BULL. 30] 



PICTOGKAPHS 



243 



gestive or imitative of the object or idea 

 in mind. Significance, therefore, is an 

 essentialelementof pictography, which are 

 ahke in that they all exjjress thtmght, 

 register a fact, or convey a message. 

 Pictographs, on the one hand, are more or 

 less closely connected with sign language 

 (q^. v.), by which they may have been 

 preceded in point of time. Some, indeed, 

 see in pictography a later stage of gesture 

 speech, but the evidences assumed to be 

 indicative of such genetic connection fall 

 far short of proof, and it is believed that 

 pictography may have had a more or less 

 independent origin and career. Picto- 

 graphs, on the other hand, areclosely con- 

 nected with every varying form of script 

 and print, past and present, the latter 

 being, in fact, derived directly or indi- 

 rectly from them. 



Although the earliest use of picture- 

 signs is shrouded in the mists of antiquity, 

 and although they have been employed 

 by all uncivilized peoples, it is chiefly to 

 the American Indian we must look for a 

 comprehensive knowledge of their use 

 and purpose, since among them alone 

 were both pictographs and sign language 

 found in full and significant employ. 



Pictograj)hs have been made upon a 

 great variety of objects, a favorite being 

 the human body. Among other natural 

 substances, recourse by the pictographer 

 has been had to stone, bone, skins, 

 feathers and quills, gourds, shells, earth 

 and sand, copper, and wood, while textile 

 and fictile fabrics figure prominently in 

 the list. 



The tools by which and materials of 

 which pictographs have been made are 

 almost as various as the oVijects upon 

 which they have been found. For carv- 

 ing upon hard substances, including cut- 

 ting, pecking, scratching, and rubbing, a 

 piece of hard pointed stone, frequently 

 perhaps an arrowpoint, was an effective 

 tool. For carving bone and ivory the 

 Eskimo had learned to use the bow-drill. 

 For incising bark and similar substances 

 a pointed bone was employed. A piece 

 of charcoal, or more often a bit of red 

 ocher, served for drawing. Dyes of vari- 

 ous shades of brown, red, and yellow, 

 which were extracted from plants, were 

 available for painting. The Zuni and 

 Navaho employed corn-meal for cere- 

 monial marking of their bodies, and for 

 their famous dry-paintings (q. v.) used 

 sand, ashes, and powdered mineral and 

 vegetal substances of various hues. 



For the Indian skilled in sign language 

 it was natural and easy to fix signs upon 

 bark, skin, or rock, but the evolution of 

 pictographs into sound signs or a true 

 phonetic alphabet must have been very 

 slow, and its accomplishment was limited 

 to a few peoples who already were press- 



ing upon the confines of, if they had not 

 entered, the civilized state. On this con- 

 tinent, so far as known, this stage of 

 thought writing had been reached only 

 by the Aztec and Maya, who in this, as 

 in some other directions, had far out- 

 stripped other tribes. Had the coming 

 of the Spaniard been delayed a few cen- 

 turies it is probable that he would have 

 found these peoples in possession of a 

 written sound language. 



In the earlier stages of picture-writing, 

 when the savage artist sought to record 

 facts and ideas, his picture signs assumed 

 a literal form and, so far as his limited 

 skill sufficed, natural and artificial objects 

 were portrayed realistically. Neither 

 in modeling nor sculpture, however, 

 was the skill of the Indian artist suffi- 

 cient for the accurate delineaticin of ani- 

 mate or inanimate objects, nor was such 

 accuracy essential to his purpose; hence, 

 when attempting the specific portrayal 

 of animals, his end was attained chiefly 

 by emphasizing prominent and unmis- 

 takable features, a method which soon 



Ancient Pueblo Pictographs, Drawn in color on Rock 

 Surface; Arizona, (minoeleff) 



led to the elimination of everything but 

 essentials. 



From the earliest form of picture-writ- 

 ing, the imitative, the Indian had pro- 

 gressed so far as to frame his conceptions 

 ideographically, and even to express ab- 

 stract ideas. Later, as skill was acquired, 

 his figures became more and more con- 

 ventionalized till in many cases all sem- 

 blance of the original w'as lost, and the 

 ideograph became a mere symbol. While 

 the great body of Indian glyphs remained 

 pure ideographs, symbols were by no 

 means uncommonly employed, especially 

 to express religious subjects, and a rich 

 color symbolism likewise was developed, 

 notably in the S. W. 



Among the Indians of the United States 

 the use of pictographic signs reached 

 highest development among the Kiowa 

 and the Dakota tribes in their so-called 

 calendars. These calendars are painted 

 on deer, antelope, and buffalo hides, and 

 constituted a chronology of past years. 

 The Dakota calendars have a picture for 

 each year, or rather for each winter, 



