Fig. 1004.—Symbols for child and man.
The Chinese character for man is Fig. 1004 h, and may have the same obvious conception as a Dakota sign for the same signification: “Place the extended index pointing upward and forward before the lower portion of the abdomen.”
Fig. 1005.—Gestures for birth.
A typical sign made by the Indians for no, negation, is as follows:
The hand extended or slightly curved is held in front of the body, a little to the right of the median line; it is then carried with a rapid sweep a foot or more farther to the right.
The sign for none, nothing, sometimes used for simple negation, is made by throwing both hands outward from the breast toward their respective sides.
Fig. 1006.—Negation.
With these compare the two forms of the Egyptian character for no, negation, the two upper characters of Fig. 1006 taken from Champollion (d). No vivid fancy is needed to see the hands indicated at the extremities of arms extended symmetrically from the body on each side.
Also compare the Maya character for the same idea of negation, the lowest character of Fig. 1006, found in Landa (a). The Maya word for negation is “ma,” and the word “mak,” a six-foot measuring rod, given by Brasseur de Bourbourg in his dictionary, apparently having connection with this character, would in use separate the hands as illustrated, giving the same form as the gesture made without the rod.
Another sign for nothing, none, made by the Comanche is: Flat hand thrown forward, back to the ground, fingers pointing forward and downward. Frequently the right hand is brushed over the left thus thrown out.
Fig. 1007.—Hand.
Compare the Chinese character for the same meaning, the upper character of Fig. 1007. This will not be recognized as a hand without study of similar characters, which generally have a cross-line cutting off the wrist. Here the wrist bones follow under the crosscut, then the metacarpal bones, and last the fingers, pointing forward and downward.
Leon de Rosny (a) gives the second and third characters in Fig. 1007 as the Babylonian glyphs for “hand,” the upper being the later and the lower the archaic form.
Fig. 1008.—Signal of discovery.
Fig. 1008 is reproduced from an ivory drill-bow (U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 24543) from Norton sound, Alaska. The figure represents the gesture sign or signal of discovery. In this instance the game consists of whales, and the signal is made by holding the boat paddle aloft and horizontally.
Fig. 1009, reproduced from Fig. 365, p. 308, Sixth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, is a copy of Pl. 53 of the Dresden Codex, and is a good example of the use of gestures in the Maya graphic system. The main figure in the upper division of the plate, probably that of a deity or ruler, holds his right hand raised to the level of the head, with the index prominently separated from the other fingers. This is the first part of a sign common to several of the Indian tribes of North America and signifies affirmation or assent. The Indians close the fingers other than the index more decidedly than in the plate and, after the hand has reached its greatest height, shake it forward and down, but these details, which indeed are not essential, could not well be indicated pictorially. The human figure in the lower division is kneeling and holds both hands easily extended before the body, palms down and index fingers straight, parallel, and separated from the other fingers, which are flexed or closed. This in its essentials is a common Indian gesture sign for “the same,” “similar,” and also for “companion.” A sign nearly identical is used by the Neapolitans to mean “union” or “harmony.” If the two divisions of the plate are supposed to be connected, it might be inferred through the principles of gesture language that the kneeling man was praying to the seated personage for admission to his favor and companionship, and that the latter was responding by a dignified assent.
Dr. S. Habel (e) thus describes Fig. 1010, a sculpture in Guatemala:
The upper half represents the head, arms, and part of the breast of a deity, apparently of advanced age, as indicated by the wrinkles in the face. The right arm is bent at the elbow, the finger tips of the outstretched hand apparently touching the region of the heart; the left upper arm is drawn up, the elbow being almost as high as the shoulder, and the fore arm and hand hanging at nearly right angles. From the head and neck issue winding staves, to which not only knots or nodes are attached, but also variously-shaped leaves, buds, flowers, and fruits. Apparently these are symbols of speech, replacing our letters and expressing the mandate of the deity.
The lower part represents an erect human figure with the face turned up toward the deity imploring, and from the mouth emanates a staff with nodes variously arranged. The appeal is still further intensified by the raising of the right hand and arm. A human head partly covers the head of the figure, from which hang variously-shaped ribbons, terminating in the body and tail of a fish. Above the right wrist is a double bracelet, apparently formed of small square stones. The left hand is covered, gauntlet-like, by a human skull, and the wrist is ornamented by a double scaly bracelet. The waist is encircled by a stiff projecting girdle, which differs from the general style of this ornament by having attached to it on the side a human head, with another human head suspended from it. From the front of the girdle emanate four lines, which ascend towards the deity, uniting at the top. They seem to symbolize the emotions of the person, not expressed by words. From behind the image issue flames.
Before writing was invented by a people there were attempts in its direction which are mentioned in other chapters of this paper. Human forms were drawn pictorially in the act of making gesture signs and in significant actions and attitudes and combinations of them. Other natural objects, as well as those purely artificial, which represented work or the result of work, were also drawn with many differing significations. When any of these designs had become commonly adopted on account of its striking fitness or even from frequent repetition with a special signification, it became a conventional term of thought-writing, with substantially the same use as when, afterward, the combinations of letters of an alphabet into words became the arbitrary signs of sound-writing. While the designs thus became conventional terms, their forms became more and more abbreviated or cursive until in many cases the original concept or likeness was lost. Sometimes when a specimen of the original form is preserved, its identity in meaning with the current form can be ascertained by correlation of the intermediate shapes.
The original ideography is often exhibited by exaggeration. For instance, a loud voice has been sometimes indicated by a human face with an enormous mouth. Hearing, among the Peruvians, was early expressed by a man with very large ears; then by a head with such ears, and afterwards by the form of the ears without the head. Soon such forms became so conventionalized as to be practically ideographic writing. In the same manner a numeral cipher has become the representation of a mathematical quantity, a written musical note shows a kind and degree of sound, and other pictured signs give values of weights and measures. All of these signs express ideas independent of any language and may be understood by peoples speaking all diversities of language.
So also the idea of smallness and subjection may be conveyed by drawing an object in an obviously diminished size, of which examples are given in this chapter. Another expedient, illustrations of which also appear, is by repetition and combination, with reference to which the following condensed remarks of James Summers (a) are in point:
The earliest Chinese characters were pictorial; but pictures could not be made which would clearly express all ideas. One of the means devised to express concepts that could not be indicated by a simple sketch, was to combine two or more familiar pictures. For instance, a man with a large eye represents “seeing;” two men, “to follow;” three men, “many;” two men on the ground, “sitting.”
All other means failing, the present great mass of characters was formed by a principle from which the class is called “phonetic;” because in the characters classed under it, while one part (called the “radical”) preserves its meaning, the other part (called the “phonetic” or “primitive”) is used to give its own sound to the whole figure. This part does sometimes, however, convey also its symbolic meaning as well as its sound.
But while the original mode of expressing ideas required various devices, when an idea had become established in pictography there always appeared an attempt to simplify the figure and reduce it in size, so as to require less space in the drafting surface and also to lessen the draftsman’s labor. This was more obvious in the degree in which the figure was complicated and of frequent employment.
For convenience the subject is divided into: 1. Conventional devices. 2. Syllabaries and alphabets.
Among the North American Indians and in several parts of the world where, as among the Indians, the hand-grasp in simple salutation has not been found, the junction of the hands between two persons of different tribes is the ceremonial for union and peace, and the sign for the same concept is exhibited by the two hands of one person similarly grasped as an invitation to, or signification of, union and peace. The ideogram of clasped hands to indicate peace and friendship is found in pictographs from many localities. The exhibition and presentation of the unarmed hand may have affected the practice, but the concept of union by linking is more apparent.
Fig. 1011.
Fig. 1011.—The Dakotas made peace with the Cheyenne Indians. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1840-’41. Here the hands shown with fingers extended, and therefore incapable of grasping a weapon, are approaching each other. The different coloration of the arms indicates different tribes. The device on the right is a rough form of the forearm of the Cheyenne marked as mentioned several times in this work.
Fig. 1012.
Fig. 1012.—The Dakotas made peace with the Pawnees. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1858-’59. The man on the left is a Pawnee.
Fig. 1013.
Fig. 1013.—A Mandan and a Dakota met in the middle of the Missouri River, each swimming halfway across. They shook hands there and made peace. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1791-’92.
Mulligan, post interpreter at Fort Buford, says that this was at Fort Berthold, and is an historic fact; also that the same Mandan long afterwards, killed the same Dakota.
Fig. 1014.
Fig. 1014.—The Omahas came and made peace to get their people whom the Dakotas held as prisoners. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1804-’05. The attitudes and expressions are unusually artistic. The uniting line may only intensify the idea of a treaty resulting in peace, but perhaps recognizes the fact that the Omaha (on the left) and Dakota belong to the same Siouan stock. The marks on the Omaha are not tribal, but refer to the prisoners—the marks of their bonds.
Fig. 1015.
Fig. 1015.—The Dakotas made peace with the Crows at Pine Bluff. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1816-’17. The arrow shows they had been at war. The Indian at the left is a Crow. The distinctive and typical arrangement of the hair of the several tribes in this and the preceding figure are worthy of note.
Fig. 1016.
Fig. 1016.—The Dakotas made peace with the Pawnees. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1814-’15. The man with the marked forehead, blue in the original, is a Pawnee, the other is a Dakota, whose body is smeared with clay. The four arrows show that they had been at war, and the clasped hands denote peace.
Fig. 1017.
Fig. 1017.—They made peace with the Gros Ventres. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1803-’04. But one arrow is shown, indicating that the subject in question was war, but that it was not waged at the time, as would have been shown by two opposed arrows.
Fig. 1018.
Fig. 1018.—Dakotas made peace with the Crow Indians. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1851-’52. Here the representatives of the two tribes show their pipes crossed, indicating exchange as is expressed by a common gesture sign.
Fig. 1019.
Fig. 1019.—Made peace with Gen. Sherman and others at Fort Laramie. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1867-’68. This is the adoption of the white man’s flag, as the paramount symbol on recognition of which peace was made.
Fig. 1020.
Fig. 1020.—The Dakotas were at war with the Cheyennes. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1834-’35. The Cheyenne is the man with stripes on his arm. The two arrows shot in opposite directions form one of the conventional symbols for war.
Fig. 1021.
Fig. 1021 is taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1840-’41. He names it “Came-and-killed-five-of-Little-Thunder’s-brothers winter.” He explains that the five were killed in an encounter with the Pawnees. The capote or headdress, always but not exclusively worn by Dakota war parties, is shown, and is the special symbol of war as also given in several other places in the same record. The five short vertical lines below the arrow signify that five were killed.
Fig. 1022.
Fig. 1022.—War-Eagle. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure shows a highly abbreviated conventional symbol. The pipe used in the ceremonial manner explained on page 539 et seq. means war and not peace, and the single eagle feather stands for the entire bird often called the war-eagle.
The adoption of a mat or mattress as an emblem of war or a military expedition is discussed and illustrated, supra, p. 553, Fig. 782.
In the Jesuit Relation for 1606, p. 51, it is narrated that “The Huron and Northern Algonkin chiefs, when their respective war parties met the enemy, distributed among their warriors rods which they carried for the purpose, and the warriors stuck them in the earth as a token that they would not retreat any more than the rods would.”
In their pictographs the rods became represented by strokes which were not only numerical, but signified warriors.
Fig. 1023.—Chief-Boy.
Fig. 1023.—Naca-haksila, Chief-Boy. From the Oglala Roster. The large pipe held forward with the outstretched hand is among the Oglalas the conventional device for chief. This is explained elsewhere by the ceremonies attendant on the raising of war parties, in which the pipe is conspicuous. That the human figure is a boy is indicated by the shortness of the hair and the legs.
Fig. 1024.—War Chief. Passamaquoddy.
Fig. 1024, drawn by a Passamaquoddy Indian, shows the manner of representing a war chief by that tribe:
It signifies a chief with 300 braves. The relative magnitude of the leading human figure indicates his rank. In this particular compare Figs. 137, 138, and 142. The device is common in the Egyptian glyphs.
Dr. Worsnop, op. cit., makes the following remarks about a similar device in Australia:
At Chasm island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, indenting Australia, the third person of a file of thirty-two painted on the rock was twice the height of the others, and held in his hand something resembling the waddy, or wooden sword, of the natives of Port Jackson, and was probably intended to represent a chief. They could not as with us, indicate superiority by clothing or ornament, since they wear none of any kind, and therefore, with the addition of a weapon similar to the ancients, they seem to have made superiority of persons the principal emblem of superior power, of which, indeed power is usually a consequence in the very early stages of society.
The exhibition of horns as a part of the head dress, or pictorially displayed as growing from the head, is generally among the tribes of Indians an emblem of power or chieftancy. It is distinctly so asserted by Schoolcraft, vol. I, p. 409, as regards the Ojibwa, and by Lafitau, vol. II, 21, both authors presenting illustrations. The same concept was ancient and general in the eastern hemisphere. The images of gods and heads of kings were thus adorned, as at a later day were the crests of the dukes of Brittany. Some writers have suggested that this symbol was taken from the crescent moon, others that it referred to the vigor of the bull. Col. Marshall (a), however, gives an instance of special derivation. He says that the Todas, when idle, involuntarily twist and split branches of twigs and pieces of cane into the likeness of buffalo horns, because they dream of buffalo, live on and by it, and their whole religion is based on the care of the cow.
Fig. 1025.
Fig. 1025 is taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1851-’52. In that year the first issue of goods was made to the Dakotas, and the character represents a blanket surrounded by a circle to show how the Indians sat awaiting the distribution. The people are represented by small lines running at right angles to the circle.
Fig. 1026.
Fig. 1026.—The-Good-White-Man returned and gave guns to the Dakotas. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1799-1800. The circle of marks represents the people sitting around him, the flint-lock musket the guns.
Fig. 1027.
Fig. 1027.—Council at Spotted-Tail agency. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1875-’76. Here the circle composed of short lines pointing to the center takes the conventional form frequently used to designate a council.
Fig. 1028.
Fig. 1028.—Surrounds-them. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure is introduced in this place to show the distinction made by an antagonistic “surround” and the peaceable ring depicted immediately before.
Fig. 1029.
Fig. 1029.—The Dakotas had a council with the whites on the Missouri river below the Cheyenne agency, near the mouth of Bad creek. They had many flags which the Good-White-Man gave them with their guns, and they erected them on poles to show their friendly feelings. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1805-’06. This was perhaps their meeting with the Lewis and Clarke expedition. The curved line is drawn to represent the council lodge, which they made by opening several tipis and uniting them at their sides to form a semicircle. The small dashes are for the people. This is a compromise between the Indian and the European mode of designating an official assemblage.
Fig. 1030.
Fig. 1030.—The Dakotas have an abundance of buffalo meat. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1856-’57. This is shown by the full drying pole on which it was the usage after successful hunts to hang the pieces of meat to be dried for preservation.
Fig. 1031.
Fig. 1031.—The Oglalas had an abundance of buffalo meat and shared it with the Brulés, who were short of food. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1817-’18. The buffalo hide hung on the drying pole, with the buffalo head above it, indicates an abundance of meat, as in the preceding figure.
Fig. 1032.
Fig. 1032 is taken from Battiste Good’s Winter Count for the year 1745-’46, in which the drying-pole is as usual supported by two forked sticks or poles. This is a variant of the two preceding figures.
Fig. 1033.
Fig. 1033.—Immense quantities of buffalo meat. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1845-’46. This is another form of drying-pole in which a tree is used for one of the supports. The pieces of meat would not be recognized as such without explanation by the preceding figures.
Fig. 1034.
Fig. 1034 is taken from the Winter Count of Battiste Good for the year 1703-’04. The forked stick being one of the supports of the drying pole or scaffold, indicates meat. The irregular circular object means “heap,” i. e., large quantity, buffalo having been very plentiful that year. The buffalo head denotes the kind of meat stored. This is an abbreviated form of the device before presented, and affords a suggestive comparison with some Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chinese letters, both in their full pictographic origin and in their abbreviation.
Fig. 1035.
Fig. 1035.—The Dakotas had unusual quantities of buffalo. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1816-’17. This representation of a buffalo hide or side is another sign for abundance of meat, and is the most abbreviated and conventional of all, with the same significance, in the collections now accessible.
Fig. 1036.
Fig. 1036.—The Dakotas had unusual abundance of buffalo. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1861-’62. This is another mode of expressing the same abundance. The buffalo tracks, shown by the cloven hoofs, are coming up close to the tipi.
Fig. 1037.
Fig. 1037.—They had an abundance of corn, which they got at the Ree villages. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1823-’24.
The symbol shows the maize growing, and also is the tribal sign for Arikara or Ree.
Fig. 1038.
Fig. 1038.—The Dakotas had very little buffalo meat, but plenty of ducks in the fall. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1811-’12. The bare, drying pole is easily interpreted, but the reversed or dead duck would not be understood without explanation.
Fig. 1039.
Fig. 1039.—Food was very scarce and they had to live on acorns. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1813-’14. The tree is intended for an oak and the dots beneath it for acorns.
Fig. 1040.
Fig. 1040.—A year of famine. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1787-’88. They, i. e., the Dakotas, lived on roots, which are represented in front of the tipi.
Fig. 1041.
Fig. 1041.—They could not hunt on account of the deep snow, and were compelled to subsist on anything they could get, as herbs (pézi) and roots. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1790-’91.
Fig. 1042.
Fig. 1042.—They had to sell many mules and horses to get food, as they were starving. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1868-’69. White-Cow-Killer calls it “Mules-sold-by-hungry-Sioux winter.” The figure is understood as a conventionalized sign by reference to the historic fact mentioned. The line of union between the horses’ necks shows that the subject-matter was not a horse trade, but that both of the animals, i. e., many, were disposed of.
Fig. 1043.
Fig. 1043.—Kingsborough (l) gives the pictograph recording that “In the year of One Rabbit and A. D. 1454 so severe a famine occurred that the people died of starvation.” It is reproduced in Fig 1043.
Fig. 1044.
Fig. 1044.—Many horses were lost by starvation, as the snow was so deep they couldn’t get at the grass. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1865-’66.
Fig. 1045.
Fig. 1045, from the record of Battiste Good for the year 1720-’21, signifies starvation, denoted by the bare ribs. This design is abbreviated and conventionalized among the Ottawa and Pottawatomi Indians. Among the latter a single line only is drawn across the breast, shown in Fig. 1046. This corresponds also with one of the Indian gesture-signs for the same idea.
Fig. 1046.
See also the Abnaki sign of starvation, a pot upside down, in Fig. 456, supra.
Fig. 1047.
Fig. 1047.—They caught many wild horses south of the Platte river. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1811-’12. This figure shows a horse in the process of being caught by a lasso.
Fig. 1049.
Fig. 1049.—Dakotas first used a lasso for catching wild horses. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1812-’13. In these two figures the lasso is shown without the animal, thus becoming the conventional sign for wild horse.
Fig. 1050.
Fig. 1050.—Crow Indians stole 200 horses from the Minneconjou Dakotas, near Black Hills. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1849-’50. This figure is inserted to show in the present connection the lunules, which signify unshod horses. The Indians never shod their ponies, and the hoof marks may be either of wild horses, herds of which formerly roamed the prairies, or the common horses brought into subjection.
Fig. 1051.
Fig. 1051.—Blackfeet Dakotas stole some American horses having shoes on. Horseshoes seen for the first time. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1802-’03. The horseshoe here depicted is the conventional sign for the white man’s horse.
Fig. 1052.
Fig. 1052.—Runs-off-the-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. “Runs off” in the parlance of the plains means stealing.
Fig. 1053.
Fig. 1053.—Runs-off-the-Horse. Red-Cloud’s Census. This figure explains the one preceding. The man has in his hand a lariat or perhaps a lasso.
Fig. 1054.
Fig. 1054.—Drags-the-Rope. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is a variant of the last figure, without, however, the exhibition of anything, such as tracks, to indicate horses.
Fig. 1055.
Fig. 1055.—Dog, an Oglala, stole seventy horses from the Crows. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1822-’23. Each of the seven tracks stands for ten horses. A lariat, which serves the purpose among others of a long whip, and is usually allowed to trail on the ground, is shown in the man’s hand.
Fig. 1056.
Fig. 1056.—Sitting-Bear, American-Horse’s father, and others, stole two hundred horses from the Flat Heads. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1840-’41. A trailing lariat is in the man’s hand.
Fig. 1057.
Fig. 1057.—Brings-lots-of-horses. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is a further step in conventionalizing. The lariat is but slightly indicated as connected with the horse track on the lower left-hand corner.
Fig. 1058.
Fig. 1058.—The Utes stole all of the Brulé horses. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1874-’75. The mere indication of a number of horse tracks without any qualifying or determinative object means that the horses are run off or stolen. This becomes the most conventionalized form of the group.
Fig. 1059.
Fig. 1059.—Steals-Horses. Red-Cloud’s Census. In this figure the horse tracks themselves are more rude and conventionalized.
The Prince of Wied mentions, op. cit., p. 104, that in the Sac and Fox tribes the rattle of a rattlesnake attached to the end of the feather worn on the head signifies a good horse stealer. The stealthy approach of the serpent, accompanied with latent power, is here clearly indicated.
Fig. 1060.
Fig. 1060.—Making-the-Hole stole many horses from a Crow tipi. Such is the translation in Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1849-’50. The man is cutting the hole with a knife. Through the orifice thus made he obtains access to the horse. But it is more probable that the single tipi represents a village into which the horse-thief effected an entrance and ran off the horses belonging to it.
Fig. 1061.
Fig. 1061.—Male-Crow, an Oglala, was killed by the Shoshoni. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1844-’45. The bow in contact with the head of the victim is frequently the conventional sign for “killed by an arrow.” This is not drawn in the Winter Counts on the same principle as the touching with a lance or coup stick, elsewhere mentioned in this paper, but is generally intended to mean killed, and to specify the manner of killing, though in fact before the use of firearms the “coup” was often counted by striking with a bow.
Fig. 1062.
Fig. 1062.—Kills-in-tight-place. Red-Cloud’s Census. This man has evidently been enticed into an ambush, to which his tracks lead.
Fig. 1063.
Fig. 1063.—Uncpapas kill two Rees. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1799-1800. The object over the heads of the two Rees, projecting from the man figure, is a bow, showing the mode of death. The hair of the Arickaras is represented. This is clearly conventional and would not be understood from the mere delineation.
Fig. 1064.
Fig. 1064.—Kills-by-the-camp. Red-Cloud’s Census. The camp is shown by the tipi, and the idea of “kill” by the bow in contact with the head of the victim.
Fig. 1065.
Fig. 1065.—Kills-Two. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here is the indication of number by upright lines united by a horizontal line, as designating the same occasion and the same people, two of whom are struck by the coup stick.
Fig. 1066.
Fig. 1066.—Feather-Ear-Rings was killed by the Shoshoni. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1842-’43. The four lodges and the many blood-stains intimate that he was killed in a battle when four lodges of Shoshoni were killed. Again appears the character for successful gunshot wound, before explained in connection with Fig. 987.
Fig. 1067.
Fig. 1067.—Kills-the-Bear. Red-Cloud’s Census. Here there appears to be a bullet mark in the middle of the paw representing the middle of the whole animal. The idea of death may be indicated by the reverse attitude of the paws, which are turned up, corresponding with the slang expression “toes up,” to indicate death.
Fig. 1068.
Fig. 1068.—They killed a very fat buffalo bull. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1835-’36. This figure is introduced to show an ingenious differentiation. The rough outline of the buffalo’s forequarters is given sufficiently to show that the arrow penetrates to an unusual depth, which indicates the mass of fat, into the region of the buffalo’s respiratory organs, and therefore there is a discharge of blood not only from the point of entrance of the arrow, but from the nostrils of the animal. No device of an analogous character is found among five hundred of the Dakotan pictographs studied, so that the designation of abnormal fat is made evident.
Fig. 1069.
Fig. 1069.—They killed many Gros Ventres in a village which they assaulted. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1832-’33. The single scalped head shows the killing. This conventional sign is so common as hardly to require notice.