60 PICTOGRAPHS OP THE NORTH AMERICAA INDIANS. 



apparently with reference to specific signification. The strips of bark, 

 varying from an inch to several feel in length, roll up upon drying, 

 and are straightened out for examination by heating near the fire. 



This includes scalps. A large number of records upon the bides bf 

 animals are mentioned in the present paper. Plate IN' with its descrip- 

 tion in the Dakota Winter Counts is one instance. 



FEATHERS. 



The Sacramento Tribes of California are very expert in weaving 

 blankets of feathers, many of them having really beautiful figures 

 worked upon them. This is reported by Edward M. Kern in School- 

 craft, V, G4'J, 650. 



The feather work in Mexico, Central America and the Hawaiian 

 Islands is well known, often having designs properly to be considered 

 among pictographs, though in general not, at least in modern times, 

 passing beyond ornamentation. 



GOURDS. 



After gourds have dried the contents are removed and handles are 

 attached; they serve as rattles in dances, and in religious and shaman- 

 istic rites. The representations of natural or mythical objects for which 

 the owner may have special reverence are often depicted upon their sur- 

 faces. This custom prevails among the Pueblos generally, and, also, 

 among many other tribes, notably those constituting the Siouan lin- 

 guistic stock. 



HORSE HAIR 



The Hidatsa, Ankara, Dakota, and several other tribes of the North- 

 west plains, use horse hair dyed red as appendages to feathers worn 

 as personal marks of distinction. Its arrangement is significant. 



SHELLS, INCLUD1M* WAMPUM. 



The illustrated and exhaustive paper of Mr. W. II. Holmes, in the 

 Second Annual repoit of the Bureau of Ethnology, removes all necessity 

 for present extended mention under this head. 



EARTH AND SA>D. 



Papers by Dr. Washington Matthews, IT. S. A., Dr. W. H. Corbusier, 

 U. S. A., and Mr. James Stevenson were read in the Anthropological 

 Society of Washington during the season of 1884-5, giving account of 

 important and entirely novel paintings by the Navajo, Yuman. and 

 Zuni Indians. These paintings were made upon the ground by means 

 of sand, ashes, and powdered vegetable matter of various colors. These 

 were highly elaborate, made immediately preceding certain ceremonies, 

 at the close of which they were obliterated. 



Dr. W. J. Hoffman states that when the expedition under command 

 of Capt. C M. Wheeler, U. S. A., passed through Southern Nevada in 



