116 TRANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VuL. V. 



Rock-carvings and etchings on bone and siiell are found, illustrating 

 the modes of picture-writing. As in the Indian chant there is the 

 repetition of a single idea, so in the native pictography there is an ex- 

 pression of a single thought represented by a pictograph. The headless 

 body of an Indian with a gun or spear beside him represents death, and 

 the means by which he was slain. The following pictograph was found 

 by Sir George Simpsoii upon a tree as he was travelling in the West: 



This was inscribed with a piece of burnt wood, and was nothing less 

 than a letter for the information of the party. The contents of this 

 pictograph were, that Edward Berland was awaiting the party with a 

 band of twenty-seven horses at the point where the river received a 

 tributary before expanding into two consecutive lakes. In a pictograph 

 describing a battle, an Indian with, an empty hand and fingers extended 

 meant that he had no weapons with which to fight. 



The native tribes used this system of writing extensively for the 

 purpose of ornament, expression of religious ideas, recording of notable 

 events, which may be the history of the tribe for half a century as in the 

 Dakota Count, some single event in the life of a single individual, or a 

 war party, or the autobiography of a man. Map-making by the Eskimo 

 and Indians was accurately done on birch bark and other substances. 



An Indian can describe upon the ground with a piece of wood, as I 

 have seen them do, the geographical features of the country and various 

 routes. 



Concerning the Ojibway pictography, Schoolcraft says : — " For their 

 pictographic devices the North American Indians have two terms, 

 namely, Kekeewin, or such things as are generally understood by the 

 tribe, and Kekeenozvin, or teachings of the uiedas, or priests, and Jossa- 

 keeds or prophets. The knowledge of the latter is chiefly confined to 

 persons who are versed in their system of magic medicine or their 

 religion, and may be deemed hieratic. The former consists of the 

 common figurative signs, such as are employed at places of sepulture, or 

 by hunting or travelling parties. It is also employed in the nmzzinahiks^ 

 or rock-writings. Many of the figures are common to both, and are 

 seen in the drawings generally ; but it is to be understood that this 



