MALLERY. | INTERPRETATION OF PETROGLYPHS. 35 
applicable to American pictographs, whether ancient on stone or mod- 
ern on bark, skins, linen, or paper. Nor has any such key been found 
which unlocks the petroglyphs of any other people. Symbolism was 
of individual origin and was soon variously obscured by conventional- 
izing; therefore it requires separate study in every region. No inter- 
preting laws of general application to petroglyphs so far appear, 
although types and tendencies can be classified. It was hoped that in 
some lands petroglyphs might tell of the characters and histories of 
extinct or emigrated peoples, but it now seems that knowledge of the 
people who were the makers of the petroglyphs is necessary to any 
clear understanding of their work. The fanciful hypotheses which 
have been formed without corroboration, wholly from such works as 
remain, are now generally discarded. 
There is a material reason why the interpretation of petroglyphs is 
attended with special difficulty. They have often become so blurred by 
the elements and so much defaced where civilized man has penetrated 
that they cease to have any distinct or at least incontrovertible fea- 
tures. The remarks relating to Dighton rock, infra, Chap. XXII, are 
in point. 
Rock-carving or picture-writing on rocks is so old among the Ameri- 
can tribes as to have acquired a nomenclature. The following general 
remarks of Schoolcraft (a) are of some value, though they apply with 
any accuracy only to the Ojibwa and are tinctured with a fondness 
for.» . 7sterious: 
For ners pactograpiiic devices the North American Indians have two terms, namely, 
Kekeewin, or such things as are generally understood by the tribe, and Kekeenowin, 
or teachings of the medas or priests «7° jossakeeds or prophets. The knowledge of 
the latter is chiefly confined to persons Who «. ‘versed in their system of magic 
medicine, or their religion, and may be deemed hieratic. The former consists of 
the common figurative signs, such as are employed at places of sep: ’)~"e or by 
hunting or traveling parties. It is also employed in the muzzinabiks, or rock=W2't- 
ings. Many of the figures are common to both and are seen in the drawings gener- 
ally; but it is to be understood that this results from the figure alphabet being pre- 
cisely the same in both, while the devices of the nugamoons or medicine, wabino, 
hunting, and war songs are known solely to the initiates who have learned them, 
and who always pay high to the native professors for this knowledge. 
In the Oglala Roster mentioned in Chapter x11, Section 4, infra, 
one of the heads of families is called Inyanowapi, translated as Painted 
(or inscribed) rock. A blue object in the shape of a bowlder is connected 
with the man’s head by the usual line, and characters too minute for 
useful reproduction appear on the bowlder. The name is interesting as 
giving the current Dakota term for rock-inseriptions. The designation 
may have been given to this Indian because he was an authority on the 
subject and skilled either in the making or interpretation of petroglyphs. 
The name “ Wikhegan” was and still is used by the Abnaki to sig- 
nify portable communications made in daily life, as distinct from the 
rock carvings mentioned above, which are regarded by them as mystic. 
