206 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
others being figured in its several reports. It is sufficient now for illus- 
tration of this subject to refer to the account accompanying PI. LI, infra, 
describing and copying. the Thruston tablet, which is, perhaps, the 
most interesting of any pictograph on stone yet discovered, the genuine- 
ness of which as Indian work has not been called in question. 
BONE. 
For instances of the use of bone, several Alaskan and Eskimo cary- 
ings figured in this work may be referred to, e. g., Figs. 334, 459-462, 
534, 703, 704, 742, 771, 844, and 1228, 
Fig. 157, copied from 
Schooleraft (e), is taken 
from the shoulder-blade of 
abuffalo found onthe plains 
in the Comanche country 
) of Texas. He says: 
It is a symbol showing the 
strife for the buffalo existing 
between the Indian and white 
races. The Indian (1) presented 
on horseback, protected by his 
ornamented shield and armed 
witha lance, (2) killsa Spaniard 
(3) after a circuitous chase (6), 
the latter being armed with a 
gun. His companion (4), armed 
with a lance, shares the same 
fate. 
It may be questioned 
whether Mr. Schooleratt 
was not too active in the 
search for symbols in his 
explanation of (6) as a cir- 
cuitous chase. The device 
is either a lasso or a lariat, 
and relates to the posses- 
sion or attempt to take pos- 
session of the buffalo. The 
design (5), however, well 
expresses ideographically 
the fact that the buffalo at 
Fig. 157.—Comanche drawing on shoulder-blade. the time was in contention, 
and therefore was the property half of the Indians and half of the 
whites. 
SKINS. 
A large number of pictographs upon the hides of animals are men- 
tioned in the present paper. Pl. Xx, with its description in the Dakota 
