232 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
for words—as well as the notes, were memorized by the singers, and 
their memory, or that of the shaman, who acted as leader or conductor 
or precentor, was assisted by the charts. Exoteric interpretation of 
any ideographic and not merely conventional or purely arbitrary char- 
acters in the chart, which may be compared for indistinctness with the 
translated libretto of operas, may suggest the general subject-matter, 
perhaps the general course, of the chant, but can not indicate the exact 
words, or, indeed, any words, of the language chanted. 
A simple mode of explaining the amount of symbolism necessarily 
contained in the charts of the order of songs is by likening them to the 
illustrated songs and ballads lately published in popular magazines, 
where every stanza has at least one appropriate illustration. Let it be 
supposed that the text was obliterated forever, indeed, the art of read- 
ing lost, the illustrations remaining, as also the memory to some persons 
of the wores of the ballad. The illustrations, kept in their original 
order, would always supply the order of the stanzas and also the par- 
ticular subject-matter of each particular stanza, and that subject-matter 
would be a reminder of the words. This is what the rolls of birehbark 
supply to the initiated Ojibwa. Schoolcraft pretended that there is 
intrinsic symbolism in the characters employed, which might imply 
that the words of the chants were rather interpretations of those char- 
acters than that the latter were reminders of the words. But only 
after the vocables of the actual songs and chants have been learned 
can the mnemonic characters be clearly understood. Doubtless the 
more ideographic and the less arbitrary the characters the more read- 
ily ean they be learned and retained in the memory, and during the 
long period of the practical use of the mnemonic devices many exhib- 
iting ideography and symbolism have been invented or selected. 
The ceremonial songs represented pictorially in Pl. xvu, A, B, C, 
and D, were obtained from Ojibwa shamans at White Earth, Minne- 
sota, by Dr. Hoffman, and pertain to the ceremony of initiating new 
members into the Midé’ wiwin or Grand Medicine Society. The lan- 
enage, now omitted, differs to some extent from that now spoken. The 
songs and ritual are transmitted from generation to generation, and 
although an Indian who now receives admission into the society may 
compose his own songs for use in connection with his profession, he 
will not adopt the modern Ojibwa words, but employs the archaic when- 
ever practicable. To change the ancient forms would cause loss of 
power in the charms which such songs are alleged to possess. 
The translation of the songs was given by the Ojibwa singers, while 
the remarks in smaller type further elucidate the meaning of the phrases, _ 
as afterwards explained by the shaman. 
The characters were all drawn upon birch bark, as is usual with the 
“medicine songs” of the Ojibwa, and the words suggested by the in- 
cisions were chanted. Theincompleteness of some of the phrases was 
accounted for by the shaman by the fact that they are graduaiiy 
+ 
