MALLERY. ] SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT PETROGLYPHS. 33 
the Dakotas say, is the god that dwells in stones or rocks, and is the oldest god. If 
asked why it is considered the oldest, they will tell you because it is the hardest. 
Mr. Charles Hallock, on the authority of Capt. Ed. Hunter, First 
Cavalry, U.S. A., furnishes the following information respecting the 
Assiniboin, Montana, rock pictures, which shows the reverence of these 
Indians for the petroglyphs even when in ruins: 
Some of the rocks of the sculptured cliff cleaved off and tumbled to the ground, 
whereupon the Indians assembled in force, stuck up a pole, hung up some buffalo 
heads and dried meat, had a song and dance, and carefully covered the detached 
fragments (which were sculptured or painted) with cotton cloth and blankets. Jim 
Brown, a scout, told Capt. Hunter that the Indians assembled at this station at 
stated times to hold religious ceremonies. The pictures are drawn on the smooth 
face of an outerop or rocky projections 
Marcano (a) gives an account in which superstition is mixed with his- 
toric tradition. It is translated as follows: 
The legend of the Tamanaques, transmitted by Father Gili, has also been invoked 
in favor of an ancient civilization. According to the beliefs of this nation, there 
took place in days of old a general inundation, which recalls the age of the great 
waters of the Mexicans, during which the scattered waves beat against the Eneara- 
mada. All the Tamanaques were drowned except one man and one woman, who fled 
to the mountain of Tamacu or Tamanacu, situated on the banks of Asiveru (Cuchi- 
vero). They threw above their heads the fruits of the palm tree, Mauritia, and saw 
arising from their kernels the men and women who repeopled the earth. It was 
during this inundation that Amalavica, the creator of mankind, arrived on a bark 
and carved the inscription of Tepumereme. Amalavica remained long among the 
Tamanaques, and dwelt in Amalavica-Jeutitpe (house). After putting everything 
in order he set sail and returned “to the other shore,” whence he had come. ‘‘ Did 
you perchance meet him there?” said an Indian to Father Gili, after relating to him 
this story. In this connection Humboldt recalls that in Mexico, too, the monk Sa- 
hagun was asked whether he came from the other shore, whither Quetzalcoatl had 
retired. 
The same traveler adds: ‘‘ When you ask the natives how the hieroglyphic charac- 
ters carved on the mountains of Urbana and Encaramada could haye been traced, 
they reply that this was done in the age of the great waters, at the time when their 
fathers were able to reach the heights in their canoes.” 
If these legends and these petroglyphs are proof of an extinct civilization, it is 
astonishing that their authors should have left no other traces of their culture. To 
come to the point, is it admissible that they were replaced by savage tribes with- 
out leaving a trace of what they had been, and can we understand this retrograde 
march of civilization when progress everywhere follows an ascending course? 
These destructions of American tribes in place are very convenient to prop up theo- 
ries, but they are contrary to ethnologic laws. 
The remarkable height of some petroglyphs has misled authors of 
good repute as well as savages. Petroglyphs frequently appear on the 
face of rocks at heights and under conditions which seemed to render 
their production impossible without the appliances of advanced civil- 
ization, a large outlay, and the exercise of unusual skill. An instance 
among many of the same general character is in the petroglyphs at Lake 
Chelan, Washington, where they are about 30 feet above the present 
water level, on a perpendicular cliff, the base of which is in the lake. 
On simple examination the execution of the pictographic work would 
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