Picture writing of the American Indian, by Garrick Mallery

Fig. 653: a is an Ojibwa pictograph taken from Schoolcraft representing “medicine man,” “meda.” With these horns and spiral may be collated b in the same figure, which portrays the ram-headed Egyptian god Knuphis, or Chnum, the spirit, in a shrine on the boat of the sun, canopied by the serpent goddess Ranno, who is also seen facing him inside the shrine. This is reproduced from Cooper’s Serpent Myths (a). The same deity is represented in Champollion (a) as reproduced in Fig. 653, c.

d is an Ojibwa pictograph found in Schoolcraft (i) and given as “power.” It corresponds with the Absaroka sign for “medicine man” made by passing the extended and separated index and second finger of the right hand upward from the forehead, spirally, and is considered to indicate “superior knowledge.” Among the Otos, as part of the sign with the same meaning, both hands are raised to the side of the head and the extended indices pressing the temples.

e is also an Ojibwa pictograph from Schoolcraft, same volume, Pl. 59, and is said to signify Meda’s power. It corresponds with another sign made for “medicine man” by the Absaroka and Comanche, viz, the hand passed upward before the forehead, with index loosely extended. Combined with the sign for “sky” it means knowledge of superior matters, spiritual power.

In many parts of the United States and Canada rocks and large stones are found which generally were decorated with paint and were regarded as possessing supernatural power, yet, so far as ascertained, were not directly connected with any special personage of Indian mythology. One of the earliest accounts of these painted stones was made by the Abbé de Gallinée and is published in Margry (d). The Abbé, with La Salle’s party in 1669, found on the Detroit river, six leagues above Lake Erie, a large stone remotely resembling a human figure and painted, the face made with red paint. All the Indians of the region—Algonquian and Iroquoian—believed that the rock-image could give safety in the passage of the lake, if properly placated, and they never ventured on the passage without offering to it presents of skins, food, tobacco, or like sacrifices. La Salle’s party, which had met with misfortune, seems to have been so much impressed with the evil powers of the image that they broke it into pieces.

At one of the landing places of the St. Peters river, in the Sioux country, we observed a block of granite of about eighty pounds weight; it was painted red and covered with a grass fillet, in which were placed twists of tobacco offered up in sacrifice. Feathers were stuck in the ground all round the stone.

Mrs. Eastman (a) also describes a stone painted red, which the Dakotas called grandfather, in reverence, at or near which they placed as offerings their most valuable articles. They also killed dogs and horses before it as sacrifices.

In “A study of Pueblo Architecture,” by Victor Mindeleff, in the Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, is an account of the cosmology of the Pueblos as symbolized in their architecture and figured devices, as follows:

In the beginning all men lived together in the lowest depths, in a region of darkness and moisture; their bodies were misshapen and horrible and they suffered great misery, moaning and bewailing continually. Through the intervention of Myuingwa (a vague conception known as the god of the interior) and of Baholikonga (a crested serpent of enormous size, the genius of water) “the old man” obtained a seed from which sprang a magic growth of cane. It penetrated through a crevice in the roof overhead and mankind climbed to a higher plane. A dim light appeared in this stage and vegetation was produced. Another magic growth of cane afforded the means of rising to a still higher plane, on which the light was brighter; vegetation was reproduced and the animal kingdom was created. The final ascent to this present or fourth plane was effected by similar magic growths and was led by mythic twins, according to some of the myths, by climbing a great pine tree, in others by climbing the cane, Phragmites communis, the alternate leaves of which afforded steps as of a ladder, and in still others it is said to have been a rush, through the interior of which the people passed up to the surface. The twins sang as they pulled the people out, and when their song was ended no more were allowed to come, and hence many more were left below than were permitted to come above; but the outlet through which mankind came has never been closed, and Myuingwa sends through it the germs of all living things. It is still symbolized by the peculiar construction of the hatchway of the kiva and in the designs on the sand altars in these underground chambers, by the unconnected circle painted on pottery, and by devices on basketry and other textile fabrics.

SECTION 2.
MYTHS AND MYTHIC ANIMALS.

Among the hundreds of figures and characters seen by the present writer on the slate rocks that abound on the shores and islands of Kejimkoojik Lake, Queen’s county, Nova Scotia, described in Chap. II, Sec. 1, there appears a class of incised figures illustrating the religious myths and folk lore of the Indian tribes which inhabited the neighborhood within historic times. It is probable that in other parts of America, and, indeed, in all lands, the pictographic impulses and habits of the people have induced them to represent the scenes and characters of their myths on such rocks as were adapted to the purpose, as they are known to have done on bark, skins, and other objects. But these exhibitions of the favorite or prevalent myths in the shape of petroglyphs, though doubtless existing, have seldom been understood and deciphered by modern students. Sometimes they have not originally been sufficiently distinct or have become indefinite by age, and frequently their artists have been people of languages, religions, and customs different from the tribes now or lately found in the localities and from whom the significance of the petroglyphs has been sought in vain. The conditions of the characters at Kejimkoojik, now mentioned, are perhaps unique. They are drawn with great distinctness and sufficient skill, so that when traced on the rocks they immediately struck the present writer as illustrative of the myths and tales of the Abnaki. Many of these myths had been recently repeated to him by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, of Calais, Maine, the highest authority in that line of study, and by other persons visited in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and in Cape Breton and Prince Edwards Islands, who were familiar with the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Amalecite, and Micmac tribes. A number of these myths and tales had before been collected in variant forms by Mr. Charles G. Leland (a). It is a more important and convincing fact that the printed impressions of the figures now presented were at once recognized by individual Indians of the several Abnaki tribes above mentioned to have the signification explained below. It is also to be noted that these Abnaki have preserved the habit of making illustrations from their stories by scratchings and scrapings on birch bark. The writer saw several such figures on bark ornaments and utensils which exhibited parts of the identical myths indicated in the petroglyphs but not the precise scenes or characters depicted on the rocks. The selection of themes and their treatment were not conventional and showed some originality and individuality both in design and execution. From the appearance and surroundings of the rock drawings now specially under discussion they were probably of considerable antiquity and suggested that the Micmacs, who doubtless were the artists, had gained the idea of practicing art for itself, not merely using the devices of pictography for practical purposes, such as to record the past or to convey information.

Fig. 654 is one of the drawings mentioned, and indicates one episode among the very numerous adventures of Glooscap, the Hero-God of the Abnaki, several of which are connected with a powerful witch called by Mr. Leland Pook-jin-skwess, or the Evil Pitcher, and by Mrs. W. Wallace Brown, Pokinsquss, the Jug Woman. She is also called the toad woman, from one of her transformations, and often appeared in a male form to fight Glooscap after he had disdained her love proffered as a female. Among the multitude of tales on this general theme, one narrates how Glooscap was at one time a Pogumk, or the small animal of the weasel family commonly called Fisher (Mustela Canadensis), also translated as Black Cat, and was the son of the chief of a village of Indians who were all Black Cats, his mother being a bear. Doubtless these animal names and the attributes of the animals in the tales refer to the origin of totemic divisions among the Abnaki. Pokinsquss was also of the Black Cat village, and hated the chief and contrived long how she could kill him and take his place. Now, one day when the camp had packed up to travel, the witch asked the chief Pogumk to go with her to gather gull’s eggs; and they went far away in a canoe to an island where the gulls were breeding and landed there, and then she hid herself to spy, and having found out that the Pogumk was Glooscap, ran to the canoe and paddled away singing:

The continuation of the story is found in many variant shapes. In one of them Glooscap’s friend the Fox came to his rescue, as through Glooscap’s m’toulin or magic power he heard the song of appeal though miles away beyond forests and mountains. In others the Sea Serpent appears in answer to the Hero-God’s call, and the latter, mounting the serpent’s back, takes a load of stones as his cargo to throw at the serpent’s horns when the latter did not swim fast enough. In the figure the island is shown at the lower right hand as a roundish outline with Glooscap inside. The small round objects to the left are probably the gull’s eggs, but may be the stimulating stones above mentioned. Pokinsquss stands rejoicing in the stern of a canoe, which points in the wavy water away from the island. The device to the left of the witch may be the dismantled camp of the Black Cats, and the one to her right is perhaps where the Fox “beyond forests and mountains” heard Glooscap’s song of distress.

Fig. 655, another specimen of the same class, refers to one of the tales about At-o-sis, the Snake, who was the lover of a beautiful Abnaki woman. He appeared to her from out the surface of a lake as a young hunter with a large shining silvery plate on his heart and covered with brilliant white brooches as fish are covered with scales. He provided her with all animals for food. The bow attached to the semi-human head in the illustration may refer to this expertness in the chase. The head of the female figure is covered or masked by one of the insignia of rank and power mentioned in Chap. XIII, Sec. 2. She became the mother of the Black Snakes.

Fig. 656, from the same locality, shows simply a crane, and a woman who bears in her hand two branches; but this is a sufficient indication of the tale of the Weasel girls, who had come down from Star-land by means of a diminishing hemlock tree, and flying from Lox had come to a broad river which they could not cross. But in the edge of the water stood motionless a large crane, or the Tum-gwo-lig-unach, who was the ferryman. “Now, truly, this is esteemed to be the least beautiful of all the birds, for which cause he is greedy of good words and fondest of flattery. And of all beings there were none who had more bear’s oil ready to annoint every one’s hair with—that is to say, more compliments ready for everybody—than the Weasels. So, seeing the Crane, they sang:

“This charmed the old ferryman very much, and when they said: ‘please, grandfather, hurry along,’ he came quickly. Seeing this, they began to chant in chorus sweetly as the Seven Stars themselves:

“Hearing this the good crane wanted more; so when they asked him to give them a lift across he answered, slowly, that to do so he must be well paid, but that good praise would answer as well. Now they who had abundance of this and to spare for everybody were these very girls. ‘Have I not a beautiful form?’ he inquired; and they both cried aloud: ‘Oh, uncle, it is indeed beautiful!’ ‘And my feathers?’ ‘Ah, pegeakopchu.’ ‘Beautiful and straight feathers, indeed!’ ‘And have I not a charming long, straight, neck?’ ‘Truly our uncle has it straight and long.’ ‘And will ye not acknowledge, oh maidens, that my legs are fine?’ ‘Fine! oh, uncle, they are perfection. Never in this life did we see such legs!’ So, being well pleased, the crane put them across, and then the two little weasels scampered like mice into the bush.”

Though but one woman figure is drawn, the two boughs borne by her suggest the two weasel girls, who had come down the hemlock tree and had also been water fairies until their garments were stolen by the marten, and thereupon they had lost their fairy powers and become women in a manner at once reminding of the Old World swan-maiden myth.

Fig. 657 is a sketch of the Giant Bird Kaloo, or, in the literation of Mr. Leland, Culloo. He was the most terrible of all creatures. He it was who caught up the mischievous Lox in his claws and, mounting to the top of the sky among the stars, let him drop, and he fell from dawn to sunset. Lox was often a badger in the Micmac stories, and was more Puck-like than the devilish character he showed among the Passamaquoddy, being then generally in the form of a wolverine, though sometimes in that of a lynx. In the illustration Kaloo is soaring among the stars, and appears to possess an extra pair of legs armed with claws. Perhaps one of the objects beneath his beak represents Lox or some other victim falling through the air. There is another story of Lox’s two feet talking and acting independently of the rest of his body, and the two feet and legs without any body may be a symbol of the tricksy demigod.

Fig. 658 represents Kiwach, the Strong Blower, a giant who kills people with his violent breath. Tales of him seem to be more current or better preserved among the Amalecites than among the other Abnaki.

Fig. 659 is an exact copy of the design on a birch-bark jewel box made by the Passamaquoddy of Maine, amiably contributed by Mrs. W. W. Brown, together with the description of that part of the myth which is illustrated on the box. There are several variants of this myth, the nearest to the form now presented being published by Mr. J. Walter Fewkes (a).

The Sable and the Black Cat wanted some maple sugar, and went to a wood where the maple trees grew. Toward night they lost their way and separated from each other to find it, agreeing to call to each other by m’toulin power. These animals were as frequently in human form as in that designated by their names, and could change to the forms of other animals. It is not certain, from anything in the present version of the myth, which one of the daimons was represented by the Sable, but the Black Cat afterward appears as Glooscap. Sable, in his wanderings, came to a wigwam in which was a large fire with a kettle boiling over it, tended by a great Snake. The Snake said he was glad the Sable had come, as he was very hungry and would eat him, but in gratitude for his coming would put him to as little pain as was possible. The Snake told him to go into the woods and get a straight stick, so that when he pierced him he would not tear open his entrails. Sable then went out and sang in a loud voice a m’toulin song for the Black Cat to hear and come to his aid. The Black Cat heard him and came to him. Then the Sable told the Black Cat how the Snake was going to kill him. The Black Cat told Sable not to be afraid, but that he would kill the big Snake. He told him that he would lie down behind the trunk of a hemlock tree which had fallen and that Sable should search out a stick that was very crooked, only pretending to obey the commands of the great Snake. After finding such a stick he should carry it to the Snake, who would complain that the stick was not straight enough, and then Sable should reply that he would straighten it in the fire, holding it there until the steam came out of the end. Then while the Snake watched the new mode of straightening sticks Sable should strike the Snake over the eyes. The Sable sought out the most crooked stick he could find and then returned to the wigwam where the Snake was. The Snake said the stick was too crooked. The Sable replied as directed and held it in the fire. When it was burning he struck the Snake with it over the eyes, blinded him, and ran away. The Snake followed the Sable, and as he passed over the hemlock trunk the Black Cat killed him and they cut him into small pieces.

The two human figures on the left show the animals under the forest trees in human form bidding good-bye before they parted in search of the right trail. Their diminutive size gives the suggestion of distance from the main scene. Next comes the great Snake’s wigwam, the stars outside showing that night had come, and inside the kettle hung over a fire, and on its right appear the wide-open jaws and an indication of the head of the great Snake. The very crooked stick is on the other side. Farther on the Black Cat comes responsive to the Sable’s call. Next is shown, the Black Cat and the Sable, who is in human form, near the hemlock tree. The fact that the tree is fallen is suggested, without any attempt at perspective, by the broken-off branches and the thick part of the trunk being upturned. The illustration ends with the Black Cat sitting upon the Snake, clawing and throwing around pieces of it.

The illustration above presented gives an excellent example of the art of the Passamaquoddy in producing pictures by the simple scraping of birch bark.

The first device, beginning at the left, is used by the Ojibwa to denote a spirit or man enlightened from on high, having the head of the sun.

The third is the Ojibwa “symbol” for an evil or one-sided “meda” or higher-grade shaman.

Mr. William H. Holmes, of the Bureau of Ethnology, gives the following account (condensed from the American Anthropologist, July, 1890) of a West Virginia rock shelter (shown in Pl. XXXI). The copy is in two rows of figures, but in the original there is only one row, the parts marked a and a being united:

In Harrison county, West Virginia, a small stream, Two-Lick creek, heading near the Little Kanawha divide, descends into the west fork of the Monongahela about 4 miles west of Lost Creek station, on the Clarksburg and Weston railroad. Ascending the stream for a little more than 2 miles and turning to the right up a tributary called Campbells run, is a recess in the rocks, the result of local surface undermining of an outcrop of sandstone assisted by roof degradation, which therefore is a typical rock shelter. At the opening it is about 20 feet long and in the deepest part extends back 16 feet.

The rock sculptures, of which simplified outlines are given in Pl. XXXI, occupy the greater part of the back wall of the recess, covering a space of some 20 feet long by about 4 feet in height. At the left the line of figures approaches the outer face of the rock, but at the right it terminates in the depths of the chamber, beyond which the space is too low and uneven to be utilized. There are indications that engravings have existed above and below those shown, but their traces are too indistinct to be followed.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXI
PICTOGRAPH IN ROCK SHELTER, WEST VIRGINIA.

The more legible designs comprise three heads, resembling death’s-heads, one human head or face, one obscure human figure, three birds resembling cranes or turkeys (one with outspread wings), three mountain lions or beasts of like character, two rattlesnakes, one turtle, one turtle-like figure with bird’s head, parts of several unidentified creatures (one resembling a fish), and four conventional figures or devices resembling, one a hand, one a star, one the track of a horse, and the fourth the track of an elk, buffalo, deer, or domestic cow.

The serpents, placed above and toward the right of the picture, are much larger than life, but the other subjects are represented somewhat nearly natural size. The animal figure facing the two death’s-heads is drawn with considerable vigor and very decidedly suggests the panther. A notable feature is the two back-curving spines or spine-like tufts seen upon its shoulder; it is possible that these represent some mythical character of the creature. Two of the animal figures, in accordance with a widespread Indian practice, exhibit the heart and the life line, the latter connecting the heart with the mouth; these features are, as usual, drawn in red.

The human head or face is somewhat larger than life; it is neatly hollowed out to the nearly uniform depth of one-fourth of an inch, and is slightly polished over most of the surface. Ear lobes are seen at the right and left, and an arched line, possibly intended for a plume, rises from the left side of the head. A crescent-shaped band of red extends across the face, and within this the eyes are indistinctly marked. The mouth is encircled by a dark line and shows six teeth, the spaces between being filled in with red.

Probably the most remarkable members of the series are the three death’s-heads seen near the middle of the line. That they are intended to represent skulls and not the living face or head is clear, and the treatment is decidedly suggestive of that exhibited in similar work of the more cultured southern nations. The eye spaces are large and deep, the cheek bones project, the nose is depressed, and the mouth is a mere node depressed in the center.

All the figures are clearly and deeply engraved, and all save the serpents are in full intaglio, being excavated over the entire space within the outlines and to the depth of from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch. The serpents are outlined in deep unsteady lines, ranging from one-fourth of an inch to 1 inch in width, and in parts are as much as one-half an inch in depth. The example at the left is rather carefully executed, but the other is very rude. It is proper to notice a wing-like feature which forms a partial arch over the larger serpent. It consists of a broad line of irregular pick marks, which are rather new looking and may not have formed a part of the original design; aside from this, there are few indications of the use of hard or sharp tools, and, although picking or striking must have been resorted to in excavating the figures, the lines and surfaces were evidently finished by rubbing. The friable character of the coarse, soft sandstone makes excavation by rubbing quite easy, and at the same time renders it impossible to produce any considerable degree of polish.

The red color used upon the large face and in delineating the life line and heart of the animal figures is a red ocher or hematite, bits of which, exhibiting the effects of rubbing, were found in the floor deposits of the recess. The exact manner of its application is not known (perhaps the mere rubbing was sufficient), but the color is so fixed that it can not be removed save by the removal of the rock surface.

Regarding the origin and purpose of these sculptures, it seems probable that they are connected with religious practices and myths. If the inscriptions were mnemonic records or notices it is reasonable to suppose that they would have been placed so as to meet the eye of others than those who made or were acquainted with them. But these works are hidden in a mountain cave, and even yet, when the forest is cleared and the surrounding slopes are cultivated, this secluded recess is invisible from almost every side. The spot was evidently the resort of a chosen few, such as a religious society. Such sequestered art gives evidence of a mystic purpose.

In this connection it may be noted that a rock drawing in the Canyon Segy, Arizona (Fig. 661), shows Baho li-kong-ya, a god, the genius of fructification, worshipped by living Moki priests. It is a great crested serpent with mammæ, which are the source of the blood of all the animals and of all the waters of the land.

The serpents in the last-mentioned plate and figure may be compared with two Ojibway forms published by Schoolcraft (l).

The upper design of Fig. 662 undoubtedly represents a mythical animal, referred to in the myths of some of the Innuits. It is reproduced from a drawing on walrus ivory, bearing Museum No. 40054, obtained at Port Clarence, Alaska. This form is not so close in detail to that form usually described and more fully outlined in the lower design of the same figure, which is reproduced from a specimen of reindeer horn drill-bow, from Alaska, marked No. 24557, collected by L. Turner.

Ensign Niblack, U. S. Navy (d), gives the following description of the illustration reproduced here as Fig. 663.

It represents T’kul, the wind spirit, and the cirrus clouds, explaining the Haida belief in the causes of the changes in the weather. The center figure is T’kul, the wind spirit. On the right and left are his feet, which are indicated by long streaming clouds; above are the wings, and on each side are the different winds, each designated by an eye, and represented by the patches of cirrus clouds. When T’kul determines which wind is to blow, he gives the word and the other winds retire. The change in the weather is usually followed by rain, which is indicated by the tears which stream from the eyes of T’kul.

It represents the orca or whale-killer, which the Haida believe to be a demon called Skana. Judge Swan says that, according to their belief—

“He can change into any desired form, and many are the legends about him. One which was related to me was that ages ago the Indians were out seal-hunting. The weather was calm and the sea smooth. One of these killers, or blackfish, a species of porpoise, kept alongside of a canoe, and the young men amused themselves by throwing stones from the canoe ballast and hitting the fin of the killer. After some pretty hard blows from these rocks the creature made for the shore, where it grounded on the beach. Soon a smoke was seen, and their curiosity prompted them to ascertain the cause, but when they reached the shore they discovered, to their surprise, that it was a large canoe, and not the Skana that was in the beach, and that a man was on shore cooking some food. He asked them why they threw stones at his canoe. ‘You have broken it,’ he said, ‘and now go into the woods and get some cedar withes and mend it.’ They did so, and when they had finished the man said, ‘Turn your backs to the water and cover your heads with your skin blankets and don’t look till I call you.’ They did so, and heard the canoe grate on the beach as it was hauled down to the surf. Then the man said, ‘Look, now.’ They looked, but when it came to the second breaker it went under and presently came up outside of the breaker a killer and not a canoe, and the man or demon was in its belly. This allegory is common among all the tribes on the Northwest Coast, and even with the interior tribes with whom the salmon takes the place of the orca, which never ascends the fresh-water rivers. The Chilcat and other tribes of Alaska carve figures of salmon, inside of which is the full length figure of a nude Indian. * * * Casual observers without inquiry will at once pronounce it to be Jonah in the fish’s belly, but the allegory is of ancient origin, far antedating the advent of the white man or the teachings of the missionary.”

The same author, Pl. XLIX, gives an explanation of Fig. 665, which is a copy of a Haida slate carving, representing the “Bear-Mother.”

A number of Indian squaws were in the woods gathering berries when one of them, the daughter of a chief, spoke in terms of ridicule of the whole bear species. The bears descended on them and killed all but the chief’s daughter, whom the king of the bears took to wife. She bore him a child half human and half bear. The carving represents the agony of the mother in suckling this rough and uncouth offspring. One day a party of Indian bear hunters discovered her up a tree and were about to kill her, thinking her a bear, but she made them understand that she was human. They took her home and she afterwards became the progenitor of all Indians belonging to the bear totem. They believe that the bear are men transformed for the time being. This carving was made by Skaows-ke'ay, a Haida. Cat. No. 73117, U. S. Nat. Museum. Skidegate village, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Collected by James G. Swan.

Dr. F. Boas (d) gives the following account of a myth of the Kwakiut Indians illustrated on a house front at Alert Bay, copied here as Fig. 666.

The house front shows how Kunkunquilikya (the thunder-bird) tried to lift the whale. The legend says that he had stolen the son of the raven, who in order to recover him, carried a whale out of a huge cedar that he covered with a coating of gum. Then he let all kinds of animals go into the whale, and they went to the land of the thunder-bird. When the bird saw the whale he sent out his youngest son to catch it. He was unable to lift it. He stuck to the gum and the animals killed him. In this way the whole family was slaughtered.

On Pl. XXXII is shown a reproduction of a native Haida drawing, representing the Wasko, a mythologic animal partaking of the characteristics of both the bear and the orca, or killer. It is one of the totems of the Haidas.

On the same plate is a figure representing the Hooyeh, or mythic raven. The character is also reproduced from a sketch made by a Haida Indian. Both of these figures were obtained from Haida Indians who visited Port Townsend, Washington, in the summer of 1884.

The following is extracted from Mrs. Eastman’s (b) Dahcotah. The picture, reproduced here in Fig. 667, is that of Haokah, the antinatural god, one of the giants of the Dakotas, drawn by White-Deer, a Sioux warrior, living near Fort Snelling about 1840.

Explanation of the drawing.—a, the giant; b, a frog that the giant uses for an arrow point; c, a large bird that the giant keeps in his court; d, another bird; e, an ornament over the door leading into the court; f, an ornament over a door; g, part of court ornamented with down; h, part of court ornamented with red down; i, a bear; j, a deer; k, an elk; l, a buffalo; m, n, incense-offering; o, a rattle of deer’s claws, used when singing; p, a long flute, or whistle; q, r, s, t, are meteors that the giant sends out for his defense, or to protect him from invasion; u, v, w, x, the giant surrounded with lightnings, with which he kills all kinds of animals that molest him; y, red down in small bunches fastened to the railing of the court; z, the same. One of these bunches of red down disappears every time an animal is found dead inside the court; aa, bb, touchwood, and a large fungus that grows on trees. These are eaten by any animal that enters the court, and this food causes their death; cc, a streak of lightning going from the giant’s hat; dd, giant’s head and hat; ee, his bow and arrow.

Mrs. Eastman’s explanation of the drawing would have been better if she had known more about the mystery lodges. It is given here in her own words.

Fig. 668, from Copway (c), shows the representations, beginning from the left, of spirits above, spirits under water, and animals under ground, all of which are called ma'nidōs.

Fig. 669 is a reproduction of a drawing made by Niópet, chief of the Menomoni Indians, and represents the white bear spirit who guards the deposits of native copper of Lake Superior. According to the myth the animal is covered with silvery hair, and the tail, which is of great length and extends completely around the body, is composed of bright, burnished copper. This spirit lives in the earth, where he guards the metal from discovery.

In a midē' song, given by James Tanner (f), is the representation of an animal resembling the preceding, viz, the middle character of Fig. 670, to which is attached the Ojibway phrase and explanation as follows:

Che-be-gau-ze-naung gwit-to-i-ah-na maun-dah-ween ah-kee-ge neen-wa-nah gua-kwaik ke-nah gwit-to-i-ah-na.

I come to change the appearance of the ground, this ground; I make it look different each season.

This is a Manito who, on account of his immensity of tail, and other peculiarities, has no prototype. He claims to be the ruler over the seasons. He is probably Gitche-a-nah-mi-e-be-zhew (great underground wild-cat).

The “underground wild-cat” is again mentioned in the same work, page 377, with an illustration now presented as the left-hand character of the same Fig. 670, slightly different from the above, described as follows:

A-nah-me be-zhe ne-kau-naw.

Underground wild-cat is my friend.

At the fourth verse he exhibits his medicines, which he says are the roots of shrubs and of We-ug-gusk-oan, or herbs, and from these he derives his power, at least in part; but lest his claim, founded on a knowledge of these, should not be considered of sufficient importance, he proceeds to say, in the fifth and sixth verses, that the snakes and the underground wild-cat are among his helpers and friends. The ferocity and cunning, as well as the activity of the feline animals have not escaped the notice of the Indians, and very commonly they give the form of animals of this family to those imaginary beings whose attributes bear, in their opinion, some resemblance to the qualities of these animals. Most of them have heard of the lion, the largest of the cats known to white men, and all have heard of the devil; they consider them the same. The wild-cat here figured has horns, and his residence is under the ground; but he has a master, Gitche-a-nah-mi-e-be-zhew (the great underground wild-cat), who is, as some think, Matche-Manito himself, their evil spirit, or devil. Of this last they speak but rarely.

In another song from Tanner, p. 345, sung only by the midē', is the drawing, the right hand character of the same figure, of a similar animal with a bar across the throat, signifying, no doubt, its emerging or appearance from the surface of the ground.

SECTION 2. MYTHS AND MYTHIC ANIMALS.

SECTION 2.
MYTHS AND MYTHIC ANIMALS.