Fig. 1022.
Fig. 1022.—War-Eagle. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure shows a highly abbreviated conventional symbol. The pipe used in the ceremonial manner explained on page [539] et seq. means war and not peace, and the single eagle feather stands for the entire bird often called the war-eagle.
The adoption of a mat or mattress as an emblem of war or a military expedition is discussed and illustrated, supra, p. [553], Fig. [782].
In the Jesuit Relation for 1606, p. 51, it is narrated that “The Huron and Northern Algonkin chiefs, when their respective war parties met the enemy, distributed among their warriors rods which they carried for the purpose, and the warriors stuck them in the earth as a token that they would not retreat any more than the rods would.”
In their pictographs the rods became represented by strokes which were not only numerical, but signified warriors.
CHIEF.
Fig. 1023.—Chief-Boy.
Fig. 1023.—Naca-haksila, Chief-Boy. From the Oglala Roster. The large pipe held forward with the outstretched hand is among the Oglalas the conventional device for chief. This is explained elsewhere by the ceremonies attendant on the raising of war parties, in which the pipe is conspicuous. That the human figure is a boy is indicated by the shortness of the hair and the legs.