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
Challenging by heralds obtained. Thus the Shumeias challenged the
Ponios [in central California] by placing three little sticks, notched
in the middle and at both ends, on a mound, which marked the boundary
between the two tribes. If the Ponios accept, they tie a string round
the middle notch. Heralds then meet and arrange time and place, and the
battle comes off as appointed. See Bancroft, Native Races, I, p. 379.
* * * * *
A few notices of the foreign use of material objects in connection with
this branch of the subject may be given.
It appears in the Bible: Ezek., XXXVII, 16-20, and Numbers, XVII, 2.
Lieutenant-Colonel Woodthorp says (Jour. Anth. Inst. Gr. Brit., Vol.
XLI, 1882, p. 211): “On the road to Niao we saw on the ground a curious
mud figure of a man in slight relief presenting a gong in the direction
of Senna; this was supposed to show that the Fiao men were willing
to come to terms with Senna, then at war with Niao. Another mode of
evincing a desire to turn away the wrath of an approaching enemy, and
induce him to open negotiations, is to tie up in his path a couple of
goats, sometimes also a gong, with the universal symbol of peace, a
palm leaf planted in the ground hard by.”
The Maori had neither the quipus nor wampum, but only a board shaped
like a saw, which was called _he rakau wakapa-paranga_, or genealogical
board; it was in fact a tally, having a notch for each name, and a
blank space to denote where the male line failed and was succeeded
by that of the female; youths were taught their genealogies by
repeating the names of each to which the notches referred. See Te Ika
a Maui.--Rev. Richard Taylor, London, 1870, p. 379.
TIME.
Dr. William H. Corbusier, assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, gives the
following information:
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--Device denoting succession of time. Dakota.]
The Dakotas make use of the circle as the symbol of a cycle of time;
a small one for a year and a large one for a longer period of time,
as a life-time, one old man. Also a round of lodges, or a cycle of 70
years, as in Battiste Good’s Winter Count. The continuance of time
is sometimes indicated by a line extending in a direction from right
to left across the page, when on paper, and the annual circles are
suspended from the line at regular intervals by short lines, as in
Figure 39, and the ideograph for the year is placed beneath each
one. At other times the line is not continuous, but is interrupted at
regular intervals by the yearly circle, as in Figure 40.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--Device denoting succession of time. Dakota.]
The large amount of space taken up by the Dakota Winter Counts, now
following, renders it impracticable to devote more to the graphic
devices regarding time. While these Winter Counts are properly under
the present head, their value is not limited to it, as they suggest,
if they do not explain, points relating to many other divisions of the
present paper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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