MALLERY.] PEACE MESSAGES. 361 
D’Iberville, in 1699, as printed in Margry, Iv, 153, said that the 
Indians met by him near the mouth of the Mississippi river indicated 
their peaceful and friendly purposes by holding up in the air a small 
stick of whitened wood. The same authority, in the same volume, p. 
175, tells that the Oumas bore a white cross as a similar declaration; 
and another journal, in the same volume, p. 239, describes a stick also 
so borne as being fashioned like a pipe. The actual use of the pipe in 
profession of peace and friendship is mentioned in several parts of the 
present paper. See, also, the passport mentioned on p. 214 and wam- 
pum, p. 225. ; 
Lieut. Col. Woodthorpe, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. Gr. Br. and L., x1, p. 
211, says of the wild tribes of the Naga Hills, on the northeastern fron- 
tier of India: 
On the road to Niao we saw on the ground a curious mud figure of a man in slight 
relief presenting a gong in the direction of Senua. This was supposed to show that 
the Niao men were willing to come to terms with Senua, then at war with Niao. 
Another mode of evincing a desire to turn away the wrath of an approaching enemy 
and induce him to open negotiations is to tie up in his path a couple of goats, some- 
times also a gong, with the universal symbol of peace, a palm leaf planted in the 
ground hard by. 
Fic, 470.— West African message. 
G. W. Bloxam (a) gives the following description of Fig. 470: 
It represents a message of peace and good news trom the King of Jebu to the King 
of Lagos, after his restoration to the throne on the 28th of December, 1851. It ap- 
pears complicated, but the interpretation is simple enough. First we find eight 
cowries arranged in pairs, and signifying the people in the four corners of the world, 
and it will be observed that, while three of the pairs are arranged with their faces 
upwards, the fourth and uppermost, i. e., the pair in the most important position, 
are facing one another, thus signifying that the correspondents, or the people of 
Jebu and Lagos, are animated by friendly feeling towards each other; so, too, there 
are two each of all the other objects, ineaning, ‘‘ you and I,” ‘‘we two.” The two 
large seeds or warres, a, a, express a wish that ‘‘ you and 1” should play together as 
intimate friends do, at the game of *‘ warre,” in which these seeds are used and which 
is the common game of the country, holding very much the same position as chess or 
draughts with us; the two flat seeds, b, b, are seeds of a sweet fruit called “ osan,” 
the name of which is derived from the verb, “san,” to please [Mem. Notice the 
rebus] they, therefore, indicate a desire on the part of a sender of the message to 
please and to be pleased; lastly, the two pieces of spice, c, c, signify mutual trust. 
The following is the full meaning of the hieroglyphic: 
Of all the people by which the four corners of the world are inhabited, the Lagos 
and Jebu people are the nearest. 
