mali-ehv.J HISTORIC AND MYTHIC SIGNIFICANCE. 17 



;is it is in the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology iu a shape not yet 

 arranged for publication, or forms part of the forthcoming' volume of the 

 Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, wbieh may 

 not he anticipated. 



The following general remarks of Schoolcraft, Vol. 1, p. 351, are of 

 si Hue value, though they apply with any accuracy only to the Ojibwa 

 and are tinctured with a fondness for the mysterious: 



Fur their pictographic devices the North American Indians have two terms, namely, 

 Kekeewin, or such things as are generally understood by the tribe; and Kekeenourin, 

 or teachings of tilt; medas or priests, anAjossakeeds or prophets. The knowledge of the 

 latter is chiefly confined to persons who are versed in their system of magic medi- 

 eine. or their religion, and may be deemed hieratic. The former consists of the com- 

 mon figurative signs, such as are employed at places of sepulture, or by hunting or 

 traveling parties. It is also employed in the mtizzindbiks, 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 results from the figure-alphabet being precisely the same 

 iu both, while the devices of the nugamoons, or medicine, wabino, hunting, and war 

 songs, are known solely to the initiates who have learned them, and who always pay 

 high to the native professors for this knowledge. 



It must, however, be admitted, as above suggested, that many of the 

 pictographs found are not of the historic or mythologic significance 

 once supposed. For instance, the examination ot the rock carvings in 

 several parts of the country has shown that some of them were mere 

 records of the visits of individuals to important springs or to fords on 

 regularly established trails. In this respect there seems to have been, 

 in the intention of the Indians, very much the same spirit as induces 

 the civilized man to record his initials upon objects in the neighborhood of 

 places of general resort. At Oakley Springs, Arizona Territory, totemic 

 marks have been found, evidently made by the same individual at 

 successive visits, showing that on the number of occasions indicated he 

 had passed by those springs, probably camping there, and such record 

 was the habit of the neighboring Indians at that time. The same 

 repetition of totemic names lias been found iu great numbers iu the 

 pipestone quarries of Dakota, and also at some old fords in West Vir- 

 ginia. But these totemic marks are so designed and executed as to 

 have intrinsic significance and value, wholly different in this respect 

 from vulgar names in alphabetic form. It should also be remembered 

 that mere graffiti are recognized as of value by the historian, the anthro- 

 pologist, aud the artist. 



One very marked peculiarity of the drawings of the Indians is that 

 within each particular system, such as may be called a tribal system, of 

 pictography, every Indian draws in precisely the same manner. The 

 figures of a man, of a horse, and of every other object delineated, are 

 made by every one who attempts to make any such figure with all the 

 identity of which their mechanical skill is capable, thus showing their 

 conception aud motive to be the same. 



The intention of the present work is not to present at this time a 

 view of the whole subject of pictography, though the writer has been 

 i eth 2 



