224 DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 



Chippewa Indians to the President of the United States 

 asking for the possession of certain lakes near their 

 reservation is a series of pictures of the sacred animals 

 or ''totems" which represent the several subtribes. 

 Lines run from the hearts of the totem animals to the 

 heart of the chief totem, while similar lines run from 

 the eyes of the subsidiary totems to the eyes of the 

 chief, and these indicate that all of the subtribes feel 

 the same way about the matter and view it alike, — 

 the sentiment is unanimous. From the chief totem 

 run out two lines, one going to the picture of the desired 

 object, while the other goes to the President, conveying 

 the petition. Thus pictography, a method of writing 

 that belongs to the childhood of races, may be made 

 to communicate ideas of a strikingly complex nature. 



The ancient and modern inscriptions of Asia, from 

 the Red Sea to China, present many significant stages 

 in the development of picture-writing. In earliest ages 

 the men of Asia made actual drawings of particular 

 objects, such as the sun, trees, and human figures; 

 subsequently these became conventionahzed to a cer- 

 tain degree, but even as late as 3000 b.c. the Akkadian 

 script was still largely pictographic. From it origi- 

 nated the knife-point writing of Babylonian and Chal- 

 dean clay tablets, while among the peoples of Eastern 

 Asia, who continued to draw their symbols, the tran- 

 sition to conventionalized pictures such as those made 

 by the Chinaman was slower and less drastic. 



In another fine of evolution, the hieroglyphics of 

 Egyptian tombs and monuments illustrate a most 

 interesting intermediate condition of development. 

 These inscriptions have been deciphered only since the 



