OHA RD BR, I: 
PETROGLYPHS. 
In the plan of this work a distinction has been made between a 
petroglyph, as Andree names the class, or rock-writing, as Ewbank 
called it, and all other descriptions of picture-writing. The criterion 
for the former is that the picture, whether carved or pecked, or other- 
wise incised, and whether figured only by coloration or by coloration 
and incision together, is upon a rock either in situ or sufficiently large 
for inference that the picture was imposed upon it where it was found. 
This criterion allows geographic classification. In presenting the geo- 
graphie distribution, prominence is necessarily (because of the laws 
authorizing this work) given to the territory occupied by the United 
States of America, but examples are added from various parts of the 
globe, not only for comparison of the several designs, but to exhibit the 
prevalence of the pictographie practice in an ancient form, though prob- 
ably not the earliest form. The rocks have preserved archaic figures, 
while designs which probably were made still earlier on less enduring 
substances are lost. 
Throughout the world in places where rocks of a suitable character 
appear, and notably in South America, markings on them have been 
found similar to those in North America, though until lately they have 
seldom been reported with distinet description or with illustration. 
They are not understood by the inhabitants of their vicinity, who gen- 
erally hold them in superstitious regard, and many of them appear 
to have been executed from religious motives. They are now most 
commonly found remaining where the population has continued to be 
sparse, or where civilization has not been of recent introduction, with 
exceptions such as appear in high development on the Nile. 
The superstitions concerning petroglyphs are in accord with all other 
instances where peoples in all ages and climes, when observing some 
phenomenon which they did not understand, accounted for it by super- 
natural action. The following examples are selected as of interest in 
the present connection. 
It must be premised with reference to the whole character of the 
mythology and folk-lore of the Indians that, even when professed con- 
verts to Christianity, they seem to have taken little interest in the 
stories of the Christian church, whether the biblical narratives or the 
lives and adventures of the saints, which are so constantly dwelt upon 
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