32 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
throughout the Christian world that they have become folk-lore. The 
general character of the Christian legends does not seem to have suited 
the taste of Indians and has not at all impaired their affection for or 
their belief in the aboriginal traditions. 
Among the gods or demigods of the Abnaki are those who particu- 
larly preside over the making of petroglyphs. Their name in the plural, 
for there ave several personages, is Oonagamessok. They lived in 
caves by the shore and were never seen, but manifested their exist- 
ence by inscriptions on the rocks. The fact that these inscribed rocks 
are now very seldom found is accounted for by the statement that the 
Oonagamessok have become angry at the want of attention paid to 
them since the arrival of the white people and have caused the pictures 
to disappear. There is no evidence to determine whether this tradi- 
tion should be explained by the fact that the ingenious shamans of the 
last century would sometimes produce a miracle, carving the rocks 
themselves and interpreting the marks in their own way, or by the fact 
that the rock inscriptions were so old that their origin was not remem- 
bered and an explanation was, as usual, made by ascription to a special 
divinity, perhaps a chieftain famous in the old stage of mythology, or 
perhaps one invented for the occasion by the class of priests who from 
immemorial antiquity have explained whatever was inexplicable. 
At a rock near the mouth of the Magiguadavie river, at the time im- 
mediately before the Passamaquoddy Indians chose their first gover- 
nor after the manner of the whites, the old Indians say there suddenly 
appeared a white man’s flag carved on the rocks. The old Indians 
interpreted this as a prophecy that the people would soon be abandoned 
to the white man’s methods, and this came to pass shortly after. For- 
merly they had a “ Mayouett” or chief. Many other rock carvings are 
said to have foretold what has since come to pass. Strange noises have 
also been heard near them. 
The Omaha superstition is mentioned on pages 91-92 infra. 
The Mandans had an oracle stone on which figures appeared on the 
morning after a night of public fasting. They were deciphered by the 
shaman, who doubtless had made them. 
Mr. T. H. Lewis (a) gives the following tradition relating to the in- 
cised bowlders in the upper Minnesota valley: 
In olden times there used to be an object that marked the bowlders at night. It 
could be seen, but its exact shape was indistinct. It would work making sounds 
like hammering, and occasionally emit a light similar to that of a firefly. After 
finishing its work it would give one hearty laugh like a woman laughing and then 
disappear. The next morning the Indians would find another pictured bowlder in 
the vicinity where the object had been seen the night previous. 
Mr. J. W. Lynd (a) says of the Dakotas: 
The deities upon which the most worship is bestowed, if, indeed, any particular 
one is nameable, are Tunkan (Inyan) the Stone God and Wakinyan, the Thunder 
Bird. The latter, as being the main god of war, receives constant worship and 
sacrifices; whilst the adoration of the former is an every-day affair. The Tunkan, 
