OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. LV 



giving continuous record of events in a life and other cases of 

 particular exploits and occurrences. 



The manner in which pictographs have long been employed 

 bv the North American Indians, showing their advance from 

 simple objective representations to true ideographs, is then dis- 

 cussed, and instances are given of their expression of abstract 

 ideas of emblems and of symbols. Indications for classifica- 

 tion are noted by identifying the pictographers through their 

 general style or type and through the presence of character- 

 istic objects. Modes of interpretation are recommended, with 

 cautions originating in experience. Attention is invited to 

 the important bearing of conventionalization, hints are given 

 for avoiding errors, and, finally, practical suggestions are sub- 

 mitted intended to assist investigation and simplify its record. 

 Under every heading several examples appear, with requisite 

 graphic illustrations. 



The circumstances under which Colonel Mallery entered 

 upon the study of pictography, as above explained, are both 

 fortunate and exceptional. Some of the writers who have 

 dealt with the subject, either in treatises or in fragmentary 

 notices, have regarded in the nebulous light of hieroglyphic 

 symbols the specimens of petroglyphs or other forms of pict- 

 ure writing treated by them, while others have endeavored 

 to distort them into alphabets, and still others have disparaged 

 them as idle scrawls. The first studies of Colonel Mallery 

 were upon the remarkable chart before mentioned, which was 

 altogether objective and practical, though beautifully illustrat- 

 ing ideography. His next study in this direction, sign lan- 

 guage, was also practical, objective, and ideographic, show- 

 ing instructive parallels with the Dakota calendar and with 

 other forms of pictography then thoroughly interpreted. He 

 therefore approached the subject from a point of view the 

 reverse of that taken by most previous writers. There was 

 in him no bias toward a mystic interpretation, or any pre- 

 determination to discover an occult significance in pictographs, 

 whether on rocks, skins, or bark. The probability appeared, 

 from his actual experience, that the interpretation was a simple 

 and direct, not a mysterious and involved process, and the 



