18 P1CT0GBAPHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



preparing materials with a reference to that more ambitious project. 

 The paper is limited to the presentation of the most important known 

 pictographs of the North American Indians, with such classification as 

 has been found convenient to the writer, and, for that reason, may be 

 so to collaborators. The scheme of the paper lias been to give very 

 simply one or more examples, with illustrations, in connection with each 

 one of the headings or titles of the classifications designated. This 

 plan lias involved a considerable amount of cross reference, because, in 



many cases, a character, or a group of characters, could be c sidered 



with reference to a number of noticeable characteristics, and it was a 

 question of choice under which one of the headings it should be pre- 

 sented, involving reference to it from the other divisions of the paper. 

 An amount of space disproportionate to the mere subdivision of Time 

 under the class of Mnemonics, is occupied by the Dakota Winter Counts, 

 but it is not believed that any apology is necessary for their full present- 

 ation, as they not only exhibit the device mentioned in reference to their 

 use as calendars, but furnish a repertory for all points connected with 

 the graphic portrayal of ideas. 



Attention is invited to the employment of the heraldic scheme of 

 designating colors by lines, dots, etc., in those instances in the illustra- 

 tions where color appeared to have significance, while it was not prac- 

 ticable to produce the coloration of the originals. In many cases, 

 however, the figures are too minute to permit the successful use of that 

 scheme, and the text must be referred to for explanation. 



Thanks are due and rendered for valuable assistance to correspond- 

 ents and especially to officers of the Bureau of Ethnology and the United 

 States Geological Survey, whose names are generally mentioned in con- 

 uection with their several contributions. Acknowledgment is also made 

 now and throughout the paper to Dr. W. J. Hoffman who has officially 

 assisted the present writer during several years by researches in the 

 field, and by drawing nearly all the illustrations presented. 



