of exorcism or in- cantation ; or even a medicine bag T employed by the herbalist in the preparation of decoctions and infu- sions. Charmed Ii Fig 30 Is represented an arrow, with the web of the shaft greatly enlarged, thus designating it as a cbarmed ar- row or one possessed of great power in the k SYMBOLS. 77 hands of the shaman, who may represent him- self as the owner. The short lines, in addition to suggesting magic influence, represent the idea of augmen- tation — i. e., the great or magic arrow. When animal forms are intended to denote totems or clans, the simple outline of the ani- mal to be designated is portrayed ; but when a manido or spirit form of such animal is intended, a line or bar is drawn across the thorax, or rio.si.-sa- cred otter. short lines may be attached to the back, extending from the head down to the ex- tremity of the tail. Fig. 31 represents the otter as a spirit or Tnanido, the determinative line in this instance being drawn diagonally across the body. The three waving lines issu- ing from the mouth represent voice, and signify that the otter manido responds to the invocation of the fio. Bear manido. shaman. An interesting variant is presented in Fig. 33, in which the employment of both varieties 78 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. of "magic lme§ " signifies, not intensity nor augmentation of magic influence, but anger. The figure is that of the bear, the line crossing the body denoting the animal to be the bear manido, but the indication of bristles denotes anger, displayed at the dilatoriness of the braves who had supplicated this spirit for as- sistance in war. There are many instances of various and differing representations of the human body, or parts thereof, to w^ich similar short lines are attached, to indicate magic or supernatural power. In some instances the arm, or other portion of the body, is furthermore decorated by zigzag lines extending from one end to the other, as in Fig. 33, which represents a sha- man's arm raised towards the sky in supplication to the Great Spirit. Another character frequently em- ployed as a determinative (and as Fig. 33.- such designating special attribute^ or ininvooa- fuuctlous in the knowledffe of med- tion. *-^ ical. magic, and more particularly in the reputed magical properties of plants) is the SYMBOLS. • Y9 attachment to the human arm, hand, or even the entire figure, of a sprig of a plant or a few leaves. Such is the designation of a herbal- ist, who professes knowledge of decoctions and infusions. Fig. 34 is a reproduction of an Ojib- wa etching, obtained from the Red Lake Indians of Minnesota : ' FiQ. 34.— Herbalist. it signifies a deity named Esh- kiboga, who appears to be the mythic and primitive ^sculapius. An interesting comparison is reproduced in Fig. 35, from an Easter Island tablet, represent- ing the god who produced medi- cine. * ^r^ Attention may properly be y/\\ called, in this connection, to Fig. SS.-God of still another method of desig- medicine, Easter ° Island. nating figures that pertain to hunting or death by representing the location * Te Pito Te Henna, or Easter Island. By W. J. Thomson, U. S. Navy. Report U. S. National Museum, for the Year ending June 30, 1889. 1891, plate xxxviii. 7 80 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. of the heart within the breast by either a small triangle, square, or circle, from which a line is drawn as if extending therefrom to, or even beyond, the mouth. This is denominated the life line, and is explained by the Ojibwa as illustrating a shaman's power over the life of the animal or person so depicted. The representation of superiority in rank, as a chief or a shaman, consists in the representa- tion of appendages to the, head, as horns, rays, or triangular points. Feathers and similar ornamental figures are the most frequent methods of portraying supe- rior status. Among the Ojibwa the presence of horns pertains more particularly to that class of medicine men known as wdbeno, or fire jug- glers ; and the representation of a pair of horns only is sometimes employed to symbolise this variety of pretenders. The representing of head ornaments usually indicates rank, as may be observed in an exam- ination of the sculptures and codices of the Mexicans, the mural remains of the Mayas, and the monuments and papyri of ancient Egypt. SYMBOLS. 81 Easter Island god and goddess. Even upon the incised tablets of the Easter Islanders a differentiation between male and female deities is made, by means of the charac- teristic head ornaments worn by men and women. In Fig. 36, a and &, are represented respect- ively a god and goddess, both greatly resembling Shoshonian petroglyphs of the United States ; the female (b) is identi- cal with ZuEii and Moqui drawings represent- ing the custom of these tribes in wearing coils of hair upon either side of the head indicative of the unmarried state of the wearer. In the complex picto- graph reproduced in Fig. 37 is observable but a slight indication of rank, the ver- tical line above the head resembling more a "name object " than status. The illustration, of Mexican origin, represents a Fig. 37.— a Mexican scribe. 82 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Tlatlotlaque chief named Coatlitepan, who had come to the city of Texcoco, at the request of the emperor, to engage in painting and re- cording chronicles.* This chief was a tlacuilio, or painter, and a maker of chronicles and images, an art in which the people of Texcoco excelled. The name of the figure is given by the serpent {coafl) folding upon itself ; his profession indicated by the brush and sheet before him, while the path be- neath presents the marks of footprints coming to the place occupied and also returning on the under curve, signifying that a return was made towards the direction whence they came. Among the Mexicans the copilli, a peculiar head ornament, was the distinctive character of royalty, and the attachment, to the head, of plumes, denoted the rank of a chieftain or warrior. Persons who had performed certain duties for the head war chief, or who had dis- tinguished themselves in war, received the * Boban, Documents pour servir a I'histoire du Mexique, Paris, 1891. Atlas, plate iv. No. 134. SYMBOLS. 83 privilege of wearing certain peculiarly marked mantles, and adorned their shields with par- ticular devices, easily recognised by others and respected accordingly. Such devices, and the methods of bearing them, resemble in reality the early beginnings of the system of heraldry. Proper Names. Should an Indian desire to differentiate, in sign language, between the " black bear " ^er se and the ' ' black bear " as the name of a person, he would in both instances first make the gesture sign for bear, followed by that for hlacJc ; but to designate it as a proper name he would immediately thereafter, in an emphatic manner, pass the extended index finger for- ward from the mouth. This movement of the finger forward from the mouth denotes to tell, to name ; and in pictography the same idea is expressed by drawing a line between the mouth and the object representing the name. Fre- quently, however, this connecting line extends from the top or back of the head to the "name object " ; in some instances there may be no line 8i BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. at all, and perhaps even no portrayal of the human head or figure to which the " name ob- ject" may pertain. There are numerous in- stances of the last-named variety, and as such the " name object " may also be employed as a signa- ture, or a property mark. Fig. 38 is reproduced from a Dakota record, and illustrates not only the name but also the condi- tion of the object drawn. The proper name signifies "Old Mexi- can," the presence of the hat de- noting the image to represent some nationality other than an Indian ; the darkened figure signifying one of a dark type, and the hand grasping the staflE presents the idea of age, or debility, thus resembling the Egyptian hieroglyph — i. e., " walking with a staff," age, indigence. Debility accompanying age is fur- thermore expressed by the attitude of the body, being drawn so as to represent its leaning for- ward. An instance of recording the name without Fie. 38.—" Old Mexican " (a Dakota proper Dame). SYMBOLS. 85 the additional representation of the human head is that of the Teton Dal-tota chief and orator " Banning Antelope," who places beneath his drawings and pictorial biographic sketches simply the outline of an antelope with the logs thrown out as in the act of running, as reproduced in Fig. 39. In this, the split hoofs are indicated by small horseshoe forms, the coloration of the animal being also indicated by attempting to repre- sent the bands of dark tawny yellow and white upon the neck. The pronged horns specify distinctly the species of animal intended, apart from any other indications present. a. Personal. Fig. 39.— " Running Ante- lope " (a Dakota proper name). Fig. 40.— "Red Cloud" (a Dakota proper name). The Ogalala chief "Ked Cloud " indicates his name by the portrayal of a red cloud, the lines in the drawing appearing as in Fig. 40. The 86 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Fia. 41. — Coatlichan. name originated from the fact that wlien this chief, accompanied by his red-blanketed war- riors, swept over the low ridges of western Dakota, the party appeared rather like a red clond passing over the plains than a compact body of well-monnted Indians. Fig. 41, from the codices,* represents the name of a chief known as Coatlichan — "the abode of the ser- pent " — from coatl^ serpent, and chantli, abode. The mouth of the cavern is here designated with the snake issuing there- from ; but a more highly con- ventionalised form of the same name is presented in Fig. 42, in which the serpent is drawn so as to assume the form of the mouth of the cavern itself. A synonym of the above, given herewith, is Coaly chan.f The name of Icxicohuatl, " Snakefoot," is Fio. 43.— Coatlichan. * Boban, op. cii., ii, 155. \ Boban, op. cit., plate vi of Atlas. SYMBOLS. 87 Fig. 43.—" Snake- foot " (a IMexican proper name). reproduced in Fig. 43, from the Mexican records,* the coatl, serpent, entwining the leg, icxi. Another illustration, from the same source, f presents an interesting variant of the same name, by showing only the leg, whose foot is itself the serpent's head (Fig. 44). A well-known example of ikonomatic writing is the name of Itzcoatl or Itzcoatzin, the fourth great war chief of Mex- ico X (Fig. 45). The upper fig- ure, a, shows the itzli or obsid- ian represented by the arrow points made of that material, attached to the snake (coatl). The lower figure, &, is an in- teresting variant of the preced- ing, and consists of the charac- FiG. 44.—" Snake- foot "(a variant). Fig. 45. — Variants of the name of Itzcoatl. * Boban, op. cii., plates Iv and Iviii of Atlas, f Boban, op. cii., plate xlix of Atlas. I Boban, Atlas, plate ix. 88 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. ters itztli (root itz\ obsidian, the vase, eomitl (root co\ and atl, water, attached to and flow- ing downward from the mouth of the vase.* Another variant f is here- with reproduced in Fig. 46, the personal name consist- ing of the serpent, armed with arrow points, being attached to the head of the individual himself, a proce- . dure resembling the prac- tice of our own Indians of the Great Lakes. Nezahualcoyotl, born in 1403, was the ninth great war chief of Texcoco, and one of the greatest fig- ures in Mexican history. The char- acter for his name. Fig. 46. — Itzcoatl (a Mexi- can war chief). Fia. 47. — Nezahualcoyotl. * Boban, op. cit., ii, pp. 20, 21. f Kingsborough, vol. i, plate v, of Codex, Tel. Kemensis. SYMBOLS. 89 Fig. 47, was formed of the anterior part of the puma {Felis concolor L.) with a leg projecting forward, to which was added the symbol atl, water. It is rare, however, to find him desig- nated by this character ; more commonly he is mentioned by the second part of the name, the head of a coyotl (coyote) carrying a col- lar of small rectangular pendants, indicating " the faster." His death was indicated by an obsidian arrow penetrating the head of the coyotl. In this drawing the first figure is not present. h. GeograpMc. The symbolic ideograph tepetl, mountain or cone, is usually surmounted by the sign, either ideographic or phonetic, which gives its name to the place or locality spoken of. The common symbol for mountain is py- ramidal or triangular, and may terminate in an acute or rounded form above. For the charac- ter designating Colhuacan, the apex is recurved towards the right as in Fig. 48 ; thus transform- ing the ideographic sign, and indicating the 90 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. "country of the Colhuas," from eoltic, curved or turned, and the particle Tiua. In like manner Chapultepec, " mountain of grasshoppers " (Fig. 49), is designated by showing upon the tepefl, mountain, the Fio. 48.-coihua- cTiapoUn, grasshopper. The char- can. acter designating this locality oc- curs in a variety of forms, substantially alike, vyith one exception, in which the insect is shown with a death's-head, apparently to signify de- vastation, clearly referring to the rapacious character of that species of grasshopper known as the "Rocky Mountain locust," which may have ravaged the country surrounding the area above named, and thus become an event of sufficient importance to receive recognition, as above Fig. 49.-Chapiil- indicated. tepee. A similar instance of pictori- ally representing a well-known volcano is the character Popocatepetl, "smoking mountain," composed of tepetl, mountain, and popoca, SYMBOLS. 91 Fig. so.— Texooco. rs3 smoking or fuming ; the specific sign being placed upon the symbol for cone or mountain. In the figure denoting Tex- coco a curious ideographic va- riant occurs, in which the tetl, stone, is surmounted by a co- mitl, vase, both being vrithin the symbol for mountain as presented herewith in Fig. 50. An instance resembling the above, in which the objects are read from below upward (in- stead of the general method which is the reverse) is that shown in Fig. 51, signifying the locality Tepetlaoztoc, in which resided Yacanex, an Otomi chief, who was tributary of the great chief Xolotl. The lower character is a mat or bundle of straw {petlatl), above it a stone (tetl), and over all the cavern {pztotV). The Indians of the Northwest, particularly those living between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes, designate various geographic areas by certain characters denoting peculiari- cx= 3X> FiQ. 51.— Tepetlaoz- toc. 92 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. ties, either of the people, game, or anything with which they are impressed at first sight. The Egyptians termed Libya, prior to 2000 B. c, " the country of the nine bows," a desig- nation extremely appropriate for 'v.'->«^ the wild nomads of Fezzan, for the ^ = Libyan archers and Numidian cav- "~^^ airy are celebrated in history.* In the illustration, reproduced in Fig. Fio. 52. — The hieroglyphic gg^ the uumber nine may be vague, name of Libya. as the representative of "a great many, " as specific to the tribes of Libya. The small black semicircle is a determina- tive, and relates to the country spoken of ; although the ordinary character denoting coun- try is represented in the linear hieroglyphic by i^->^"^^^n — i. e., the figure for mountains ; and civilised country by £3, denoting bread, with incisions at the four quarters, like "cross-buns." * Gliddon, Ancient Egypt in the New World, 1843, p. 41. SYMBOLS. 93 Personal Exploits. In Fig. 53 is reproduced an Ojibwa record pertaining to an exploit performed by a wS^be- no, or so-called bad medicine man. The small rectangular figures at the left of the illustration represent the four degrees of the cult society of which the recorder and operator was a mem- ber. These degrees are indicated by the outline Fig. 53.— Wabeno destroying an enemy, of the sacred structure within which the cere- monies of initiation are performed ; the first has above it one vertical stroke, representing the sacred or mystic post erected within the enclos- ure, and denotes the first degree ; the second figure has two such posts ; the third three ; and the fourth, and last, four strokes or posts. The next succeeding figure is that of a man, denoting the assistant to the wfi,beno, who in turn is shown next, towards the right, with a 9i BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. waving line extending from his mouth to the extreme right-hand side of the illustration, to an oval form. The vraving line represents the power and influence of the wabeno as extending to a lake, upon an island in which resides the victim represented beneath the wabeno as lying sidevdse, and with a spot upon his breast. The island in the lake is indicated by a circle. The small oblong figure between the wabeno and his victim represents the sacred or medicine drum, which is used at incantations. The signification of this record is that the wabeno was called upon for aid, in removing, by magic power, a rival of the applicant. The wabeno took a piece of birch bark, and incised upon it the effigy of the alleged rival, and after tapping upon the drum and chanting the while, he pierced the breast of the effigy and applied to the puncture some red paint. This puncture is believed to cause the person so represented to gradually languish and die, although he may reside at a remote locality, as indicated by his living upon an island in a distant lake. The above circumstance actually occurred in SYMBOLS. 95 1884, and the person whose effigy was thus punctured died in the following spring — cer- tainly not from any magic influ- ence, but from the effects of a severe cold contracted during the preceding winter. In Fig. 54 is reproduced a hunting record, also made upon birch bark by an Ojibwa medicine man. The lower line extending from left to right, with the undulating line immediately above it, repre- sents a river with waves upon the surface. The left-hand figure is that of a birch-bark canoe, in the stern of which is seated the re- corder, guiding his canoe, as it floats silently along with the cur- rent. In the bow of the boat is erected a piece of birch bark, be- fore which is a fire of pine knots to light up the banks of the course to be fol- lowed. By this means game, as it comes to the 8 '& 96 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. water to drink may be observed from the shaded end of the boat occupied by the hun- ter. The rounded extremity, above the piece of bark, represents the smoke as rising above the flames of the torch. In front of the boat are two deer, beyond which is a circle representing a lake, at the top of which is the head and horns of a third deer. A doe is shown to the right of the lake, and next to it, to the right, are two conical figures designating the wigwams of the hunter, also located upon the river bank. The animals represented in the record were said to have been secured during the hunt. The Innuit of southern Alaska represent a shaman's success in curing the sick, as before shown in Fig. 3, reproduced from an ivory drill bow. At the right hand are two pyramidal figures with trees, representing habitations lo- cated near a group of trees. The human figure nearest to the huts is the shaman, who had been called upon to exorcise the evil spirits which had caused the illness of the two pa- tients. He is represented as taking hold of the SYMBOLS. 97 tail of a quadruped, which is the spirit, or tute- lary daimon under his immediate control, and by the aid of which he expels the demons with- in the sick man. The next group, to the left, represents the same shaman in the second act of his perform- ance, which consists in grasping the patient by the arm, while he chants and awaits the depar- ture of the demons. The left figure of the group of three is making the gesture of surprise at his relief, while at the extreme left end is indicated a complex group— in reality only two demons struggling to escape from the superior spirit controlled by the shaman. CHAPTER VI. GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. One of the most interesting painted records yet found within the United States is that, al- ready referred to, in the Tule River Indian reservation of California, and represented in Fig. 2. This region is located amid the gigantic spurs of the Sierra Nevada, and is at present inhabited only by a small band of Indians, usually desig- nated the Tulares. An immense granite boul- der, measuring about forty feet in length, twenty feet high, and as many feet wide, is so fractured that the lower, eastern quarter has been forced out so as to leave a passage way extending from north to south. Upon the inte- rior walls are recorded the pictographs, in red, black, yellow, and white pigments. The figures are those of human beings, the largest ap- GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 99 proaching life-size, the remaining ones being relatively smaller. The largest figure, that on the right (a), represents weeping, the arms with hands pend- ent, being extended as when making the ges- ture sign for rain, while the lines extending downward from the eyes denote tears, signify- ing, literally, eye-rain or weeping. It is evi- dent that the recorder intended to convey the idea of sorrow, on account of the suffering expressed in the gestures and attitudes of others of his band shown in connection here- with. The six figures (designated by c) appear to be persons of different degrees of rank or so- cial standing in the tribe, as indicated by the various lengths of the plumes. Each of these are represented in the act of making the gesture for hunger, which is commonly made by pass- ing the extended hands towards and backward from the sides of the body, denoting a "gnaw- ing sensation." One of the figures, drawn horizontally, probably signifies that one of the party died of starvation, as he is represented 100 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. furthermore in a posture indicating a "dead man." This method of portraying dead, death, is common also among many of the Algonkian tribes. The remaining figures, those with both hands outstretched, are drawn as making the gesture sigh for negation, none, or nothing ; while the middle one of the three large figures is repre- sented as holding his right hand to his body, to indicate self, with the left extended to denote direction, to go ; no doubt signifying that the whole group intended leaving that region be- cause of insufficiency of game and other food, and consequent suffering from hunger. The Indians who now occupy this valley know nothing whatever of the origin of the record, nor the tribe that made it. Upon the petroglyphs and coloured picto- graphs of the Southwestern States and Territo- ries, especially in the so-called Shoshonian area, are numerous examples of figures, in which appear attempts at the graphic portrayal of gesture signs. These refer chiefly to direc- tion, however — as may be inferred from the GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 101 local geographic position of the record, as well as the context — as related to other figures. Such gestures as the above mentioned (in denoting self, pointing either to one side, or the other, as in direction, and again the extending of both arms with spread fingers, to denote nothing, none) are very frequent. When the last-named gesture sign is found upon a record, there is usually some indication of animal or bird life, under which circumstances it would indicate that the things referred to " did not exist there." An exceedingly interesting fact in connection with Innuit etchings is the portrayal of animals with the head turned either towards or from the hunter, or his village, to denote that in the attempt to secure them he was successful or otherwise. In other words, when an animal is captured in hunting, it is depicted with its head towards the hunter ; whereas, if facing in the opposite direction, it indicates that the species so noted was desired, but not captured. In thus reading towards the face of the fig- 102 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. ure we find the same principle to survive as in the etchings of the Easter Islanders and the Fig. 55.— Hittite inscription at Hamath. Hittite inscriptions, an example of the latter being reproduced in Fig. 55. In this, the inscription begins at the right- hand upper corner, with the figure representing the hand placed to th.e mouth, denoting voice or speech. The reading of Hittite records con- tinues across the line, and then returns with, the next beneath, towards the right, and so on to the end. The Innuit are exceedingly clever in delin- eating gesture signs, and frequently portray them upon slabs of wood or boards, when neces- sary to put up records of notification to inform passers-by of their absence from home and the reason therefor, or to solicit food when in want. GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 103 The characters in Fig. 56 are reproduced from an ivory drill bow, and present the nar- rative of a hunter, vsrhich he left in- scribed upon a strip of wood near ^ his hut. In the left-hand figure he < touches his body with his right hand ^ to indicate himself^ and with his left he points towards the locality he is about to visit, denoting to go, and signifying that Tie is going ; in the second figure he holds aloft a boat paddle to signify that he is going by hoat. In the third figure his right hand is placed to the side of the head to denote sleep, nigM, the left hand being held up to sig- nify one — i. e., one night. In the fourth or circular figure is repre- sented an island, the two central spots upon which indicate habita- «w^ tions where he intends to spend one night. The fifth figure is a repetition of the first, denoting to go ; while the following one, the second circular one (without central spots. 104 BEGINNINGS OP WHITING. however), represents the locality where the hun- ter is going, a place without habitations, and where he intends to remain two nights, as shown in the next succeeding figure, in which one hand is placed to the head to denote sleep, and the left extended with two fingers elevated to denote two — i. e., two sleeps or nigMs. In the succeeding figure the hunter is repre- sented as holding his harpoon, while with his left hand he makes the gesture sign for sea lion, by holding the flat hand edgewise, the thumb extended and elevated, and the hand then thrust outward and downward in a slight curve, to represent the animal swimming. The next character represents the animal it- self, while the figure to the right denotes the hunter shooting it with an arrow. This figure is followed by one representing a canoe, or iaidarJca, containing two persons ; the paddles project downward beyond the body of the canoe, to signify that the purpose or the jour- ney had been accomplished, and that the re- corder then returned to his hut ; this is in- GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 105 dicated by the triangular figure at the extreme right end of the illustration. Fig. 57 is reproduced from an Innuit record which had been placed over the door of a ^r xr xK ft-f Fio. 57.— Record of departure (Innuit). house to notify callers that the owner had gone on a journey. The first, third, fifth, and seventh figures represent the person spoken to, the absence of arms denoting his having no special connection with the record. The second figure from the left, indicates the speaker himself, as is shown by his touching his side with the right hand, thus indicating himself as going in the direc- tion signified by his extended left hand. The fourth figure is in the attitude of making the gesture sign for many, made by spreading out both hands mth fingers extended ; while the sixth figure represents the gesture for sleep or night, by placing the right hand to the side of the head, while with the other hand he indi- 106 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. cates a location at some distance— i. e., at a place, or at that place, distance being indicated by the unusually high position of the left hand pointing forward ; this signifies that he will be many sleeps or nights at some distant place. The figure at the extreme right of the series is represented as making the gesture of return- ing whence he came ; this is indicated by the right hand pointing back towards the point of departure, whUe the left arm and hand is recurved to denote coming back, or to go in the direction indicated by the right. In another Innuit etching, as shown in Fig. 58, is portrayed the idea of nothing to eat, the first figure having both hands thrown out- Fia.53.-Nothiagto waj.(j from the body to signify eat (Innuit). •' o J none or nothing, while the sign for food or to eat is made by the second figure by having the hand placed to the mouth. The gesture signs to denote food and to eat are similarly portrayed by the ancient Egyp- tians, while in some of the Mexican codices the quantity of food allowed is represented by GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 107 discs or circles placed above or near the head, indicating the tortillas or bread served. These circles usually have dotted centres, perhaps to indicate the granular character of the sub- stance, or perhaps even denoting small punc- tures simply as ornaments, thus resembling the short markings upon the hieroglyphic character for cross-buns, or raised bread. The Ojibwa birch-bark records contain numerous characters in vphich the attempted reproduction of gesture signs is apparent. Most of these records relate to the cult society of the Mide', and are of interest chiefly for compari- son vrith similar pictographic records from other parts of the world. The illustration presented herewith in Fig. 59 represents a Mide' or medicine man supplicating the Great Spirit for © assistance. The universal gesture for ^^ ) supplication is the elevation (or ex- ^^ tention upward and forward) of the ^^^ ^^_ hand or hands. This is of frequent ^"^}^^!-^°^ occurrence in the Mexican codices. In the Egyptian hieroglyph in Fig. 60, and J 108 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. even in the CHnese, as is shown in the symbol for hermit, the modern character sian is evolved out of the primitive hieroglyphic aaa , which, according to Lenormant,* is the sign of a man over the sign of Fio. 60.- ^ mountain. Supplica- ... tion (Egjp- Upon more careful examination of this character it will be observed that the figure for man, though drawn in a horizon- tal posture, has his hand in the same uplifted attitude as the preceding illustrations, to de- note the gesture supplication, request, or to beg. Kow, if the figure be viewed from the right side of the page, the outline of the body, leg, and elevated arm will become intelligible. It is the practice of Oriental hermits, to a great extent, to make begging a profession, and the idea is beautifully portrayed both in the gesture named and in his solitary retreat in the mountains. The representation of the locust with the death's-head (a fore leg bearing four very pro- * Lenormant, op. cit., vol. i, p. 811. GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 109 nounced claws and a circular termination of the shoulder joint where the leg joins the body) presents to view several remarkable ideas clearly suggested in the illustration repro- duced in Fig. 61.* The fore leg is in the position resem- bling the hand and „ „, „ ,■ ,-^ ■ , t' Fig. 61— Chapolin (Mexican). arm when making the gesture for grasp, steal— made by reaching forward with the right hand, with the thumb and lingers curved like claws, and forcibly grasping at an imaginary object, then closing the hand and slowly withdrawing it ; the shoul- der joint, or rounded shoulder, suggests mo- bility of that joint. Were this not specially intended, the fore leg would perhaps have been indicated in a less conspicuous manner, and a little more attention given to portraying the hind legs, which should be the largest and strongest, but which are entirely ignored. * Kingsborough, vol. ii, Codex Viennensis, plate i. 110 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. The presence of a death's-head upon an or- thopterous insect appears to suggest rapacious and death-dealing habits, as is exhibited in the Rocky Mountain locust, which destroys the vegetation and grain, causing devastation and famine among the inhabitants and death among the animals in the community. Speech. Speech is represented in Egyptian hiero- glyphic writing by the outline of the human figure with one hand placed to the mouth ; this character may also, under different circum- stances, signify nourishment. In pictographs made by the American Indians there are marked distinctions in the graphic portrayal of the ideas of speaking, conversation, and singing. Speaking, as by one person, is indicated by the outline of the human head, with either a waving or undulating line emanating from the mouth. A straight line is sometimes drawn, but it may then denote a tube, such as is used by shamans in pretending to exorcise or ex- GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. m tract evil spirits from the bodies of the affected, ones. The ordinary method of portraying speech is by simply placing before the mouth a waving line. In complex ideographs, or in pictographic records of that variety ordinarily drawn by the Indians, the ' ' voice lines " are sometimes indi- cated as extending from the speaker's mouth to the object spoken of or to the person to whom he may be addressing himself. This practice is of frequent occurrence among the Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes. The Mexican codices are replete with illustra- tions of human figures having before the mouth the voice marks or commas to denote speech. These voice marks or commas, issuing from the mouth of the human figure, are expressed in Nahuatl by the word tlatolU, from the verb tlatoa, to speak, to cry out — as an animal.* According to Orozco y Berra these virgules or commas represent the verb to Mow or to hum. An illustration of speech, as thus repre- * Boban, i, 121. 112 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. sented, will be found in connection with the following explanation of a complex pictographio character in Fig. 62. The so-called pupil or eye in front of the forehead represents also a star, and signifies that the beholder sees everything about him — i. e., never sleeping. The two ornamented circles directly before the voice lines seem to be time symbols, but the original record being defaced by folding, no positive con- clusion is given. Five discs appear to have existed which would seem to denote forty-five years. Above and below are the double ideographic signs, tetl, stone, to indicate the locality Tenayocan (from tena- mitl, wall, barrier or rampart). * In the accompanying figure (63) is repro- duced an illustration of the Ojibwa method of FiQ. 62.— Mexican illustration of speech, time, etc. * Boban, Op. cit, p. 103, Atlas, plate ii. GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 113 designating the two chief deities, who are repre- sented by two small circles, with short lines radiating therefrom to denote their sacred attributes. The waving lines descending towards the ground, a lower transverse line, signifies that the spirits are telling the shamans tiescommulT- -, . . . , , .J! eating witli or medicine men m what part of shamans, the earth the sacred remedies most sought after may be found. In a similar man- ner a shaman portrays his conversational power with the Great Spirit, by representing himself as a circle, with a waving line extending up- ward to another circle, the latter denoting the deity addressed. Conversation between two persons is repre- sented as in Fig. 64, the two circles denoting the speakers, CX/s/VA>»-^y^ while the connecting line rep- reSenCS ine voice. between two shamans. Another mode of graphi- cally illustrating conversation between two per- sons is shown in Fig. 65. One is the maker of the record and the other the anthropomorphic 114 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. form of his favourite manido, or spirit, with whom he considers himself upon an equality. The double voice lines designate speech from both figures. The Mexican codices present numerous examples of figures rep- ^'°' °fation "^^ resenting conversation, the voice marks or commas being depicted in various positions between the speakers. Singing. Singing is represented by the Ojibwa as shown in Fig. 66. The lines drawn from the mouth would not, by themselves, indicate any specific kind of vo- cal utterance, but the designation within the body of the heart (the lines of which are repeated within ^"(Ojib^^ar""^ *^^* organ) denote joyous emo- tion giving expression by sing- ing. The same character is used also to denote heing happy or pleased. The Dakotas, in one of their winter counts, represent whooping cough GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 115 by a number of lines, though longer and more divergent than in the above illustration. The Ojibwa of Red Lake, Min- nesota, portray the croaking of a jL frog as shown in Fig. 67, the sev- V' eral divergent lines denoting the Fio.er.-Frog croaking. sound. The name of the King of Tlatelolco* v^as Cuauhtlatoatzin, from cuachtU, eagle, and tlaoa, sing, thus designating Sing- ing Eagle. The syllable tzin is a reverential terminal. In Fig. 68 the eagle is represented by synech- FiG.68.-singing Eagle (Mexican). doche, and the voice marks, being directed upward, as also in prayer or adora- iton, denote to sing or singing, and signify in this connection with the figure of the eagle's head a proper name. Ordinarily the Nahuatl pictographs repre- sent the voice marks as directed forward to indicate speech as distinct from singing. The character to represent to sing is fur- * Boban, i, p. 33. 116 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. thermore illustrated as shown in Fig. 69, from Aubin's collection.* The mouth is shown with the voice mark directed upward _Lj and forward. Speech, in Egyptian hieroglyphs, is represented by hav- FiQ. 69.— Singing (Mexican). ing the hand placed to the mouth. In the Hittite inscriptions (of which an illustration is given in Fig. 55) the initial character denoting the line at which the reading begins is the portrayal of the human body and head, with one arm so elevated as to bring the hand to the mouth to signify speech. The absence of speech, indicating a miite, is portrayed in the Mexican codices f by several lines drawn horizontally across the mouth and cheek of the human face en profile. This ap- pears very much as if the mouth were band- aged, and clearly represents impossibility of intelligible utterance. * Boban, i, p. 23. \ Ibid., i, p. 23. gesture signs and attitudes. 117 Sight. Seeing is represented in Ojibwa pictographs by straight or waving lines drawn forward from the eyes. This is merely a graphic represen- tation of the gesture, which is made by passing the extended forefinger forward from the eyes. To search for anything is expressed in ges- ture by passing the separated and extended fore and second fingers forward from the eye, then moving them from side to side— nearly at arm's length from the face— and indicating im- aginary places before the speaker. If a special object is sought, it is first designated by its proper gesture sign, followed by that for search. Pt^Jj) In this manner searching is ex- j^T"^ pressed in pictography as in Fig. / ,„if-'m 70, from a Dakota record.* The ^ ||l name of the individual is Search- ^S^^g) ing Cloud, the clond being drawn fiq. 70.- , ,-,-,-, -, ,. Searching Cloud above the head, and connectmg (Dakota). * Fourth Ann. Rep. Bureau of J]thnology, plate Ivii, No. 65. 118 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. therewith to denote its being a personal name ; the lines from the eyes being directed towards the cloud, signifying looMng for or searching. An Ojibwa character, obtained from a mne- monic record, represents the crane, as the sym- bol of that totem, with several short lines directed forward from the eyes, and terminating near a short vertical bar. The signification is that the Crane people are possessed of sharp sight, so penetrating that it passes through a metallic barrier. The waving lines directed outward from the head should not be confused with the short lines running downward — sometimes added as well in the same figure — to denote weeping. The latter, if extended downward towards the earth as low as the feet, or if some object be attached to the end of the lines, indicates searching for something in the earth, or at a place near by, though invisible. Reference has been made to a hunting rec- ord, made by a Hidatsa Indian, to indicate his effort in searching for his companions who had followed a buffalo. Upon examining the iUus- GESTURE SIGNS AKD ATTITUDES. 119 tration, here reproduced as Fig. 4, the trail or dotted lines pursued by the animal and the hunters is clearly indicated. The recorder shows the animal itself at the top, while beneath it, at intervals, are three human heads. The lower one represents the recorder himself, who had followed the party, but had lost the trail on account of darkness. Finally he shouted, to ascertain, if his friends were within hearing distance. Continuing again in the probable course pursued by the Indians, he again shouted to ascertain if the party was or was not within hailing distance. Hearing no re- sponse, he started forward and soon again cried out, when, to his relief, he received a response, and soon Joined the hunters who had encamped for the night. Buffalo meat was served, as the animal had been secured early in the day. In the Nahuatl character, as reproduced in Fig. 71, no X/o^ indication of lines to denote H J sight will be observed ; but Fiq. ri.-Seelng (Mexi- can). instead, small nucleated cir- cles, similar to the figures employed to sig- 120 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. nify stars — with whicli, in trutli, they are iden- tical ; these represent that the person near whom, or in front of whom, they may be placed sees all that is transpiring — ^i. e., he is never sleeping. Heaking. Hearing is portrayed in Ojibwa records by placing a waving line to either ear, and extend- ing it outward a short distance from the head. To distinguish this from the specific idea of lis- tening, the latter has the lines directed out- ward, and upward or downward, as if trying to hear sounds at a remote distance. Fig. 72 is reproduced from a shaman's record, and illustrates the Fia. 72.— Out of hearing (Ojib- method of portraying graphically the idea of Jiearing, as well as the additional indication of the gesture sign for negation, thus signifying not hearing ; or bet- ter still, as the shaman explained it, out of hearing. The Ojibwa represent deafness by a similar GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 121 drawing. The gesture sign for no, none, or negation generally, is made by throwing the hands outward to either side from the front of the body. Another method of representing to hear and to listen is by drawing the oval outline of the human head with semicircular appendages at either side, to denote the ears. But one ear will sometimes be indicated, and when the sha- man is desirous of intimating that the listening is towards some indefinite spot beneath the earth — the abode of the bad spirits — the head wiQ be drawn so as to place the ear towards the ground. Eating. Closely connected with the graphic sign for speech is that for eating, the gesture for which is made by placing the hand or forefinger to the mouth, or by simply directing the tips of the fingers towards it, opening the mouth at the same time. The most interesting pictographs expressing this idea are found upon wooden tablets of the 122 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Easter Islanders,* an example of which is re- produced herewith in Fig 73. Yarious forms of graphic execu- tion and attitude occur on these in- scribed tablets, but in all instances the conception appears to be the same. The Mexican character for the / same idea is expressed in the same ^>-. manner, as shown in Fig. 74, the mouth en profile, with a piece of tortilla or other like food projecting therefrom. Closely allied to this is the Mex- ican symbol for drink, as in Fig. 75, made by placing to the mouth the character signifying water. Fig. 74.— Eat ing (Mexi- can). Negatiok. The gesture for negation — no, none, nothing -is almost universally made by throwing the Op. cii., plate xlii. GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 123 hands horizontally outward towards their re- spective sides. In various Ojibwa pictographs graphic portrayals of this gesture are found, an interesting example being that already given as Fig. 72, in connection with the character for hearing. In the illustration given by De Landa as one of the alphabetic characters of the Mayas * (here reproduced as Fig. 76), the arms are shown as extended, as if grasping an object, the hands being denoted ° — " — ^ by circles and not extended fingers. ^uoJ^Ma^I)* The character signifies alphabeti- cally Tna, from maTi, a six-foot measuring rod for measuring land, and which, no doubt, sug- gested its phonetic value, as the hands would be thus extended in grasping the rod when stooping to measure along the surface of the ground. The Egyptian hieroglyph for the same idea is shown in Fig. 77, from a tablet at Abusimbel, * Brasseur de Bourbourg, illustration given by Dr. Brinton in Essays of an Americanist, op. cit. 124 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. in Nubia, addressed to Ramses III by an Afri- can prince, b. c. 1550.* The character is com- mon upon other ancient Egyptian -— rv_j^ records, and the gesture for nega- Fio 77 -Ne- ^^^^ ^^ clearly drawn, as well as ^*"°°^^^^P' suggested, by the physically impos- sible close position of the elbows, suggesting an outward movement of the fore- arms. Closely related to these gestures is the hieroglyphic portrayal of the gesture sign to denote the left, as shown in an in- n ^1 scription on a dedicatory stela in the I palace of Amunoph III, in which it Fro. 78.-on is related that upon the left bank tian). of the Nile two obelisks are erected. The illustration is reproduced as Fig. 78, and shows the left hand as viewed from the front, t * Gliddon, op. cit., p. 37. f Gliddon, op. cit., p. 35. GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 125 To KILL.— Dead. The accompanying illustration (Fig. 79) is a reproduction of characters etched by an Innuit, upon a piece of walrus ivory, to record the death of his victim. The left-hand figure, re- sembling a long-handled fan, m -1 1 -I Fig. 79. — Innuit votive IS called a shaman or med- offering. icine stick, upon which is the figure of a bird. This stick is erected as a votive offering, or grave stick, as it is designa- ted by the Western Indians. The middle fig- ure, of a headless- man, represents the victim who was killed and beheaded by the person indicated at the extreme right. The victim was a hunter, a harpoon being held in his right hand, denoting that he was a whale hunter. The recorder, at the right, who erected the grave stick and made the etching, is represented as having his arm thrust forward and downward towards the ground, in imitation of the gesture sign to Mil. 126 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING, To guard against having ill luck in hunting and fishing, and to appease the anger of the spirit of the departed, he placed upon the medi- cine stick a bird — the best or luckiest fetich that can be offered by him. The belief prevails among the southern Innuit that "flying gods" are good ones, while "crawling" or "swim- ming " ones are evil. The victim furthermore is represented as dead by his being headless, a practice common to many tribes within the United States. Death is frequently indicated by a blackened body, in imitation of the blackening of the face in mourn- ing ; also by attaching to the human figure or head, or to the totem of the victim, the outline of the weapon or instrument that caused death, as an arrow, a gun, or a cluJb. The Ojibwa de- note death by drawing upon the grave-board, in an inverted position, the totemic character of the person intended. In this is imitated the gesture sign, made by throwing the flat, ex- tended hand, palm down, outward and down- ward, in such a manner as to end by having the palm up. GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 127 FiEE. — Flames. — Smoke. The Ojibwa represent fire and flames as re- produced in Fig. 80. The small square object at the bottom denotes the ground, while the short vertical lines above it signify the tongues of fire. The arm portrayed above signifies the arm of the recorder, the shaman, u_j and represents him as preparing a ^irT-'~ mysterious .preparation over the fire, *''*"^a)""''*'' and also as being able to grasp fire without injury to himself. " Juggling with fire " is frequently performed by certain Ojib- wa, designated wabeno—i. e., "daylight men" — from wdban, white, daybreak, because their orgies cease only at the approach of day. The gesture sign for . fire is made by placing the tips of the fingers against the thumb, and while passing the hand slightly upward from near the ground, then suddenly extending or flip- ping the fingers upward. When the flame lines, as in the above illus- tration, are replaced iby small dots, they repre- 10 128 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. sent mystic or sacred power ; and the figure then signifies that the shaman professes the ability to extract from the earth magic and supernatural powers. When the figure of an arm is so drawn as to extend upward instead of downward (and a short curve is placed a little above the hand, with radiating strokes above the curve), the strokes have reference to the ligJit of the sun and denote clear day. In Fig. 81 the flame lines are . again pre- sented, but in this instance they descend from the figure of a hu- man head. The object is symboli- cal of the " white bear manido," FiQ. 81.-" White *^® \\'a^^ below the head denoting ojiblldeityr flames, while the eyes are direct- ing their penetrating gaze towards the place inhabited by mortal Indians. The waving lines extending downward from the eyes denote sigM, and the gesture sign to express this sense is made by passing forward from the eye one or two fingers of the right hand. Similar lines, when waving or undulating, GESTURE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 129 indicate magic things or property belonging to tlie cult society or to the members thereof ; and lines extending upward from a horizontal bar or line — denoting the earth's surface — represent " magic influence " ascending. In the Mexican codices j'Zre is represented by short flame-like objects — tongues of fire. Near the top of these are short volutes or commas, similar in type to the speech or voice commas. The latter represent smoke, popoca, and may be found also as a better illustration in the sym- bol for the volcano, popocatapetl, the popoca, smoke, issuing from the mountain cone or tepefl. The primitive method of making fire, by ro- tating a firestick between the hands, thus creating friction upon a second piece of wood, is represented in the codices as shown in Fig. 82. The fire is here indicated by the ascent of smoke symbols. fig. sa-Making Are " (Mexican). The Indian gesture sign, as made even at the present day, is by rubbing 130 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. together tlie palms as if rotating a stick, and then making the sign for jire or flames as above indicated. Smoke is represented in contact with celestial bodies also to denote any great catastrophe. An instance of this kind is recorded in connec- tion with the arrival in Mexico of the Spaniards. The stars are here represented as smoking and falling from their position in the heavens. Lightning. LigMning is represented among the Ojibwa and neighbouring tribes by the eagle or " thun- der-bird," this being a deity whose voice is the lightning, and whose moving wings causes the thunder and the winds. The "thunder-bird" is usually designated by the picture of an eagle, though by a process of conventionalising he is represented by a rude cross, and rarely by a T-shaped figure. Among the Pueblos generally lightning is divided into two kinds, harmful and harmless. The former is designated by the conventional zigzag lines of which one end terminates in an .^ GESTUKE SIGNS AND ATTITUDES. 131 arrow point, while the harmless lightning has only a small ring or knob instead of the arrow point. The lightning is gener- ally shown as emanating from the ordinary clond symbols, as in Fig. 83. The gestnre for fk. 83.-Lightning. lightning is made by rapidly passing the extended index finger in an irreg- ular course from one side to the other, and from above slightly downward. Lightning is represented by the ancient Mexicans, as well as by the Pueblos, as a ser- pent descending from the clouds. CHAPTER VII. mnemonic signs. Significance of Colours. Among all people specific significations have always been attached to certain colours. In this country, at the present day, black is asso- ciated with mourning, white with youth and innocence, red with danger, and yellow with epidemic disease. The signification of a colour as recognised by one people may be at variance with the pre- vailing custom of another body ; indeed, in some instances, the colour and its interpretation as recognised by civilised folk is in direct op- position to that held by some semi-civilised and barbarous nations. The designation of colours (as pertaining to social or tribal customs as well as war and cult 132 MNEMONIC SIGNS. 133 practices) has mucli to do with the proper in- terpretation of pictographs. For instance, the Sioux Indians formerly painted the face, from the eyes downward, red when going to war, whereas the Crow tribe painted the forehead only. As both these tribes portray personal and tribal exploits in a similar manner, this peculiarity of facial decoration alone often aids in determining the authorship of a painted robe. Faces painted black usually designate mourn- ing, while various stripes and spots may gen- erally be accepted as indicating the person so decorated to be a shaman or medicine man, or a member of a particular gens or clan. Among the members of the Ojibwa cult so- cieties green and red colours are employed for facial decoration, the arrangement thereof in stripes or spots depending entirely upon the rank or status of the person decorated. Upon the ceremonial post planted in the en- closure (erected for the observance of ceremo- nies of the fourth degree of the medicine so- ciety) are displayed four colours, placed upon four sides so as to face the cardinal points, or 134 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. rather the abode of the manido ; thus, white on the east to signify the source of light ; green on the south to denote that from that direction come rains and warmth to cause the appearance and growth of vegetation ; red on the west, as the direction of the path taken by the dead whose "shadows" are on their way to the "land of the setting sun," the abode of the brother of Manabush ; and Hack on the north as indicating the place of cold, hunger, and dis- ease. When an eagle plume, upon which there is no colour, is attached to the head, it designates the wearer to have shot an enemy. A red bar across the middle of the feather shows that he was the first to touch the fallen enemy ; two bars, the second ; three bars, the third ; and four for the fourth. Among the Sioux a black feather shows the wearer to have killed an Ojibwa ; and when the central part of the quill (the shaft) is wrapped with coloured porcupine quills it in- dicates that he has killed a woman. Frequently such characteristic exploits are MNEMONIC SIGNS. 135 indicated by colour designation upon buffalo robes and upon sheets of canvas. In the Mexican codices colours play an im- portant part and possess a phonetic value. The word for yellow is cuztic or coztic ; and when the hieroglyphs express phonetically such words as Acozpa, Gozamaloapan, or CozJiuipil- can, the monosyllable coz is expressed solely by the yellow colour which the scribe lays upon his picture.* The colours employed in Egyptian hiero- glyphic writing were unusually black and red, and although the system may be termed poly- chromatic, the colours do not appear to possess phonetic values, as in Nahuatl. The colours applied to symbols are not arbi- trary on the part of the artist, but were applied according to systematic rules, more or less con- sistent with the nature of the object. Gliddon f asserts that the chief colours in the characters were blue for the heavens ; red * Dr. D. Gr. Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, Philadelphia, 1890. t Gliddon, op. cit. 136 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. for Egyptian males, and yellow for females. Other nations were represented as nearly as possible according to the colour of the skin : Asiatics by various flesh tints ; Berbers by dif- ferent shades of brown, and negroes by hlacJc. QuiPirs, OR Kkotted Steings. The Peruvian system of knotting strings for recording numbers and other statistical infor- mation is probably more familiar than any other. The quipus consisted of a central or main cord, to which were attached, at various distances, thinner strands of diflEerent colours, which were knotted in various ways for special purposes. Dr. Andree* states that the system was mnemonic, though the method of knotting the strings, as well as their subsequent interpre- tation, was to be acquired by instruction given by persons specially skilled in this art. The strands were of different colours, each having * Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiohe, von Richard Andree, Stuttgart, 1878, p. 195. MNEMONIC SIGNS. ]37 its special signification ; thus, the red indicated soldiers ; the yellow, gold ; the white, silver, etc. Single knots signified ten ; double knots, one hundred ; two single knots, twenty ; two double knots, two hundred. Among the herders of the Puna an almost similar system survives, various kinds of knots being used to designate the kind, age, and sex of the different animals owned or pastured. This resembles, in some respects, the prac- tice of the Paloni Indians of California, whose method was as follows : Each year the Paloni selected a certain number of their tribe to visit the settlement, at San Gabriel, to sell native blankets ; every Indian sending goods provided the salesman with two cords made of twisted hair or wool, on one of which was tied a knot for every real received, and on the other a knot for each blanket sold. When the sum reached ten reals, or one dollar, a double knot was made. Upon the return of the salesman, each person selected from the lot his own goods, by which he would quickly perceive the amount 138 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. due, and also the number of blankets for which the salesman was responsible. Among the Zuni a more highly developed method of knotting obtained. It appears pos- sible that certain strands pertained to cult prac- tices, others to war, etc.; knotted fringes at- tached to the paraphernalia of members of cult societies appear to be survivals of such prac- tice.* The celebrated Chinese historical work en- titled Yih-Klng mentions that previous to the invention of writing there had existed in China a conventional mnemonic process of tying knots in cords. In the appendix to the work named, the philosopher Koiing-tseu (Confucius) says : "In great antiquity knotted cords served them for the administration of affairs. During the following generation the saintly man Fou-hi re- placed these by writing." "Legend," says Mr. Gardner, f "places the tying of knots in strings at about 2800 b. c, * Personal information given by Mr. Prank H. Gushing, t C. Gardner, Journal Ethnological Society, London, ii, 1870, 5-13. MNEMONIC SIGNS. 139 when Fo-hi invented eight symbols, and at the same time pictorial representations of these knotted strings were taken to represent the object thereby symbolised. " These symbols are ^^^^ heaven, or pre- naailing principle ; '~~ '~~ balance ; -^ — water ; ^^ ^^ earthquake ; ^^^^ wood ; *"" sacrifice ; — ^— boundary, and ^^ ^s: the earth." Another Chinese legend tells us also that " the most ancient forms were five hundred and forty characters, formed by a combination of knotted strings and the eight symbols, made in the form of birds' claws in various states of tension, and that these five hundred and forty characters were suggested to the inventor by the marks left on the sand." Leaving legends, we find that the Chinese themselves have from the most ancient times classified their characters under six heads, and that this classification, although made in times too remote to admit of any date being affixed, yet holds good in the present day. These divisions are : 140 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. 1. Ideographic. 2. Figurative-combined. 3. Indicative. 4. Reversed. 5. Borrowed or metaphoric. 6. Phonetic. The ancient Egyptians were, without doubt, familiar with similar methods of tying knots in cords for the purpose of calling to mind cer- tain matters of information. This appears evident from the fact that one of the hiero- glyphic symbols consists of the reproduction of the knotted and looped cord itself. The discovery in Egypt of any remains of knotted cords relating to this subject is not to be expected. The origin of writing is so remote that no textile fabric anciently employed for the purpose is likely to have escaped disinte- gration or decomposition. Notched Sticks. Several tribes of Indians, in California, em- ployed a variety of tallysticks to record trans- actions in business— i. e., pertaining to labour. MNEMONIC SIGNS. 141 money, cattle, and horses. The sticks were squared and nearly one inch thick, from eigh- teen to twenty-four inches long ; upon the side or face were incised short cuts to denote num- bers up to nine, and a long cut across the width of a face to denote ten. When labour days or reals and pesos are noted, nothing else is required upon the stick to denote the class to which it belongs ; but should cattle be indicated as in charge of the herder (who is responsible for them), the ex- treme end of the stick would have a V-shaped notch to suggest horns ; when horses were in- tended to be thus noted, the end of the stick would be sharpened into a wedge-shape, resem- bling the pointed ear of a horse. Sticks relating to oxen, cows, stallions, mares, colts, and calves were each specially differentiated by crosses, squares, and V-shaped cuts on the handles ; duplicates of such were always retained by both interested parties. Sticks so marked, with short and long cuts, appear very much like the Irish oghams, though the strokes upon the latter have alphabetic val- 14,2 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. ues ; they may have had their primary origin in a similar mnemonic process. In England an ancient mode of keeping ac- count by notching sticks was kept up by the British Exchequer long after better modes were in use everywhere else. The sticks — one for the creditor and the other for the debtor — were made to fit together at one end by one piece being a little shorter than the other, the space beyond the end of the shorter one being occupied by the wider and projecting side of the longer one. The tallying of the notches was taken as a proof that both were genuine. Till half a century ago it was customary in Scotland for the baker's lad to bring the nick- sticlcs with his bread, a notch being made for each loaf he left. While the notches on his stick correspond with those on the one left with the family, both parties were satisfied that the account was justly kept. According to Dr. Plot, the Clog Almanac was in use in the northern counties in 1686, but was unknown farther south. Prom this fact MNEMONIC SIGNS. 143 and from its being used also in Denmark, he conceived it to have come into England with the Danish invaders many centuries before. The Clog bore the same relation to a printed almanac which the Exchec[uer tallies bore to a set of account books. It consisted of a square piece of boxwood, about eight inches in length, fitted to be hung up for reference. Properly it was a perpetual almanac, designed mainly to show the Sundays and other fixed holidays of the year. " There were short notches for days cut into one edge of the stick and longer ones beside other characters upon the two sides, the faces and edge representing three months. " The first day of the month was marked by having a patulous stroke turned up from it ; Sunday by a broader notch. The most interest- ing portion is that relating to feast days, the symbols or hieroglyphs denoting them as fol- lows : For instance, from the notch indicating the 13th of January proceeds a cross, as indic- ative of the episcopal rank of St. Hilary ; from that on the 25 th, an axe for St. Paul, and 11 144 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. sucL. being the instrument of his martyrdom. Against St. Valentine's day was a true-lover's knot, and against St. David's day (March 1st) a harp, because the Welsh saint was accus- tomed to praise God on that instrument. ' ' Many others are noted, but it may be of in- terest to observe that Christmas was indicated by a horn, ' the ancient vessel in which the Danes used to wassail or drink healths, signi- fying to us that this is the time we ought to make merry, cornua exhaurienda notans, as Woomius will have it.'" CHAPTEE VIII. GROWTH OF CONVENTIONAL SIGNS. Quite a number of examples of convention- alised signs have already been described in con- nection with, the subject of personal exploits, and metonymical and synecdochical ideog- raphy. The presentation of further examples will better illustrate the scope of the develop- ment and abbreviation of pictography, espe- cially as practised by some of the Indian tribes. The rudest way of designating man is by a simple dot or spot, as in some Arikara picto- graphs ; the same idea is portrayed by the In- nuit by a vertical bar or stroke for a living man and a horizontal one for a dead man. The illustration of two men seated in a hai- darTca, consisting of a horizontal stroke with two diagonal ones, as in Fig. 84, is the Innuit method of drawing seal hunters, the oars or 145 146 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. paddles project below the body of the boat, while the men are shown by the same lines above it. Another similar etching, though more life-like, is produced in Fig. 85. This is similar to the general type of the human form, as found y^ in pictographic records distributed over the Shoshonian area of the Western States and Territories. The various representations of the human form shown in Fig. 86 are all from petroglyphs in Owen's Valley, California. ^f^tt^ Fig. 86.— Various types ot the human form. Fio. 84.— Iimuit seal hunters. Fio. 85.— Man (Innuit). Those with arms extended appear especially to represent gesture signs for negation; some of the figures, on account of their connection in the petroglyphs with animal forms, would appear to denote surprise, or to portray the act of chasing game towards a point where hunters GROWTH OP CONVENTIONAL SIGNS. 147 were lying in wait for an opportunity to shoot their arrows. The right-hand figure of the series seems to denote a personage of high rank, a chief or shaman. The headdress of plumes would de- note such rank. The next figure to the left is also characterised by lines which, among some tribes, denote superiority in cult practices or shamanism. Among the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, at Tule River, California, and south- west of the Owen's Valley group of petroglyphs above mentioned, is a large series of painted pictographs to which special reference has al- ready been made, among which quite a number of the human figures are portrayed in the attitude of making gesture signs, o ' Pjq Sr.— Signs for negation. as in Pig. 87, a and 6, both of which are drawn as making the gesture for negation, none, or nothing. The right-hand figure (5) closely resembles one from the same series which is intended 148 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. to represent a beaver, the only difference being in the arrangement of the lower extremities. A very common form found among the Moki or Shinumo petroglyphs A is reproduced in Fig. 88. It is remarkably like one figured by Strahlenberg, from the Yeni- Negatton (Moki). sei River in Siberia.* The Ojibwa and neighbour- ing tribes represent dead or Mlled as headless, the sex being indicated by the lovrer half of the figure, as in Fig. 89, a being X^ the symbol of a headless or dead '^^ man, while 6 designates a head- FiQ. 89.-Man and Ibss or dead womau. The clos- woman, dead (ojibwa). ing of the space between the feet denotes the skirt. Some- times women are also represented by the figure of a man, but have in addition thereto the in- dication of the mammje. Fig. 90 represents a Dakota drawing to de- * Strahlenberg, An Historico-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia. London, 1738, 3 vols. GROWTH OP CONVENTIONAL SIGNS. 149 t Fig. 90.— "Woman (Dakota). note woman, the skirt being indicated beneath the head and arms. This is very similar to the rudely drawn goddess Tanit (Fig. 91), as repre- sented upon the steeples at Car- thage ;* and the same deity is fre- quently found also with an in- verted crescent placed above the head, the transverse lower line of the skirt being absent, thus giving the figure the appearance of a stool with legs, as in Fig. 92. To such portrayals of the hu- man form various slight additions may make a vast difiference, both in appearance and signification. A man drawn in the act of walk- ing — or even standing — with a staff, denotes, both in Ojibwa and Egyptian hieroglyphs, either chief or aged. When the former, the staff is representing as being thrust towards or into the ground — i. e., taking pos- Fie. 91.— The goddess Tanit. Fio. 92.— The goddess Tanit. * Perrot and Chipiez, History of Art in Phoenicia and its De- pendencies. London, 1885, vol, i, pp. 80, 81, Figs. 29, 30. 150 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. session; whereas in the latter tlie attitude is one less expressive, and simulates walking — i. e. , locomotion with the aid of a staff. The portrayal of a chief, as made by the Dakotas, frequently presents short fringes at- tached to the arms, in imitation of the ermine ornamentation worn by persons of high rank ; such ornamentation is liable to create confusion in the interpretation of records, as it resembles the pinions upon the wings of the eagle, when this bird is portrayed to designate the thunder- bird or thunder god. In fact, the human figure with wing-like arms is, according to Schoolcraft, symbolical of an American.* Abbreviations also occur in which the head only is drawn to denote man. This method, being by synecdoche, is simple for the native artist, but often uncertain of translation and confusing to the student. The Ojibwa represent shamans and other * Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of tlie United States, vol. i, plate Iviii, No. 58. GROWTH OP CONVENTIONAL SIGNS. 151 classes of mystery men by attaching horns to the figure of the head, and in certain instances also the head is shown with radiating lines, thus resembling some characters to denote the sun. The elaborate headdresses found upon some Mexican figures so hide the human form as to make it difiicult of identification. These orna- mental representations relate to the quality or status of the person portrayed. The effect of conventionalising and the deg- radation of pictorial symbols are illustrated in the change of the hu- man form, as presented \ ^ ^ _. in Fig. 93, a, 5, and c. ^r fV/ >^ The figure of a man, as ^^ j^ « portrayed in the Egyp- fig. 93. -Man (hieroglyphic). tian hieratic writing, is shown at a, which gradually became more con- ventionalised, as at 6, and ultimately reduced to the demotic c. The image of the solar disc is almost uni- versally employed to figuratively represent the sun, and by metonymy, dap. This disc may 152 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. or may not have a central spot or nucleus. The next addition to the plain circle consists of rays diverging in all directions, thus also denoting ligM as well as the sun. An Ojibwa drawing of the sun is given in Fig. 94, in which the Fio. 94.— Sun , „ . , -, . . (Ojibwa). human face is represented ; variants of this type, as made by the Moki or Shinumo, are reproduced in Fig. 95. The Ojibwa Indians represent sunrise, midday, and sunset by drawing an arched curve from left to right, Fio. 95.-sun forms (Moki). ^ud placing above it at the left, middle, or right a short vertical stroke to indicate the respective periods of the day. The Moki, on the other hand, indicate sunrise or sunset by placing the upper half of a rayed disc upon the horizon, indicated by a horizontal line. The primitive Assyrian hieroglyph for sun was a diamond-shaped figure ^S, which be- came later on 2*^^, and ultimately, in the GROWTH OP CONVENTIONAL SIGNS. 153 Assyrian character as found npon the Baby- lonian bricks, 3 a 3 ■! J. ^ w * © <; ■a <» ^ ^ N ^ ^ ^ e a „ g e ^ <^ ^ ;Jj Cjj ^ S § s S i ^ be cu ^ •2 fe to -3 J -S 00 CO §*^ 03 cS appr cept ■ id syl o ■73 ^ -« I3 -w M g QG m ci © ca ^ f~i cd ^ -. .„ O a . ^ a "A S glish with tu, t O _g ^g _d ^ ^^£ S OS oj as in ginni ided 03 C3 t3 ^ g s Q ® r2 W CB s ,^ ?, EH — — 1^; Sylla metimi 0^ P3 0^ g he :r; "i^ '^ 3 a, 2 s* 53 1^^ r ^ w ^ •^ S.2« s p 03 g PH m .a o i Ph S3 - tc 4S 'S =3 „^ '-+3 a QQ ^ hX ew Fh M ^0 Sj" ^ rs ^ be ^ S -u s e ■Si =3 .Cm ttM te ■<. i-=S 'a. M _g i=t _g =3 r^- -^ e « •^ ^ w § § ^ 7: ^^ g ^ ^ OJ H^ '-13 '? « 5a" •■S" fl PHONOGRAMS. I79 these requires further attention, as they were not of aboriginal invention. About the year 1821 a Cherokee, named Se- quoya, devised a so-called alphabet for the use of his people. The characters number eighty- five, and vrith a single exception are used as syllables, the letter s, alone, representing a sound as a letter. But here, again, we find our own alphabet made use of, with various additions and distortions, and not — as we have hitherto believed it — an independent discovery brought about by a people entirely isolated and uninfluenced by outside elements (Plate IV). The only peoples on the Western continent who were rapidly approaching that stage in the development of writing where a syllabary was slowly being evolved were the Mexicans and the Mayas. The Ojibwa characters, although of a supe- rior class, are highly pictorial and comprise nothing higher than a few lines or marks which suggest rude determinatives ; some of the ideo- grams found upon bark records made over a century ago are so like Chinese symbols of 180 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. the Shang dynasty that, were both styles copied and placed side by side, it would be practically impossible to distinguish one from the other. This has special reference to such characters as denote fire, fish, ax, etc., and presents only another illustration of the inde- pendent discovery and development of the sev- eral arts by various peoples, in similar stages of intellectual development and culture, though in widely separated portions of the earth. The Japanese language is not monosyllabic like the Chinese, but polysyllabic, and in the adoption of the Chinese characters it became possible to discard the "keys "and "radicals," and to select only such of the Chinese sounds as were found necessary. In this manner the Japanese have acquired, by the selection of ver- bal phonograms, two syllabaries, one being constructed from a cursive form of Chinese writing called the Tsau or grass character, containing about three hundred sounds ; and a simpler one from the Kyai or model type, hav- ing only a single character for each of the forty-seven sounds required. PHONOGRAMS. 181 The primitive inhabitants of western Asia invented a pictorial system of writing, from which resulted, on the one hand, the several stages of development of the cuneiform of the Semitic Assyrians and Babylonians. "Out of the Semitic cuneiform," says Dr. Taylor,* "arose on the one hand the Turanian pro to- Medic syllabary, and on the other the cunei- form alphabet of the Aryan Persians." The latter, says Prof. Sayce,t was solved acro- logicaUy, and retains images of the syllabic writing out of which it sprang. The oldest remains bearing inscriptions con- sist of the inscribed bricks from lower Baby- lonia. These inscriptions are in the "linear Babylonian," which consists of ideograms, the pictorial origin of which is still to be detected in many instances without difficulty. Later on the wedge-shaped or arrow-headed characters replaced these, and on account of convention- alisation, which has obliterated the simpler ob- * Op. cit., vol. i, pp. 39, 40. f Science of Language, toI. ii, p. 331. 182 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. jective characters, tliese later wedge-shaped groupings are difficult of identification as having descended from the pictorial outlines. An interesting example is the Assyrian cuneiform character wJ"/ (Ma) a "fish."* It is difficult to recognise in this the object, but by going back to the archaic Babylonian we find more fidelity to the outline of the object intended, as tlJSx > while in the linear Baby- lonian the head, fins, and tail become more dis- tinct, as in vl!^^^jCa« 6. C^ /^ '■ hi \'^en 7. Q ^\> ^ke 8. ^ « ^A A - ^M X -^ H '"^ 10. &=^ "HI crs pe Via. 113.— Hittite and Cypriote characters. No. 4. "A star, Cypriote a, an." This is a mark employed in cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs for " deity." * Op. cit., p. 56. 188 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. No. 3. "A throne." The outline of the chair-form is distinctly visible. The character is similar to the form of chair drawn by the Mexicans in some of the codices. No. 3. "Apparently a key, the Cypriote lie." Compares evidently with the cuneiform emblem '■HTc, to open." Ko. 4. "A tiara. Cypriote Ico, Akkadian Aw, prince." When two such points are joined together at the base, the character represents country, as in various pictographs of the Chi- nese, Ojibwa, and Egyptian. Wo. 5. " Hand and stick ; Cypriote ta, ap- parently a causative prefix, like the Egyptian determinative; Chinese ta, 'to beat.'" This character resembles the graphic portrayal of the gesture for possession, my, mine, suggested perhaps by the planting or thrusting into the ground of the spear or lance-pole. A similar gesture in India was stated to have originated in this manner of taking possession, by planting the standard. No. 6. "The hand grasping, Cypriote to." This is suggested as being similar to the Egyp- PHONOGRAMS. 189 tian, cuneiform, and Chinese signs for touch, take, have. No. 7. "A vase. Cypriote pe, used pho- netically. Akkadian hi, a cup." No. 8. "Bull's head. Cypriote le, Akka- dian le or lu, ' bull.' " No. 9. " This is the sign of opposition in cuneiform, in Chinese, and in Egyptian. Cyp- riote mu or no (nu, ' not '). " No. 10. Resembles the Chinese, cuneiform, and Egyptian emblem for heaven. " Akkadian ■M." The idea is rather that for sky, and is similar to characters found in many of the In- dian pictographs. No. 11. "Two legs." Resembles the cunei- form dhu, and means probably ' go ' or ' run.' " In Egyptian as well as Ojibwa and Mexican pictographs we find the same conception simi- larly portrayed. We are aware that the primitive pictorial characters of the ancient Egyptians gradually attained the value of verbal phonograms, out of which were developed, by the application of the principle of aerology, syllabic and alphabetic 190 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING, signs. By the principle of aerology is meant the representation of a sound by the portrayal of the object, which had for initial articulation, or beginning letter, the sound which this sign or image was intended to express.* The earliest evidence of the use of alphabetic sounds occurs, according to Dr. Taylor, on the inscription of King Sent.f The simultaneous use of syllabic signs and ideographs required the employment of additional characters, as de- terminatives, to distinguish between the several homophones, or " similar-in-sound " characters, which might be selected. There were two classes : special determinatives, whose use was confined to one word or idea — and generic deter- minatives, applied to groups of ideas or words. Thus, in referring to the subject of country or nation, the character resembling three sharp ridges, or apexes, would be employed ; and a hand pointing to the mouth would refer to eat- ing, drinking, or speaJcing — examples of this * Gliddon, Ancient Egypt, New York, 1843, p. 33. f The Alphabet, p. 61. PHONOGRAMS. 191 kind, being simply the graphic representation of the gesture sign for the same idea, occur frequently in the Egyptian. They are found also in the Mexican and to a limited extent in Indian pictographs and Eskimo etchings on walrus ivory. The pure monumental hieroglyphs, it is well known, are made in a careful manner so as to represent in detail all the parts of the object intended. The linear characters, resulting from the reduction of the preceding, are frequently a little more diflBcult of identification. A greater change appears, however, in the hieratic writing — i. e., the linear reduced to an abbreviated form, used by the scribes and priests in literary pursuits, and in current use prior to 1000 b. o. The next change occurred during the reign of Psammeticus, when the later demotic super- seded the hieratic, as being simpler and easier to write rapidly ; this is also styled enchorial in the Greek translation of the Rosetta stone. The date of the invention of this method is placed between the years 654 b. c. and the period of the Persian conquest, 525 b. c. Both 192 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. of these styles are written from right to left ; but when the Christianized Egyptians followed the Greeks in alphabetic and graphic system, the characters became Coptic, and were read from left to right. The hieroglyphic and hieratic writings, then, present to us the sacerdotal or classic dialect of ancient Egypt ; whereas the hieratic and the Coptic literature present the popular dialect. Alphabets. It was not until the alphabetic characters became separated from their syllabic associates, that the highest civilisation became possible. The employment of a cumbrous syllabic and ideographic system of recording sound, is a hin- drance in the development of many forms of progress, as is evinced in the culture status of several Oriental peoples. The discovery of al- phabetic characters made possible the record and transmission of language and culture in history, literature, and science ; and to us noth- ing appears more natural than to write our thoughts by means of twenty-six phonograms, PHONOGRAMS. I93 the graphic symbols of the sounds which we term the alphabet. The evolution out of pictorial prototypes of alphabetic characters has been indicated. The hieroglyphics in the Egyptian inscriptions, are in a measure phonetic, standing either for syllables or letters, generally the latter. Dr. Birch* argues that "every hieroglyph repre- sents a syllable, each consonant having a vowel sound inherent in it ; practically, however, he represents the alphabetic hieroglyphs by single letters. Thus he reads 8 j f iiot ^s Tiu-iu-su, but as Tiebsy Rawlinson, whose investigations into the antiquities in Asia Minor and Egypt are so well known, remarks that "the Egyp- tians, like the Phoenicians, resolved speech into its elements, and expressed these elements by signs, which had the exact force of our let- ters. In choosing their sign they looked out for some common object, with a name of which the initial element was identical with * Quoted by Rawlinson, History of Ancient Egypt, London, • 1881, p. 131. 194 BBGINNINaS OF WRITING. the sound they wanted to express." In this manner the eagle was made the sign for its initial sound aJcMm, and represented A ; and other words having a similar initial sound were also employed to represent the letter A, as a leaf of a water plant, or a hand and arm to the elbow. B was expressed by a leg and foot, also by a cranelike bird, and by an object re- sembling a flowerpot. Thus there were four forms for T, three for N, for K, for S, for J, for KH, and for H, while there were two for L or K (which the Egyptians regarded as the same), two for SH, two for I, for U, and for P. In this wise there were several sounds for each letter, excepting F and D, which were represented by a single hieroglyph ; the former by the cerastes or horned snake, and the latter by a hand with the palm upward.* At the same time Dr. Taylor states that the figure of the cerastes is the original of the let- ters F, Y, V, U, and W,t the serpent being one * See Dr. Taylor's The Alphabet, vol. i, passim. f Op. eit., vol. i, p. 61. PHONOGRAMS. 195 of several symbols found in the cartouche of Khefu (Cheops), the builder of the Great Pyra- mid, who was the first king of the fourth dy- nasty. Another symbol from the same source is the phonetic character for KH, represented by a disc having a shaded centre to resemble the sieve — which it denotes — and which is rep- resented in our alphabet by the letter H, having passed through the hieratic (@ and the Phoe- nician ^ . The letter M of our alphabet is without doubt, traceable through the Eoman and Grreek to the Phoenician ) , and finally through the hieratic ^ to the linear hieroglyphic owl '' The difference between the hieratic and the Phoenician is due chiefly to the former's angularity consequent on the change from papyrus to stone. Although the alphabetic prototypes existed in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and were by that * Taylor, op. cit., vol. i, p. 106. 196 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. people unconsciously employed — in a certain sense — it was not until the Semitic race discov- ered and utilised these characters by acrologic- ally adapting them to their own language that the alphabet can be said to have been made. The Semitic peoples comprised three principal divisions, each of which developed letters. To the Phoenicians may be traced the origin of the Grreek alphabet, which became the parent of the various alphabets of Europe ; from the high- lands of Asia Minor, Aram, proceeded the Ira- nian group of alphabets, which replaced the cuneiform writing as a script of the eastern provinces of the Persian Empire ; to the south Semitic type the ancient alphabet of India, with its numberless descendants, must be referred. INDEX. Absaroka Indiana, piotograph of dead, 68. or Crow Indiana, gesture sign for, 69. Abstract ideas, ideograplis for, 50. Abusimbel, hieroglyphic tablet at, 123, 124. Aerology, definition of principle of, 190. system of, 183. Adoration, voice marks to indicate, 115. jEsculapius, primitive, 79. Africa, petroglyphs in, 18. Age, how expressed, 84. represented by walking with staff, 169. Aged, pictograph denoting, 149, 150. Akkadian words, changes in 183. inscriptions, antiquity of, 184. representation of symbol to denote water, 158. Alaska, records on stone in, 16. Alaskan hunting record, interpreta- tion of, 103, 104 Aleppo, hieroglyphs at, 21. Algeria, petroglyphs in, 18. Algonkian type of pictography, 8. linguistic family, 7. Allegheny Eiver, petroglyphs on 10. Almanac, description of Clog, 142, 143. use in Denmark of Clog, 143. Alphabetic signs, how developed, 189, 190. sounds, earliest evidence of use of, 190. Alphabets, graphic symbols of sounds, 192. America, syllabaries devised in, 178. Andree, Dr. Kichard, 136. Anish'inabeg, the first people, 170. Antelope, Eutming, 85. Antiquitates Amerioanse, 9. Apache pictographs, 60. Arikara, designation of, 68. pictograph for horse, 47. Aryan Persians, origin of cunei- form alphabet of, 181. Asia Minor, Hittite influence in, 184. Asia, petroglyphs in, 20. Asiatics, how represented by colour, 136. Assiniboine, designation of, 68. Assyrian cuneiform characters, 182. hieroglyphs for sun, 152, 153. Atl, water, 88. 197 198 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. Aubin, singing portrayed in work of, 116. Axe, St. Paul indicated by, 143, 144. Aztec oodioes, high order of, 44, Babylonia, inscribed bricka found in, 181. Bandaged mouth, denoting mute, 116. Bar of colour on plume, signifloanoe of, 134. Bark, scrolls of birch, 25. Barrier, piotographic portrayal of, 112. Bear, gesture sign for black, 83. Bear manido, symbolic, 77. Berbers, how represented by colour, 136. Birch, Dr., 193. Birch-bark scrolls, 25. Birds, methods for indicating, 47. Black Bear, gesture sign for, 83. plume, significance of, 134. Blankets, marks of valour on, 72. Boat paddle, marks of valour on, 72. Bone, pietographs on, 23. Boustrophedon, system of writing, 186. Bransford, Dr., 16. Brazil, petroglyphs in, 17. Brinton, Dr. D. G., 2, 31. British Exchequer, notched sticks used by the, 142. British Guiana, 17. Burmese tattooing, 37. Bushmen carvings on melons, 39. Caduceus, 43. Calendars, 56. California, painted record in, 98. Canaanites, probably the Hittites, 184. Canary Islands, petroglyphs in, 18. Cardinal points, colours pertaining to, 134. Carvings on wood and stone, 16. Cashmere, birch-bark record of, 28. Cavern, pictographic character of, 91. Central America, petroglyphs in, 16. Ceremonial post of Ojibwa cult so- ciety, 133, 134. ChampoUion, hieroglyphs given by, 156. Chapolin or grasshopper, sign for, 90. piotograph denotmg, 109. Chapultepeo, ideographic character, 90. Characters, Cypriote and Hittite, 187. Chariots, portrayal of Hittite, 185. Cherokee syllabary, 179. Cheyenne marks of valour, 73. voice lines indicated in picto- graphy by. 111. Chief, hieroglyphic character for, 156. mantles designating war, 83. pictographic portrayal to denote, 149, 150. Chinese character for cramp, 53. light, 177. sun, 162. characters, ancient classiiication of, 139, 140. knotted cords, 40. language, monosyllabic character of, 177. quipua, description of, 138, 139. symbols of Fo-hi, the eight, 139. Christianity, symbolised by the cross, 161. Christmas, indicated in Clog Alma- nac by a horn, 144. Chronicles, painter of, 82. Chronological records, 35. Clog Almanac, description of, 142, 143. INDEX. 199 Clouds, Moki symbols for, 160. Coatl, or snake, 86, 87. Coatliohan, Mexican proper name, 86. Coatlitepan, a Tlatlotlaque chief, 82. Coiled hair, denoting custom, 81. Colhuaoan, character designating, 89. Colhuas, ideograph for country of, 90. Coloured shaft of feather, signifl- canoe of, 134. Colours, customs designated by dif- ferent, 182, 133. designation of, by Dakota, TO, 71 no phonetic value in Egyptian hieroglyphs, 185. phonetic value of, in codices, 135. significance of, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136. Comanches, voice lines drawn by, 111. Combat, Dakota piotograph, 46. Comitl, vase, pictograph of, 91. Comparisons, 154. Condor, Major, on Cypriote sylla- bary, 21, 184, 187. Conowingo, 10. Conversation, how indicated by Mexicans. 114. by Ojibwa, 113, 114. Copilli, distinctive character of royalty, 82. Mexican head ornament, 82. Cords, knotted, 40. Coup stick, 72. Coyotl, coyote, 89. Cramp, Chinese pictorial figure forj 53. Dakota pictograph for, 58. Crane, totem of the, 118. Crawling gods of Innuit, 126. Crees, prayer book of the, 178. Croaking, Ojibwa portrayal of frog, 115. Cross, an instrument of punish- ment, 161. and beans, a game played by Nahuatl, 158. conventionalised form of man, 161. episcopal rank of St. Hilary in- dicated by a, 143. of the Dannebrog, origin of, 161. on Innuit carvings denotes birds, 162. rain-procuring agent in Yucatan, 160. symbolic of thunder-bird, 130. symbolises earthquake, 163. symbolises four openings of grand medicine structure, 162. symb<51ising Christianity, 161. Zuiii symbol for morning star, 164. Crow Indians, piotograph of dead, 68. war paint, 133. Cuaohtli, or eagle, how portrayed, 115. Cuauhtlatoatzin, Singing Eagle, 115. Cultivated ground, Mexican por- trayal of, 168. Cult practices, how designated by colours, 132, 138. societies of Ojibwa, colours used, 138. Customs denoted by coiled hair, 81. designated by different colours, 182, 138. Cycles of time, 56. Cyprcea moneta, used in ceremo- nials, 166. Ot/preus papyrus Linn., 33. Cypriote characters, illustrations of, 187. 200 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. Cypriote characters, inscription at Idalion, 185. syllabary, 21. syllabary, prototype of the, 184. syllabary, recovery of, 185. Dakota character for cramp, 53. Danforth, Dr., 9. Dannebrog, origin of cross of, 161. Day, represented by disc, 151, 152. Dead, death, pictographic portrayal of, 100. how portrayed by Ojibwa, 126. how represented, 126. man, Ojibwa portrayal of, 148. woman, Ojibwa portrayal of, 148. Deafness, how portrayed by Ojibwa, 120, 121. Death, gesture sign for, 126. how drawn by Ojibwa, 126. represented by being headless, 148. represented by symbols, 79. Death's-head, Mexican piotograph of, 108, 109. Debility, how expressed, 84. December, Maya piotograph for, 58. Deities, Easter Island female, 81. Easter Island male, 81. how represented by Ojibwa, 113. Deity, Algonkian, 11. De Landa, Bishop, work of, 1T5. Dendera, zodiac of, 43. Departure, Innuit record of, 105,106. Determinatives, 74. Development of characters, 176, 177. Dighton Eock, 8. Distinction, marks of, 73. Double-headed eagle, 38. Drink, Mexican piotograph for, 122. Drowned Sioux Indians, piotograph for, 69. Drum, representation of sacred medicine, 166. Eagle, pictographic name of Sing- ing, 115. Eagle plume, significance of, 134. significance of bar of colour on, 134. designations upon, 71. Eagle, symbolic of thunder-bird, 130. Earthquake, Mexican character de- noting, 163. Easter Island piotograph for eat- ing, 122. tablets from the, 29. Eat, eating, Innuit piotograph de- noting, 106. Eating, Easter Island piotograph for, 122. gesture sign for, 121. how represented by Mexicans, 122. Innuit piotograph for, 53. pictographic portrayal of, 122. piotographs for, 106, 122. Egypt, hieroglyphs of, 19. Egyptian hieroglyphs for time, 60. tablets of wood, 29. Egyptians, how represented by colour, 136. resolved speech into its elements, 193. Enemy, striking the, 72. Enigma, portraying ideas by, 50. Eshkiboga, an Ojibwa deity, 79. Europe, petroglyphs, 20. Exchequer tally used in Great Brit- ain, 142. Eye, drawn by Nahuatl to denote star, 112. Facial decorations. New Zealand, 39. Feast, Ojibwa representation of a, 165. piotograph to denote, 75. FeUs concolor L., 89. INDEX. 201 lale deities, Easter Island, 81. zan, Egyptian name for wild nomads of, 92. i, gesture sign for, 129, 130. idicated by smoke symbols, 129. ethod of making, 129. jibwa piotograph of, 127. ipresented in Mexican oodioes, 129. ioks, lf.4, 166. !-juggler, Ojibwa portrayal of, 127. : wabeno, priest, 80. lamans termed wabeno, 127. 1, symbolises name of Jesus Christ, 163, 164. mes, Ojibwa piotograph for, 127. ing gods of Innuit, 126. hi, the eight symbols of, 139. d, Innuit piotograph for, 53. Drtrayed by Egyptians, 106. m, various types of human, 146. t Berthold, how designated, 167. g croaking, Ojibwa portrayal of, 115. oe, methods for indicating, 47. duer, Mr. C, 138. graphic areas named by In- dians, 91. fmbolic ideographs, 89. tures delineated by Innuit, 102. ture sign for Are, 129, 130. gns portrayed in piotographs, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109. Idon, colours used by Egyp- tians, 135, 136. pictographic sign for. 103. . of medicine, Easter Island, 79. ig, how portrayed, 154, 155. ds, represented by Ojibwas by squares, 168. nd Medicine Society, 26. 15 Grasshopper, ideographic sign for, 90. Grasp, gesture sign for, 109. Grave-boards of Innuit, 63. Greek alphabet, origin traceable to Phosnicians, 196. Greenwood, Dr., 9. Growth of conventional signs, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153. Haida Indians, carvings of, 16. Haida tattooing, 37. Halfivy, Prof., on principle of aerol- ogy, 183. Hamath, hieroglyphs at, 21. inscriptions at, 1 86. Hand, significance of red, 73. Happy, how indicated in Ojibwa pietographs, 114. Harp used to indicate St. David, 144. Headless, denoting dead or killed, 148. Heads of animals, significance of attitude of, 101. Hearing, how portrayed by Ojibwa, 120. pictographic representation of, 120. Heart, portrayal of shaman's, 166. Herbalist, figure of an, 79. Hermit, Chinese symbol for, 108. Herod the Great, characters on coins of, 164. Hidatsa Indians, pietographs of, 167. marks of distinction, 71. record, interpretation of, 118, 119. Hieratic writing, 151. Hieroglyphic writing, antiquity of, 20. Hieroglyphs to denote man, 151. Hittite cliaraoters, illustrations of, 187. 202 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Hittite characters, hieroglyphs, 21. inscription, example of, 102. inscriptions at Hamath, 186. inscriptions indicating speech, 116. records, manner of reading, 102. Ilittitcs, country occupied by, 184. fir.st notice of in inscriptions, 185. Holy Koman Enapire, eagle emblem of, 38. Horn, used to indicate Christmas, 144. Horseshoe, signification of, 1i. Horus- Apollo, 57. Human form, various types of, 146. Hunger, Dalcota drawing for, 52. gesture sign for, 52. Innuit pictograph for, 53. Ottawa pictograph for, 51. pictographic portrayal of, 99. Hunter's grave-board, Innuit, 64. Hunting, figures pertaining to, 79. loxioohuatl, Mexican proper name, 86, 87. Idalion, inscriptions discovered at, 185. Ideographic pictography of Ojihwa, 74. Ideoorraphs for abstract ideas, 50. portrayal of, 27. Ibeoqeaphy, 42. Ikonomatio writing, 2, 4, 31. examples of, 87, 176. used by Mexicans, 174. Image writing, 31. Images, Mexican maker of, 82. Indian God Eock, 10. Indians, Haida, carvings of, 16. Tshilkat, carvings of, 16. Innuit characters on ivory, 22. crawling gods, 126. flying gods, 126. Innuit characters, gestures de^ lineated by, 102. grave-boards, 63. swimming gods, 126. Interpretation of Innuit record, 103, 104, 105. of O.jibwa records, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97. Intekpketation of piotogbaphs, 42. Invocation, portrayal of idea of, 78. Irish oghams, possible origin of, 141, 142. Itzcoatl, Mexican proper name, 87, 88. Itzcoatzin, Mexican proper name, 87. Itztli, or obsidian, 87, 88. Ivory, piotographs on, 22. Jagor, Mr. F., 28. Japanese language, 180. tattooing, 37. Jesus Christ, represented by sym- bol of fish, 163, 164. Kanawha Eiver, 11. Karuak, human forms at, 70. lascriptions at, 184. Kavuya Indian, tattooing of, 38. Keys, Egyptian radicals or deter- minatives, 178. Khefu, symbols found in the car- touche of, 195. ■Kill, Innuit pictographs for, 125. Kiowas, voice lines indicated in pictography by, 111. Knot, St. Valentino's day indicated by true-lover's, 144. Knotted cords, Egyptians probably familiar with, 140. Knotted strings or cords. See also Quipus, 40. Kyai, or Japanese model type, ISO. INDEX. 203 Landa, De, illustration from, 123. Left, gesture sign to denote the, 124. hieroglyph to denote the, 124. Letter, Ojibwa love, 66. Letters, prototypes of some, 194, 195. Libya, hieroglyph to denote, 92. Light, Chinese symbols for, 177. Ojibwa portrayal of, 152, 177. how portrayed by Ojibwa, 127, 130. Lightning, gesture for, 131. liow classed by Pueblos, 1-30, 131. how represented by ancient Mexi- cans, 131. how represented by Pueblos, 131. represented by serpent, 131. Lines indicating voice. 111. Listen, how portrayed by Ojibwa, 121. Locomotion, portrayal of, 48. Looking for, gesture sign for, 118. Love letter of Ojibwa, 66. Lower Egypt, pictographic designa- tion for, 50. Magic arrow, piotograph of, 76. powers, marks to denote, 75. Maguey paper, 30. Maidu Indians, tattooing of, 37. Making fire, Mexican pictograph of, 129. Male deities, Easter Island, 81. Man, Egyptian hieroglyphs for, 151 .• pictorial designations of, 145, 146, 147, 148. Manabush, abode of brother of, 134. a hero god, 162. Mandan marks of distinction, 71. Manido, symbol of bear, 77. Many, gesture sign for, 105. Mariette, M., 20. Marks of distinction, 71 , 73. Marks of distinction, speech de- noted by voice. 111. to denote magiu power, 75. Mather, Cotton, 9. Maximilian zu Wicd, Prince, 162. pictographs by, 54. Maya, negation portrayed by, 123. records, 30. Mayas of Yucatan, 5. employed phonetic signs, 174, 1 75. Meat, idea represented, 51. Medical magic, 78. Medicine drum, how portrayed by Ojibwa, 166. lodge, symbolised by rectangular figure, 168. ■ stick, used by Innuit as fetich, 126. Menonioni Indian, totem of dead, 65. Mercury, Caduceus of, 73. Metaphok, portraying ideas by, 49. Metonosiy, 45. Mexican codices, significance of colours in, 135. Old, Dakota proper name, 84. pictograph for drink, 122. pictograph for eating, 122. records, destruction of, 4. scribe, pictograph of, 81. Mexico, petroglyphs in, 16. Micmac Indians, prayer book of, 178. Midday, how indicated by Ojibwa, 152. Mnemonic characters, record of, 25. signs, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144. song, interpretation of, 169, 170, 171, 172. Moki piotograph of sun, 152. Month, pictograph denoting one, 60. Moqui drawings, indicating rank, 81. 204 BEGINNINGS OV WRITING. Morning, Ojibwa symbol for, 61, 62. Mountain, hieroglyphic sign for, 92. ideographic sign for, 89. Mourning, blackened face to denote, 133. Mouth bandaged, denoting a mute, 116. Mute portrayed by Mexicans, 116. Mystic or sacred attributes, Ti. Nahuatl character, interpretation, 119, 120. records, 30. Name, gesture sign for, 83. object, 84. recording proper, 85. Negation, Egyptian hieroglyph for, 123, 124. gesture for, 122,123. Maya character for, 123. Ojibwa piotograph for, 123. piotographic portrayal of, 100, 147, 148. Netto, Dr. Ladialau, IT. New Zealand, tattooing of, 39. Nezahualooyotl, war chief, 88. Nicaragua, sculpturings in, 16. Night, Arikara portrayal of, 62. Egyptian symbol for, 62. Innuit pictograph to denote, 103. Mexican character for, 62. Nineveh, the character for, 169. origin of name, 182. None, gesture sign for, 101. piotographic portrayal of, 100. Nothing, gesture sign for, 101. Innuit pictograph denoting, 106. piotographic portrayal of, 100. Northmen, supposed work of, 9. Notched sticks, 41, 140, 141, 142. Nova Scotia, Micniac Indians of, 178. petroglyphs in, 7, 8. Nourishment, Egyptian hieroglyph for, 110. Nubia, hieroglypliic tablet in, 123, 124. Numidian cavalry, Egyptian name for, 92. Obsidian arrow points, 87. Oghams, possible origin of, 141, 142. Ojibwa Indians, records of, 25. pictograph for morning, 61. for negation, 123. of sun, 152. pictographs to denote water, 154. totem of dead, 65. Old Mexican, piotograph of Dakota name, 84. Omaha tribe designated by Dakota, 69. Ornaments, rank indicated by head, 80. Otter, symbol of sacred, 77. Owen's Valley, Cal., petroglyphs in, 13, 146, 147. Oztotl, or cavern, piotographic sign for, 91. Painted record at Tule Eiver reser- vation, 98. Palenque cross, crossed sticks, and smoke, 165. Papyrus, 32. Paternoster, piotographic title of Latin, 17 1. Patolli, a Mexican game, portrayed, 158. Peksonal names, 85. 86, 87. Peruvian quipus, description of, 136, 137. systems of quipus, 40. Peter of Daoia, 43. Petlatl, or bundle of straw, or mat, 91. INDEX. 205 Petroglyphs, Algonkian, 11. groups of, 15. in Africa, 18. in Arizona, 12. in Asia, 20, 21. in Brazil, 17. in California, 13, 14, 15. in Canary Islands, 18. in Maryland, 10. in Massachusetts, 8, 9, 10. in Me.\ico, 16. in New Mexico, 12. in Nova Scotia, 7, 8. in Ohio, 12. in Pennsylvania, 10, 11. in South America, 17, 18. in Wyoming, 12. Phoenician inscriptions at Idalion, 185. Phonetic signs used by Mayas, 174, 175. PlIONOGEAMS, 173. used in Egyptian writing, 27. Piotographs, comparison of, 5. distribution of, 7. on ivory, 22. on atone, 7. in the Santa Ynez Mountains, 13. Pictorial writing, origin of, in West- ern Asia, 181. Picture writing, 5. Pipe, Dakota sign for, 51. gesture sign for, 51. Pleased, how indicated in Ojibwa pictographs, 114. Plot, Dr., description of Clog Al- manac, 142. 143. Plume, bar of colour on eagle, 134. significance of black, 134. significance of eagle, 134. Popoca, smoking or fuming, 90. Popocatepetl, pictorial representa- tion of, 90. Polychromatic writing, 32. Powhatan, buckskin mantle of, 25. Prayer, how indicated by voice marks, 115. Priests, syllabaries devised by Catholic, 178. Pronged horns, piotograph of, for name, 85. Proper names, 83. Property marks, on posts, 38. Proto-Babylouian, cuneifoim an- tiquity of, 183, 184. Ptolemies, characters on coins of, 164. Pueblo portrayal of lightning, 131. Pupil, star represented by, 112. Quipus, description of Chinese, 138, 139. description of Peruvian system, 136, 137. description of Zufii, 138. employment of, 40. probably known to theEgyptians, 140. Kafn, collections of, 9. Eain, how indicated by pictograph, 160. Moki symbols for, 160. portrayed by Zuni to denote, 162. Eauk, indicated in Maya mural remains, 80. superiority in, 80. Eaven, borne on standard of the Danes, 161. Eawliuson, Sir Henry, 193. Eebus writing, ikonomatic or, 44. principle of writing, 175, 176. Eeoord, interpretation of Hidatsa, 118, 119. Keeording name by pictograph, 85. Eectangle, various significations of, 168. Eed Cloud, personal name, 85. 206 BEGINNINGS OF WRITING. Eed Cloud, h(ind, significance of, 13. Lake Indians, Minnesota, 79. Request, symbolic representation lor, 108. Reservation, Tule Indian, 13. Rio Grande piver, 12. Royalty, indicated by tlie copilli, 82. represented by sphinx, 50. Running Antelope, proper name, 85. Sacred attributes, 74. Sacred medicine drum, portrayed by Ojibwa, 166. otter, symbolic, 77. Safe Harbor, 10. Santa Ynez Mountains, pictographs in, 18. Sargon I, inscription of time of, 185. Sayoe, Prof. A. H., 181, 184. Schoolcraft, H. E., 150. Scotland, notched sticks used in, 142. Scribe, Mexican, 81. Sculpturings, British Guiana, 17. Nicaragua, 16. Seal hunters, Innuit portrayal of, 145, 146. Sea lion, gesture sign for, 104. pictograph character of, 104. Search, piotorially indicated, 117. gesture sign for, 117. Searching, gesture sign for, 118. Seasons, portrayals of, 57. Seed, how portrayed by Mexicans, 157. Seeing, gesture sign for, 117. how portrayed by Nahuatl, 119, 120. Self, gesture sign for, 101. Semitic cuneiform, 181. Sent, inscriptions of King, 190. King, inscription of, 19. Serpent represents lightning, 131. Sewell, Stephen, 9. Siberian pictographs noted by Strahlenberg, 148. Sight, how represented in piotog- graphy, 117. SiGNIFICANOE OF COLOUKS, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136. Signs, growth of conventiokal, 145: Singing Eagle, name portrayed by Mexicans, 115. Singing, how represented by Ojib- wa, 114. Sioux Indians, war paint of, 133. Shang dynasty, characters of the time of, 180. Shell, pictographs on, 24. Shinumo Indians, 12. Shoshonian area, type of picto- graphs of, 146. petroglyphs, 81. Siberia, petroglyphs from, 20. Skins and textile fabbics, 34. Sleep, pietographie sign for, 103, 104. Smith, George, recovery of Cypriote syllabary by, 185. Smoke, how portrayed by Ojibwa, 127. to denote catastrophe, 130. Smoking mountain, Popocatepetl, 90. Snakefoot, proper name, 86, 87. Snow, Dakota pictograph for, 58. Song, Chinese character for, 176, 177. South America, pictographs in, 17. Speech, description of gestures for, 110, 111, 112. hieroglyphic portrayal to denote, 102. how differentiated from singing, 115. INDEX. 207 Speech, how illustrated by Mexi- cans, 111, 112. indicated in Hittite inscriptions, 116. Speechless, how indicated by Mexi- cans, 116. Spring, represented by Ojibwa, 57. St. Andrew's cross, form of, used for sign of trade, 162. St. David's day, indicated by a harp, 144. St. Hilary, cross indicative of, 143. St. Paul, indicated by an axe, 143, 144. St. Valentine's day, indicated by true-lover's knot, 144. Staff, hand grasping. 84. Starvation, Dakota pictograph for, 52. Ottawa pictograph for, 51. Status, indicated by Mexicans by headdress, 151. Steal, gesture sign for, 109. Stela, inscription in palace of Amunoph III, 124. Strahlenberg, notes pictographs in Siberia, 148. Striking the enemy, 72. Strings, knotted. See Qnipus. Strings, knotted, 40. Sun, Assyrian hieroglyph for, 152, 153. Chinese characters for, 152. figuratively represented by a disc, 151. how portrayed by Ojibwa, 166. Moki portrayal of, 152. Ojibwa portrayal of, 152. Sunrise, how indicated by Moki, 152. how indicated by Ojibwa, 152. Sunset, how indicated by Moki, 152. how indicated by Ojibwa, 152. Supplication, Egyptian hieroglyph of, 108. Ojibwa pictograph of, 107. Surprise, portrayal of, 146. Swastika, represented by crossed sticks, 166. Swimming gods of Innuit, 126. Syllabaries, 178. Syllabary used by Cherokee In- dians, 179. Syllabic characters probably used by Mayas, 175. used in some languages, 173. Symbols, 55. Synecdoche, 47. Tablets of wood, 29. Tadpole, Moki symbol of water, 156. portrayed to denote rain, 162. Tallysticks used by Californian Indians, 140, 141, 142. Tanit, pictograph of the goddess, 149. Tattooing, practice of, 36. New Zealand, 38. of Burmese, 37. of Japanese, 37. of Kavuya Indians, 39. of Maidu Indians, 37. of Ukiah Indians, 37. Taylor, Dr. Isaac, 20, 177, 181, 183, 185, 190, 197. Tears, piotographic character for, 99. Tell, gesture sign for, 83. Tenamitl, wall, barrier, 112. Tepetl, ideograpliio sign for, 89. Tetl, stone, pictograph of, 91. Teton, Dakota chief, 85. Texooco, ideograph denoting, 91. people of, 82. Thoth Hermes, representation of, 50. 208 BEGINNINGS OP WRITING. Thothmes III, inscriptions of, at Karnak, 184. Thunder-bird, an Ojibwa deity, 11, 130. - represented by eagle, 130. represented by cross, 130. Time symbols, 56. Tlaeuilio, or painter, 82. Tlatlotlaque eiiief, a native painter, 82. Tlaoa, or sing, how portrayed by Mexicans, 115. Tortillas, how designated by Mexi- cans, 107. Totem of the crane, Ojibwa, 118. Totem-posts, 63. Toxemic design-ations, 63. . Totems as property marks, 39. Trade, gesture sign for, 163. Trade represented by gesture for cross, 162. Travel by boat, piotograph to de- note, 103. Travelling, how portrayed by Mexi- cans, 150. how portrayed by Ojibwa, 154, 155. Treaty, represented by pipe, 55. Tribal designations, 63. Tshilkat Indians, carvings of, 16. Tulare Indians, record at agency of, 98. Tule Indian Eeservation, 13. Tule Eiver, California, petroglyphs at, 113. Turanian features of figures at Kar- nak, 70. proto-Medic syllabary, 181. Type, Algonkian, 8. Types of piotographs, 6. Ukiah Indians, tattooing of, 37. Upper Egypt, indicated by lotus, 50. Vase, comit], 88. Virgules or speech marks. 111. Voice, hieroglyphic portrayal to denote, 102. lines, how indicated, 111. marks to denote speech, by Mexi- cans, 111. Votive offering by Innuit, 125. Wabeuo, Ojibwa shamans termed, 127. symbolised by horns, 80. Wall, pietographic portrayal of, 112. Wampum, 24. War chief, mantles designating, 83. Warning, pietographic notice, 45. Water, atl, 88. Egyptian hieroglyph to denote, 157. hieroglyph for, 158. how portrayed by Mexicans, 156, 157. how represented by Ojibwa, 154. Moki characters for, 156. Moki portray tadpole to symbol- ise, 156. course, how indicated by Ojibwa, 154. tank, hieroglyph for, 160. Weeping, gesture sign for, 118. pietographic character of, 99. Week, Apache pictograph for one, 60. White Earth, Minnesota, bark rec- ord at, 66. Wind, caused by thunder - bird, 130. Eiver Mountains, 12. Winter counts of the Dakotas, 35. Winthrop, James, 9. Woman, Dakota drawing of, 148, 149. INDEX. 209 Wooden tablets, Easter Island, 29. Woomius, drinking custom men- tioned by, 144. "Wright, Dr., 185. Writing, Egyptian portrayal, 46. materials, of Egyptians, 33. Wyoming, 12. Year, representations of, 57. Zodiacal signs, 43. Zodiac of Dendera, 43. Zoomorphic forms, 63. Zuni drawings denoting custom, 81. quipus, description of, 136. THE END. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. Recent Volumes of the International Scientific Series. A HIS TOR V OF CR USTACEA. By Rev. Thomas R, R. Stebbing, M. a., author of " The Challenger Amphipoda/' etc. With numerous Illustrations. i2rao. Cloth, $2.00. '*Mr. Stebbing's account of* Recent Malacostraca* (soft-shelled animals) is practi- cally complete, and is based upon the solid foundations ot science. The astonishing development of knowledge in this branch of natural history is due to the extension of marine research, the perfecting of the microscope, and the general diflFusion of informa- tion regarding what has been ascertained concerning the origin of species. . . . 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"One of the few scientific works which promise to become popular, both with those who read for instruction and those who read iox T^z^^^-iioxi." —Philadelphia item. New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. THE LIBRARY OF USEFUL STORIES. Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. have the pleasure of announcing^ a series of little books deaUng with various branches ol knowledge, and treating each subject in clear, concise language, as free as possible from technical words and phrases. The volumes will be the work of writers of authority in their various s.pheres, who will not sacrifice accuracy to mere pic-ureque treatment or irrelevant fancies, but endeavor to present the leading facts of science, his- tory, etc., in an interesting form, and with that strict regard to the latest results of investigation which is necassary to give value to the series. Each book will be complete in itself. Illustrations will be introduced whenever needed for the just comprehension of the subject treated, and every care will be bestowed on the qualities of paper, printmg, and binding. The price will be forty cents per volume, NOW READY. n^HE STORY OF THE STARS. By G. F. Cham- ■* BERS, F, R. A. .S., author of " Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy," etc. With 24 Illustrations. " Such books as these will do more to extend the knowledge of narurat science among the people than any number of mo e cl iborate treatises." — Cinc.'n 'tati Tribune. *' An astonishing amount of information is compacted in this little volume." — PAil- adetphia Press HE STORY OF PRIMITIVE MAN, By Ed- ward Clodd, author of " The Story of Creation," etc. **This volume presents the results of the latest investigations inio the early history of the human race. The value of an up to-date summary like this is especially marked in view of the interest of the subject. 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New and enlarged edition. With 150 Maps and Illustrations. 8vo, 625 pages, and Index. Cloth, $5.00. '' Not a novel in all the list of this year's publications has in it any pages of more thrilling interest than can be found in this book by Professor Wright. There is noth- ing: pedantic in the narrative, and the most serious themes and startling discoveries are treated with such charming naturalness and simplicity that boys and girls, as well as their seniors, will be attracted to the story, and f nd it difficult to lay it aside."— -A Vw York youmal of Commerce. " One of the most absorbing and interesting of all the recent issues in the depart- ment of popular science." — Chicago Herald, "Though his subject is a very deep one, his style is so very unaiFected and per- spicuous that even the unscientific reader can peruse it with intelligence and profit. 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He has thus been able to illustrate most of the natural phenomena to Avhich he refers by views taken in the field, many of which have been generously loaned by the United States Genloe-ical Survey, in some rases from unpublished material ; and he has admirably supplemented them by numerous maps and diagrams." — The Nation. M- AN AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD. By G. Frederick Wright, D. D., LL. D., author of *' The Ice Age in North America,'' " Logic of Christian Evidences," etc. International Scientific Series. With numerous Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $1.75. **It may be described in a word as the best summary of scientific conclusions con- cerning the question of man's antiquity as affecteJ by his known relations to geological time." — Philadelphia Press. *' The earlier chapters describing glacial action, and the traces of it in North Amer- ica—especially the defining of its limits, such as the terminal moraine of the great movement itself— are of great interest and value. 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" It is not always that a professor of zoology is so enthusiastic a sportsman as Prof. Dyche. His hunting exploits are as varied as those of Gordun Gumming, for example, in bouth Africa. His grizzly bear 13 as dangerous as the lion, and his mountain sheep and goats more difficult to btalk and shoot than any creatures of the torrid zone. Evi- dently he came by his tastes as a hunter from lilelong experience." — New York Tribune. " The book has no dull pages, and is often excitingly interesting, and fully in- structive as to the habits, haunts, and nature of wild beasts." — Chicago Inter- Ocean. "There is abundance of interesting incident in addition to the scientific element, and the illustrations are numerous and highly graphic as to the big game met by the hunters, and the hardships cheerfully undertaken." — Brooklyn Eagle. *'The narrative is simple and manly and full of the freedom of forests. . . . This record of his work ought to awaken the interest of the generation growing up, if only by the contrast of his active experience of the resources of Nature and of savage life with the back^ound of culture and the environment of educational advantages that are being rapidly formed for the students of the United States, l-rof. Dyche seems, from this account of him, to have tliought no personal hardship or exertion wasted in^ his attempt to collect facts, that the naturalist of the future may be provided with com-' plete and verified ideas as to species which will soon be extinct. This is good work — work that we need and that posterity will recognize with gratitude. The illustrations of the book are interesting, and the type is clear." — New York Times. *' The adventures are simply told, but some of them are thrilling of necessity, how- ever modestly the narrator does his work. 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THE CRIMINOLOGY SERIES. Edited by Douglas Morrison. HE FEMALE OFFENDER. By Prof. LoM- BROSO. Illustrated. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. In " The Female Offender " we see the manner in which Lombroso applies the anthropological method. He examines whether, and to what extent, the female criminal differs from the average woman in bodily and mental char- acteristics. As a result of this examination he arrives at many interesting conclusions as to the personal or individual conditions which are calculated to turn women into offenders against criminal law. IN PREPARATION. UR JUVENILE OFFENDERS. By D. MoR- O C C CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY. By Prof. Ferri. 'RIME A SOCIAL STUDY. By Prof. Joly. The study of criminal tendencies is occupying advanced students through- out the world, but the science has been carried fu'-ther by the Italian school of criminologists than by any other scientists. 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