770 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
names in alphabetic form, which grammatically are proper but prac- 
tically may be common. 
Rock carvings are frequently noticed at waterfalls and other points 
on rivers and on lake shores favorable for fishing, which frequency is 
accounted for by the periodical resort of Indians to such places. Some- 
times they only mark their stay, but occasionally there also appear to 
be records of conflict with rival or inimical tribes which sought to use 
the same waters. 
Evidence is presented in the present work that the characters on 
rock pictures sometimes were pointers or ‘sign-posts” to show the 
direction of springs, the line of established trails, or of paths that 
would shorten distances in travel. It has been supposed that similar 
indications were used guiding to burial mounds and other places of 
peculiar sanctity or interest, but the evidence of this employment is 
not conclusive. Many inquiries have been made of the Bureau of 
Ethnology concerning Indian marks supposed to indicate the sites of 
gold, silver, and copper mines and buried treasure generally, which 
inquiries were answered only because it was recognized as the duty of 
an office of the government to respond, so far as possible, to requests 
tor information, however silly, which are made in good faith. 
Petroglyphs are now most frequently found in those parts of the 
world which are still, or recently have been, inhabited by savage or 
barbarian tribes. Persons of these tribes when questioned about the 
authorship of the rock drawings have generally attributed them to 
supernatural beings. Statements to this effect from many peoples of 
the three Americas and of other regions, together with the names of 
rockwriting deities, are abundantly cited in the present work. This is 
not surprising, nor is it instructive, except as to the mere fact that the 
drawings are ancient. Man has always attributed to supernatural ae- 
tion whatever he did net understand. Also, it appears that in modern 
times shamans have encouraged this belief and taken advantage of it 
to interpret for their own purposes the drawings, some of which have 
been made by themselves. But notwithstanding these errors and 
frauds, a large proportion of the petroglyphs in America are legiti- 
mately connected with the myths and the religious practices of the au- 
thors. The information obtained during late years regarding tribes 
such as the Zuni, Moki, Navajo, and Ojibwa, which have kept up on the 
one hand their old religious practices and on the other that of picture 
writing, is conelusive on this point. The rites and ceremonies of these 
tribes are to some extent shown pictorially on the rocks, some of the 
characters on which have until lately been wholly meaningless, but are 
now identified as drawings of the paraphernalia used in or as diagrams 
of the drama of their rituals. Unless those rituals, with the creeds 
and cosmologies connected with them had been learned, the petro- 
glyphs would never have been interpreted. The fact that they are now 
understood does not add any new information, except that perhaps in 
