336 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS 
~~ 
—))III 
¥ 1a. 446.—Amalecite notice of trip. 
cluding the rainy day, knew just 
when I was coming back, and was 
waiting for me.” 
The chief point of interest in this 
notice is the ingenious mode of fixing 
the date of departure. The marks 
for rain are nearly obliterated, but it 
flows from the man’s hair. The topo- 
grapyh is also delineated. 
The following is extracted from) 
James Long’s Expedition (b): 
On the bank of the Platte river was a 
semicircular row of sixteen bison skulls, 
with their noses pointing down the river. 
Near the center of the circle which this row 
would describe, if continued, was anothe 
skull marked with a number of red lines. 
Our interpreter informed us that this 
arrangement of skulls and other marks here 
discovered were designed to communicate 
the following information, namely, that the 
camp had been oceupied by a war party of 
the Skeeree or Pawnee Loup Indians, who 
had lately come from an excursion against 
the Cumancias, Ietans, or some of the 
western tribes. The number of red lines 
traced on the painted skull indicated the 
number of the party to have been thirty- 
six; the position in which the skulls were 
placed, that they were on their return to 
their own country. Two small rods stuck 
in the ground, with a few hairs tied in two 
parcels to the end of each, signified that 
four scalps had been taken. 
When @ hunting party of the 
Hidatsa arrived at any temporary 
camping ground from which some of 
them had left on a short reconnoit 
ering expedition, the remainder, hay- 
ing occasion to move, erect a pole 
and cause it to lean in the direction 
taken. At the foot of this pole a 
buffalo shoulder blade or other flat 
-bone is placed, upon which is depic- 
ted the reason of departure; e. g. 
should buffalo or antelope be seen, 
the animal is drawn with a piece of 
charred wood or red lead. 
When a Hidatsa party has gone 
on the warpath, and a certain num- 
