16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 45 



The drawings of the Mide' songs are universally understood by 

 members of the Mide'wiwin. A large number of drawings have 

 been tested in the following manner : A song has been phonographic- 

 ally recorded and the picture drawn on one reservation and later the 

 phonograph record has been played to a member of the Mide'wiwin 

 living on a distant reservation. The song has been recognized at 

 once and a picture drawn without hesitation. This picture, on com- 

 parison with the first, has been found identical in symbolism, differ- 

 ing only as one person draws better than another. By an inverse 

 test, a song picture has been shown to a member (^f the Mido'wiwin 

 and she has sung the song which was sung on a distant reservation 

 by the person who drew the picture. 



There are certain established symbols in the Mide' drawing, the 

 principal ones being the circle, used to represent the earth, the sky, 

 a lake and a hill; and straight or wavy lines, used to represent " spirit 

 power." These symbols are combined with a crude delineation of the 

 objects mentioned in the song. 



Fig. 1. MIde' wriling. 



This system of mnemonics may be used for other purposes than 

 the songs. The writer once asked a woman who is a member of the 

 ]\Iidc/wiwin to write the Chippewa word Gi'cigo'iJcwe in the ^lide' 

 mnemonics. The woman had never heard the word before. It is a 

 proper name combining the words gi'cig (sky) and i^lcwe (woman), the 

 vowel o being a connective. The woman said that it would require a 

 little time for her to think how to write the word and that no one 

 could be in the wigwam with her when she wrote it. The result is 

 shown herewith (see fig. 1). 



The double circle represents the sky, in which the moon is seen; the 

 single circle represents the earth. In each of these circles is the fig- 

 ure of a woman, the two figures being connected by a line which 

 touches the hand of the figure in the earth circle. The explanation 

 given ])y the woman was as follows: 



This name mea^is that there are really two women instead of one. In the sky is 

 one of these womea; the other is on the earth. But the woman in the sky is con- 

 stantly giving spirit pow'er to the one on the earth, which the one on the earth reaches 

 out her hand to receive. 



