a, the author, is the Midē', who was called upon to take a man’s life at a distant camp. The line extending from the Midē' to i, explained below, signifies that his power extended to at least that distance.

b, an assistant Midē'.

c, d, e, and f represent the four degrees of the Midéwin, of which both shamans are members. The degrees are also indicated by the vertical lines above each lodge character.

g is the drum used in the ceremony.

h is an outline of the victim. A human figure is drawn upon a piece of birchbark, over which the incantations are made, and, to insure the death of the subject, a small spot of red paint is rubbed upon the breast and a sharp instrument thrust into it.

i, the outer line represents a lake, while the inner one is an island, upon which the victim resides.

The ceremony indicated in the above description actually occurred at White Earth during the autumn of 1884, and, by a coincidence, the Indian “conjured” died the following spring of pneumonia resulting from cold contracted during the winter. This was considered as the result of the Midē'’s power, and naturally secured for him many new adherents and believers.

The juggling trick of removing disease by sucking it through tubes is performed by the Midē' after fasting and is accompanied with many ceremonies.

THE ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS.

Sikas'sigé, one of the officiating priests of the Midē' society of the Ojibwa at White Earth, Minnesota, gives the following explanation of Fig. 173, which is a reduced copy of a pictorial representation of a tradition explaining the origin of the Indians:

SECTION 6.
TREATIES.

Fig. 174 is copy of a birchbark record which was made to commemorate a treaty of peace between the Ojibwa and Assinaboin Indians. The drawing on bark was made by an Ojibwa chief at White Earth, Minnesota.

The figure on the left, holding a flag, represents the Ojibwa chief, while that on the right denotes the chief acting on the part of the Assinaboins. The latter holds in his left hand the pipe which was used in the preliminaries, and smoke is seen issuing from the mouth of the Assinaboin. He also holds in his right hand the drum used as an accompaniment to the songs.

The Ojibwa holds a flag used as an emblem of peace.

A considerable number of pictographic records of treaties are presented in different parts of the present work (see under the headings of Wampum, Chap. ix, Sec. 3; Notices, Chap. xi; History, Chap. xvi; Winter Counts, Chap. x, Sec. 2).

SECTION 7.
APPOINTMENT.

Le Page Du Pratz (b) says in describing the council of conspiracy which resulted in the Natchez war of 1729:

Père Nicholas Perrot (a) says:

Im Thurn (e) tells of the Indians of Guiana as follows:

Darius (Herodot. IV, 98) did something of the kind when he took a thong and, tying sixty knots in it, gave it to the Ionian chiefs, that they might untie a knot every day and go back to their own land if he had not returned when all the knots were undone.

Champlain (a) describes a mode of preparation for battle among the Canadian Algonquins which partook of the nature of a military drill as well as of an appointment of rank and order. It is in its essentials mnemonic. He describes it as follows:

The author adds detail with regard to alignment, breaking ranks, and resumption of array.

SECTION 8.
NUMERATION.

D. W. Eakins, in Schoolcraft I, p. 273, describes the mnemonic numeration marks of the Muskoki thus:

Capt. Bourke (b) gives the following account of an attempt at compromise between the aboriginal method of numbering days, weeks, and months, and that of the civilized intruders to whose system the Indians found it necessary to conform.

It is not necessary to discuss the obvious method of repeating strokes, dots, knots, human heads or forms, weapons, and totemic designs, to designate the number of persons or articles referred to in the pictographs where they appear.

SECTION 9.
ACCOUNTING.

The Abnaki, in especial the Passamaquoddy division of the tribe in Maine, during late years have been engaged in civilized industries in which they have found it necessary to keep accounts. These are interesting as exhibiting the aboriginal use of ideographic devices which are only partially supplemented by the imitation of the symbols peculiar to European civilization. Several of these devices were procured by the present writer in 1888, and are illustrated and explained as follows:

A deer hunter brings 3 deerskins, for which he is allowed $2 each, making $6; 30 pounds of venison, at 10 cents per pound, making $3. In payment thereof he purchases 3 pounds of powder, at 40 cents per pound; 5 pounds of pork, at 10 cents per pound; and 2 gallons of molasses, at 50 cents per gallon. The debit foots $3.30, according to the Indian account, but it seems on calculation to be 30 cents in excess, an overcharge, showing the advance in civilization of the Passamaquoddy trader.

The following explanation will serve to make intelligible the characters employed, which are reproduced in Fig. 175. The hunter is shown as the first character in line a, and that he is a deer-hunter is furthermore indicated by his having a skin-stretcher upon his back, as well as the figure of a deer at which he is shooting. The three skins referred to are shown stretched upon frames in line b, the total number being also indicated by the three vertical strokes, between which and the drying frames are two circles, each with a line across it, to denote dollars, the total sum of $6 being the last group of dollar marks on line b.

The 30 pounds of venison are represented in line c, the three crosses signifying 30, the T-shaped character designating a balance scale, synonymous with pound, while the venison is indicated by the drawing of the hind quarter or ham. The price is given by uniting the X, or numeral, and the T, or pound mark, making a total of $3 as completing the line c.

The line d refers to the purchase of 3 pounds of powder, as expressed by the three strokes, the T, or scale for pound, and the powder horn, the price of which is four Xs or 40 cents per pound, or T; and 3 pounds of powder, the next three vertical strokes succeeded by a number of spots to indicate grains of powder, which is noted as being 10 cents per pound, indicated by the cross and T, respectively. The next item, shown on line e, charges for 5 pounds of pork, the latter being indicated by the outline of a pig, the price being indicated by the X or 10, and T, scale or pound; then two short lines preceding one small oblong square or quart measure, indicates that 2 quarts of molasses, shown by the black spot, cost 5 crosses, or 50 cents per measure, the sum of the whole of the purchase being indicated by three rings with stems and three crosses, equivalent to $3.30.

Another Indian, whose occupation was to furnish basket wood, brought some to the trader for which he received credit to the amount of $1.15, taking in exchange therefor pork sufficient to equal the above amount.

In Fig. 176 the Indian is shown with a bundle of basket wood, the value of which is given in the next characters, consisting of a ring with a line across to denote $1, a cross to represent 10 cents, and the five short vertical lines for an additional 5 cents, making a total of $1.15. The pork received from the trader is indicated by the outline of a pig, while the crossed lines to the right denotes that the “account” is canceled.

Another customer, as shown in Fig. 177, was an old woman, the descendent of an ancient name—one known before the coming of white people. She was therefore called the “Owl,” and is represented in the “account” given below. She had bought on credit 1 plug of smoking tobacco, designated by one vertical stroke for the quantity and an oblong square figure corresponding to the shape of the package, which was to be used for smoking, as indicated by the spiral lines to denote smoke. She had also purchased 2 quarts of kerosene oil, the quantity designated by the two strokes preceding the small squares to represent quart measures, and the liquid is indicated by the rude outline of a kerosene lamp. This is followed by two crosses, representing 20 cents, as the value of the amount of her purchases. This account was settled by giving one basket, as shown in the device nearly beneath the owl, half of which is marked with crossed lines, connected by a line of dots or dashes with the cancellation mark at the extreme right of the record.

Another Passamaquoddy Indian, unable to read or write, carries on business and keeps his books according to a method of his own invention. One account is reproduced in Fig. 178. It is with a very slim Indian, as will be observed from the drawing, who carries on “trucking” and owns a horse, that animal being represented in outline and connected by lines with its owner. For services he was paid $5.45, which sum is shown in the lower line of characters by five dollar-marks—i. e., rings with strokes across them—4 crosses or numerals signifying 10 cents each, and five short vertical lines for 5 cents. The date is shown in the upper line of characters, the 4 short lines in front of the horse signifying 4, the oval figure next, to the right and intended for a circle, denoting the moon—i. e., the fourth moon, or April—while the 10 short strokes signify the tenth day of the month—i. e., he was paid $5.45 in full for services to April 10.

Another account was with a young woman noted as very slim, and is shown in Fig. 179. The girl brought a basket to the store, for which she was allowed 20 cents. She received credit for 10 cents on account of a plug of tobacco bought some time previously.

In the illustration the decidedly slim form of the girl is portrayed, her hands holding out the basket which she had made. The unattached cross signifies 10 cents, which she probably received in cash, while the other cross is connected by a dotted line with the piece of plug tobacco for which she had owed 10 cents. The attachment of the plug to the unpaid dime is amusingly ideographic.

Another Indian, descended from the prehistoric Indians, was called “Lox,” the evil or tricksy deity, appearing as an animal having a long body and tail and short legs, which is probably a wolverine, under which form Lox is generally depicted by the Passamaquoddy. His account with the trader is given in Fig. 180, and shows that he brought 1 dozen ax handles, for which he received $1.50.

Beneath the figure of Lox are 2 axes, the 12 short lines denoting the number of handles delivered, while the dotted line to the right connects them with the amount received, which is designated by 1 one dollar mark and 5 crosses or dime marks.

Dr. Hoffman found in Los Angeles, California, a number of notched sticks, which had been invented and used by the Indians at the Mission of San Gabriel. They had chief herders, who had under their charge overseers of the several classes of laborers, herders, etc. The chief herder was supplied with a stick of hard wood, measuring about 1 inch in breadth and thickness and from 20 to 24 inches long. The corners were beveled at the handle. The general form of the stick is given in the upper character of Fig. 181, with the exception that the illustration is intentionally shortened so as to show both ends.

Upon each of the beveled surfaces on the handle are marks to indicate the kind of horned cattle referred to. The cross indicates that the corner of the stick upon which it is incised relates to heifers, each notch designating one head, the long transverse cut denoting ten, with an additional three cuts signifying that the herder has in charge thirteen heifers. Upon the next beveled edge appears an arrow-pointed mark, to denote in like manner which edge of the stick is to be notched for indicating the oxen. Upon the third beveled surface is one transverse cut for the record of the number of bulls in the herd, while upon the fourth bevel of the handle are two notches to note the number of cows.

The stick is notched at the end opposite the handle to signify that it refers only to horned cattle. That used to designate horses is sharpened from two sides only, so that the end is wedge-shaped, or exactly the reverse of the one first mentioned. The marks upon the handle would be the same, however, with this exception—that one cut would mean a stallion, two cuts a mare, the cross a gelding, and the arrow-shaped figure a colt. Sticks were also marked to denote the several kinds of stock and to record those which had been branded.

Another class of sticks were also used by the overseers, copies of which were likewise preserved by the laborers and herders, to keep an account of the number of days on which labor was performed, and to record the sums of money received by the workman.

The lower character of Fig. 181 represents a stick, upon the beveled edge of the handle of which is a cross to denote work. The short notches upon the corner of the stick denote days, each seventh day or week being designated by a cut extending across the stick.

Upon the opposite side of the handle is a circle or a circle with a cross within it to denote the number of reals paid, each real being indicated upon the edge of the stick by a notch, while each ten reals or peso is noted by making the cut all the way across that face of the stick.

Mr. Dall (a) says that the Innuit frequently keep accounts by tying knots in a string or notching a stick. Capt. Bourke (c) reports:

Terrien de Lacouperie (e) says of the Sonthals of Bengal:

Many modes of accounting in a pictorial manner are noted in Europe and America among people classed as civilized. Some of these are very curious, but want of space prevents their recital here. A valuable description of the survival of the system in Brittany is given by M. Armand Landrin (a), translated and condensed as follows:

Until quite recently the important accounts of the British exchequer were kept by wooden tallies, and some bakers in the United States yet persevere in keeping their accounts with their customers by duplicate tallies, one of which is rendered as a bill and is verified by the other.

CHAPTER X.
CHRONOLOGY.

It is not within the scope of the present work to examine the several systems of chronology of the American Indians, but only those pictorially exhibited. The Mexican system, much more scientific and more elaborate than that employed by the northern tribes, resembled it in the graphic record or detail of exhibit, and is highly interesting as compared with the Dakota Winter Counts. Although the principle of designating the years was wholly different, the mode of that designation was often similar, as is shown by collating the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Telleriano Remensis with the Winter Counts of Lone Dog and Battiste Good, infra. It is also desirable to note the remarks of Prof. Brinton (e) with regard to the Chilan Balam. At the close of each of the Maya larger divisions of time (the so-called “Katum”), a “chilan” or inspired diviner uttered a prediction of the character of the year or epoch which was about to begin. This prophetic designation of the year was like a Zadkiel’s almanac, while the Dakotan method was a selection of the most important events of the past.

SECTION 1.
TIME.

Dr. William H. Corbusier, surgeon, U. S. Army, gives the following information:

Under other headings in this paper are presented graphic expressions for divisions of time—month, day, night, morning, noon, and evening. See, for some of them, Chap. XX, Sec. 2.

SECTION 2.
WINTER COUNTS.

In the preliminary paper on “Pictographs of the North American Indians,” published in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 58 pages of text and 46 full-page plates were devoted to the winter counts of the Dakota Indians. The minute detail of explanation, the systematic comparison, and the synoptic presentation which seemed to be necessary need not now be repeated to establish the genuine character of the invention. This consisted in the use of events, which were in some degree historical, to form a system of chronology. The record of the events was only the device by which was accomplished the continuous designation of years, in the form of charts corresponding in part with the orderly arrangement of divisions of time termed calendars. It was first made public by the present writer in a paper entitled “A Calendar of the Dakota Nation,” which was issued in April, 1877, in Bulletin III, No. I, of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey. The title is now changed to that adopted by the Dakotas themselves, viz, Winter Counts—in the original, wan'iyetu wo'wapi.

The lithographed chart published with that paper, substantially the same as Pl. XX, Lone-Dog’s Winter Count, now much better presented than ever before, is the winter count used by, or at least known to, a large portion of the Dakota people, extending over the seventy-one years commencing with the winter of A. D. 1800-’01.

The copy from which the lithograph was taken is traced on a strip of cotton cloth, in size 1 yard square, which the characters almost entirely fill, and is painted in two colors, black and red, used in the original, of which it is a facsimile. The plate is a representation of the chart as it would appear on the buffalo robe. It was photographed from the copy on linen cloth, and not directly from the buffalo robe. It was painted on the robe by Lone-Dog, an Indian belonging to the Yanktonais tribe of the Dakotas, who in the autumn of 1876 was near Fort Peck, Montana. His Dakota name is given in the ordinary English literation as Shunka-ishnala, which words correspond nearly with the vocables in Riggs’s lexicon for dog-lone. Lone-Dog claimed that, with the counsel of the old men of his tribe, he decided upon some event or circumstance which should distinguish each year as it passed, and marked what was considered to be its appropriate symbol or device upon a buffalo robe kept for the purpose. The robe was at convenient times exhibited to other Indians of the tribe, who were thus taught the meaning and use of the signs as designating the several years.

It is not, however, supposed that Lone-Dog was of sufficient age in the year 1800 to enter upon the work. Either there was a predecessor from whom he received the earlier records or, when he had reached manhood, he gathered the traditions from his elders and worked back, the object either then or before being to establish some system of chronology for the use of the tribe or more probably in the first instance for the use of his own band.

Present knowledge of the winter-count systems shows that Lone-Dog was not their originator. They were started, at the latest, before the present generation, and have been kept up by a number of independent recorders. The idea was one specially appropriate to the Indian genius, yet the peculiar mode of record was an invention, and it is not probably a very old invention, as it has not been used beyond a definite district and people. If an invention of that character had been of great antiquity it would probably have spread by intertribal channels beyond the bands or tribes of the Dakota, where alone the copies of such charts have been found and are understood.

The fact that Lone-Dog’s Winter Count, the only one known at the time of its first publication, begins at a date nearly coinciding with the first year of the present century, as it is called in the arbitrary computation that prevails among most of the civilized peoples, awakened a suspicion that it might be due to civilized intercourse and was not a mere coincidence. If the influence of missionaries or traders started any plan of chronology, it is remarkable that they did not suggest one in some manner resembling the system so long and widely used, and the only one they knew, of counting the numbers from an era, such as the birth of Christ, the Hegira, the Ab Urbe Conditâ, or the first Olympiad. But the chart shows nothing of this nature. The earliest character merely represents the killing of a small number of Dakotas by their enemies, an event neither so important nor interesting as many others of the seventy-one shown in the chart, more than one of which, indeed, might well have been selected as a notable fixed point before and after which simple arithmetical notation could have been used to mark the years. Instead of any plan that civilized advisers would naturally have introduced, the one actually adopted was to individualize each year by a specific recorded symbol. The ideographic record, being preserved and understood by many, could be used and referred to with ease and accuracy. Definite signs for the first appearance of the smallpox and for the first capture of wild horses were dates as satisfactory to the Dakota as the corresponding expressions A. D. 1802 and 1813 are to the Christian world, and far more certain than the chronology expressed in terms of A. M. and B. C. The arrangement of separate characters in an outward spiral starting from a central point is a clever expedient to dispense with the use of numbers for noting the years, yet allowing every date to be determined by counting backward or forward from any other known. The whole conception seems one strongly characteristic of the Indians, who in other instances have shown such expertness in ideography. The discovery of several other charts, which differ in their times of commencement and ending from that of Lone-Dog and from each other, removed any inference arising from the above-mentioned coincidence in beginning with the present century. The following copies of charts, substantially the same as that of Lone-Dog, are now or have been in the possession of the present writer:

1. A chart made and kept by Bo-i'-de, The-Flame, a Dakota, who, in 1877, lived near Fort Sully, Dakota.

The facsimile copy is on a cotton cloth about a yard square and in black and red, thus far similar to the copy of Lone-Dog’s chart, but the arrangement is different. The character for the first year mentioned appears in the lower left-hand corner, and the record proceeds toward the right to the extremity of the cloth, then crossing toward the left and again toward the right at the edge of the cloth, and so throughout, in the style called boustrophedon. It thus answers the same purpose of orderly arrangement, allowing constant additions, like the more circular spiral of Lone-Dog. This record is for the years 1786-’87 to 1876-’77, thus commencing earlier and ending later than that of Lone-Dog.

2. A Minneconjou chief, The-Swan, kept another record on the dressed skin of an antelope or deer, claiming that it had been preserved in his family for seventy years.

The characters are arranged in a spiral similar to those in Lone-Dog’s chart, but more oblong in form. The course of the spiral is from left to right, not from right to left.

3. Another chart was kindly loaned to the writer by Bvt. Maj. Joseph Bush, captain Twenty-second U. S. Infantry. It was procured by him, in 1870 at the Cheyenne Agency. This copy is one yard by three-fourths of a yard, spiral, beginning in the center, from right to left. The figures are substantially the same as those in Lone-Dog’s chart, with which it coincides in time, except that it ends at 1869-’70, but the interpretation differs from that accompanying the latter in a few particulars.

4. The chart of Mato Sapa, Black-Bear. He was a Minneconjou warrior, residing in 1868 and 1869 on the Cheyenne Agency reservation, on the Missouri river, near the mouth of the Cheyenne river.

This copy is on a smaller scale than that of Lone-Dog, being a flat and elongated spiral, 2 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 6 inches. The spiral reads from right to left. This chart, which begins like that of Lone-Dog, ends with the years 1868-’69.

5. A most important and interesting Winter Count is that made by Battiste Good, a Brulé Dakota, which was kindly contributed by Dr. William H. Corbusier, surgeon U. S. Army. It begins with peculiar cyclic devices from the year A. D. 900, and in thirteen figures embraces the time to A. D. 1700, all these devices being connected with myths, and some of them showing European influence. From 1700-’01 to 1879-’80 a separate character is given for each year, with its interpretation, in much the same style as shown in the other charts mentioned. Several Indians and half-breeds said that this count formerly embraced about the same number of years as the others, but that Battiste Good gathered the names of many years from the old people and placed them in chronological order as far back as he was able to learn them.

Another Winter Count, communicated by Dr. Corbusier, is that in the possession of American-Horse, an Oglala Dakota, at the Pine Ridge agency in 1879, who asserted that his grandfather began it, and that it is the production of his grandfather, his father, and himself.

A third Winter Count is communicated by Dr. Corbusier as kept by Cloud-Shield. He was also an Oglala Dakota, at the Pine Ridge agency, but of a different band from American-Horse. The last two counts embrace nearly the same number of years, viz, from A. D. 1775 to 1878. Two dates belong to each figure, as a Dakota year covers a portion of two of the calendar years common to civilization.

Dr. Corbusier also saw copies of a fourth Winter Count, which was kept by White-Cow-Killer, at the Pine Ridge agency. He did not obtain a copy of it, but learned most of the names given to the winters.

With reference to all the Winter Counts and to the above remarks that a Dakota year covers a portion of two calendar years, the following explanation may be necessary: The Dakota count their years by winters (which is quite natural, that season in their high levels and latitudes practically lasting more than six months), and say a man is so many snows old, or that so many snow seasons have passed since an occurrence. They have no division of time into weeks, and their months are absolutely lunar, only twelve, however, being designated, which receive their names upon the recurrence of some prominent physical phenomenon. For example, the period partly embraced by February is called the “raccoon moon;” March, the “sore-eye moon;” and April, that “in which the geese lay eggs.” As the appearance of raccoons after hibernation, the causes inducing inflamed eyes, and oviposition by geese vary with the meteorological character of each year, and as the twelve lunations reckoned do not bring back the point in the season when counting commenced, there is often dispute in the Dakota tipis toward the end of winter as to the correct current date. In careful examination of the several counts it often is left in doubt whether the event occurred in the winter months or was selected in the months immediately before or in those immediately after the winter. No regularity or accuracy is noticed in these particulars.

In considering the extent to which Lone-Dog’s chart is understood and used, it may be mentioned that every intelligent Dakota of full years to whom the writer has shown it has known what it meant, and many of them knew a large part of the years portrayed. When there was less knowledge, there was the amount that may be likened to that of an uneducated person or a child who is examined about a map of the United States, which had been shown to him before, with some explanation only partially apprehended or remembered. He would tell that it was a map of the United States; would probably be able to point out with some accuracy the state or city where he lived; perhaps the capital of the country; probably the names of the states of peculiar position or shape, such as Maine, Delaware, or Florida. So the Indian examined would often point out in Lone-Dog’s chart the year in which he was born, or that in which his father died, or in which there was some occurrence that had strongly impressed him, but which had no relation whatever to the significance of the character for the year in question. It had been pointed out to him before, and he had remembered it, while forgetting the remainder of the chart.

On comparing all the Winter Counts it is found that they often correspond, but sometimes differ. In a few instances the differences are in the succession of events, but they are usually due to an omission or to the selection of another event. When a year has the same name in all of them, the bands were probably encamped together, or else the event fixed upon was of general interest; and when the name is different the bands were scattered, or nothing of general interest occurred. Many of the recent events are fresh in the memory of the people, as the warriors who strive to make their exploits a part of the tribal traditions proclaim them on all occasions of ceremony, count their coups, as the performance is called. Declarations of this kind partake of the nature of affirmations made in the invoked presence of a supposed divinity. War shirts, on which scores of the enemies killed are kept, and which are carefully transmitted from generation to generation, help to refresh their memories in regard to some of the events.

The study of all the charts renders plain some points remaining in doubt while the Lone-Dog chart was the only example known. It became clear that there was no fixed or uniform mode of exhibiting the order of continuity of the year-characters. They were arranged spirally or lineally, or in serpentine curves, by boustrophedon or direct, starting backward from the last year shown or proceeding uniformly forward from the first year selected or remembered. Any mode that would accomplish the object of continuity with the means of regular addition seemed equally acceptable. So a theory advanced that there was some symbolism in the right-to-left circling of Lone-Dog’s chart was abandoned, especially when an obvious reproduction of that very chart was made by an Indian with the spiral reversed. It was also obvious that when copies were made, some of them probably from memory, there was no attempt at Chinese accuracy. It was enough to give the graphic or ideographic character, and frequently the character is better defined on one of the charts than on the others for the corresponding year. One interpretation would often throw light on the others. It also appeared that, while different events were selected by the recorders of the different systems, there was sometimes a selection of the same event for the same year and sometimes for the next, such as would be natural in the progress of a famine or epidemic, or as an event gradually became known over a vast territory.

A test of the mode of selecting events for designating the Winter Counts may be found in a suggestion made by the present writer in his account of Lone-Dog’s chart, published in 1877, as follows: