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
THE HUMAN BODY.
Markings on human bodies are--(1) Those expressed by painting or such
coloration as is not permanent. It has been found convenient to treat
this topic under the heading of “Significance of Colors,” Chap. XVIII,
Sec. 3. (2) Those of intended permanence upon the skin, generally called
tattoo, but including scarification. This enormous and involved topic is
discussed, so far as space allows, under the heading of “Totems, Titles,
and Names,” Chapter XIII, Sec. 3, where it seems to be most convenient
in the general arrangement of this work. Though logically it might have
been divided among several of the headings, that course would have
involved much repetition or cross reference.
SECTION 2.
NATURAL OBJECTS OTHER THAN THE HUMAN BODY.
Other natural objects may be divided into--(1) Stone; (2) bone; (3)
skins; (4) feathers and quills; (5) gourds; (6) shells; (7) earth and
sand; (8) copper; (9) wood.
STONE.
This caption comprises the pictographs upon stone surfaces or tablets
which are not of the dimensions or in the position to be included under
the heading of petroglyphs, as elsewhere defined. Accounts, with and
without illustrations, have been published of several engraved tablets,
regarding which there has been much discussion, and some examples
appear, infra, under the appropriate heading. (See Chapter XXII, Sec.
1.) Other examples, in which the genuine aboriginal character of the
work is undisputed, appear in the present work, and a large number of
other engraved and incised stone objects could be referred to, some of
which are in the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology, unpublished,
others being figured in its several reports. It is sufficient now for
illustration of this subject to refer to the account accompanying
Pl. LI, infra, describing and copying the Thruston tablet, which is,
perhaps, the most interesting of any pictograph on stone yet discovered,
the genuineness of which as Indian work has not been called in question.
BONE.
For instances of the use of bone, several Alaskan and Eskimo carvings
figured in this work may be referred to, e. g., Figs. 334, 459-462, 534,
703, 704, 742, 771, 844, and 1228.
[Illustration: FIG. 157.--Comanche drawing on shoulder-blade.]
Fig. 157, copied from Schoolcraft (_e_), is taken from the
shoulder-blade of a buffalo found on the plains in the Comanche country
of Texas. He says:
It is a symbol showing the strife for the buffalo existing
between the Indian and white races. The Indian (1) presented on
horseback, protected by his ornamented shield and armed with a
lance, (2) kills a Spaniard (3) after a circuitous chase (6), the
latter being armed with a gun. His companion (4), armed with a
lance, shares the same fate.
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