CHAPTER XX.
SPECIAL COMPARISONS.
The utility of the present work depends mainly upon the opportunity given by the various notes and illustrations collected for students to make their own comparisons and deductions. This chapter is intended to assist in that study by presenting some groups of comparisons which have seemed to possess special interest. For that reason descriptions and illustrations are collected here which logically belong to other headings.
Many of the pictographs discussed and illustrated in this chapter and in the one following are the representation of animals and other natural objects. It would therefore seem that they could be easily identified, but in fact the modes of representation of the same object among the several peoples differed, and when conventionalizing has also become a factor the objects may not be recognized without knowledge of the typical style. Sometimes there was apparently no attempt at the imitation of natural objects, but marks were used, such as points, lines, circles, and other geometric forms. These were combined in diverse modes to express concepts and record events. Those marks and combinations originated in many centers and except in rare instances of “natural” ideograms those of one people would not correspond with those of other peoples unless by conveyance or imitation. Typical styles therefore appear also in this class of pictographs and, when established, all typical styles afford some indication with regard to the peoples using them.
This chapter is divided under the headings of: 1. Typical Style. 2. Homomorphs and Symmorphs. 3. Composite forms. 4. Artistic skill and methods.
SECTION 1.
TYPICAL STYLE.
Fig. 1088 is presented as a type of eastern Algonquian petroglyphs. It is a copy of the “Hamilton picture rock,” contributed by Mr. J. Sutton Wall, of Monongahela city, Pennsylvania. The drawings are on a sandstone rock, on the Hamilton farm, 6 miles southeast from Morgantown, West Virginia. The turnpike passes over the south edge of the rock.
Fig. 1088.—Algonquian petroglyph. Hamilton farm, West Virginia.
Mr. Wall furnishes the following description of the characters: