374 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
borne a chief part in the development of Egyptain and other ancient 
forms of writing. 
Three cowries with some pepper may indicate ‘‘deceit;” thus: Three cowries 
strung with their faces all looking one way (as mentioned before) with an alligator 
pepper tied to the cowries. Eru is the name of the pepper in the native language, 
which in English means ‘‘ deceit.” The message may be either a ‘“‘caution not to 
betray one another,” or, more frequently, an accusation of having deceived and de- 
frauded the company. 
Six cowries may indicate ‘“‘attachment and affection;” thus: Efa in the native 
language means ‘‘six” (cowries implied); it also means ‘‘drawn,” from the verb fa, 
to draw. Mora is always implied as connected with Efa; this means ‘stick to you,” 
from the verb mo, to stick to, and the noun ara, body—i. e. you. Six cowries 
strung (as before mentioned) and sent to a person or persons, the message is: ‘‘ Tam 
drawn (i. e. attached) to you, I love you,” which may be the message a young man 
sends to a young woman with a desire to form an engagement. 
Rey. Richard Taylor (b) says: 
The Maori used a kind of hieroglyphical or symbolieal way of communication; a 
chief, inviting another to join in a war party, sent a tattooed potato and a fig of 
tobacco bound up together, which was interpreted to mean that the enemy was a 
Maori and not European by the tattoo, and by the tobacco that it represented 
smoke; he therefore roasted the one and eat it, and smoked the other, to show he ac- 
cepted the invitation, and would join him with his guns and powder. Another senta 
waterproof coat with the sleeves made of patchwork, red, blue, yellow, and green, 
intimating that they must wait until all the tribes were united betore their force 
would be waterproof, i. e., able to encounter the European. Another chief sent a 
large pipe, which would hold a pound of tobacco, which was lighted in a large 
assembly, the emissary taking the first whiff, and then passing it around; whoever 
smoked it showed that he joined in the war. 
SECTION 5. 
CLAIM OR DEMAND. 
Stephen Powers ())) states that the Nishinam of California have the 
following mode of collecting debts: 
When an Indian owes another, it is held to be in bad taste, if not positively insult- 
ing, for the creditor to dun the debtor, as the brutal Saxon does, so he devises a 
more subtle method. He prepares a certain number of little sticks, according to 
the amount of the debt, and paints a ring around the end of each. These he carries 
and tosses into the delinquent’s wigwam without a word and goes his way; where- 
upon the other generally takes the hint, pays the debt, and destroys the sticks. 
The San Francisco (California) Western Lancet, x1, 1882, p. 443, 
thus reports: 
When a patient has neglected to remunerate the shaman [of the Wikchumni tribe 
of the Mariposan linguistic stock] for his services, the latter prepares short sticks 
of wool, with bands of colored porcupine quills wrapped around them at one end 
only, and every time he passes the delinquent’s lodge a certain number of them are 
thrown in as a reminder of the indebtedness. 
G. W. Bloxam (c) decribes Fig. 480 thus: 
Among the Jebu of West Africa two cowries facing one another signify two blood 
relations; two cowries, however, back to back may be sent as a message of reproof 
