728 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
painted figures, while upon the ceiling are numerous forms of ani- 
mals, birds, and insects. Among this latter group is a white cross 
measuring about 18 inches in length, Fig. 1229, presenting a unique 
appearance, for the reason 
that white coloring matter 
applied to petroglyphs is, 
with this single exception, 
entirely absent in that 
region. 
One of the most interest- 
a Cc 
ing series of rock seulptur- 
Z = = ‘ings in groups is that in 
Owens valley, seuth of Ben- 
a 3 : ; : 
these various forms of 
/ 
7 ton, California. Among 
— 
crosses occur, and circles 
containing crosses of various 
simple and complex types, as shown in Pls. 1 to xt and in Mojave 
desert, California, illustrated in Fig. 19, but the examples of most in- 
terest in the present connection are the two shown herewith in Fig. 
1250, a and b. 
The larger one, a, occurs upon a large bowlder of trachyte, blackened 
by exposure, located 16 miles south of Benton, at a locality known as 
the Chalk Grade. The circle is a depression about L inch in depth, 
the cross being in high relief within. Another smaller cross, }, found 
3 miles north of the one above-mentioned, is almost identical, each of 
the arms of the cross, however, extending to the rim of the circle. 
In this locality occurs also the form of the cross ¢, in the same figure, 
and some examples having more than two cross arms. Other simple 
forms clearly represent the human form, but by erosion the arms and 
body have become partially obliterated so as to lose all trace of resem- 
blance to humanity. : 
In the same figure, d, from a rock in the neighborhood, exhibits the 
outline of the human form, while in e parts of the extremities have 
been removed by erosion so that the resemblance is less striking; in 
f a simple cross occurs, which may also have been intended to represent 
the same, but through disintegration the extremities have been so 
greatly changed or erased that their original forms can not be de- 
termined. 
Rey. John McLean (a) says: ‘*On the sacred pole of the sun lodge of 
the Blood Indians two bundles of small brushwood taken from the bireh- 
tree were placed in the form of a cross. This was an ancient symbol 
evidently referring to the four winds.” 
Among the Kiatéxamut, an Innuit tribe, a cross placed on the head, 
as in Fig. 1231, signifies a Shaman’s evil spirit or demon. ‘This is an 
FG. 1230.—Crosses. Owens valley, California. 
