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
Here the medicine man boasts of his power over the elements, and his
ability to do injury or benefit. The segment of a circle with dots in it
represents water and the two short lines touching the head of the figure
indicate that he can draw it to him.
_i._ I cause to look like the dead, a man I did.
I cause to look like the dead, a woman I did.
I cause to look like the dead, a child I did.
The lines drawn across the face of this figure indicate poverty,
distress, and sickness; the person is supposed to have suffered from the
displeasure of the medicine man. Such is the religion of the Indians.
Its boast is to put into the hands of the devout supernatural means by
which he may wreak vengeance on his enemies whether weak or powerful,
whether they be found among the foes of his tribe or the people of his
own village. This Metai, so much valued and revered by them, seems to be
only the instrument in the hands of the crafty for keeping in subjection
the weak and the credulous, which may readily be supposed to be the
greater part of the people.
_k._ I am such, I am such, my friends; any animal, any animal, my
friends, I hit him right, my friends.
This boast of certain success in hunting is another method by which he
hopes to elevate himself in the estimation of his hearers. Having told
them he has the power to put them all to death, he goes on to speak of
his infallible success in hunting, which will always enable him to be a
valuable friend to such as are careful to secure his good will.
The following chart for the “Song for beaver hunting and the Metai,” is
taken from the same author, loc. cit., and reproduced in Fig. 166, with
interpretations as follows:
[Illustration: FIG. 166.--Song for beaver hunting.]
_a._ I sit down in the lodge of the Metai, the lodge of the Spirit.
This figure is intended to represent the area of the Metai-we-gaun, or
medicine lodge, which is called also the lodge of the Man'idō, and two
men have taken their seats in it. The matter of the song seems to be
merely introductory.
_b._ Two days must you sit fast, my friend; four days must you sit fast,
my friend.
The two perpendicular lines on the breast of this figure are read
ne-o-gone (two days), but are understood to mean two years; so of the
four lines drawn obliquely across the legs, these are four years. The
heart must be given to this business for two years, and the constrained
attitude of the legs indicates the rigid attention and serious
consideration which the subject requires.
_c._ Throw off, woman, thy garments, throw off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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