40 PICTOGRAPHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



Mr. A. Pinarl has for several year,s pasl been engaged in ethnologic 

 researches, in which, as he explained to the present writer, orally, be 

 has discovered a very large Dumber of pictographs in the islands of the 

 Caribbean Sea. in Venezuela, and Nicaragua, with remarkable corre- 

 spondences between some of them, and strouglj demarkating lines in 

 regard to different types. His report will he of inestimable value in the 

 complete discussion of this subject. 



PETRiKiLVPHS IN RKITISH GUIANA. 



In particular, a copious extract is given from the recent work Among 

 the Indians of Guiana, by Everard F. im TLurn : London, 1883. His 

 account is so suggestive for comparison with the similar discoveries 

 made in North America that there is a temptatiou to extract from it 

 even more liberally thau has been done. 



The following is taken from pages 391, et seq., of that author: 



The pictured rocks, which are certainly the most striking and mysterious of the 

 antiquities of Guiana, are — and this has apparently never yetheen pointed out— not 

 all of one kind. In all cases various figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller 

 surfaces of rocks. Sometimes these figures are painted, though such cases are few 

 and, as will be shown, of little moment ; more generally they are graven on the rock, 

 and these alone are of great importance. Rock sculptures may, again, be distin- 

 guished into two kinds, differing in the depth of incision, tin- apparent mode of execu- 

 tion, and, most important of all, the character of the figures represented. 



Painted rocks iu British Guiana are mentioned by Mr. C. Barriugton Brown, well 

 known as a traveler in the colony. He says, for instance, that in coming down past 

 Amailah fall (in the same district and range as the Kaieteur), on the Cooriebrong 

 River, he passed ' a large white sandstone rock ornamented with figures in red paint.' 

 When in the Pacaraima mountains, on the Brazilian frontier, I heard of the existence 

 of similar paintings in that neighborhood, but was unable to find them. Mr. Wallace, 

 in his account of his 'Travels on the Amazons,' mentions the occurrence of similar 

 drawings in more than one place near the Amazons ; and from these and other ac- 

 counts it seems probable that they occur in various parts of .South America. If, 

 as seems likely, these figures are painted with either of the red pigments which the 

 Indians use so largely to paint their own bodies as well as their weapons and other 

 implements, or, as is also possible, with some sort of red earth, they must be 

 modern, the work of Indians of the present day : for these red pigments would not 

 long withstand the effects of tin- weather, especially where, as in the case quoted 

 from Mr. Brown, the drawings are on such an unenduring substance as sandstone. 

 Some further account of these paintings is, however, much to be desired : for, though 

 they arc probably modern, it would be very interesting to know whether the designs 

 resemble those depicted on the engraved Kicks, or are of the kind with which the 

 Indian at tin- present time ornaments both his own skin and his household utensils ami 

 paddles. It may be mentioned that in the Christy collection there is a stone celt from 

 British Guiana on which are painted lines very closely resembling in character those 

 which the Indian commonly paints on his own body. 



The engraved rocks, on the contrary, must be of some antiquity ; that is to say , they 

 must certainly date from a time before the influence of Europeans was much felt hi 

 Guiana. As has already been said, the engravings are of two kinds and are prob- 

 ably the work of two different people; nor is there even any reason to suppose that 

 the two kinds were produced at oue and the same time. 



