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
The feet of the accompanying Figure 184 cannot be seen, being hidden in
the head of the figure beneath. It is squatting, with its hands on its
knees, and has a wolf’s head. Arms, legs, mouth, jaws, nostrils, and
ear-holes are scarlet; eyebrows, irises, and edges of the ears black.
The figure is reproduced from The Northwest Coast of America, being
results of recent ethnological researches from the collections of the
Royal Museums at Berlin. (Trans. from German.) New York, Pl. 7, Fig. 3.
The accompanying illustration, Figure 185, represents a knife from
Africa, which bears upon both sides of the blade incised characters of
the human form, strikingly similar to those found among the Ojibwa. The
lines running upward from the head are identical with an Ojibwa form of
representing a meda, or Shaman, while the hour-glass form of body is
also frequently found, though generally used to designate a woman, the
lower part of the body representing the skirt. In the present instance,
it may have allusion to the peculiar skirt-like dress often worn by the
men among the tribes of Northern Africa.
[Illustration: FIG. 185.--Drawings on an African knife.]
The lines extending from the middle of the body downward to below the
skirt and terminating in an irregular knob somewhat resemble the Pueblo
method of designating sex, the male being shown by a small cross, and
the female by a simple, short, vertical line attached to the perinæum.
The upper character, in B, in addition to the line and circle extending
downward from the lower extremity, shows a bird’s leg and toes at
either side. This is also, according to Schoolcraft, an Ojibwa method
of depicting a person or being who is endowed with the power of flight
into the upper regions, hence one of superior knowledge.
The history of the knife here figured is received from Mr. Thomas M.
Chatard, of the National Museum, who in turn obtained it from his
father, Mr. F. E. Chatard, Baltimore, Maryland, who writes that it
was obtained at Cape Mesurado, Africa, in November, 1822, where the
natives had attacked a recently established colony. The Africans were
repulsed, and the knife was subsequently picked up on the battle-field
and brought to America by the late William Seton, an officer of the
United States Navy.
CONVENTIONALIZING.
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