When traveling they will also pile heaps of stones upon mounds or conspicuous points so arranged as to be understood by their passing comrades; and sometimes they set up the bleached buffalo heads, which are everywhere scattered over those plains, to indicate the direction of their march, and many other facts which may be communicated by those simple signs.
Putnam (a) gives one example of this character:
A family of five persons were killed—a tall man, a short, fat woman, and three children—at some place to the north. Five sticks were cut of various lengths. The longest being forked or split indicated the man, the thick short one the woman, and three of smaller sizes and lengths the children. They were all scalped, as is shown by the peeling of the bark. There were thirteen Indians, as we are informed by the stick with stripes and thirteen notches; and they have fled south with two prisoners, as we judge from the pointer and little strips of bark seemingly tied together. Sometimes all the intimations would be on one stick or piece of bark. A spy finding, at places well known, some of these mysterious articles, would bring them to the station, where a consultation would be held and conclusion drawn as to the meaning. A spy or hunter would intimate to his friend his want of powder or lead or other want and the place at which he would look for supplies.
Hind (a) speaks of a special form of notice by the natives of the Labrador peninsula:
To indicate their speed and direction on a march, the Nasquapees of the Labrador peninsula thrust a stick in the ground, with a tuft of grass at the top, pointing toward their line of route, and they show the rate at which they are traveling by the greater or less inclination of the stick. This mode of communicating intelligence to those who may follow is universal among Indians; but the excellent and simple contrivance for describing the speed at which they travel is not generally employed as far as I am aware, by other nations.
Mr. Charles G. Leland, in a letter, tells that the English gypsies, at a crossroad, drew the ordinary Latin cross with the long arm pointing in the direction taken. Others pulled up three bunches of grass by the roots and laid the green points in the direction. Others again, at the present time, take a small stick and set it up inclining at an angle of 45 degrees in the line of travel.
Dr. George M. Dawson (a) reports of the Shuswap people of British Columbia—
A rag of clothing, particularly a small piece or pieces of colored or other easily recognizable material from a woman’s dress, left in a forked twig, indicates that a person or party of persons has passed. If the stick stands upright, it means that the hour was noon, if inclined it may either point to the direction of the sun at the time or show the direction in which the person or party went. If it is desired to show both, a larger stick points to the position of the sun, a smaller to that of the route followed. If those for whose information the signs are left are likely to arrive after an interval of several days, a handful of fresh grass or a leafy branch may be left, from the condition of which an estimate of the time which has elapsed can be formed. Such signs are usually placed near the site of the camp fire.
The device to indicate the time of depositing the notice may be compared with that shown in Fig. 446.