Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256 — John Shaqi
Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256Mallery, Garrick
History
Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256
Mallery, Garrick
Haida Indians; Picture-writing, Indian; Tattooing
Mr. J. Sutton Wall, of Monongahela City, describes in correspondence a
rock bearing pictographs opposite the town of Millsborough, in Fayette
County, Pennsylvania. This rock is about 390 feet above the level of
Monongahela River, and belongs to the Waynesburg stratum of sandstone.
It is detached, and rests somewhat below its true horizon. It is about
6 feet in thickness, and has vertical sides; only two figures are
carved on the sides, the inscriptions being on the top, and are now
considerably worn. Mr. Wall mentions the outlines of animals and some
other figures, formed by grooves or channels cut from an inch to a mere
trace in depth. No indications of tool marks were discovered. It is
presented below as Figure 147, page 224.
The resemblance between this record and the drawings on Dighton Rock is
to be noted, as well as that between both of them and some in Ohio.
Mr. J. Sutton Wall also contributes a group of etchings on what is
known as the “Geneva Picture Rock,” in the Monongahela Valley, near
Geneva. These are foot-prints and other characters similar to those
mentioned from Hamilton Farm, West Virginia, which are shown in Figure
148, page 225.
Schoolcraft (Vol. IV, pp. 172, 173, Pll. 17, 18), describes also,
presenting plates, a pictograph on the Allegheny River as follows:
One of the most often noticed of these inscriptions exists on the
left bank of this river [the Allegheny], about six miles below
Franklin (the ancient Venango), Pennsylvania. It is a prominent
point of rocks, around which the river deflects, rendering this
point a very conspicuous object. * The rock, which has been lodged
here in some geological convulsion, is a species of hard sandstone,
about twenty-two feet in length by fourteen in breadth. It has an
inclination to the horizon of about fifty degrees. During freshets
it is nearly overflown. The inscription is made upon the inclined
face of the rock. The present inhabitants in the country call it
the ‘Indian God.’ It is only in low stages of water that it can be
examined. Captain Eastman has succeeded, by wading into the water,
in making a perfect copy of this ancient record, rejecting from its
borders the interpolations of modern names put there by boatmen,
to whom it is known as a point of landing. The inscription itself
appears distinctly to record, in symbols, the triumphs in hunting and
war.
ROCK CARVINGS IN OHIO.
In the Final Report of the Ohio State Board of Centennial Managers,
Columbus, 1877, many localities showing rock carvings are noted. The
most important (besides those mentioned below) are as follows: Newark,
Licking County, where human hands, many varieties of bird tracks, and a
cross are noticed. Independence, Cuyahoga County, showing human hands
and feet and serpents. Amherst, Lorain County, presenting similar
objects. Wellsville, Columbiana County, where the characters are more
elaborate and varied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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