With regard to the study of the individual characters themselves to identify the delineators of pictographs, the various considerations of fauna, religion, customs, tribal signs, indeed most of the headings of this paper, will be applicable.
It is convenient to divide this chapter into: 1. Marked characters of known significance. 2. Distinctive costumes, weapons, and ornaments. 3. Ambiguous characters, with ascertained meaning.
SECTION 1.
MARKED CHARACTERS OF KNOWN SIGNIFICANCE.
It is obvious that before attempting the interpretation of pictographs concerning which no direct information is to be obtained, there should be a collection, as complete as possible, of known characters, in order that through them the unknown may be learned. When any considerable number of objects in a pictograph are actually known the remainder may be ascertained by the context, the relation, and the position of the several designs, and sometimes by the recognized principles of the art.
The present writer has been engaged, therefore, for a considerable time in collating a large number of characters in a card-catalogue arranged primarily by similarity in forms, and in attaching to each character any significance ascertained or suggested. As before explained, the interpretation upon which reliance is mainly based is that which has been made known by direct information from Indians who themselves were actually makers of pictographs at the time of giving the interpretation. Apart from the comparisons obtained by this collation, the only mode of ascertaining the meaning of the characters, in other words, the only key yet discovered, is in the study of the gesture sign included in many of them.
A spiral line frequently seen in petroglyphs is explained by the Dakota to be a snail shell, and, furthermore, this device is seen in Pl. [XX], and fully described in that connection as used in the recording and computation of time.
The limits of this paper do not allow of presenting a complete list of the characters in the pictographs which have become known. But some of the characters in the petroglyphs, Figs. 1258, 1259, and 1260, which are not discussed under various headings, supra, should be explained. The following is a selection of those which were interpreted to Mr. Gilbert.
Fig. 1258.—Moki devices.
The left hand device of Fig. 1258 is an inclosure, or pen, in which ceremonial dances are performed. That on the right is a headdress used in ceremonial dances.