Some of the painted figures in sheltered places appeared fresh, but they must have been at least a century or two old. The other Amerinds, while they also executed picture-writings of various kinds, did not so often decorate rock surfaces with them. They were more inclined to drawing and painting on buffalo robes and other skins, on bark, on trees, shell, pottery; even the human form in some regions not being exempt. The Puebloans, while utilising most of these methods, also used the rocks a great deal, the country they occupied abounding in broad, smooth faces attractive for this purpose. In the settled East the perishable substances have long ago disappeared, except those fortunately preserved in museums or private collections. Comparatively few rock inscriptions are found there, and these have created considerable discussion and the usual number of theories. The markings, undoubtedly Algonquian, on the now widely known Dighton Rock in Massachusetts were for a long time ascribed to the Northmen, and were copied in a great many different ways.[44] The trouble arose from the same reason that has led to so many mistaken theories regarding the Amerind race—that is, an underestimate of their intellectual side, so far as those north of Mexico are concerned, and an overestimate of those in the latter region. Brinton asserts that the Algonquins had developed the picture-writing _farther than any other stock north of the Aztecs_. “It had passed,” he says, “from the representative to the symbolic stage, and was extensively employed to preserve the national history and rites of the secret societies. The figures were scratched or painted on pieces of bark or slabs of wood, and as the colour of the paint was red, these were sometimes called ‘red sticks.’” Some of these slabs, or “red sticks,” like the _Walam Olum_ (_walam_ = painted, and _olum_ = scores or notches on a stick) of the Lenapés,[45] have been preserved. Many of the figures executed by the Amerinds, not excepting the Aztecs and the Mayas, were grotesque, and even childish. Their strangeness is frequently due to our unfamiliarity with the originals, figures with queer hair-dressing, masks, or complete ceremonial costume, which, if we could see them to-day, would resemble nothing we had ever imagined or viewed before. The extraordinary make-up of these people for their ceremonials is beyond anything our race can imagine. Those who have witnessed Pueblo ceremonials will understand how unlike any human being the wearer of the strange costumes can become. The _katcina_[46] is fearfully and wonderfully made, and, especially if represented with the half-skill of the Amerind, would baffle classification by anyone not familiar with the actual object. Among the early tribes there were undoubtedly many of these ceremonial dresses and costumes that we can now have no conception of, and where we see them represented in sculpture or drawing they have a most uncanny and diabolical appearance.