Edwards, Amelia B.: Pharaohs, fellahs and explorers (New York, NY, 1892)

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PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS.

and a feather mantle neatly drawn and colored, with numer-
al signs to show how many of each were received. This is
the merest picture-writing; yet, as a s}7stem of exact book-
keeping, it leaves nothing to be desired.

Other Mexican documents of the same period contain ac-
counts of battles, executions, sacrifices, and even family his-
tories, in which every fact is a picture. "We see a youth bid-
ding good-bye to his father; starting upon a journey; sitting
at the feet of the sage by whom he is to be educated ; serving
his apprenticeship as a woodman; sending an old woman to
treat with the parents of the girl whom he desires to wed;
and, finally, the marriage ceremony, where bride and bride-
groom are bound together by a scarf. This is neither more
nor less than a " nutshell novel," and it is written in pictures
only.

But the picture-writing of the North American Indian,
though less graphic, is often more ingenious than the picture-
writing of the Mexicans. I will take, for example, a petition
addressed by certain Indian chiefs to one of the Presidents
of the United States, reclaiming possession of a chain of lakes
in the neighborhood of Lake Superior.

In this curious document, the head man of each tribe is
figured by the "totem," or symbolic animal, of his clan ; as

INDIAN PETITION.