MALLERY.] DAKOTA PICTURE-WRITING. 203 
few of the Ojibwa in that neighborhood, who are generally civilized 
and in easy circumstances, had any more than a vague knowledge that 
such things as inscribed bark rolls had ever existed. Three, however, 
were traced and one was shown. The owner, an uncompromising hea- 
then, was called Kitche-sha-bads. ‘Kitche” means big, “‘sha” is an 
attempt at the French form of John, and ‘‘bads” is a bad shot at Bap- 
tiste, the whole translation, therefore, being “Big John the Baptist.” 
This old fellow, though by no means as enterprising or successful as 
some of the younger generation, had a snug house and farm and $300 
in the savings bank at Ashland. One thing, however, he needed, viz, 
whisky. The strictest regulations prevailed on the reservation, really 
prohibitory to the introduction of spirits, and, indeed, there was at 
the nearest town, Ashland, a severe penalty for selling any form of 
liquor to an Indian. To obtain whisky, therefore, was the only consid- 
eration which would tempt him to allow a copy of the roll to be taken or 
by which he could be induced to recite or rather to chant it in the man- 
ner prescribed. He was undoubtedly accomplished in the knowledge 
of the Midé’ rites, and the roll, which was shown in his hands, but not 
out of them, is substantially the same as one of those copied in the 
present work, which was discovered several hundred miles farther 
northwest among a different division of the same tribe. The shaman 
began rather mildly to plead that he was an old man and could not 
remember well unless his spirit was made good by a little whisky. 
This difficulty might have been obviated by a traveler’s pocket flask, 
but his demands increased with great rapidity. He said that the roll 
could only be sung at night, that he must have another old man to help 
him, and the old man must have whisky; then that there must be a 
number of young men, who would join in the chorus, and all the young 
men must have whisky too. These demands made it evident that he 
was intending to have a drunken orgy, which resulted in a cloture of 
the debate. And yet the idea of the old shaman was in its way correct. 
The ceremonial chants could be advantageously pronounced only under 
inspiration, which was of old obtained by a tedious form of intoxica- 
tion, now expedited by alcohol. 
The fact that this work shows a large proportion of pictographs from 
the Siouan linguistic family, and especially from the Dakota division of 
that family, may be explained partly by the greater familiarity of the 
present writer with it than with most other Indian divisions. Yet 
probably more distinctive examples of evolution in ideography and in 
other details of picture-writing are found still extant among the Dakota 
than among any other North American tribe. The degree of advance 
made by the Dakota was well expressed by the Rey. S. D. Hinman, who 
was born, lived, married, and died in their midst, and, though unfortu 
nately he committed to writing but little of his knowledge, was more 
thoroughly informed about that people than any other man of European 
descent. 
