MALLERY.] CEREMONIAL INVITATIONS. 367 
Another mode of giving invitations for the same ceremony is by 
sending around a piece of birch bark bearing characters similar to 
those in Fig, 475, taken from Copway, p. 136. 
Ak tami #4 <> 882 —— 
lic. 475.—Summons to Mide’ ceremony. 
The characters, beginning at the left hand, signify as follows: Medi- 
cine house; great lodge; wigwam, woods; lake; river; canoe; come; 
Great Spirit. 
Copway remarks as follows: 
“In the above, the wigwam and the medicine pale, or worship, repre- 
sent the depositories of medicine, record, and work. The lodge is 
represented with men in it; the dots above indicate the number of days. 
“The whole story would thus read: 
‘Hark to the words of the Sa-ge-mah’. The Great Medicine Lodge will be ready in 
eight days. Ye who live in the woods and near the lakes and by streams of water 
come with your canoes or by land to the worship of the Great Spirit.’ ” 
The above interpretation is too much adapted to the ideas and 
language of Christianity. The more simple and accurate expression 
would change the rendition from ‘“ worship” and “Great aa 
Spirit” to the simple notice about holding a session of the 
Grand Medicine Society. 
Fig. 476, drawn by a Passamaquoddy, shows how the In- 
dians of the tribe would now address the President of the 
United States, or the governor of Maine for help, and for- 
merly would have made wikhegan for transmittal to a great 
chief having power over them. They say by this: ‘You 
are at the top of the pole, so no one can be higher than 
you. From this pole you can see the farthest of your 
country and can see all your children, and when any of : 
your children come to see you they must work hard to get L 
where you are, on top of the high pole. They must climb 
up this pole to reach you. You must pity them because they 
come long ways to see you, the man of power on the high 
pole.” This kind of wikhegan the old men called kinjemesiwi 
waligoh, homage or salutation to the great chief. It was pye.476.— Pas. 
always in the old time accompanied by a belt of wampum. — uytaueddy 
A highly interesting illustration and account of a diplomatic packet 
from the pueblo of Tesuque appears in Schoolcraft (g), and in the same 
series (/) is a pictograph from the Caroline islands still more in point. 
A. W. Howitt (c) reports: 
Messengers in central Australia were sent to gather people together for dances 
from distances even up to 100 miles. Such messengers were painted with red ocher 
und wore a headdress of feathers. 
