T7A4 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
the Ojibwa animals connected with certain ceremonies are represented 
as encircled by a belt or baldric, an ornamented baldric of the same 
character being used by the participants in the ceremonial chant 
dance; so that the baldric around the animal determines that the fig- 
ure is that of a supernatural and mystic, not an ordinary, animal. 
This is an indication of the start from simple pictography towards an 
alphabet by the use of determinatives as was done by the Chinese. 
It is not believed that much information of historical value will be 
obtained directly from the interpretation of the petroglyphs in Amer- 
ica. The greater part of those already known are simply peckings, 
varvings, or paintings connected with their myths or with their every- 
day lives. It is, however, probable that others were intended to com- 
memorate events, but the events, which to their authors were of 
moment, would be of little importance as history, if, as is to be ex- 
pected, they were selected in the same manner as is done by modern 
Indian pictographers. They referred generally to some insignificant 
fight or some season of plenty or of famine, or to other circumstances 
the interest in which has long ago died away. 
The question may properly be asked, why, with such small prospect 
of gaining historic information, so much attention haS been directed 
to the collection and study of petroglyphs. A sufficient answer might 
be submitted, that the fact mentioned could not be made evident until 
after that collection and study, and that it is of some use to establish 
the limits of any particular line of investigation, especially one largely 
discussed with mystical inferences to support false hypotheses. But 
though the petroglyphs do not and probably never will disclose the 
kind of information hoped for by some enthusiasts, they surely are 
valuable as marking the steps in one period of human evolution and 
in presenting evidence of man’s early practices. Also though the 
occurrences: interesting to their authors and therefore recorded or 
indicated by them are not important as facts of history, they are proper 
subjects of examination, simply because in fact they were the chief 
objects of interest to their authors, and for that reason become of 
ethnologic import. Itis not denied that some of the drawings on rocks 
were made without special purpose, for mere pastime, but they are of 
import even as mere graffiti. The character of the drawings and the 
mode of their execution tell something of their makers. If they do 
not tell who those authors were, they at least suggest what kind of peo- 
ple they were as regards art, customs, and sometimes religion. But 
there isa broader mode of estimating the quality of known picto- 
graphs. Musicians are eloquent in lauding of the great composers 
of songs without words. The ideography, which is the prominent fea- 
ture of picture writing, displays both primordially and practically the 
higher and purer concept of thoughts without sound. 
The experience of the present writer induces him to offer the follow- 
ing suggestions for the benefit of travelers and other observers who 
may meet with petroglyphs which they may desire to copy and describe. 
