*£ 



4F 



mallery.] COMANCHE FIGHT CROSS-BEAR's DEATH. 217 



He calls the year Cross-Bear died-on the-hunt winter. 



The "travail" means, they moved; the buffalo, to hunt buffalo; the 

 bear with mouth open and paw advanced, cross-bear. The involute 

 character frequently repeated in Battiste's record sig- 

 nifies pain in the stomach and intestines, resulting in jjjp^ 

 death. In this group of characters there is not only ^w^^0 

 the brief story, an obituary notice, but an ideographic 

 mark for a particular kind of death, a noticeable uame- 

 totem, and a presentation of the Indian mode of trans 

 portation. 



The word "travail" appearing above, as given by F n' '? 8 T C th 8 * 

 the interpreter, requires explanation. It refers to the 

 peculiar sledge which is used by many tribes of Indians for the purpose 

 of transportation. It is used on the surface of the ground when not 

 covered with snow, even more than when snow prevails. The word is 

 more generally found in print in the plural, where it is spelled "tra- 

 vaux" and sometimes "travois." 



The etymology of this word, which has not yet been found in any In- 

 dian language, has been the subject of considerable discussion. The 

 present writer considers it to be oue of the class of words which de- 

 scended in corrupted form from the language of the Canadian voy- 

 ageurs, and that it was originally the French word "traineau," with its 

 meaning of sledge. 



Figure 139 is taken from a roll of birch bark obtained from the Ojibwa 

 Indians at Ked Lake, Minnesota, in 1882, known to be more than sev- 

 enty years old. The interpretation was given by an Indian from that 

 reservation, although he did not know the author nor the history of 

 the record. With one exception, all of the characters were understood 

 and interpreted to Dr. Hoffman, in 18S3 by Ottawa Indians at Harbor 

 Springs, Michigan. This tribe at one time habitually used similar 

 methods of recording historic and mythologic data. 



No. 1. Represents the person who visited a country supposed to have 

 been near one of the great lakes. He has a scalp in his hand which he 

 obtained from the head of an enemy, after having killed him. The line 

 from the head to the small circle denotes the name of the person, and 

 the line from the mouth to the same circle signifies (in the Dakota 

 method), "That is it," having reference to proper names. 



No. 2. The person killed. He was a man who held a position of some 

 cousequence in his tribe, as is iudicated by the horns, marks used by 

 the Ojibwas among themselves for Shaman, "Wabeno, etc. It has been 

 suggested that the object held in the hand of this figure is a rattle, 

 though the Indians, to whom the record was submitted for examina- 

 tion, are in doubt, the character being indistinct. 



No. 3. Three disks connected by short lines signify, in the present 

 instance, three nights, i. e., three black suns. Three days from home 



