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

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

[Illustration: FIG. 936.--Prisoners. Iroquois.]

    On their return, the Iroquois, if they have prisoners or scalps,
    paint the animal of the tribe to which they belong rampant (debout),
    with a staff on the shoulder along which are strung the scalps they
    may have and in the same number. After the animal are the prisoners
    they have made, with a chichicois (or gourd filled with beans which
    rattle) in the right hand. If they be women, they represent them
    with a cadenette or queue and a waistcloth.

    _a._ This is a person returning from war who has taken a
    prisoner, killed a man and woman, whose scalps hang from the end of
    a stick that he carries. _b._ The prisoner. _c._ Chichicois (or a
    gourd), which he holds in the hand. _d._ These are cords attached to
    his neck, arms, and girdle. _e._ This is the scalp of a man; what is
    joined on one side is the scalp-lock. _f._ This is the scalp of a
    woman; they paint it with the hair thin.

[Illustration: FIG. 937.--Prisoners. Mexico.]

The expression prisoner and slave are often convertible. The following
from Kingsborough (_f_), explaining this illustration reproduced as Fig.
937, refers in terms to slavery. “The figures are those of the wife and
son of a cacique who rebelled against Montezuma, and who, having been
conquered, was strangled. The ‘collars’ upon their necks show that they
have been reduced to slavery.”

SHORT.

[Illustration: FIG. 938.--Short-Bull.]

Fig. 938.--Short-Bull. Red-Cloud’s Census, No. 16. The buffalo is
markedly short even to distortion.

SIGHT.

[Illustration: FIG. 939.--Sees-the-Enemy.]

Fig. 939.--Sees-the-Enemy. Red-Cloud’s Census. In this collection the
eye is not indicated except where that organ is directly connected with
the significance of the name. Here its mere presence suggests that
vision is the subject matter. But, in addition, the object above the
head is probably a hand mirror, which by its reflection is supposed to
“see” the objects reflected. The plains Indians make use of such mirrors
not only in their face painting but in flash signaling.

[Illustration: FIG. 940.--Crier.]

Fig. 940.--In a fight with the Mandans, Crier was shot in the head with
a gun. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1827-’28. This figure is introduced
to present another rare instance in which the eye is delineated. Here
the act is that of weeping.

[Illustration: FIG. 941.--Comes-in-Sight.]

Fig. 941.--Comes-in-Sight. Red-Cloud’s Census, No. 235. Distant objects,
probably buffalo or other animals of the chase, are observed coming into
the line of vision.

[Illustration: FIG. 942.--Bear-comes-out.]

Fig. 942.--Bear-comes-out. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here the bear is supposed
to come into sight through a hole in the tipi.

[Illustration: FIG. 943.--Bear-comes-out.]

Fig. 943.--Bear-comes-out. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure is explained
by the one preceding. Only half of the bear--the fore part--is to
be seen as if emerging through some orifice. Heads and other parts
of animals are frequently portrayed as signifying the whole, by
synechdoche, but in this case the presentation of the head and
forequarters has special significance.

[Illustration: FIG. 944.]

Fig. 944.--Taken from Copway, p. 136, is the character which is employed
to represent “see.”

SLOW.

[Illustration: FIG. 945.--Slow-Bear.]

Fig. 945.--Slow-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census. In this figure the bear seems
to be in backing or retrograde motion, which is slower than any normal
advance, and is therefore ideographically suggestive of slowness.

TALL.

[Illustration: FIG. 946.--Tall-Man.]

Fig. 946.--Tall-Man. Red-Cloud’s Census. This and the five following
animal figures show length and individual height objectively.

[Illustration: FIG. 947.--Tall-White-Man.]

Fig. 947.--Wasicun-wankatuya, Tall-White-Man. The Oglala Roster. The hat
shows the man of European origin, but his figure is large in the face
and short in the legs; so not tall in a usual sense. He was probably
killed by the Oglala.

[Illustration: FIG. 948.--Tall-White-Man.]

Fig. 948.--Tall-White-Man. Red-Cloud’s Census. This expresses the height
much more graphically than the one preceding.

[Illustration: FIG. 949.--Long-Panther.]

Fig. 949.--Long-Panther. Red-Cloud’s Census.

[Illustration: FIG. 950.--Tall-Panther.]

Fig. 950.--Tall-Panther. Red-Cloud’s Census.

[Illustration: FIG. 951.--Tall-Bull.]

Fig. 951.--Tall-Bull was killed by white soldiers and Pawnees on the
south side of the South Platte river. American-Horse’s Winter Count,
1869-’70. The combined arrangement of the human head and the buffalo so
as to produce the effect of abnormal height in the latter is ingenious.
The plan of this chart did not allow of long lines above the head, so
the effect is attained by comparison of the standing buffalo with the
height of the man.

[Illustration: FIG. 952.--Tall-Pine.]

Fig. 952.--Tall-Pine. Red-Cloud’s Census. In this as in the two next
figures the length of the trunk of the tree is apparent.

[Illustration: FIG. 953.--Long-Pine.]

Fig. 953.--Long-Pine was killed in a fight with the Crows.
American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1879-’80. The absence of his scalp
denotes that he was killed by an enemy. The fatal wound was made with
the bow and arrow.

[Illustration: FIG. 954.--Long-Pine.]

Fig. 954.--Long-Pine, a Dakota, was killed by Dakotas, perhaps
accidentally or perhaps in a personal quarrel. Cloud-Shield’s Winter
Count, 1846-’47. He was not killed by a tribal enemy, as he has not lost
his scalp.

TRADE.

[Illustration: FIG. 955.--Trade.]

Fig. 955.--They were compelled to sell many mules and horses to enable
them to procure food, as they were in a starving condition. They
willingly gave a mule for a sack of flour. American-Horse’s Winter
Count, 1868-’69. The mule’s halter is connected with two sacks of flour.

[Illustration: FIG. 956.--Trade.]

Fig. 956 is taken from Prince Maximilian, of Wied’s (_h_) Travels. The
cross signifies, I will barter or trade. Three animals are drawn on the
right hand of the cross; one is a buffalo (probably albino); the two
others, a weasel (_Mustela Canadensis_) and an otter. The pictographer
offers in exchange for the skins of these animals the articles which
he has drawn on the left side of the cross. He has there, in the first
place, depicted a beaver very plainly, behind which there is a gun;
to the left of the beaver are thirty strokes, each ten separated by a
longer line; this means: I will give thirty beaver skins and a gun for
the skins of the three animals on the right hand of the cross.

The ideographic character of the design consists in the use of the
cross--being a drawing of the gesture-sign for “trade”--the arms being
interchanged in position. Of the two things each one is put in the place
before occupied by the other thing, the idea of exchange.

UNION.

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

[Illustration: FIG. 957.--Brothers.]

Fig. 957.--Antoine Janis’s two boys were killed by John Richard.
Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1872-’73. The line of union shows them to
be intimately connected; in fact, they were brothers.

[Illustration: FIG. 958.--Same tribe.]

Fig. 958.--The Oglalas got drunk at Chug creek and engaged in a quarrel
among themselves, in which Red-Cloud’s brother was killed and Red-Cloud
killed three men. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1841-’42. The union line
shows that the quarrel was in the tribe.

[Illustration: FIG. 959.--Man and wife.]

Fig. 959.--Torn-Belly and his wife were killed by some of their own
people in a quarrel. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1855-’56. Here the man
and wife are united by the inclusive line.

[Illustration: FIG. 960.--Same tribe.]

Fig. 960.--Eight Minneconjou Dakotas were killed by Crow Indians at the
mouth of Powder river. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1805-’06. This device
is very frequently used to denote the death of the Dakotas. The black
strokes indicate the death of persons of the number delineated and the
union line shows that they were of the same tribe.

[Illustration: FIG. 961.--Same tribe.]

Fig. 961.--Blackfeet Dakotas kill three Rees. The-Flame’s Winter Count
for 1798-’99. Here the uniting line of death refers to others than
Dakotas, which does not often appear, but the principle is maintained
that the dead are of the same tribe.

WHIRLWIND.

[Illustration: FIG. 962.--Bear-Whirlwind.]

Fig. 962.--Mato-wamniyomni, Bear-Whirlwind. The Oglala Roster. This
figure shows over the bear’s head a variant of the character given in
Red-Cloud’s Census, Fig. 963. The figure appears, according to the
explanation given by several Oglala Dakota Indians, to signify the
course of a whirlwind with the transverse lines in imitation of the
circular movement of the air, conveying dirt and leaves, observed during
such aerial disturbances.

[Illustration: FIG. 963.--White-Whirlwind.]

Fig. 963.--Represents White-Whirlwind, above referred to, from
Red-Cloud’s Census. In this the designating character is more distinct.

[Illustration: FIG. 964.--Leafing.]

Fig. 964.--Leafing. Red-Cloud’s Census. This seems to be of the same
description. It is said to be drawn in imitation of a number of fallen
leaves packed against one another and whirled along the ground. It also
has reference to the season when leaves fall--autumn.

Mr. Keam’s MS. describing Fig. 965, says:

[Illustration: FIG. 965.--Whirlwind.]

    It is a decoration of great frequency and consisting of the
    single and double spirals. The single spiral is the symbol of
    Ho-bo-bo, the twister, who manifests his power by the whirlwind. It
    is also of frequent occurrence as a rock etching in the vicinity
    of ruins, where also the symbol of the Ho-bo-bo is seen. But the
    figure does not appear upon any of the pottery. The myth explains
    that a stranger came among the people, when a great whirlwind blew
    all the vegetation from the surface of the earth and all the water
    from its courses. With a flint he caught these symbols upon a rock,
    the etching of which is now in Keam’s Cañon, Arizona Territory. It
    is 17 inches long and 8 inches across. He told them that he was the
    keeper of breath. The whirlwind and the air which men breathe comes
    from this keeper’s mouth.

[Illustration: FIG. 966.--Whirlwind.]

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

WINTER--COLD--SNOW.

[Illustration: FIG 967.--Froze to death.]

Fig. 967.--Glue, an Oglala, froze to death on his way to a Brulé
village. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1791-’92. A glue-stick is
represented back of his head. Glue, made from the hoofs of buffalo, is
used to fasten arrowheads to the shaft and is carried about on sticks.
The cloud from which hail or snow is falling represents winter.

[Illustration: FIG. 968.--Froze to death.]

Fig. 968.--A Dakota, named Glue, froze to death. Cloud-Shield’s Winter
Count, 1820-’21. This figure is introduced to corroborate of the
preceding one as regards the name Glue. It gives another representation
of the glue stick.

[Illustration: FIG. 969.--Crows froze.]

Fig. 969.--A Dakota named Stabber froze to death. American-Horse’s
Winter Count, 1782-’83. The sign for winter is the same as before, but
doubled, as if of twofold power or excessively severe.

[Illustration: FIG. 970.--Froze to death.]

Fig. 970.--The winter was so cold that many crows froze to death.
Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1788-’89. White-Cow-Killer says
“Many-black-crows-died winter.”

The Crow falling stiff and motionless is a good symbol for the effect of
excessive cold.

[Illustration: FIG. 971.]

Fig. 971.--The snow was very deep. American-Horse’s Winter Count,
1827-’28. The piled-up snow around the bottoms of the tipis is graphic;
no other material than snow could make that kind of surrounding heap.

[Illustration: FIG. 972.--Cold, snow.]

Fig. 972.--From Copway, page 135, is the representation of “cold,”
“snow.”

[Illustration: FIG. 973.]

The Shoshoni and Banak sign for cold, winter, is: Clinch both hands and
cross the forearms before the breast with a trembling motion. It is
represented in Fig. 973. Cf. Battiste Good’s Winter count for 1747-’48
and 1783-’84.

[Illustration: FIG. 974.]

In Kingsborough (_g_) is the painting reproduced in Fig. 974 with this
description: “In the year of seven Canes and 1447 according to our
calculation, it snowed so heavily that lives were lost.”

[Illustration: FIG. 975.]

In the same work and volumes, p. 146 and Pl. 26, is the original of Fig.
975, with the explanation that: “In this year of seven Flints, or 1512,
there were heavy falls of snow.”

Wiener, op. cit., p. 762, gives the following description (condensed) of
Fig. 976, a remarkable example of ideography:

[Illustration: FIG. 976.--Peruvian garrison.]

    This is on a cloth on which the eight fortresses of Paramonga
    were presented. Between these bridges are drawn; these forts are of
    three stages and on each stage is a representation of a man or of
    two men. The men who are down on the plain had clothing of another
    color and even another colored face from those who appear on the
    different stages. Those who are on the plain at the foot of the
    fortress have no arms, but they have highly developed ears. The
    same is true of those who appear on the first stage. Those of the
    following stage are provided with arms, and the ears are of normal
    size. On the highest platform appear individuals with arms and they
    have ears like those on the second stage. In the middle a figure
    is provided with one arm and only one developed ear, which are on
    opposite sides. The men without arms are also without weapons.
    Those of the second stage carry at the height of the belt a kind of
    hatchet and those of the upper platform have each a club.

    Considering the character of the locality where this cloth was
    found, the number of forts there, the marshy land which prevented
    dry-shod communication between them, it can not be doubted that
    the subject matter was the representation of that region, but this
    representation is not a drawing on a plan, but is a description
    which does not only treat of the nature of the place and of the
    work that man raised there, but it also indicates the rôle that the
    inhabitants played there.

The function of the men with exaggerated ears and no arms was that of
scouts. The armed men with normal ears were guards or warriors bearing
different weapons, ax and club, and differently uniformed. The highest
figure with one large ear was the chief of the garrison.

It will be noticed that the scouts have enormous feet which do not rest
on the ground. This in connection with their exaggerated ears implies
that their duty is to listen and when they hear the enemy not to engage
him, as they have no arms or weapons, but to fly to the headquarters
and make the report. The duty of the warriors is not to listen, so
their ears are not abnormal, but to fight, and therefore they have
arms, one of which is exposed and the other holds a weapon. Their feet
are attached to their several stations. The chief must both listen and
direct, wherefore he is drawn with one exaggerated ear and one arm. His
feet do not touch the platform, which signifies that he has no special
station, but must move wherever he is most needed.

SECTION 2.

SIGNS, SYMBOLS, AND EMBLEMS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    There is a symbolism so natural, that, like certain implements
    peculiar to the stone age, it does not belong to any particular
    race, but constitutes a characteristic trait of mankind at a certain
    phase of its development. Of this class are representations of
    the sun by a disk or radiating face, of the moon by a crescent,
    of the air by birds, of water by fishes or a broken line, of
    thunder by an arrow or a club, etc. We ought, perhaps, to add a
    few more complicated analogies, as those which lead to symbolizing
    the different phases of human life by the growth of a tree, the
    generative forces of nature by phallic emblems, the divine triads
    by an equilateral triangle, or in general by any triple combination
    the members of which are equal, and the four principal directions
    of space by a cross. How many theories have been built upon the
    presence of the cross as an object of veneration among nearly all
    the peoples of the Old and New Worlds? Roman Catholic writers have
    justly protested, in recent years, against attributing a pagan
    origin to the cross of the Christians, because there were cruciform
    signs in the symbolism of religions anterior to Christianity. It is
    also right, by the same reason, to refuse to accept the attempts to
    seek for infiltrations of Christianity in foreign religions because
    they also possess the sign of redemption. * * * Nearly all peoples
    have represented the fire from the sky by an arm and, sometimes
    also, by a bird of strong and rapid flight. It was symbolized among
    the Chaldeans by a trident. Cylinders going back to the most ancient
    ages of Chaldean art exhibit a water jet gushing from a trident
    which is held by the god of the sky or of the storm. The Assyrian
    artist who first, on the bas-reliefs of Nimroud or Malthai, doubled
    the trident or transformed it into a trifid fascicle, docile to the
    refinements and elegancies of classic art, by that means secured for
    the ancient Mesopotamian symbol the advantage over all the other
    representations of thunder with which it could compete. The Greeks,
    like the other Indo-European nations, seem to have represented
    the storm-fire under the features of a bird of prey. When they
    received the Asiatic figure of the thunderbolt, they put it in the
    eagle’s claws and made of it the scepter of Zeus, explaining the
    combination, after their habit, by the story of the eagles bringing
    thunder to Zeus when he was preparing for the war against the
    Titans. Latin Italy transmitted the thunderbolt to Gaul, where, in
    the last centuries of paganism, it alternated on the Gallo-Roman
    monuments with the two-headed hammer.

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

    Of the changes through which a word may pass the word emblem
    presents one of the most remarkable instances. Its present
    signification, type, or allusive representation is of comparatively
    modern use, while its original meaning is obsolete. Among the Greeks
    an emblem meant something thrown in or inserted after the fashion
    of what we now call marquetry and mosaic work, or in the form of a
    detached ornament to be affixed to a pillar, a tablet, or a vase,
    and put off or on as there might be occasion.

    Quintilian (lib. 2, cap. 4), in enumerating the arts of oratory
    used by the pleaders of his day, describes some of them as in the
    habit of preparing and committing to memory certain highly finished
    clauses, to be inserted (as occasion might arise) like emblems in
    the body of their orations. Such was the meaning of the term in the
    classical ages of Greece and Rome; nor was its signification altered
    until some time after the revival of literature in the fifteenth
    century.

    Thus, in their origin, emblems were the figures or ornaments
    fashioned by the tools of the artists, in metal or wood, independent
    of the vase, or the column, or the furniture they were intended to
    adorn; they might be affixed or detached at the promptings of the
    owner’s fancy. Then they were formed, as in mosaic, by placing side
    by side little blocks of colored stone, or tiles, or small sections
    of variegated wood. Raised or carved figures, however produced, came
    next to be considered as emblems; and afterwards any kind of figured
    ornament or device, whether carved or engraved or simply traced, on
    the walls and floors of houses or on vessels of wood, clay, stone,
    or metal.

    By a very easy and natural step figures and ornaments of many
    kinds, when placed on smooth surfaces, were named emblems; and as
    these figures and ornaments were very often symbolical, i. e.,
    signs or tokens of a thought, a sentiment, a saying, or an event,
    the term emblem was applied to any painting, drawing, or print
    that was representative of an action, of a quality of the mind,
    or of any peculiarity or attribute of character. Emblems in fact
    were and are a species of hieroglyphics, in which the figures or
    pictures, besides denoting the natural objects to which they bear
    resemblances, were employed to express properties of the mind,
    virtues and abstract ideas, and all the operations of the soul.

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

    Coins and medals furnish most valuable examples of emblematical
    figures; indeed some of the emblem writers, as Sambucus, in 1564,
    were among the earliest to publish impressions or engravings of
    ancient Roman money, on which are frequently given very interesting
    representations of customs and symbolical acts. On Grecian coins
    we find, to use heraldic language, that the owl is the crest of
    Athens, a wolf’s head that of Argos, and a tortoise the badge of the
    Peloponnesus. The whole history of Louis XIV and that of his great
    adversary, William III, is represented in volumes containing the
    medals that were struck to commemorate the leading events of their
    reigns, and, though outrageously untrue to nature and reality by
    the adoption of Roman costumes and classic symbols, they serve as
    records of remarkable occurrences.

    Heraldry throughout employs the language of emblems; it is the
    picture-history of families, of tribes, and of nations, of princes
    and emperors. Many a legend and many a strange fancy may be mixed
    up with it, and demand almost the credulity of simplest childhood
    in order to obtain our credence; yet in the literature of chivalry
    and honors there are enshrined abundant records of the glory that
    belonged to mighty names.

    The custom of taking a device or badge, if not a motto, is
    traced to the earliest times of history. It is a point not to be
    doubted that the ancients used to bear crests and ornaments in the
    helmets and on the shields; for we see this clearly in Virgil, when
    he made the catalogue of the nations which came in favor of Turnus
    against the Trojans, in the eighth book of the Æneid; Amphiaraus
    then (as Pindar says), at the war of Thebes, bore a dragon on his
    shield. Similarly Statius writes of Capaneus and of Polinices that
    the one bore the Hydra and the other the Sphynx.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    (1) The circle or halo around the sun is supposed to be and is
    called by the Zuñi the House of the Sun-God. This is explained by
    analogy. A man seeks shelter on the approach of a rainstorm. As
    the sun circle almost invariably appears only with the coming of a
    storm, the Sun, like his child, the man, seeks shelter in his house,
    which the circle has thus come to be.

    The influence of this simple inference myth on the folklore
    of the Zuñi shows itself in the perpetuation, until within recent
    generations, of the round sun towers and circular estufas so
    intimately associated with sun worship, yet which were at first but
    survivals of the round medicine lodge.

    (2) The rainbow is a deified animal having the attributes of
    a human being, yet also the body and some of the functions of a
    measuring worm. Obviously, the striped back and arched attitude of
    the measuring worm, its sudden appearance and disappearance among
    the leaves of the plants which it inhabits, are the analogies on
    which this personification is based. As the measuring worm consumes
    the herbage of the plants and causes them to dry up, so the rainbow,
    which appears only after rains, is supposed to cause a cessation
    of rains, consequently to be the originator of droughts, under the
    influence of which latter plants parch and wither away as they do
    under the ravages of the measuring worms. Here it will be seen
    that the visible phenomenon called the rainbow gets by analogy the
    personality of the measuring worm, while from the measuring worm in
    turn the rainbow gets its functions as a god. Of this the cessation
    of rain on the appearance of the rainbow is adduced as proof.

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

    The carvings on the rattles of the Tlinkit are matters belonging
    particularly to the shaman or medicine man, and characteristic of
    his profession. Among these very generally, if not invariably, the
    rattle is composed of the figure of a bird, from which, near the
    head of the bird or carved upon the back of the bird’s head, is
    represented a human face with the tongue protruding.

    This tongue is bent downward and usually meets the mouth of a
    frog or an otter, the tongue of either appearing continuous with
    that of the human face. In case it is a frog it usually appears
    impaled upon the tongue of a kingfisher, whose head and variegated
    plumage are represented near the handle in a conventional way. It is
    asserted that this represents the medicine man absorbing from the
    frog, which has been brought to him by the kingfisher, either poison
    or the power of producing evil effects on other people.

    In case it is an otter the tongue of the otter touches the
    tongue of the medicine man, as represented on the carving. * * *

    This carving is represented, not only on rattles, but on totem
    posts, fronts of houses, and other objects associated with the
    medicine man, the myth being that when the young aspirant for the
    position of medicine man goes out into the woods after fasting for
    a considerable period, in order that his to be familiar spirit
    may seek him, and that he may become possessed of the power to
    communicate with supernatural beings; if successful he meets with a
    river otter, which is a supernatural animal. The otter approaches
    him and he seizes it, kills it with the blow of a club, and takes
    out the tongue, after which he is able to understand the language
    of all inanimate objects, of birds, animals, and other living
    creatures. * * *

    This ceremony or occurrence happens to every real medicine man.
    Consequently the otter presenting his tongue is the most universal
    type of the profession as such, and is sure to be found somewhere in
    the paraphernalia of every individual of that profession.

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

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

[Illustration: FIG. 977.--Comet. Mexican.]

The comet is represented in the plate by the symbol of a caterpillar, in
allusion, perhaps, to its supposed influence in causing blights. This
may be compared with the measuring worm, symbol of the rainbow, supra.
The character is reproduced in Fig. 977.

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

[Illustration: FIG. 978.--Robbery. Mexican.]

Fig. 978 is from the same work (_i_), Codex Mendoza, and is the symbol
for robbery, in allusion to the punishment of the convicted robber.

In the same work (_k_), Codex Vaticanus, is the following description,
in quaint language, of the plate now reproduced in Pl. XLIX:

[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLIX

MEXICAN SYMBOLS.]

    These are the twenty letters or figures which they employed in
    all their calculations, which they supposed ruled over men, as the
    figure shows, and they cured in a corresponding manner those who
    became ill or suffered pains in any part of the body. The sign of
    the wind was assigned to the liver; the rose to the breast; the
    earthquake to the tongue; the eagle to the right arm; the vulture to
    the right ear; the rabbit to the left ear; the flint to the teeth;
    the air to the breath; the monkey to the left arm; the cane to the
    heart; the herb, to the bowels; the lizard to the womb of women; the
    tiger to the left foot; the serpent to the male organ of generation,
    as that from which their diseases proceeded in their commencement;
    for in this manner they considered the serpent, wherever it
    occurred, as the most ominous of all their signs. Even still
    physicians continue to use this figure when they perform cures,
    and, according to the sign and hour in which the patient became
    ill, they examined whether the disease corresponded with the ruling
    sign; from which it is plain that this nation is not as brutal as
    some persons pretend, since they observed so much method and order
    in their affairs and employed the same means as our astrologers and
    physicians use, as this figure still obtains amongst them and may be
    found in their repertoires.

_a_, deer or stag; _b_, wind; _c_, rose; _d_, earthquake; _e_, eagle;
_f_, eagle of a different species; _g_, water; _h_, house; _i_, skull
or death; _j_, rain; _k_, dog; _l_, rabbit; _m_, flint; _n_, air; _o_,
monkey; _p_, cane; _q_, grass or herb; _r_, lizard; _s_, tiger; _t_,
serpent.

Dr. S. Habel (_d_) gives the description concerning Fig. 979, which is
presented here on account of the several symbols and gestures exhibited:

[Illustration: FIG. 979.--Guatemalan symbols.]

    This is a block of dark gray porphyry (vulcanite) 12 feet long,
    3 feet broad and 2 feet thick, the upper left corner of which is
    slightly broken off. The sculpture occupies 9 feet of its upper
    part. The upper portion represents the head and breast of a female,
    surrounded by a circle, from which the arms project. Besides the
    stereotyped frill surrounding the forehead, the only ornament of
    the head consists of two entwined rattlesnakes. The hair is of
    medium length and descends in tresses to the shoulders and breast.
    The ear is ornamented with circular disks inclosing smaller ones.
    Around the neck is a broad necklace of irregularly-shaped stones
    of extraordinary size. Below the necklace the breast is covered
    with a kind of scarf or textile fabric, the upper ends of which
    are fastened by buttons. To the center of this scarf seems to be
    attached a globe, the upper part of which is adorned by a knotted
    band from which four others ascend. From the lower part of the globe
    descends another band, with incisions characteristic of Mexican
    sculpture, while its sides are adorned by wreaths like wings. The
    wrists of both hands are covered with strings of large stones
    perforated in the center. From the semicircular bands emanate two
    of the twining staves; to the staves are attached knots, leaves,
    flowers, and various other emblems of a mythical character. The
    most conspicuous of these is the representation of a human face in
    a circle resembling the ordinary pictures of the full moon. The
    two central staves, originating from the neck, pass downward, and
    are differently ornamented. The fact that the head and part of the
    breast are surrounded by a circle, and that the image of the moon
    forms one of its ornaments, induces us to believe that this is the
    figure of the moon goddess. In the lower part of the sculpture
    appears, again, an individual imploring the deity with face upturned
    and elevated hand. The supplication is indicated by a curved staff
    knotted on the sides. Excepting a circular disk attached to the
    hair, the head is without ornament; the long hair hangs down to
    the breast and back, ending in a complicated ornament extending
    below the knees. In the lobe of the ear is a small ring from which
    a larger one depends. The breast is adorned with a globe similar
    to that on the breast of the goddess, only it is smaller. Around
    the wrist of the right hand is a plain cuff, while the left hand is
    covered by a skull; a stiff girdle, with a boar’s head ornamenting
    its back part, surrounds the waist. This girdle differs from the
    previous ones by being ornamented with circular depressions. From
    the front of the girdle descend two twisted cords surrounding the
    thigh, and a band tied in bow and ends. Below the right knee is a
    kind of garter with a pear-shaped pendant. The left foot, with the
    exception of the toes, is inclosed in a sort of shoe.

    In front of the adorer is a small altar, the cover of which has
    incisions similar to those in the pendant of the globe on the breast
    of the deity. On the altar is a human head, from the mouth of which
    issues a curved staff, while other staves in the shape of arrows
    appear on the side of the head.

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

    _a_, Ata, a small frog in the act of leaping. This animal was
    the base of the system, and in this attitude denoted the abundance
    of water. _b_, Bosa, a rectangular figure with various divisions,
    imitating cultivated fields. _c_, Mica, a bicephalous figure,
    with the eyes distended, as if to examine minutely. It signified
    the selection and planting of seed. _d_, Muihica, similar to the
    preceding, but with the eyes almost closed. It represented the dark
    and tempestuous epoch in which, favored by the rain, the seed began
    to sprout. _e_, Hisca, resembling _c_ and _d_ of the stone, but
    larger, with no division between the heads. It was the symbol of
    the conjunction of the sun and moon, which the Chibchas considered
    the nuptials or actual union of these celestial spouses--one of the
    cardinal dogmas of their creed. _f_, Ta, almost identical with _b_.
    It represented the harvest month. _g_, Cuhupcua, an earless human
    head upon one of the lateral faces of the stone. It was the symbol
    of the useless or so-called deaf month of the Chibchan year. _h_,
    Suhuza, perhaps a tadpole, and probably referred to the generation
    of these animals. _i_, Aca, a figure of a frog, larger than _a_, but
    in a similar posture. It announced the approach of the rainy season.
    _j_, Ulchihica, two united rhomboids--a fruit or seed, and perhaps
    an ear. It referred to their invitations and feasts. _k_, Guesa,
    a human figure in an humble attitude, the hands folded, and a halo
    about the head. It is supposed to represent the unfortunate youth
    selected as the victim of the sacrifice made every twenty Chibchan
    years to the god of the harvest.

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

[Illustration: FIG. 980.--Chibcha symbols.]

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

    In the conventional system of the Peruvians a bird indicates
    velocity, a lion strength, the lion and the bird united in one
    figure strength and velocity together, and, deductively, power.
    The meander indicates fertility and the pyramid with degrees or
    steps indicates defense. A bird combined with the meander indicates
    rapid production. A rectangular oblong figure (the mouth) indicates
    speech and discourse. A circle with a depression almost in the form
    of a heart means a female child, a circle with a small blade or
    stalk a male child. The circle with two stalks is the symbol of a
    man--the worker. The circle with four stalks means a married couple,
    marriage, etc.

[Illustration: FIG. 981.--Syrian symbols.]

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

    It measures 4-1/2 inches in height by 3-1/4 in width. The design
    is supposed to represent the fate of the soul according to Assyrian
    or Phenician belief. The tablet is divided into four compartments
    horizontally, the lowest being the largest and highest the most
    narrow. In the top compartment various astronomical symbols occur,
    many of which, as M. Canneau points out, occur on other Assyrian
    monuments. On the extreme right are the seven stars, next to these
    the crescent, next the winged solar disk, then an eight-rayed star
    in a circle. The remaining symbols are less easily explained, but
    the last is called by M. Canneau a “cidaris” or Persian tiara, while
    another appears to approach most nearly to the Trisul, or symbol of
    “fire,” the emblem of the Indian Siva.

    Below these symbols stand seven deities facing to the right,
    with long robes, and the heads of various animals. The first to the
    left resembles a lion, the second a wolf or hound, the fourth a
    ram, the sixth a bird, the seventh a serpent, while the third and
    fifth are less easily recognized. In the third compartment a body
    lies on a bier, with a deity at the head, and another at the feet.
    These deities have the right hand held up, and the left down (a
    common feature of Indian symbolism also observable in the attitude
    of the Mâlawiyeh dervishes), and the figure to the left appears to
    hold a branch or three ears of corn. Both are robed in the peculiar
    fish-headed costume, with a scaly body and fish tail, which is
    supposed to be symbolical of the mythical Oannes, who according to
    Berosus, issued from the Persian gulf and taught laws and arts to
    the early dwellers on the Euphrates. Behind the left-hand fish-god
    is a tripod stand, on which is an indefinite object; to the right of
    the other fish-god are two lion-headed human figures with eagles’
    claws, apparently contending with one another, the right arms being
    raised, the left holding hand by hand. To the right of these is
    another figure of Assyrian type, with a domed headdress and beard.

    In the lowest compartment the infernal river fringed with
    rushes, and full of fish, is represented. A fearful lion-headed
    goddess with eagles’ claws kneels on one knee on a horse (the emblem
    of death) which is carried in a kneeling attitude on a boat with
    bird-headed prow. The goddess crushes a serpent in either hand,
    and two lion cubs are represented sucking her breasts. To the left
    is a demon bearing a close resemblance to the one which supports
    the tablet itself, and which appears to urge on the boat from the
    bank; to the right are various objects, mostly of an indefinite
    character, among which M. Ganneau recognizes a vase, and a bottle,
    a horse’s leg with hoof, etc.; possibly offerings to appease the
    infernal deities. The lion-headed goddess might well be taken for
    the terrible infernal deity Kali or Durga, the worship of whose
    consort, Yama, was the original source of that of the later Serapis,
    whose dog was the ancestor of Cerberus. There is also a general
    resemblance between this design and the well-known Egyptian picture
    representing the wicked soul conveyed to hell in the form of a pig.

    The Oannes figures take the place of the two goddesses who in
    Egyptian designs stand at either end of the mummy and who form the
    prototype of the two angels for whom the pious Moslem provides
    seats at the head and foot of his tombstone. Perhaps the miserable
    horse who stumbles under the weight of the gigantic lion goddess
    may represent the unhappy soul itself, while the three ears of corn
    remind us of the grains of corn which have been found in skulls
    dug up in Syria by Capt. Burton. Corn is intimately connected with
    Dagon, the Syrian fish-god.

    As a tentative suggestion I may, perhaps, be allowed to propose
    that the seven deities in the second compartment are the planets,
    and that the symbols above belong to them as follows, commencing on
    the right:

    ------------+----------------+----------------+-------------
       Planet. | Assyrian name. | Head of deity. | Symbol.
    ------------+----------------+----------------+-------------
    1. Saturn   | Chiun         | Serpent        | Seven stars.
    2. Moon     | Nannar        | Bird           | Crescent.
    3. Sun      | Shamash       | Boar (?)       | Winged Disc.
    4. Mars     | Marduk        | Ram            | Rayed disc.
    5. Mercury  | Nebo          | (?)            | Two columns.
    6. Venus    | Ishtar        | Wolf (?)       | Trisul.
    7. Jupiter  | Ishn          | Lion           | Cidaris (?).
    ------------+----------------+----------------+-------------

    The serpent is often the emblem of Saturn, who, as the eldest
    of the seven (“the great serpent father of the gods”), naturally
    comes first and therefore on the right, and has seven stars for his
    symbol.

    The moon, according to Lenormant, was always an older divinity
    than the sun.

    The boar is often an emblem of the sun in its strength.

    The disc (litu) was the weapon employed by Marduk, the warrior
    god, as mentioned by Lenormant.

    The two pillars of Hermes are the proper emblem of the ancient
    Set or Thoth, the planet Mercury.

    The trisul belongs properly to the Asherah, god or goddess of
    fertility--the planet Venus.

    The Cidaris occurs in the Bavian sculptures in connection with
    a similar emblem. In the Chaldean system, Jupiter and Venus occur
    together as the youngest of the planets.

    It should also be noted that the position of the arms and the
    long robe covering the feet resemble the attitudes and dress of the
    Mâlawîyeh dervishes in their sacred dance, symbolic of the seven
    planets revolving (according to the Ptolemaic system) round the
    earth.

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

    The large fish marks the fisher who catches it or the
    manufacturer who extracts the oil from it. The trident indicates the
    sailor, as the pick the digger. The trade of digger in the catacombs
    was quite elevated; the primitive monuments thus represent these men
    who are of the lower class among us, and who in the beginning of the
    Christian era, when they dug the graves of saints and martyrs, were
    interred side by side with the rich and even beside saints, and were
    represented holding a pickaxe in one hand and a lamp in the other;
    the lamp lighted them in their subterranean labors. The hatchet
    indicates a carpenter, and the capital a sculptor or an architect.
    As to the dove, it probably designates the duties of the mother of
    a family who nourishes the domestic birdlings as would appear to be
    indicated by a mortuary design in Bosis. It is possible, moreover,
    that it originated from a symbolic idea, but this idea would be
    borrowed from profane rather than religious sentiments, and I would
    more willingly see in it the memorial of the good qualities of the
    dead, man or woman, the fidelity of the wife, or of the dove, which
    returning to the ark after the deluge announced that the waters
    had retired and the land had again appeared; from this we can not
    conclude that the fish filled a rôle analogous to it, nor above all
    that it is the symbol of Christ; the dove is in the Old Testament,
    the fish neither in the old nor in the new.

Edkins (_b_) says respecting the Chinese:

    It is easy to trace the process of symbol-making in the words
    used for the crenelated top of city walls, which are ya and c’hi,
    both meaning “teeth” and both being pictures of the object, and
    further, when the former is found also to be used for “tree buds”
    and “to bud.” Such instances of word creation show how considerable
    has been the prevalence of analogy and the association of ideas. The
    picture writing of the Chinese is to a large extent a continuation
    of the process of forming analogies to which the human mind had
    already become accustomed in the earlier stages of the history of
    language.

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

    It is not surprising that the Hindoos and Egyptians should both
    have adopted as the symbol of the sun the lotus flower, which opens
    its petals to the dawn and infolds them on the approach of night,
    and which seems to be born of itself on the surface of the still
    waters.

SECTION 3.

SIGNIFICANCE OF COLORS.

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

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

DECORATIVE USE OF COLOR.

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

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

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

Maximilian of Wied (_f_), reports:

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

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

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

    The paint is applied either in large masses or in patterns. For
    example, a man, when he wants to dress well, perhaps entirely coats
    both his feet up to the ankles with a crust of red; his whole trunk
    he sometimes stains uniformly with blue-black, more rarely with red,
    or covers it with an intricate pattern of lines of either color;
    he puts a streak of red along the bridge of his nose; where his
    eyebrows were till he pulled them out he puts two red lines; at the
    top of the arch of his forehead he puts a big lump of red paint, and
    probably he scatters other spots and lines somewhere on his face.
    The women, especially among the Ackawoi, who use more body-paint
    than other ornament, are more fond of blue-black than of red; and
    one very favorite ornament with them is a broad band of this, which
    edges the mouth, and passes from the corners of that to the ears.
    Some women especially affect certain little figures, like Chinese
    characters, which look as if some meaning were attached to them, but
    which the Indians are either unable or unwilling to explain.

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

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

    Met a Conibo on the beach. This man was evidently the dandy of
    his tribe. He was painted with a broad stripe of red under each eye;
    three narrow stripes of blue were carried from one ear, across the
    upper lip to the other--the two lower stripes plain, and the upper
    one bordered with figures. The whole of the lower jaw and chin were
    painted with a blue chain-work of figures, something resembling
    Chinese figures.

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

    The uncivilized Indians of Peru paint their bodies, but not
    exactly in the tattoo manner; they confine themselves to single
    stripes. The Sensis women draw two stripes from the shoulder, over
    each breast, down to the pit of the stomach; the Pirras women paint
    a band in a form of a girdle round the waist, and they have three of
    a darker color round each thigh. These stripes, when once laid on,
    can never be removed by washing. They are made with the unripe fruit
    of one of the Rubiacaceæ. Some tribes paint the face only; others,
    on the contrary, do not touch that part; but bedaub with colors
    their arms, feet, and breasts.

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

Marcano (_e_) says:

    The present Piaroas of Venezuela are in the habit of painting
    their bodies, but by a different process. They make stamps out of
    wood, which they apply to their skins after covering them with
    coloring matter.

[Illustration: FIG. 982.--Piaroa color stamps.]

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

    The Piaroas either copied the models they found carved on the
    rocks by peoples who preceded them, or they are aware of their
    meaning and preserved the tradition of it. The former hypothesis is
    the only tenable one. Not being endowed with inventive faculties,
    it seems more natural that they should simply have copied the only
    models they found. The Indians of French Guiana paint themselves in
    order to drive away the devil when they start on a journey or for
    war, whence Crevaux concludes that the petroglyphs must have been
    carved for a religious purpose. But painting is to the Piaroas a
    question of ornamentation and of necessity. It is a sort of garment
    that protects them against insects, and which, applied with extra
    care, becomes a fancy costume to grace their feasts and meetings.

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

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

IDEOCRASY OF COLORS.

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

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

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

    White is worn by the Saviour after his resurrection; by the
    Virgin in representations of the Assumption; by women as the emblem
    of chastity; by rich men to indicate humility; and by the judge as
    the symbol of integrity. It is represented sometimes by silver or
    the diamond, and its sentiment is purity, virginity, innocence,
    faith, joy, and light.

    Red, the color of the ruby, speaks of royalty, fire, divine
    love, the holy spirit, creative power, and heat. In an opposite
    sense it symbolized blood, war, and hatred. Red and black combined
    were the colors of Satan, purgatory, and evil spirits. Red and white
    roses are emblems of love and innocence or love and wisdom, as in
    the garland of St. Cecilia.

    Blue, that of the sapphire, signified heaven, heavenly love and
    truth, constancy and fidelity. Christ and the Virgin Mary wear the
    blue mantle; St. John a blue tunic.

    Green, the emerald, the color of spring, expressed hope and
    victory.

    Yellow or gold was the emblem of the sun, the goodness of God,
    marriage and fruitfulness. St. Joseph and St. Peter wear yellow.
    Yellow has also a bad signification when it has a dirty, dingy hue,
    such as the usual dress of Judas, and then signifies jealousy,
    inconstancy, and deceit.

    Violet or amethyst signified passion and suffering or love and
    truth. Penitents, as the Magdalene, wear it. The Madonna wears it
    after the crucifixion, and Christ after the resurrection.

    Gray is the color of penance, mourning, humility, or accused
    innocence.

    Black with white signified humility, mourning, and purity of
    life. Alone, it spoke of darkness, wickedness, and death, and
    belonged to Satan. In pictures of the Temptation Jesus sometimes
    wears black.

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

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

    The hierarchy of colors could well, in the ideas of the Middle
    Ages, have been allied at the same time to symbolism. The most
    brilliant color is gold, and here it is given to the greatest
    saints. Silver, color of the moon, which is inferior to the sun, but
    its companion, however, should follow; then red, or the color of
    fire, attribute of those who struggle against passion, and which is
    inferior to the two metals, gold and silver, to the sun and moon,
    of which it is but an emanation; next green, which symbolizes hope,
    and which is appropriate to married people; lastly, the uncertain
    yellowish color, half white and half yellow, a modified color, which
    is given to saints who were formerly sinners, but who have succeeded
    in reforming themselves and are made somewhat bright in the sight of
    God by penitence.

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

    Yellow, the color of gold and fire, symbolizes reason.

    Green, the color of vegetable life, symbolizes utility and labor.

    Red, the color of blood, symbolizes war and love.

    Blue, the color of the sky, symbolizes spiritual life, duty, religion.

COLOR IN CEREMONIES.

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

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

                          N.     S.      E.       W.
    Stevenson--Zuñi    Yellow. Red.   White.   Black.
    Matthews--Navajo   Black.   Blue. White.   Yellow.
    Keam--Moki         White.   Red.   Yellow. Blue.

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

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

    To the west: Siky’ak            oma’uwu          Yellow cloud.
    To the south: Sa’kwa            oma’uwu          Blue cloud.
    To the east: Pal’a              oma’uwu          Red cloud.
    To the north: Kwetsh            oma’uwu          White cloud.

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

    In ancient times, while yet all beings belonged to one family,
    Po-shai-ang-k’ia, the father of our sacred bands, lived with his
    children (disciples) in the City of the Mists, the middle place
    (center) of the medicine societies of the world. When he was about
    to go forth into the world he divided the universe into six regions,
    namely, the North (Direction of the swept or barren place); the
    West (Direction of the Home of the Waters); the South (Direction of
    the Place of the Beautiful Red); the East (Direction of the Home of
    Day); the Upper Regions (Direction of the Home of the High); and the
    Lower Regions (Direction of the Home of the Low).

    In the center of the great sea of each of these regions stood a
    very ancient sacred place--a great mountain peak. In the North was
    the Mountain Yellow, in the West the Mountain Blue, in the South the
    Mountain Red, in the East the Mountain White, above the Mountain
    All-color, and below the Mountain Black.

    We do not fail to see in this clear reference to the natural
    colors of the regions referred to--to the barren North and its
    auroral hues, the West with its blue Pacific, the rosy South, the
    white daylight of the east, the many hues of the clouded sky, and
    the black darkness of the “caves and holes of earth.” Indeed these
    colors are used in the pictographs and in all the mythic symbolism
    of the Zuñis to indicate the directions or regions respectively
    referred to as connected with them.

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

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

    East--red--success; triumph.
    North--blue--defeat; trouble.
    West--black--death.
    South--white--peace; happiness.

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

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

    _Quaternary system._   _Quinary system._
       East--Yellow.         South--Blue.
       North--Black.         East--Red.
       West--White.          North--Yellow.
       South--Red.           West--White.
                             Center--Black.

Mr. John Crawford (_a_) says:

    In Java the divisions of the horizon and the corresponding
    colors were named in the following order: first, white and the east;
    second, red and the south; third, yellow and the west; fourth, black
    and the north; and fifth, mixed colors and the focus or center.

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

         _Gemelli._         _Boturini._
    1. Tochtli--South. 1. Tecpatl--South.
    2. Acatl--East.     2. Calli--East.
    3. Tecpatl--North. 3. Tochtli--North.
    4. Calli--West.     4. Acatl--West.

    SYMBOLS OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS.

         _Gemelli._         _Boturini._
    1. Tochtli--Earth. 1. Tecpatl--Fire.
    2. Acatl--Water.    2. Calli--Earth.
    3. Tecpatl--Air.    3. Tochtli--Air.
    4. Calli--Fire.     4. Acatl--Water.

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

    They divided the year into four signs, being four figures; the
    one of a house, another of a rabbit, the third of a cane, the fourth
    of a flint, and by them they reckoned the year as it passed on. *
    * * They painted a sun in the middle from which issued four lines
    or branches in a cross to the circumference of the wheel, and they
    turned so that they divided it into four parts and the circumference
    and each of them moved with its branch of the same color, which were
    four--green, blue, red, and yellow.

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

    Calli--Green.
    Tochtli--Blue.
    Acatl--Red.
    Tecpatl--Yellow.

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

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

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

    In constructing the inclosure in which the Midē' priests
    practice the rites and ceremonies of initiation, a single post, from
    4 to 5 feet in height and about 8 inches thick, is planted at a
    point opposite the main entrance, and about three-fourths the entire
    distance of the interior from it. This post is painted red, with a
    band of green about the top, of the width of a palm.

    The red and green colors are used to designate the Midē'
    society, but for what reason is not positively known. The green
    appears to have some connection with the south, the sources of
    heat and abundance of crops; the thunder-bird also comes from that
    direction in the springtime, bringing rain, which causes the grass
    and fruits to grow, giving an abundance of food.

    For the second degree two posts are erected within the
    inclosure, the first being like that for the first degree, the
    second being planted nearer the main entrance, though not far from
    the opposite end of the structure; this post is painted red and is
    covered with white spots made by applying white clay with the finger
    tip. These spots are symbolical of the migis shell, the sacred
    emblem of the Grand Medicine Society.

    The third degree contains three posts, the two preceding ones
    being used, to which a third is added and planted in a line with
    them; this post is painted black.

    In the fourth degree the additional post is really a cross, a
    crosspiece of wood being attached near the top; the lower part of
    the upright piece is squared, the side on the east being painted
    white; on the south, green; on the west, red; and on the north,
    black. The white is the source of light facing the direction of the
    rising sun, the green, apparently the source of warmth, rains, and
    abundance of crops, while the north is black, and pertains to the
    region from which come cold, disease, and desolation. The red is
    placed upon the western side, but there is a diversity of opinion
    regarding its significance. The most plausible theory appears to
    relate to the “road of the dead,” referred to in the ritual of the
    Ghost Society, as the path upon which the departed shadow partakes
    of the gigantic strawberry which he finds. The upper portion of the
    cross is white, upon which are placed irregularly red spots.

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

    In connection with the colors of the degree posts, there is a
    systematic arrangement of facial ornamentation, each style to be
    characteristic of one of the four degrees, as well as the degree of
    the Ghost Society.

    According to the White Earth (Minnesota) method, the arrangement
    is as follows:

    First degree. One red stripe across the face from near the ears
    across the tip of the nose.

    Second degree. One stripe as above and another across the eyes,
    temples, and root of the nose.

    Third degree. The upper half of the face painted green and the
    lower half red.

    Fourth degree. The forehead and the left side of the face from
    the outer canthus of the eye downward is painted green; four spots
    of vermilion are made with the tip of the finger upon the forehead
    and four upon the green surface of the left cheek.

    According to Sikassige, a Mille Lacs Midē' priest, the
    ornamentation practiced during his youth was as follows:

    First degree. A broad band of green across the forehead and a
    narrow stripe of vermilion across the face just below the eyes.

    Second degree. A narrow stripe of vermilion across the temple,
    eyelids, and the root of the nose, a short distance above which is a
    similar stripe of green, then another of vermilion, and above this
    again one of green.

    Third degree. Red and white spots are daubed all over the face,
    the spots averaging three-fourths of an inch each in diameter.

    Fourth degree. Two forms are admissible; in the former the face
    is painted red, with a stripe of green extended diagonally across it
    from the upper part of the left temporal region to the lower part
    of the right cheek. In the latter the face is painted red with two
    short, horizontal parallel green bars across the forehead.

    Either of these may be adopted as a sign of mourning by a man
    whose deceased son had been intended for the priesthood of the Grand
    Medicine Society.

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

    Closely connected with religion, was the feeling they
    entertained for the Kura, or Red Paint, which was the sacred color;
    their idols, Pataka, sacred stages for the dead, and for offerings
    or sacrifices, Urupa graves, chief’s houses, and war canoes, were
    all thus painted.

    The way of rendering anything tapu was by making it red. When
    a person died, his house was thus colored; when the tapu was laid
    on anything, the chief erected a post and painted it with the kura;
    wherever a corpse rested, some memorial was set up, oftentimes the
    nearest stone, rock, or tree served as a monument; but whatever
    object was selected, it was sure to be made red. If the corpse were
    conveyed by water, wherever they landed a similar token was left;
    and when it reached its destination, the canoe was dragged on shore,
    thus distinguished, and abandoned. When the hahunga took place,
    the scraped bones of the chief, thus ornamented, and wrapped in a
    red-stained mat, were deposited in a box or bowl, smeared with the
    sacred color, and placed in a tomb. Near his final resting place a
    lofty and elaborately carved monument was erected to his memory;
    this was called he tiki, which was also thus colored.

    In former times the chief anointed his entire person with red
    ocher; when fully dressed on state occasions, both he and his
    wives had red paint and oil poured upon the crown of the head and
    forehead, which gave them a gory appearance, as though their skulls
    had been cleft asunder.

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

    On the Cooper, Herbert, and Diamentina rivers of the North there
    are no paintings in caves, but in special corroborees the bodies of
    the leading dancers are beautifully painted with every imaginable
    color, representing man, woman, animals, birds, and reptiles, the
    outlines being nearly faultless, and in proportion, independent of
    the blending of the colors.

    These paintings take about seven or eight hours’ hard tedious
    work for two men, one in front, the other at the back of the man
    who is to be painted, and when these men who are painted display
    themselves, surrounded by bright fires and rude torches, it has an
    enchanting effect to the others. After the ceremony is over, the
    paintings are allowed to be examined, and the artists congratulated
    or criticised.

    At the other ceremonies, after returning from “Bookatoo” (red
    ocher expedition), they paint a few of their dancers with all the
    colors of the rainbow, the outlines showing all the principal
    species of snakes. They are well drawn and colored, and take many
    hours of labor to complete.

    These paintings of snakes are done for the purpose of having a
    good harvest of snakes. The women are not allowed to attend at this
    ceremony, as it is one of their strict secret dances.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COLOR RELATIVE TO DEATH AND MOURNING.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The face of the deceased is painted red and black. After the
    death of husband or wife the survivor must paint his legs and his
    blanket red. For three or four days he must not eat anything; then
    three men or women give him food, and henceforth he is allowed to
    eat.

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

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

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

    A messenger who is sent to convey the intelligence of a death
    is smeared all over with white clay. On his approach to the camp
    the women all commence screaming and crying most passionately. * *
    * Widows and widowers are prohibited by custom from uttering a word
    until the clay of mourning has worn off, however long it may remain
    on them. They do not, however, rub it off, as doing so would be
    considered a bad omen. It must absolutely wear off of itself. During
    this period they communicate by means of gesture language.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COLORS FOR WAR AND PEACE.

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

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

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

    On the day of departure the warriors dress in their best. They
    color their hair red; they paint their faces red and black with much
    skill and taste, as well as the whole of their bodies. Some have
    headdresses with the tail feathers of eagles or other birds; others
    have them decorated with the teeth of wild beasts, such as the wolf
    or tiger [wild cat]. Several adorn their heads, in lieu of hats,
    with helmets bearing the horns of deer, roebuck, or buffalo.

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

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

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

Haywood (_e_) says of the Cherokees:

    When going to war their hair is combed and annointed with bear’s
    grease and the red root, _Sanguinaria canadensis_, and they adorn
    it with feathers of various beautiful colors, besides copper and
    iron rings, and sometimes wampum or peak in the ears; and they paint
    their faces all over as red as vermilion, making a circle of black
    about one eye and another circle of white about the other.

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

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

    Before charging the foe the Osage warriors paint themselves
    anew. This is called the death paint. If any of the men die with
    this paint on them the survivors do not put on any other paint.

    All the gentes on the “Left” side use the “fire paint,” which
    is red. It is applied by them with the left hand all over the face.
    And they use prayers about the fire: “As the fire has no mercy, so
    should we have none.” Then they put mud on the cheek, below the left
    eye, as wide as two or more fingers. The horse is painted with some
    of the mud on the left cheek, shoulder, and thigh.

The following extract is from Belden (_b_):

    The sign paints used by the Sioux Indians are not numerous, but
    very significant. When the warriors return from the warpath and have
    been successful in bringing back scalps, the squaws, as well as the
    men, paint with vermilion a semicircle in front of each ear. The bow
    of the arc is toward the nose and the points of the half-circle on
    the top and bottom of the ear; the eyes are then reddened and all
    dance over the scalps.

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

    When they go to war * * * they paint their faces all over red,
    and commonly make a circle of black about one eye and another circle
    of white about the other, while others bedaub their faces with
    tobacco-pipe clay, lampblack, black lead, and divers other colors,
    etc.

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

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

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

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

Peter Martyr (_b_) says of the Ciguaner Indians:

    The natives came out of the forest painted and daubed with
    spots. For it is their custom, when they go to war, to daub
    themselves from the face to the knee with black and scarlet or
    purple color in spots, which color they [obtain] from some curious
    fruits resembling “Pyren,” which they plant and cultivate in their
    gardens with the greatest care. Similarly they also cause the hair
    to grow in a thousand very curious shapes, if it is not by nature
    long or black enough, so that they look not otherwise than if the
    similar devil or hellish Circe came running out of hell.

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

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

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

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

COLOR DESIGNATING SOCIAL STATUS.

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

    For the men are in body long and straight, possess a vivid and
    natural complexion which compares somewhat with a red and genuine
    flesh color. Their whole body and skin is lined over with sundry
    paints and curious figures, which they consider as a handsome
    ornament and fine decoration, and the uglier a man’s painting or
    lining over is the prettier he considers himself to be, and is also
    regarded as the most noble among their number.

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

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

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

Belden (_c_) furnishes the following remarks:

    The Yanktons, Sioux, Santees, and Cheyennes use a great deal
    of paint. A Santee squaw paints her face the same as a white woman
    does, only with less taste. If she wishes to appear particularly
    taking she draws a red streak half an inch wide from ear to ear,
    passing it over the eyes, the bridge of the nose, and along the
    middle of the cheek. When a warrior desires to be left alone he
    takes black paint or lampblack and smears his face; then he draws
    zigzag lines from his hair to his chin by scraping off the paint
    with his nails. This is a sign that he is trapping, is melancholy,
    or in love.

    A Sioux warrior who is courting a squaw usually paints his eyes
    yellow and blue and the squaw paints hers red. I have known squaws
    to go through the painful operation of reddening the eye-balls,
    that they might appear particularly fascinating to the young men.
    A red stripe drawn horizontally from one eye to the other means
    that the young warrior has seen a squaw he could love if she would
    reciprocate his attachment.

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

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

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

Brinton (_d_) gives the following summary:

    Both green and yellow were esteemed fortunate colors by the
    Cakchiquels, the former as that of the flourishing plant, the latter
    as that of the ripe and golden ears of maize. Hence, says Coto, they
    were also used to mean prosperity.

    The color white, _zak_, had, however, by far the widest
    metaphorical uses. As the hue of light, it was associated with day,
    dawn, brightness, etc.

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

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

H. Clay Trumbull (_a_) says:

    The Egyptian amulet of blood friendship was red, as representing
    the blood of the gods. The Egyptian word for “red” sometimes stood
    for “blood.” The sacred directions in the Book of the Dead were
    written in red; hence follows our word “rubrics.” The rabbis say
    that, when persecution forbade the wearing of the phylacteries
    with safety, a red thread might be substituted for this token of
    the covenant with the Lord. It was a red thread which Joshua gave
    to Rahab as a token of her covenant relations with the people of
    the Lord. The red thread, in China, to-day, binds the double cup,
    from which the bride and bridegroom drink their covenant draught
    of “wedding wine,” as if in symbolism of the covenant of blood.
    And it is a red thread which, in India, to-day, is used to bind a
    sacred amulet around the arm or the neck. * * * Upon the shrines in
    India the color red shows that worship is still living there; red
    continues to stand for blood.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SECTION 4.

GESTURE AND POSTURE SIGNS DEPICTED.

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

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

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

    The use of simple natural shapes, such as the mouth, nose, eye,
    ear, hand, foot, as well as the shape of branches, trees, grass,
    caves, holes, rivers, the bow, the spear, the knife, the tablet, the
    leaf--these formed, in addition to pictures of animals, much of the
    staple of Chinese ideographs.

    Attention should be drawn to the fact that the mouth and the
    hand play an exceptionally important part in the formation of the
    symbols.

    Men were more accustomed then than now to the language of signs
    by the use of these organs. Perhaps three-twentieths of the existing
    characters are formed by their help as one element.

    This large use of the mouth and hand in forming characters is,
    as we may very reasonably suppose, only a repetition of what took
    place when the words themselves were made.

    There is likely to be a primitive connection between
    demonstratives and names for the hand, because the hand is used in
    pointing.

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

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

[Illustration: FIG. 983.--Rock painting. Tule river, California.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Illustration: FIG. 984.--Coward.]

Fig. 984.--Afraid-of-him. Red-Cloud’s Census. The following is the
description of a common gesture sign used by the Dakotas for afraid,
fear, coward:

Crook the index, close the other fingers, and, with its back upward,
draw the right hand backward about a foot, from 18 inches in front of
the right breast. Conception, “Drawing back.”

[Illustration: FIG. 985.--Coward.]

Fig. 985.--Afraid-of-him. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is obviously the same
device without clear depiction of the arm, which is explained by the
preceding.

[Illustration: FIG. 986.--Little-Chief.]

Fig. 986.--Little-Chief. Red-Cloud’s Census. A typical gesture sign for
chief is as follows:

Raise the forefinger, pointed upwards, in a vertical direction and then
reverse both finger and motion; the greater the elevation the “bigger”
the chief. In this case the elevation above the head is slight, so the
chief is “little.”

[Illustration: FIG. 987.--Hit.]

Fig. 987.--The Dakotas went out in search of the Crows in order to
avenge the death of Broken-Leg-Duck. They did not find any Crows, but,
chancing on a Mandan village, captured it and killed all the people in
it. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1787-’88.

The mark on the tipi is not the representation of a hatchet or tomahawk,
but is explained by the gesture sign for “hit by a bullet from a gun,”
made by the Dakotas as follows:

With the hands in the position of the completion of the sign for
discharge of a gun, draw the right hand back from the left, that is,
in toward the body; close all the fingers except the index, which is
extended, horizontal, back toward the right, pointing straight outward,
and is pushed forward against the center of the stationary left hand
with a quick motion. Conception, “Bullet comes to a stop. It struck.”

[Illustration: FIG. 988.--Cow.]

Fig. 988.--The first stock cattle were issued to them. American-Horse’s
Winter Count, 1875-’76. The figure represents a cow surrounded by
people. A common gesture sign distinguishing the cattle brought by
Europeans from the buffalo is as follows:

Make sign for buffalo, then extend the left forefinger and draw the
extended index across it repeatedly at different places. Literally,
spotted buffalo.

[Illustration: FIG. 989.--Two.]

Fig. 989.--Kills-two. Red-Cloud’s Census. In this figure only the
suggestion of number is in point. Two fingers are extended.

[Illustration: FIG. 990.--Sign for Dakota.]

Fig. 990.--Four Crow Indians killed by the Minneconjou Dakotas.
The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1864-’65.

The four heads and necks are shown. The pictograph shows the tribe of
the conquerors and not that of the victims. The gesture sign for Dakota
is as follows:

Forefinger and thumb of right hand extended (others closed) are drawn
from left to right across the throat as though cutting it. The Dakotas
have been named the “cut-throats” by some of the surrounding tribes.

[Illustration: FIG. 991.--Noon.]

Fig. 991.--Noon. Red-Cloud’s Census. A Dakotan gesture sign for noon is
as follows:

Make a circle with the thumb and index for sun, and then hold the hand
overhead, the outer edge uppermost.

[Illustration: FIG. 992.--Hard.]

Fig. 992.--Hard. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is the representation of a
stone hammer and coincides with the Dakotan gesture sign for hard as
follows:

Same as the sign for stone, which is: With the back of the arched right
hand strike repeatedly in the palm of the left, held horizontal, back
outward, at the height of the breast and about a foot in front; the ends
of the fingers point in opposite directions. Refers to the time when the
stone hammer was the hardest pounding instrument the Indians knew.

[Illustration: FIG. 993.--Moon.]

Fig. 993.--Little-Sun. Red-Cloud’s Census. The moon is expressed both in
gestural and oral language as sun-little.

[Illustration: FIG. 994.--Old-Cloud.]

Fig. 994.--Old-Cloud. Red-Cloud’s Census. Cloud is drawn in blue in the
original; old is signified by drawing a staff in the hand of the man.
The Dakotan gesture for old is described as follows:

With the right hand held in front of right side of body, as though
grasping the head of a walking-stick, describe the forward arch
movement, as though a person walking was using it for support. “Decrepit
age dependent on a staff.”

[Illustration: FIG. 995.--Call-for.]

Fig. 995.--Call-for. Red-Cloud’s Census. The gesture for come or to call
to one’s self is shown in this figure. This is similar to that prevalent
among Europeans, and so requires no explanation.

[Illustration: FIG. 996.--Wise-Man.]

Fig. 996.--The-Wise-Man was killed by enemies.

Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1797-’98. The following gesture sign
explains this figure:

Touch the forehead with the right index and then make the sign for big
directly in front of it. Conception, “Big brain.”

In this as in other delineations of gesture the whole of the sign could
not be expressed, but only that part of it which might seem to be the
most suggestive.

[Illustration: FIG. 997.--Sign for pipe.]

Fig. 997 is taken from the winter count of Battiste Good and is drawn to
represent the sign for pipe, which it is intended to signify. The sign
is made by placing the right hand near the upper portion of the breast,
the left farther forward, and both held so that the index and thumb
approximate a circle, as if holding a pipe-stem. The remaining fingers
are closed.

The point of interest in this character is that, instead of drawing a
pipe, the artist drew a human figure making the sign for pipe, showing
the intimate connection between gesture-signs and pictographs. The pipe,
in this instance, was the symbol of peace.

[Illustration: FIG. 998.--Searches-the-Heavens.]

Fig. 998.--Mahpiya-wakita, Searches-the-Heavens; from the Oglala Roster.
The cloud is drawn in blue, the searching being derived from the
expression of that idea in gesture by passing the extended index of
one hand (or both) forward from the eye, then from right to left, as
if indicating various uncertain localities before the person, i. e.,
searching for something. The lines from the eyes are in imitation of
this gesture.

WATER.

[Illustration: FIG. 999.--Water symbols.]

The Chinese character for to give water is _a_, in Fig. 999, which may
be compared with the common Indian gesture to drink, to give water,
viz: “Hand held with the tips of fingers brought together and passed
to the mouth, as if scooping up water” (see Fig. 1000), obviously from
primitive custom, as with Mojaves, who still drink with scooped hands,
throwing the water to the mouth.

[Illustration: FIG. 1000.--Gesture sign for drink.]

Another common Indian gesture sign for water to drink--I want to
drink--is: “Hand brought downward past the mouth with loosely extended
fingers, palm toward the face.” This appears in the Mexican character
for drink, _b_, in Fig. 999, taken from Pipart (_a_). Water, i. e.,
the pouring out of water with the drops falling or about to fall, is
shown in Fig. 999, _c_, taken from the same author (_b_), being the
same arrangement of them as in the Indian gesture-sign for rain, shown
in Fig. 1002, the hand, however, being inverted. Rain in the Mexican
picture-writing is sometimes shown by small circles inclosing a dot, as
in the last two designs, but not connected together, each having a short
line upward marking the line of descent. Several other pictographs for
rain are given below.

[Illustration: FIG. 1001.--Water, Egyptian.]

With the gesture sign for drink may be compared Fig. 1001, the Egyptian
goddess Nu in the sacred sycamore tree, pouring out the water of life
to the Osirian and his soul represented as a bird, in Amenti, from a
funereal stelē in Cooper’s Serpent Myths (_b_).

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

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

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

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

[Illustration: FIG. 1002.--Gesture for rain.]

The Egyptian character for weep, _h_, in Fig. 999, i. e., an eye with
tears falling, is also found in the pictographs of the Ojibwa, published
by Schoolcraft (_o_), and is also made by the Indian gesture of drawing
lines by the index repeatedly downward from the eye, though perhaps more
frequently made by the full sign for rain--made with the back of the
hand downward from the eye--“eye rain.” The sign is as follows, as made