746 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
remainder may be ascertained by the context, the relation, and the 
position of the several designs, and sometimes by the recognized prin- 
ciples of the art. 
The present writer has been engaged, therefore, for a considerable 
time in collating a large number of characters in a card-catalogue 
arranged primarily by similarity in forms, and in attaching to each 
character any significance ascertained or suggested. As before ex- 
plained, the interpretation upon which reliance is mainly based is that 
which has been made known by direct information from Indians who 
themselves were actually makers of pictographs at the time of giving 
the interpretation. Apart from the comparisons obtained by this col- 
lation, the only mode of ascertaining the meaning of the characters, in 
other words, the only key yet discovered, is in the study of the gesture 
sign included in many of them. 
A spiral line frequently seen in petroglyphs is explained by the 
Dakota to be a snail shell, and, furthermore, this device is seen in PI, 
xx, and fully described in that connection as used in the recording 
and computation of time. 
The limits of this paper do not allow of presenting a complete list of 
the characters in the pictographs which have become known. But some 
of the characters in the petroglyphs, 
Figs. 1258, 1259, and 1260, which are not 
discussed under various headings, su- 
pra, should be explained. The following 
is a selection of those which were in- 
Fic. 1258. ee ices. terpreted to Mr. Gilbert. 
The left hand device of Fig. 1258 is an inclosure, or pen, in which 
ceremonial dances are performed. That on the right is a headdress 
used in ceremonial dances. 
Jompare the drawing from Fairy Rocks, N.S., Fig. 549. 
x 
ji 
f 
Fic. 1259.—Frames and arrows. Moki. 
Fig. 1259 gives sketches of the frames or sticks used in carrying 
wood on the back; also shows different forms of arrows. 
Oo Pw > 
1260.—Blossoms. Moki. 
Fig. 1260 represents the blossoms of melons, squashes. 
The appearance of objects showing the influence of European civil- 
ization and christianization should always be carefully noted. An 
ee 
