734 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
This engraved stone, the property of the Tennessee Historical Society, is a flat, 
irregular slab of hard limestone, about 19 inches long and 15 inches wide. It bears 
every evidence of very great age. * * * The stone was found on Rocky creek, in 
Sumner county, and was presented, with other relics, to the Tennessee Historical 
Society about twelve years ago, ~ * * 
It is evidently an ideograph of significance, graven with a steady and skillful hand, 
for a specific purpose, and probably records or commemorates some important treaty 
or public or tribal event. * * * Indian chiefs fully equipped with the insignia 
of office, are arrayed in fine apparel. Two leading characters are vigorously shak- 
ing hands in a confirmatory way. The banner orshield, ornamented with the double 
serpent emblem and other symbols, is, doubtless, an important feature of the ocea- 
sion. Among the historic Indians, no treaty was made without the presence or pre- 
sentation of the belt of wampum. This, the well-dressed female of the group ap- 
pears to grasp in her hand, perhaps as a pledge of the contract. The dressing of the 
hair, the remarkable scalloped skirts, the implements used, the waistbands, the 
wristlets, the garters, the Indian leggings and moccasins, the necklace and _ breast- 
plates, the two banners, the serpent emblem, the tattoo stripes, the ancient pipe, 
all invest this pictograph with unusual interest. * * * The double serpent em- 
blem or ornament upon the banner may have been the badge or totem of the tribe, 
clan, or family that occupied the extensive earthworks at Castalian springs in 
Sumner county, near where the stone was found. The serpent was a favorite em- 
blem or totem of the Stone Grave race of Tennessee, and is one of the common devices 
engraved on the shell gorgets taken from the ancient cemeteries. * * * The 
circles or sun symbol ornaments on the banners and dresses are the figures most 
frequently graven on the shell gorgets found near Nashville. 
The following summary of the translation, kindly furnished by Mr. 
Pom K. Soh of an article, “ Pictures of Dokatu or so-called bronze 
bell,” by Mr. K. Wakabayashi (a), in the Bulletin of the Tokyo An- 
thropological Society, refers to Pl. Liu. The author saw the bell 
described at the town of Takoka, Japan, in August, 1891. The “ pic- 
tures” on it were fourteen in number, cast in the metal of the bell, 
each one occupying a separate compartment and running around the 
bell in several bands. The author took rubbings of the pictures, lith- 
ographs of which are published as illustrations of his article, and from 
these the eight pictures now presented in actual size are selected, the 
remainder being of the same general character, and some of them nearly 
identical with those selected. The information obtained is that the 
bell, which is iron and not bronze, was procured before, and perhaps long 
before, the present century from Jisei, in the village of Sasakura in the 
state of Yetsin, and had been excavated from a mountain at Samki. 
Copies of the markings upon it were taken in 1817 to a high authority 
at Yedo, now Tokyo. It is believed that the markings illustrate or 
are related to a national story, ‘‘ Kanden Ko Hitsu,” written by Ban 
Kokei. A few similar bells or fragments of them, some being bronze, 
have been found in various parts of the Japanese empire. One, which 
is bronze, height about 34 feet, and diameter somewhat more than 1 
foot, was dug up in Hanina in the year A. D. 821. 
The interest of the drawings on PI. Li, in the present connection, 
consists in their remarkable similarity, both in form and apparent mo- 
tive, with several of those found in the western continent and figured 
