104 DANIEL AVILSON ON THE AETISTIO 



phraslic iuterpretatiou aciompanies them setting forth ideas that have no i^ictorial repre- 

 seutation. Then comes a horizontal line with ten oblique lines rising from it, and three 

 cross-lines below, with the interpretation : "After the Seizer there were ten chiefs and 

 there was much warfare south and north." Next follows another sixccessiou of chiefs, 

 each symbolized with some associated idea. Thus a groiip of six small circles, arranged 

 upright in two columns, is surmounted by a larger circle, with three obliqvie lines rising 

 from the top. This is paraphrased : "After him, Corn-Breaker was chief, who brought 

 about the planting of corn." It is not difficult to imagine in the drawing the conventional 

 representation of an ear of corn ; but the major idea can be no more than one suggested 

 to the memory by association. In some instances the picture-writing is more manifest. 

 A horizontal line surmounted by two tepees, or buffalo-skin tents, is "the bufïtvlo land." 

 In one group, a semicircle with radiating lines, placed on a straight line, is translated. 

 " Let us go together to the east, to the sunrise." In another case, nearly the same symbol 

 — assumed, no doubt, to represent the sun setting in the ocean, — is rendered, '" at the great 

 sea." It is, indeed, a system of picture-writing ; but instead of being abbreviated into 

 word-symbols, it is reduced to mere catch-words or mnemonic signs. Their value would 

 be unquestionable as an aid to memory in the perpetuation of a mythic or historical 

 poem ; but, if the tradition were lost, they embody no record from which to recover it. 



Neither the Iroquois nor the Algonkin nations can be pointed to as specially gifted 

 with imitative powers, or in other ways furnishing evidence of any highly developed 

 artistic faculty. They cannot compare in this respect with the Zuni, or others of the Pue- 

 blo Indians, among whom the arts of long-settled, agricultural communities have been 

 developed for purposes of ornament as well as utility ; nor is their inferiority less ques- 

 tionable when we compare them with some of the barbarous tribes of the Northwest 

 coast, and the neighbouring islands. Their languages confirm this ; for while, as Mr. 

 Gushing has shown, the Zuni language possesses many words relating to art-processes, 

 the Iroqirois and Algonkin dialects supply such terms, for the most part, in descriptive 

 holophrasms, and not in primitive roots. NeA'ertheless, alike in their pottery and carvings, 

 and in their picture-writing, they show a degree of artistic capacity of which few traces 

 are fovrnd in Europe's Neolithic Age. 



In the Ojibway, oozliebegaioin, is used indiscriminately for " writing, drawing, paint- 

 ing," ivazhebeegad, for " a man who writes, draws." In combination with muh-ze-ne, 

 " figure, form," such words are in use as muhzenebeégaivin, "a painting, drawing ;" muhzene- 

 beégaioenene (M), miihzenebeégcurequa (F), "a painter, an artist ;" mnhzenebeégiin, " a picture." 

 "To carve," or " engrave on a rock," is mulizeneko ; muhzenekojegiin, "a sculptor's chisel;" 

 nmhzenekoda, " it is carved," etc. Again with wahbegun, " clay," such holophrasms are 

 obtained as wahbegimoonahgunekmi'enene, " a man who makes earthern vessels, a potter," 

 ivahbegiihega, "a worker in clay," lit. "I work with clay," 



In Iroquois, the word kar or kare signifies " to paint" or " draw." The initial k in 

 Iroquois words is usually not radical, and so rarely enters into composite terms. The root 

 of kar, is ar or are, which added to kaiala, or oiata, " living thing, person, body," makes 

 kaiatare "image" or "likeness," i.e. "pictured body;" or as a verb " to iJaint" or "dejiict 

 anything." To this is added the verbal suffix ta or tha, which occasionally becomes stlm, 

 and has different meanings, causative and instrumental. 



The Mohawk supplies such words and terms of art as ahyeyalonh, " to graA'^e ; " 



