MALLERY.] EVOLUTION OF PICTOGRAPHS, 369 
sively mnemonic as the wampum above mentioned. Even since the 
Columbian discovery some tribes have employed devices yet ruder than 
the rudest pictorial attempt as markers for the memory. An account 
of one of these is given in E. Winslow’s Relation (A. D. 1624), Col. Mass. 
Hist. Soc., 2d series, ix, 1822, p. 99, as follows: 
“Tnstead of records and chronicles they take this course: Where any 
remarkable act is done, in memory of it, either in the place or by some 
pathway near adjoining, they make a round hole in the ground about a 
foot deep, and as much over, which, when others passing by behold, 
they inquire the cause and occasion of the same, which being once 
known, they are careful to acquaint all men as occasion serveth there- 
with. And lest such holes should be filled or grown over by any acci- 
dent, as men pass by they will often renew the same; by which means 
many things of great antiquity are fresh in mmemory. So that as a man 
traveleth, if he can understand his guide, his journey will be the less 
tedious, by reason of the many historical discourses which will be related 
unto him.” 
Gregg, in Commerce of the Prairies, New York, 1844, I, 286, says of the 
Plains tribes: “When traveling, they will also pile heaps of stones upon 
mounds or conspicuous points, so arranged as to be understood by their 
passing comrades; and sometimes they set up the bleached buffalo 
heads, which are everywhere scattered over those plains, to indicate the 
direction of their march, and man y other facts which may be communi- 
cated by those simple signs.” 
A more ingenious but still arbitrary mode of giving intelligence is 
practiced at this day by the Ab- 
naki, as reported by H. L. Masta, 
chief of that tribe, now living at 
Pierreville, Quebec. When they 
are in the woods, to say “I am 
— going to the east,” a stick is stuck 
in the ground pointing to that 
direction, Fig. 151. “Am not gone 
far,” another stick is stuck across 
the former, close to the ground, 
Fig. 152. “Gone far” is the reverse, Fig. 153. The number of days 
journey of proposed absence is { 
shown by the same number of BNA 
aN 
sticks across the first; thus Fig. 4 { 
. . 3 cin 
154 signifies five days’ journey. ———— ~ 
Cutting the bark off fromatree ——= aes ee _— 
Fic. 151. 
on one, two, three or four sides 7 eet ra fo a= 
near the butt means“ Havehad —eSs— ge SS 
poor, poorer, poorest luck.” epee DS aN 
Cutting it off all around the tree <—e a ae 
means “Tam starving.” Smok- Fie. 152, 
ing a piece of birch bark and hanging it on a tree means “I am sick.” 
