MALLERY.] FIRE ARROWS AND DUST SIGNALS. 5Al1 
distance, it bursts out into a flame, and burns brightly until it falls to 
the ground. Various meanings are attached to these fire-arrow signals. 
Thus, one arrow meant, among the Santees, ‘The enemy are about’; 
two arrows from the same point, ‘Danger’; three, ‘Great danger’; 
many, ‘They are too strong, or we are falling back’; two arrows sent 
up at the same moment, ‘ We will attack’; three, ‘Soon’; four, ‘Now’; 
if shot diagonally, ‘In that direction.’ These signals are constantly 
changed, and are always agreed upon when the party goes out or before 
it separates. The Indians send their signals very intelligently, and 
seldom make mistakes in telegraphing each other by these silent monitors. 
The amount of information they can communicate by fires and burning 
arrows is perfectly wonderful. Every war party carries with it bundles 
of signal arrows.” (Belden, The White Chief; or Twelve Years among the 
Wild Indians of the Plains. Cincinnati and New York, 1871, pp. 106, 107.) 
With regard to the above, it is possible that white influence has been 
felt in the mode of signaling as well as in the use of gunpowder, but 
it would be interesting to learn if any Indians adopted a similar expedi- 
ent before gunpowder was known tothem. They frequently used arrows, 
to which flaming material was attached, to set fire to the wooden houses 
of the early colonists. The Caribs were acquainted with this same mode 
of destruction as appears by the following quotation: 
““Their arrows were commonly poisoned, except when they made their 
military excursions hy night; on these occasions they converted them 
into instruments of still greater mischief; for, by arming the points 
with pledgets of cotton dipped in oil, and set on fire, they fired whole 
villages of their enemies at a distance.” (Alcedo. The Geograph. and 
Hist. Dict. of America and the West Indies. Thompson’s trans. London, 
1812, Vol. I, p. 314.) 
DUST SIGNALS. 
When an enemy, game, or anything else which was the special object 
of search is discovered, handfulls of dust are thrown into the air to an- 
nounce that discovery. This signal has the same general signification 
as when riding to and fro, or, round in a circle on an elevated portion of 
ground, ora bluff. (Dakota VII, VIII.) 
When any game or any enemy is discovered, and should the sentinel 
be without a blanket, he throws a handful of dust up into the air. When 
the Brulés attacked the Ponkas, in 1872, they stood on the bluff and 
threw up dust. (Omaha I; Ponka I.) 
There appears to be among the Bushmen a custom of throwing up 
sand or earth into the air when at a distance from home and in need of 
help of some kind from those who were there. (Miss L. OC. Lloyd,, MS. 
Letter, dated July 10, 1880, from Charlton House, Mowbray, near Cape 
Town, Africa.) 
