426 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
If there had been any doubt remaining of the interpretation of this 
class of drawing it would be removed by the presence of a number of 
contiguous and obviously contemporary sketches of which Fig. 550 is an 
example. Here the female chieftain or, perhaps, priestess appears in a 
ceremonial robe, with her head completely covered by one of these 
capote masks. The researches made not only establish the significance 
of this puzzling class of designs, but also show that their authors were 
of the Abnaki or Micmac branches of the Algonquian linguistie family. 
The two lower drawings in Fig. 551 were printed from the Kejim- 
koojik slate rocks, Nova Scotia, and are recognized by Micmaes of that 
peninsula as copies of insignia which they say their chiefs used to wear. 
the Roman Catholic Church, though the figuration of the cross is by no 
Fig. 550.—Micmac chieftainess in pictograph. 
The designs show some marks suggesting the artistic devices used in 
means conclusive of European origin. The use of gorgets and other 
ornaments bearing special designs, as insignia of rank and authority, 
was well established, and it is quite possible that some of the Micmac 
designs were affected by the influence of the early missionaries, who 
indeed may have issued to the chiefs of their flock medals which adopted 
the general aboriginal style, but were redeemed by Christian symbols: 
There is no intrinsic evidence to decide whether these particular draw- 
ings were or were not made before the arrival of the earliest French 
missionaries. 
The upper right-hand drawing of the three trees with peculiar devices 
