CHAPTER VII.
SUBSTANCES ON WHICH PICTOGRAPHS ARE MADE.
Substances on which pictographs are made may be divided into—
I. The human body.
II. Natural objects other than the human body.
III. Artificial objects.
SECTION 1.
THE HUMAN BODY.
Markings on human bodies are—(1) Those expressed by painting or such coloration as is not permanent. It has been found convenient to treat this topic under the heading of “Significance of Colors,” Chap. XVIII, Sec. [3]. (2) Those of intended permanence upon the skin, generally called tattoo, but including scarification. This enormous and involved topic is discussed, so far as space allows, under the heading of “Totems, Titles, and Names,” Chapter XIII, Sec. [3], where it seems to be most convenient in the general arrangement of this work. Though logically it might have been divided among several of the headings, that course would have involved much repetition or cross reference.
SECTION 2.
NATURAL OBJECTS OTHER THAN THE HUMAN BODY.
Other natural objects may be divided into—(1) Stone; (2) bone; (3) skins; (4) feathers and quills; (5) gourds; (6) shells; (7) earth and sand; (8) copper; (9) wood.
STONE.
This caption comprises the pictographs upon stone surfaces or tablets which are not of the dimensions or in the position to be included under the heading of petroglyphs, as elsewhere defined. Accounts, with and without illustrations, have been published of several engraved tablets, regarding which there has been much discussion, and some examples appear, infra, under the appropriate heading. (See Chapter XXII, Sec. [1].) Other examples, in which the genuine aboriginal character of the work is undisputed, appear in the present work, and a large number of other engraved and incised stone objects could be referred to, some of which are in the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology, unpublished, others being figured in its several reports. It is sufficient now for illustration of this subject to refer to the account accompanying Pl. [LI], infra, describing and copying the Thruston tablet, which is, perhaps, the most interesting of any pictograph on stone yet discovered, the genuineness of which as Indian work has not been called in question.