1890.] A Pictograph form Nova Scotia. 999 
quite as often the head-dresses are represented alone. It seems 
hardly probable, if they represent simple caps or hats, that the 
Indians would take the trouble to cut them on the rocks in the 
elaborate way in which they occur; but if they represent para- 
phernalia of the dance one can readily suppose that they would 
be thus carefully represented. 
Moreover, we find among many tribes that the custom of cut- 
ting pictographs of dance-masks and other head-dresses which 
are used in religious ceremonials is a common practice, as any 
one who has studied the pictographs in the Southwest may attest. 
I would therefore suggest that in the figure represented in the 
cut we have a picture of a Micmac wearing a mask possibly 
worn in sacred ceremonials. 
The long appendage to the head is interesting. It is supposed 
to represent the hair tied up in the ancient fashion. In old times 
the Passamaquoddy Indians, more especially the squaws, tied their 
hair on a flat plate, sometimes of shell, on the edges of which 
were holes through which a string was woven. There is an old 
folk-tale of the Passamaquoddies in which a string made of eel- 
skin was used for this purpose. Possibly we have represented in 
the cut a similar method of doing up the hair ved used by 
the Micmacs and Passamaquoddies. 
While it is not the purpose of this communication to comment 
on, much less discuss, the antiquity of the New Grafton picto- 
graphs, some of which are undoubtedly modern, it must be said 
that there are evidences of antiquity in many particulars as far as 
many are concerned. Through the kindness of Mrs. Brown, I 
have in my possession the squeezes of several of those which 
seem to indicate an ancient origin as far as the subject treated is 
concerned. It is one object of the present communication to call 
attention to the possibility of gathering some information in re- 
gard to the former customs of the ancient aborigines of Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England from the picture- 
writings which they have left behind. The locality in which 
the pictograph represented in the cut is found is particularly rich in 
ancient picture-drawings, and would, I should judge, repay acare- 
ful, systematic exploration and study with this thought in mind, 
