When the specific pictorial style of distinctive peoples is ascertained its appearance on rocks may give evidence of their habitat and migrations, and on the other hand their authorship of the petroglyphs being received as a working hypothesis, the latter may be confirmed and the characters interpreted through the known practices and habits of the postulated authors.
SECTION 3.
AMBIGUOUS CHARACTERS WITH ASCERTAINED MEANING.
Under this heading specimens of the card catalogue before mentioned are presented. The characters would not probably be recognized for the objects they are intended to represent and many of them might be mistaken for attempts to delineate other objects. A much larger number of similar delineations are to be found under other headings in this work, especially in Chap. [XIII] on Totems, titles, and names.
Fig. 1281.—Turtle. Maya.
Prof. C. Thomas (c) gives a, b, c, and d, in Fig. 1281 as representing the turtle.
That they do so is shown by the head of the animal, e, taken from the Cortesian Codex. This is one of the many examples in which the significance of drawings can be ascertained from a series of conventionalized forms. Other instances are given in the present paper, and more in the works of Mr. W. H. Holmes, published in several of the Annual Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology.
Fig. 1282.—Armadillo. Yucatan.