362 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
As ‘‘warre” is the common play of the country, so the Jebus and Lagos should 
always play and be friendly with each other. 
Mutual pleasantness is my desire; as it is pleasant with me so may it be pleasant 
with you. 
Deceive me not, because the spice would yield nothing else but a sweet and 
genuine odor unto god. IT shall never deal doubly with you. 
SECTION ’3. 
CHALLENGE. 
H. H. Bancroft (a), in Native Races, says that the Shumeias chal- 
lenged the Pomos (in central California) by placing three little sticks 
notched in the middle and at both ends, on a mound which marked the 
boundary between the two tribes. If the Pomos accept they tie a string 
round the middle notch. Heralds then meet and arrange time and 
place and the battle comes off as appointed. 
The sending of material objects was the earliest and most natural 
mode for low cultured tribes to communicate when out of sight and 
hearing. Such was the system in use among the Scythians at the time 
of the invasion of their land by Darius. The version of the story in 
Herodotus is that commonly cited, but there is another by Pherecydes 
of Heros, who relates that Idanthuras, the Scythian king, when Darius 
had crossed the Ister, threatened him with war, sending him not a 
letter, but a composite symbol, which consisted of a mouse, a frog, a 
bird, an arrow, and a plow. When there was much discussion con- 
cerning the meaning of this message, Orontopagas, the chiliarch, main- 
tained that it was a surrender; for he conjectured the mouse to mean 
their dwelling, the frog their waters, the bird their air, the arrow their 
arms, and the plow their country. But Xiphodres offered a contrary 
interpretation, thus: “ Unless like birds we fly aloft, or like mice burrow 
under the ground, or like frogs take ourselves to the water, we shall 
never escape their weapons, for we are not masters of their country.” 
SECTION 4. 
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS MISSIVES. 
Fig. 471 is a letter, one-half actual size, written by an Ojibwa girl, 
the daughter of a Mide’, to a favored lover, requesting him to call at 
her lodge. This girl had taken no Midé’ degrees, but had simply 
acquired her pictographie skill from observation in her home. 
The explanation of the figure is as follows: 
a. The writer of the letter, a girl of the Bear totem, as indicated by 
that animal, bd. 
eand f. The companions of a, the crosses signifying that the three 
girls are Christians. 
eand g. The lodges occupied by the girls. The lodges are near a 
large lake, j, a trail leading from g to h, which is a well-traveled road. 
