The Ojibwa bark was drawn in the same general manner, and Sandy lake, the principal place of their residence, was represented with much accuracy. To remove any doubts respecting it, a view was given of the old northwestern establishment, situated upon the shore, and now in the possession of the American Fur Company.
No proportion was preserved in their attempt at delineation. One mile of the Mississippi, including the mouth of the St. Peters, occupied as much space as the whole distance to Sandy Lake, nor was there anything to show that one part was nearer to the spectator than another.
The above pictorially professed attitude of being ready for either peace or war may be compared with the account in Champlain—Voyages (d)—of the chief whose name was Mariston, but he assumed that of Mahigan Atticq, translated as Wolf Deer. He thereby proclaimed that when at peace he was mild as a deer, but when at war was savage as a wolf.
In Davis’ Conquest of New Mexico (a) it is stated that Vargas’ Expedition in 1694 was met by the Utes, who hoisted a deerskin in token of peace.
The following “speech of an Ojibwa chief in negotiating a peace with the Sioux, 1806,” from Maj. Pike’s (a) Expeditions, etc., shows the pictographic use of the pipe as a profession of peace:
My father, tell the Sioux on the upper part of the river St. Peters that they mark trees with the figure of a calumet; that we of Red lake who may go that way should we see them, that we may make peace with them, being assured of their pacific disposition when we shall see the calumet marked on the trees.
D’Iberville, in 1699, as printed in Margry, IV, 153, said that the Indians met by him near the mouth of the Mississippi river indicated their peaceful and friendly purposes by holding up in the air a small stick of whitened wood. The same authority, in the same volume, p. 175, tells that the Oumas bore a white cross as a similar declaration; and another journal, in the same volume, p. 239, describes a stick also so borne as being fashioned like a pipe. The actual use of the pipe in profession of peace and friendship is mentioned in several parts of the present paper. See, also, the passport mentioned on p. [214] and wampum, p. [225].
Lieut. Col. Woodthorpe, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. Gr. Br. and I., XI, p. 211, says of the wild tribes of the Naga Hills, on the northeastern frontier of India:
On the road to Niao we saw on the ground a curious mud figure of a man in slight relief presenting a gong in the direction of Senua. This was supposed to show that the Niao men were willing to come to terms with Senua, then at war with Niao. Another mode of evincing a desire to turn away the wrath of an approaching enemy and induce him to open negotiations is to tie up in his path a couple of goats, sometimes also a gong, with the universal symbol of peace, a palm leaf planted in the ground hard by.