CHAPTER XI.
NOTICES.
This is an important division of the purposes for which pictographs are used. The pictographs and the objective devices antecedent to them under this head may be grouped as follows: 1st. Notice of visit, departure, and direction. 2d. Direction by drawing topographic features. 3d. Notice of condition. 4th. Warning and guidance.
SECTION 1.
NOTICE OF VISIT, DEPARTURE, AND DIRECTION.
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the U. S. Geological Survey, discovered drawings at Oakley spring, Yavapai County, Arizona, in 1878. He remarks that an Oraibi chief explained them to him and said that the “Mokis make excursions to a locality in the canyon of the Colorado Chiquito to get salt. On their return they stop at Oakley spring and each Indian makes a picture on the rock. Each Indian draws his crest or totem, the symbol of his gens (?). He draws it once, and once only, at each visit.” Mr. Gilbert adds, further, that—
There are probably some exceptions to this, but the drawings show its general truth. There are a great many repetitions of the same sign and from two to ten will often appear in a row. In several instances I saw the end drawings of a row quite fresh while the others were not so. Much of the work seems to have been performed by pounding with a hard point, but a few pictures are scratched on. Many drawings are weather-worn beyond recognition, and others are so fresh that the dust left by the tool has not been washed away by rain. Oakley spring is at the base of the Vermilion cliff, and the etchings are on fallen blocks of sandstone, a homogeneous, massive, soft sandstone. Tubi, the Oraibi chief above referred to, says his totem is the rain cloud, but it will be made no more, as he is the last survivor of the gens.
Fig. 437.—Petroglyphs at Oakley spring, Arizona.
A group from Oakley spring, of which Fig. 437 is a copy, furnished by Mr. Gilbert, measures 6 feet in length and 4 feet in height. Interpretations of several of the separated characters are given in Chapter [XXI], infra.
Champlain (b) reports:
Quelque marque ou signal par où ayont passé leurs ennemis, ou leurs amis, ce qu’ils cognoissent par de certaines marques que les chefs se donnent d’une nation a l’autre, qui ne sont pas toujours semblables, s’advertisans de temps en temps quand ils en changent; et par ce moyen ils recognoissent si ce sont amis ou ennemis qui ont passé.