The Indian is something of an impressionist in the matter of technique. Though possessed of great manual dexterity, he does not care, as a rule, to reproduce an object exactly, but rather to suggest his fundamental conception of it. Each drawing stands for an idea, and its symbolic character gives it a certain mystery and dignity in our eyes.
It is usual to represent an animal in action, in order to indicate more clearly its real or imaginary attributes. Thus a horse is shown running, a buffalo or bear fighting, or in a humorous attitude.
Pictorial hieroglyphics are merely crude pictures drawn and painted upon leather or birch-bark, or cut into the trunk of a convenient tree, or perhaps upon a hard clay bank, and sometimes even scratched with a hard stone upon the face of a cliff. In the first place, they represent history and biography, and serve to supplement and authenticate our oral traditions. Others are communications intended for some one who is likely to pass that way, and give important information. The person or persons whom it is desired to reach need not be addressed, but the sender of the message signs his name first, as in a letter of ceremony.
Fig. 21.
Suppose Charging Eagle is on the war-path and wishes to communicate with his friends. He cuts upon the bark of a conspicuous tree beside the trail the figure of an eagle swooping downward, bearing in its beak a war-club. The news he gives is that his young men brought home a herd of horses taken from the enemy. He draws first a teepee; facing it are several free horses, and immediately behind them two or three riders with war-bonnets on their heads, leading another horse. Last of all are some horses’ footprints. The free horses represent force, and the led horse expresses captivity. The fact that the men wear their war-bonnets, indicates a state of war.
The event is dated by drawing the symbol of the month in which it occurred, followed by the outline of the moon in its first, second, third, or fourth quarter, dark or full, as the case may be. The waxing moon opens toward the right, the waning moon toward the left. To be still more exact, the chief may draw the sun with its rays, followed by an open hand with as many fingers extended as days have passed since the event.