88 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



one to think with wonder why it should have come into existence, 

 and when that thing appears in two different districts, we have more 

 ground for saying that there is a certain historical connection be- 

 tween the two cases of its appearance than in the comparison of 

 more commonplace matters. Only this morning a case in point 

 was brought rather strongly under my notice ; not that the facts were 

 u/iknown, for we have been seeing them for days past at Zuni. 

 The Indians of the north, and especially the Iroquois, were, as we 

 know, apt to express their ideas by picture-writings, in the detailed 

 study of which Col. Mallery is now engaged. One sign which 

 habitually occurs is the picture of an animal in which a line is 

 drawn from the throat, through the picture of the animal, termi- 

 nating in the heart. Now, the North American Indians of the lake 

 district have a distinct meaning attached to this peculiar heart-line, 

 which does not attach to ordinary pictures of animals ; they mean 

 some animal which is living, and whose life is affected in some way 

 by a charm of some kind. 



It is expressly stated by Schoolcraft that a picture he gives of a 

 wolf with such a heart-line means a wolf with a charmed heart. It 

 is very remarkable to find, among the Zufiis, representations of deer 

 and other animals drawn in the same manner; and the natural infer- 

 ence is, that the magic of the Iroquois and the Zunis is connected, 

 and of more or less common origin. I verified this supposition by 

 asking Mr. Gushing, our authority on Zuni language and ideas, what 

 idea was generally attached to this well-known symbol ; and his 

 answer was, that it indicated a living animal on which magical influ- 

 ence was being exerted. May we not, then, consider — leaving out 

 of the question the point whether the Pueblo people invented the 

 heart-line as a piece of their magic and the nomad tribes of the north 

 picked it up from them, or whether it came down from the northern 

 tribes and was adopted by the southern, or whether both had it from 

 a common source — that, at any rate, there is some ground, upon the 

 score of mere outlandishness, for supposing that such an idea could 

 not occur without there being some educational connection between 

 the two groups of tribes possessing it, and who could hardly have 

 taken it by independent development. 



To mention an instance of the opposite kind ; I bought a few 

 days ago, amonge the Mojaves, a singular article of dress, — a na- 

 tive woman's girdle, with its long fringe of twisted bark. This or, 

 rather two of these put on so as to form one complete skirt used to 



