NATURAL OBJECTS.
Under the first head, the most important division is that of rocks and stones, many examples of which have already been presented. In addition to those respecting stone, Mr. Gilbert furnishes some data relating to the sacred stone kept by the Indians of the village of Oraibi, on the Moki mesas. This stone was seen by Messrs. John W. Young and Andrew S. Gibbon, and the notes were made by Mr. Gilbert from those furnished to him by Mr. Young. Few white men have had access to this sacred record, and but few Indians have enjoyed the privilege.
Mr. Gilbert remarks that “the stone was evidently squared by the eye and not by any instrument. The engraving seems to have been done with some rude instrument, but executed with some degree of skill, like an ancient art faded into dim remembrance of the artist or writer of the characters. The stone is a red clouded marble, entirely different from anything found in the region, so I learn by the Indians. The stone is badly worn, and some of the characters are difficult to determine.”
According to the notes accompanying the rude drawings of this stone, it is an oblong rectangle, measuring 11¾ inches long, 7¼ inches wide, and 1½ inches thick. On one side there is an interior space, also an oblong rectangle measuring about three-fourths of the size of the whole tablet, between which and the outer margin are six nude human figures resembling one another, one at either end and two on each of the two sides. The interior space may have contained characters, though no traces are now visible.
On the other side are drawings of the sun, clouds with rain descending therefrom, lightning, stars, arrows, foot-prints of the bear, and several other undeterminable characters.
No history of the origin and import of this tablet has been obtained.
Other materials may be mentioned as follows:
BONE.
For instances of the use of bone, refer to several Alaska ivory carvings in this paper, e. g., Figure 111, page [192]; Comanche buffalo shoulder blade, Figure 137, page [216]; Hidatsa shoulder blade, page [151]; New Zealand human bone, Figure 34, page [74].
THE LIVING TREE.
An example is to be found in Schoolcraft, IV, p. 253; Pl. 33, Fig. A, where it is stated that Mr. Richard H. Kern furnished a copy of an Indian drawing, which was “found on the trunk of a cottonwood tree in the valley of King’s River, California, and evidently represents the manner of catching different wild animals with the lasso.”
The use of the lasso, and the characters being upon the bark of a living tree, show sufficient reason to believe that this record was of modern workmanship.
WOOD.
The Indians of the Northwest Coast generally employ wood upon which to depict objects of various kinds. These appear to partake of a mythical nature, sometimes becoming absurdly grotesque. Totem posts (Plate LXXXIII, page [199]), boats, boat paddles, the boards constituting the front wall of a house, and masks are among the objects used upon which to display artistic skill.
Ottawa drawings are also found upon pipe-stems made of wood, usually ash. Figure 120, page [204], is an example of this.
Among the Arikara boat paddles are used upon which marks of personal distinction are reproduced, as shown in Figure 80, page [182].
Wooden dancing ornaments, such as fanciful representations of the human figure, idols, etc., are generally ornamented with a variety of colors, having them sometimes arranged to represent designs closely related to, if not actually signifying, marks of gentile distinction.
In Alaska, mortuary records are drawn upon slabs of wood. See Figures 113 and 114, page [198]. Mnemonic devices, notices of departure, distress, etc., are also drawn upon thin narrow slips of wood, averaging an inch in width, and of sufficient length. See Figures 58 and 59, page [154]. A circular piece of wood or board is sometimes drawn upon, showing the human face, and placed upon a pole, and facing in a certain direction, to show the course taken by the survivors of a settlement which has been attacked by an enemy. See Figure 50, page [152].
BARK.
The Ojibwa have, until very recently, been in the habit of tracing characters of various kinds upon the inner surface of birch bark. These records are usually mnemonic, though many pertain to personal exploits. An illustration is given in Figure 139, page [218]. The lines appear to have been traced with a sharply-pointed instrument, probably bone, and in some examples the drawings are made by simple puncturing. Sometimes color is applied to the objects delineated, and apparently with reference to specific signification. The strips of bark, varying from an inch to several feet in length, roll up upon drying, and are straightened out for examination by heating near the fire.
SKINS.
This includes scalps. A large number of records upon the hides of animals are mentioned in the present paper. [Plate VI] with its description in the Dakota Winter Counts is one instance.
FEATHERS.
The Sacramento tribes of California are very expert in weaving blankets of feathers, many of them having really beautiful figures worked upon them. This is reported by Edward M. Kern in Schoolcraft, V, 649, 650.
The feather work in Mexico, Central America and the Hawaiian Islands is well known, often having designs properly to be considered among pictographs, though in general not, at least in modern times, passing beyond ornamentation.
GOURDS.
After gourds have dried the contents are removed and handles are attached; they serve as rattles in dances, and in religious and shamanistic rites. The representations of natural or mythical objects for which the owner may have special reverence are often depicted upon their surfaces. This custom prevails among the Pueblos generally, and, also, among many other tribes, notably those constituting the Siouan linguistic stock.
HORSE HAIR.
The Hidatsa, Arikara, Dakota, and several other tribes of the Northwest plains, use horse hair dyed red as appendages to feathers worn as personal marks of distinction. Its arrangement is significant.
SHELLS, INCLUDING WAMPUM.
The illustrated and exhaustive paper of Mr. W. H. Holmes, in the Second Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology, removes all necessity for present extended mention under this head.
EARTH AND SAND.
Papers by Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. A., Dr. W. H. Corbusier, U. S. A., and Mr. James Stevenson were read in the Anthropological Society of Washington during the season of 1884-5, giving account of important and entirely novel paintings by the Navajo, Yuman, and Zuni Indians. These paintings were made upon the ground by means of sand, ashes, and powdered vegetable matter of various colors. These were highly elaborate, made immediately preceding certain ceremonies, at the close of which they were obliterated.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman states that when the expedition under command of Capt. G. M. Wheeler, U. S. A., passed through Southern Nevada in 1871, the encampment for one night was at Pai-Uta Charlie’s rancheria, where it was visited by many of the Pai-Uta Indians of that vicinity. On leaving camp the following morning representations of many mounted men, the odometer cart and pack animals were found depicted upon the hard, flat surface of the sand. The Indians had drawn the outlines in life size with sticks of wood, and the work was very artistically done. A mounted expedition was a new thing in that part of the country and amused them not a little.
The well-known animal mounds, sometimes called effigy mounds, of Wisconsin come in this category.