552 PICTURKE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
SECTION 1. 
RECORD OF EXPEDITION. 
The following account from Lafitau (a) explains the device for pris- 
oner, under the heading of marked sticks, in Chapter Ix, section 2, 
supra: 
The most grievous time for them is at night; for every evening they are extended 
on their backs almost naked, with no other bed than the earth, in which four stakes 
are driven for each prisoner; to these their arms and legs are attached, spread apart 
in the form of a St. Andrew’s cross. Toa fifth stake a halter is tied, which holds 
the prisoner by the neck and is wound around it three or four times. Finally, he is 
bound around the middle of the body by another halter or girdle, the two ends of 
which are taken by the person in charge of the captive and placed under his head 
while he sleeps, so that he will be awakened if the prisoner makes any movement 
to escape. 
With the same object of explaining pictographic devices, the follow- 
ing is extracted from James’s Long (h): 
Returning war parties of the Omaha peel off a portion of the bark from a tree, and 
on the trunk thus denuded and rendered conspicuons, they delineate hieroglyphics 
with vermilion or charcoal, indicative of the snecess or misfortune of the party, in 
their proceedings against the enemy. These hieroglyphics are rudely drawn, but 
are sufficiently significant to convey the requisite intelligence .o nother division of 
the party, that may succeed them. On thisrude chart the combatants are generally 
represented by small straight lines, each surmounted by a head-like termination, 
and are readily distinguishable from each other; the arms and legs are also repre- 
sented when necessary to record the performance of some particular act or to exhibit 
a wound. Wounds are indicated by the representation of the dropping of blood 
from the part; an arrow wound, by adding a line for the arrow, from which the 
Indian is able to estimate with some accuracy its direction, and the depth to which 
itentered. The killed are represented by prostrate lines; equestrians are also par- 
ticularized, and if wounded or killed they are seen to spout blood or to be in the act 
of falling from their horses. Prisoners are denoted by their being led, and the num- 
ber of captured horses is made known by the number of lunules representing their 
track. The number of guns taken may be ascertained by bent lines, on the angle of 
which is something like the prominences of the lock. Women are portrayed with 
short petticoats and prominent breasts, and unmarried females by the short queues 
at the ears. 
In Margry (e) there is an account of La Salle’s finding in 1683 on the 
bark of a tree a record of the party of Tonty’s pilot. The picture was 
that of a man with the costumes and general appearance of the pilot who 
had deserted, another man tied as a captive, and four scalps. This cor- 
responded with the facts afterwards learned. The pilot had been left 
free, another man kept alive, and four killed, thus accounting for the 
lost party of six. The record had been made by the captors. 
The figures in the following group, taken from several of the Winter 
Counts of the Dakotas, picture a number of important expeditions, all * 
of which are independently known. Some of them are narrated in the 
official documents of the United States. 
