Pottery was also a medium, and some of the designs contained upon earthenware unfold a whole legend to the knowing eye of the native. The designs that are woven into blankets, baskets, and scarfs of Amerind manufacture are also, to a certain extent, symbolic. The Navajos, who weave a superior kind of blanket, put into it a variety of designs, that are carried entirely in their memory. It is asserted that the majority of these designs are Pueblo. The Navajos no doubt absorbed many of the Pueblos, who must have been in the country they now occupy when they arrived. There is some intermarriage of Navajos and Mokis in these latter days.[54] Everything the Amerind does pertains to his religious belief, and these symbols, totems, and pictures play an important part in his life. Some sign or token occurs on almost every article of his manufacture. [Illustration: ESKIMO DRAWING—“THE MAN IN THE MOON COMES DOWN”] Excellent examples of Algonquin mnemonic records are found in the songs of the Midē society, which have been preserved for many generations by means of their picture-writing, and some of the records are exceedingly elaborate. The method is to associate certain devices with songs or with parts of songs to recall the words to the memory of the singer when he beholds the pictures, and in this way they have been handed along through the centuries. There is reason to believe that almost all important legends are recorded in this mnemonic way among the tribes of North America. Of course the memory is likely to fail in some details and so the songs become more or less changed as time goes on, but it is not probable that the changes are of much importance, for where the memory is trained in this way it grows remarkably accurate. There was much practising of the various songs at each particular season, under the guidance of some veteran singer. The Eskimo, in their picture-writing, seem now to be rather a class by themselves. Whether the suggestion of perspective found in some pictures was a result of contact with the whites I am unable to state, but it seems probable. In the above illustration the suggestion of perspective is clear. There is a landscape with houses, with the moon in the sky, and with a perfectly evident effort to make the foreground and middle and background take their proper places. Such a thing is not to be found throughout all the other Amerind stocks. From Alaska come some good examples of the ideographic, by way of San Francisco, where one Naumoff, an Alaskan native, made them. They are written on strips of wood and placed in conspicuous places as notifications. [Illustration: The irregular line indicates the contour of the country. The traveller is seen starting out at the left. He presently leaves a stick with a bunch of grass to show direction, and stops with a friend at night—the division of days represented by a line upright. Next morning, on the second hill, he discovers game, etc. ]