Chap. VI. INDIAN HIEKOGLYPHICS. 521 
ignorant generation, should amuse themselves by imitating 
the already existing figures ; and thoughtless imitations 
may have thus produced unmeaning results. The original 
intention of these representations may have been only known 
to the chiefs and principal men of the Indian tribes, as 
among civilized nations not all can read. But many 
circumstances tend to disprove, that these characters were 
originally nothing but the results of an early attempt at art. 
In the first place, the similarity of the style, in localities 
a thousand miles apart, and its extreme peculiarity, pre- 
clude every idea of an accidental similarity. One cannot 
imagine how the same recurring figures should have been 
used over and over again, unless they had a conventional 
character, and were intended to express something. The 
localities also in which they are found are such as to give 
them importance. For instance on the Gila, figures and 
characters are cut on rocks, which cannot be climbed 
