o, the character represents a man using the rattle, as in the ceremony of incantation. The projections above the head denote his superior powers.
p, a midē', holding in his right hand a bear’s paw medicine bag, and in his left hand an arrow. The character resembles similar drawings to denote vessels in which herbs are boiled and from the top of which vapor is issuing.
q, a midē' medicine sack. The character appears like similar drawings of the otter; in the present instance, however, the ornamentation upon the skin shows it to be not a living animal.
r, a beaver’s tail, from Schoolcraft (y). Many other illustrations of this general nature are given by Mr. Schoolcraft, nearly all colored according to his fancy.
CHAPTER XXII.
CONTROVERTED PICTOGRAPHS.
No large amount of space need be occupied in the mention of detected pictographic frauds, their present and future importance being small, but much more than is now allowed would be required for the full discussion of controverted cases.
There is little inducement, beyond the amusement derived from hoaxing, to commit actual frauds in the fabrication of petroglyphs. It must, however, be remembered that coloration and carving of a deceptive character are sometimes produced by natural causes, e. g., pictured rocks on the island of Monhegan, Maine, figured by Schoolcraft (z), are classed in “Science” VI, No. 132, p. 124, as freaks of surface erosion. Mica plates were found in a mound at Lower Sandusky, Ohio, which, after some attempts at interpretation, proved to belong to the material known as graphic or hieroglyphic mica, the discolorations having been caused by the infiltration of mineral solution between the laminæ.
The instances where inscribed stones from mounds have been ascertained to be forgeries or fictitious drawings are to be explained as sometimes produced by simple mischief, sometimes by craving for personal notoriety, and in other cases by schemes either to increase the marketable value of land supposed to contain more of the articles or to sell those exhibited.
With regard to more familiar and more portable articles, such as engraved pipes, painted robes, and like curios, it is well known that the fancy prices paid for them by amateurs have stimulated their unlimited manufacture by Indians at agencies who make a business of sketching upon ordinary robes or plain pipes the characters in common use by them, without regard to any real event or person, and selling them as significant records. Some enterprising traders have been known to furnish the unstained robes, plain pipes, paints, and other materials for the purpose, and simply pay a skillful Indian for his work, when the fresh antique or imaginary chronicle is delivered.