The serpentine line immediately below these signifies a stream or river, near which the village is located.
The two persons holding guns in their left hands, together with another having a spear, appear to be the companions of the speaker, all of whom are members of the turtle gens, as shown by that reptile.
The curve from left to right is a representation of the sky, the sun having appeared upon the left or eastern horizon when the transaction below mentioned was enacted. In an explanation by gesture, or by pictograph, the speaker always faces the south, or conducts himself as if he did so, and begins on the left side to convey the idea of morning, if day; the hand, or line, is drawn all the way from the eastern horizon to the western. The above, then, represents the morning when a female—headless body of a woman—a member of the crane gens, was killed.
The figure of a bear below is the same apparently as number one, though turned to the right. The heart is reversed to denote sadness, grief, remorse, as expressed in gesture-language, and to atone for the misdeed committed in the proceeding the pipe is brought and offering made to the “Great Spirit.”
Altogether, the act depicted appears to have been accidental, the woman belonging to the same tribe, as can be learned from the gens of which she was a member. The regret or sorrow signified in the bear, next to the last figure, corresponds with that supposition, as such feelings would not be congruous to the Indian in the case of an enemy.
The point of interest in this pictograph is, that the figures are very skillfully copied from the numerous characters of the same kind representing Ojibwa pictographs, and given by Schoolcraft. The arrangement of these copied characters is precisely that which would be natural in the similar work of Indians. In fact, the groups constitute a thoroughly genuine pictograph, and afford a good illustration of the manner in which a record can be made. The fact that it was made and sold under false representations is its objectionable feature.
An inscribed stone found in Grave Creek Mound, near the Ohio River, in 1838, has been the subject of much linguistic contention among those who admitted its authenticity. Twenty-four characters on it have been considered to be alphabetic and one is a supposed hieroglyphic sign. Mr. Schoolcraft says that twenty-two of the characters are alphabetic, but there has been a difference of opinion with regard to their origin. One scholar finds among them four characters which he claims are ancient Greek; another claims that four are Etruscan; five have been said to be Runic; six, ancient Gaelic; seven, old Erse; ten, Phœnician; fourteen, old British; and sixteen, Celteberic. M. Levy Bing reported at the Congress of Americanists at Nancy, in 1875, that he found in the inscription twenty-three Canaanite letters, and translated it: “What thou sayest, thou dost impose it, thou shinest in thy impetuous clan and rapid chamois.”(!) M. Maurice Schwab in 1857 rendered it: “The Chief of Emigration who reached these places (or this island) has fixed these statutes forever.” M. Oppert, however, gave additional variety by the translation, so that all tastes can be suited: “The grave of one who was assassinated here. May God to avenge him strike his murderer, cutting off the hand of his existence.”
For further particulars on this topic reference may be made to Colonel Charles Whittlesey’s Archæological Frauds, in several tracts, and to The Mound Builders, by J. P. MacLean, Cincinnati, 1879, p. 90, et seq.
From considerations mentioned in the introduction of this paper, and others that are obvious, any inscriptions purporting to be pre-Columbian showing apparent use of alphabetic characters, signs of the zodiac, or other evidences of a culture higher than that known among the North American Indians, must be received with caution, but the pictographs may be altogether genuine, and their erroneous interpretation be the sole ground of their being discredited.
In this connection some allusion may be made to the learned discussions upon the Dighton rock before mentioned. The originally Algonkian characters were translated by a Scandinavian antiquary as an account of the party of Thorfinn, the Hopeful. A distinguished Orientalist made out clearly the word melek (king). Another scholar triumphantly established the characters to be Scythian, and still another made them Phœnician. But this inscription has been so manipulated that it is difficult now to determine the original details.