3. A circular piece of wood or leather, with the representation of a face, placed upon a pole and facing the direction to be taken from the settlement. In this instance the drawing of the character denotes a hostile attack upon the town, for which misfortune such devices are sometimes erected.
6. Store-house, erected upon upright poles.
This device is used by Alaska coast natives generally.
In connection with these figures reference may be made to a paper by the present writer in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 369, showing the devices of the Abnaki.
Dr. George Gibbs (Contributions to N. A. Ethnology, Vol. I, p. 222) says of “symbolic writing” of the northwest tribes:
I am not aware how far this may be carried among the Sound tribes. Probably there is no great essential difference between them and their neighbors of the plains in this art. It may perhaps be best explained by an example given me by a veteran mountaineer, Dr. Robert Newell, of Champoeg. A party of Snakes are going to hunt strayed horses. A figure of a man, with a long queue, or scalp lock, reaching to his heels, denoted Shoshonee; that tribe being in the habit of braiding horse- or other hair into their own in that manner. A number of marks follow, signifying the strength of the party. A foot-print, pointed in the direction they take, shows their course, and a hoof-mark turned backward, that they expect to return with animals. If well armed, and expecting a possible attack, a little powder mixed with sand tells that they are ready, or a square dotted about the figures indicates that they have fortified.
The design shown in Figure 55 is in imitation of etchings made by natives of Southern Alaska to convey to the observer the information that the recorder had gone away to another settlement the inhabitants of which were in distress. The drawings were put on a strip of wood and placed at the door of the house where it might be seen by visitors or inquirers.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--Notice of departure to relieve distress. Alaska.]
1. A native making the gesture of indicating _self_ with the right hand, and with the left indicating direction and _going_.
3. Scaffold used for drying fish. Upon the top of the pole is placed a piece of wood tied so that the longest end points in the direction to be taken by the recorder.