ON THE PICTOGRAPHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN 



INDIANS. 



By Gareiok Mallery. 



INTIIOnrC'TORY. 



A pictograph is a writing by picture. It conveys and records an idea 

 or occurrence by graphic means without the use of words or letters. 

 The execution of the pictures of which it is composed often exhibits 

 the first crude efforts of graphic art, and their study in that relation 

 is of value. When pictures are employed as writing the conception 

 intended to be presented is generally analyzed, and only its most essen- 

 tial points are indicated, with the result that the characters when fre- 

 quently repeated become conventional, and in their later forms cease 

 to be recognizable as objective portraitures. This exhibition of con- 

 ventionalizing also has its own import in the history of art. 



Pictographs are considered in the present paper chietly in reference 

 to their significance as one form of thought-writing directly addressed 

 to the sight, gesture-language being the other and probably earlier 

 form. So far as they are true ideographs they are the permanent, 

 direct, visible expression of ideas of which gesture-language gives the 

 transient expression. When adopted for syllabaries or alphabets, 

 which is known to be the historical course of evolution in that regard, 

 they have ceased to be the direct and have become the indirect expres- 

 sion of the ideas framed in oral speech. The writing common in civili- 

 zation records sounds directly, not primarily thoughts, the latter having 

 first been translated into sounds. The trace of pictographs in the latter 

 use shows the earlier and predominant conceptions. 



The importance of the study of pictographs depends upon their exam- 

 ination as a phase in the evolution of human culture, or as containing 

 valuable information to be ascertained by interpretation. 



The invention of alphabetic writing being by general admission the 

 great step marking the change from barbarism into civilization, the 

 history of its earlier development must be valuable. It is inferred from 

 internal evidence that picture-writing preceded and originated the 

 graphic systems of Egypt, Nineveh, and China, but in North America 

 its use is still modern and current. It can be studied there, without any 



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