Picture-Writing of the American Indians: Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822Mallery, Garrick
History
Picture-Writing of the American Indians: Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-89, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893, pages 3-822
Mallery, Garrick
Picture-writing, Indian
About 2 miles below the road which crosses the Harpeth river
from Nashville to Charlotte is a large mound 30 or 40 feet high.
About 6 miles from it is a large rock, on the side of the river,
with a perpendicular face of 70 or 80 feet altitude. On it, below
the top some distance and on the side, are painted the sun and moon
in yellow colors, which have not faded since the white people first
knew it. The figure of the sun is 6 feet in diameter; that of the
moon is of the old moon. The sun and moon are also painted on a high
rock on the side of the Cumberland river, in a spot which several
ladders placed upon each other could not reach, and which is also
inaccessible except by ropes let down the summit of the rock to
the place where the painting was performed. * * * The sun is also
painted on a high rock on the side of the Cumberland river, 6 or 7
miles below Clarksville; and it is said to be painted also at the
junction of the Holston and French Broad rivers, above Knoxville,
in East Tennessee; also on Duck river, below the bend called the
Devil’s Elbow, on the west side of the river, on a bluff; and on a
perpendicular flat rock facing the river, 20 feet below the top of
the bluff and 60 above the water, out of which the rock rises, is
the painted representation of the sun in red and yellow colors, 6
feet in circumference, yellow on the upper side and a yellowish red
on the lower. The colors are very fresh and unfaded. The rays, both
yellow and red, are represented as darting from the center. It has
been spoken of ever since the river was navigated and has been there
from time immemorial. * * *
The painting on Big Harpeth, before spoken of, is more than
80 feet from the water and 30 or 40 below the summit. All these
paintings are in unfading colors, and on parts of the rock
inaccessible to animals of every description except the fowls of
the air. The painting is neatly executed, and was performed at an
immense hazard of the operator.
Mr. W. M. Clarke, in Smithsonian Report for 1877, page 275, says:
On the bluffs of the Big Harpeth many pictures of Indians, deer,
buffalo, and bows and arrows are to be seen. These pictures are
rudely drawn, but the coloring is as perfect now as when first put
on.
Haywood (_b_) says:
At a gap of the mountains and near the head of Brasstown creek,
which is toward the head of the Hiawassee, and among the highlands,
is a large horizontal rock on which are engraved the tracks of deer,
bears, horses, wolves, turkeys, and barefooted human beings of all
sizes. Some of the horses’ tracks appear to have slipped forward.
The direction of them is westward. Near them are signs of graves.
He also (_c_) gives the following account:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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