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Show 18 P1CT0GRAPHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. preparing materials with a reference to that more ambitious project. The paper is limited to the presentation of the most important known pictographs of the North American Indians, with such classification as has been found convenient to the writer, and, for that reason, may be so to collaborators. The scheme of the paper has been to give very simply one or more examples, with illustrations, in connection with each one of the headings or titles of the classifications designated. This plan has involved a considerable amount of cross reference, because, in many cases, a character, or a group of characters, could be considered with reference to a number of noticeable characteristics, and it was a question of choice under which one of the headings it should be presented, involving reference to it from the other divisions of the paper. An amount of space disproportionate to the mere subdivision of Time under the class of Mnemonics, is occupied by the Dakota Winter Counts, but it is not believed that any apology is necessary for their full presentation, as they not only exhibit the device mentioned in reference to their use as calendars, but furnish a repertory for all points connected with the graphic portrayal of ideas. Attention is invited to the employment of the heraldic scheme of designating colors by lines, dots, etc., in those instances in the illustrations where color appeared to have significance, while it was not practicable to produce the coloration of the originals. In many cases, however, the figures are too minute to permit the successful use of that scheme, and the text must be referred to for explanation. Thanks are due and rendered for valuable assistance to correspondents and especially to officers of the Bureau of Ethnology and the United States Geological Survey, whose names are generally mentioned in connection with their several- contributions. Acknowledgment is also made now and throughout the paper to Dr. \ V. J. Hoffman who has officially assisted the present writer during several years by researches iu the field, and by drawing nearly all the illustrations presented. |