BULL. 30] 



PICTOGRAPHS PICURIS 



245 



employed with great caution, and that in 

 Huch studies their chief vahie must ever 

 be as aids in connection with other and 

 corroborative evidence. 

 . When interrogated, modern Indians 

 often disclaim knowledge of or interest in 

 the origin and significance of the petro- 

 glyphs, and often explain them as the work 

 of'supernatural beings, which explanation 

 in the minds of many invests them with 

 still deeper mystery. Beyond the fact 

 that by habits of thought and training 

 the Indian may be presumed to be in 

 closer touch with the glyph maker than 

 the more civilized investigator, the Indian 

 is no better qualified to interpret petro- 

 glyphs than the latter, and in many re- 

 spects, indeed, is far less qualified, even 

 though the rock pictures may have been 

 made by his forbears. 



That, as a rule, petroglyphs are not 

 mere idle scrawls made to gratify a fleet- 

 ing whim, or pass an idle moment, is 

 probably true, although sometimes they 

 are made by children in play or as a pas- 

 time. Nevertheless their significance is 

 more often local than general; they per- 

 tain to the individual rather than to the 

 nation, and they record personal achieve- 

 ments and happenings more frequently 

 than tribal histories; petroglyphs, too, 

 are known often to be the records of the 

 visits of individuals to certain places, sign- 

 posts to indicate the presence of water or 

 the direction of a trail, to give warning 

 or to convey a message. However impor- 

 tant such records may have seemed at the 

 time, viewed historically they are of triv- 

 ial import and, for the greater part, their 

 interest perished with their originators. 

 Many of them, however especially in 

 s. w. United States, are known on the au- 

 thority of their makers to possess a 

 deeper significance, and to be connected 

 with myths, rituals, and religious prac- 

 tices. 



Whatever the subjects recorded by 

 Indian glyphs, whether more or less im- 

 portant, the picture signs and their sym- 

 bolism were rarely part of a general 

 system, unless perhaps among the Aztec 

 and the Maya, butare of individual origin, 

 are obscured by conventionalism, and re- 

 (juire for their interpretation a knowledge 

 of their makers and of the customs and 

 events of the times, which usually are 

 wanting. 



From the above appears the futility of 

 serious attempts to interpret, withoutex- 

 traneous aid, the rock writings of ancient 

 man, since in most cases it is almost cer- 

 tain that only the writer and his intimate 

 compeers possessed the key. 



While pictographs in general have not 

 yielded the rich fund of information of 

 past peoples and times expected by stu- 

 dents, and Mhile the historic import and 

 value of many of them are slight or al- 



together wanting, their study is impor- 

 tant. These pictures on skin, bark, and 

 stone, crude in execution as thej' often 

 are, yet represent the first artistic rec- 

 ords of ancient, though probably not 

 of primitive, man. In them lies the 

 germ of achievement which time and 

 effort have developed into the master- 

 pieces of modern eras. Nor is the study 

 of pictographs less important as affording 

 a glimpse into the psychological work- 

 ings of the mind of early man in his 

 struggles upward. 



See memoirs by Mallery in 4th and 10th 

 Reps. B. A. E., from which much of the 

 above is taken. (ii. w. h.) 



Pictou. A Micmac village or band at the 

 northern end of Nova Scotia in 1760. — 

 Frye (1760) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st 

 s., X, 116, 1809. 



Picuris (from Plkur'ia, its Keresan 

 name). A Tigua pueblo about 40 m. n. 

 of Santa Fe, N. Mex., identified by Bande- 

 lier with the Acha of the chroniclers of 

 Coronado's expedition in 1540^2. It 

 early Vjecame the seat of the Franciscan 

 mission of San Lorenzo and was said to 

 have contained 3,000 inhabitants in 1680, 

 when, in the Pueblo revolt of that year, 

 the nativeskilled theirmissionary, burned 

 the church, and abandoned the pueblo, 

 but it was rebuilt near its former site in or 

 soon after 1692. In 1704 the Picuris peo- 

 ple, on account of some superstition, 

 again deserted their pueblo and fled to 

 Quartelejo (q. v.), a Jicarilla settlement 

 350 leagues n. e. of Santa F^, but were 

 induced to return 2 years later. On this 

 account and by reason of their proximity 

 to the Jicarillas in later times, the Picuris 

 tribe has a considerable infusion of 

 Apache blood. Pop. 125 in 1900, 101 in 

 1904. Consult Bandelier in Arch. Inst. 

 Papers, v, 182-83, 1890. See Khahitan, 

 Pueblos, Tigua. (f. w. h. ) 



Acha, — Castaneda (1596) in Ternaux-Compans, 

 Voy., IX, 168, 1838. Pecari.— Hervas {ra. 1800) 

 quoted by Prichard, Phys. Hist. Man., v, 341, 1847. 

 Pecora.— Calhoun in Cal. Mess, and Corresp., 215, 

 1850. Pecucio,— Pike, Exped., 2d map, 1810. 

 Pecucis.— Ibid., 3d map. Pecuri,— MS. of 1683 

 quoted by Bandelier in Arch. Inst. Papers, in, 

 88, 1890. Pecuries.— Vetancurt(ra. 1693) in Teatro 

 Mex., Ill, 300, 1871. Pecuris.— Humboldt, Atlas 

 Nouv.-Espagne, carte 1, 1811. Pe"kwilita'.— 

 Hodge, field notes, B. A. E., 1895 (.Temez and 

 Pecos name). Picaris.— Simpson, Exped. to 

 Navajo Country, 2d map, 1850. Piccuries.— Ladd, 

 Story of N. Mex., 201, 1891. Picoris.— Calhoun in 

 Cal. Mess, and Corresp., 211, 1850. Pictoris.— 

 Curtis, Children of the Sun, 121. 1SS3. Picuni.— 

 Powell in Am. Nat., XIV, 605, Aug. 1880. Picuri,— 

 Bancroft, Ariz, and N. Mex., 176, map. 1889. 

 Picuria,— Ind. Aff. Rep., 506, 1889. Picuries.— 

 Onate (1.598) in Doc. In^d., xvi, 109, 2.57, 1871. 

 Picux.— Hinton, Handbook to Ariz., map, 1878. 

 Pikuri'a.— Hodge, tield notes, B. A. E., 1.S95 

 (Keresan name). Ping-grwi'.— Ibid, ('gateway of 

 the mountains': Tewaname). Ping-ul-tha.— Ban- 

 delier in Arch. Inst. Papers, in, 123, 260, 1890 

 (aboriginal name; see Ualaiid). Pinuelta. — 

 Hodge, field notes, B. A. E., 1S95 (own name). 

 Sam-na'i. — Ibid, (another Isleta name). Sam- 

 nan. — Ibid. (Sandia name). San Lorenzo de los 

 Pecuries. — Vetancurt (ra. 1693) in Teatro Mex., 318, 



