OBJECTS REPRESENTED IN PICTOGRAPHS.

The objects depicted in pictographs of all kinds are too numerous and varied for any immediate attempt at classification. Those upon the petroglyphs may, however, be usefully grouped. Instructive particulars regarding them, may be discovered, for instance the delineation of the fauna in reference to its present or former habitat in the region where the representation of it is found, is of special interest.

As an example of the number and kind of animals pictured, as well as of their mode of representation, the following Figures, 4 to 21, are presented, taken from the Moki inscriptions at Oakley Springs, Arizona, by Mr. G. K. Gilbert. These were selected by him from, a large number of etchings, for the purpose of obtaining the explanation, and they were explained to him by Tubi, an Oraibi chief living at Oraibi, one of the Moki villages.

Jones, in his Southern Indians, p. 377-379, gives a résumé of objects depicted as follows:

Upon the Enchanted Mountain in Union County, cut in plutonic rock, are the tracks of men, women, children, deer, bears, bisons, turkeys and terrapins, and the outlines of a snake, of two deer, and of a human hand. These sculptures—so far as they have been ascertained and counted—number one hundred and thirty-six. The most extravagant among them is that known as the footprint of the “Great Warrior.” It measures eighteen inches in length, and has six toes. The other human tracks and those of the animals are delineated with commendable fidelity. * * *

Most of them present the appearance of the natural tread of the animal in plastic clay. * * * These intaglios closely resemble those described by Mr. Ward [Jour. Anthrop. Inst. of N. Y., No. 1, 57 et seq.], as existing upon the upheaved strata of coarse carboniferous grit in Belmont County, Ohio, near the town of Barnesville.

The appearance of objects showing the influence of European civilization and christianization should always be carefully noted. An instance where an object of that character is found among a multitude of others not liable to such suspicion is in the heart surmounted by a cross, in the upper line of Figure 1, page [30] ante. This suggests missionary teaching.

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Fig. 12

Fig. 13

Fig. 14

Fig. 15

Fig. 16

Fig. 17

Fig. 18

Fig. 19

Fig. 20

Fig. 21

The following is the explanation of the figures: