The following specimen of Iroquois picture writing should have been placed under the article “Onondagas,” where the omission is supplied, by a head from an ancient pipe, hereafter described under the class of relics named Opoaguna. It represents the first Iroquois ruler, under their confederacy, named Atotarho.
VI. RELICS OF ABORIGINAL ART IN WESTERN NEW-YORK.
[Antique insignia, amulets, implements and ornaments.]
It will tend to render the work of antiquarian examination exact, and facilitate comparison, if names descriptive of the general classes and species of each object of archæological inquiry be introduced. No science can advance if the terms and definitions of it be left vague. The mere inception of this design is here announced; it is not proposed, at present, to do more than submit a few specimens from a large number of antiquarian articles, the result of many years’ accumulation. The figures and descriptions introduced are confined exclusively to the geographical area under examination.
To establish the classes of articles, names are introduced from the Indian vocabulary. These are qualified by specific terms, adjective or substantive, from the same class of languages, or from the English; rarely from other sources. A nomenclature derived from such sources, appeared preferable for these simple objects of savage art, to one taken from the ancient languages, whose prerogative it has so long been to furnish terms for science and art.
American Antiquities—Plate I.
Class First. NABIKOAGUNA.[70]
[70] From the Algic, denoting a medal, a breast-plate or collar.