there may be some significance in the position of these rough and peculiar monuments.[1]
Neither was the custom of blazing the trees beside a trail an Indian custom, contrary to what seems to be the general opinion. The "blaze" was a white man's invention, and, though the red man could by one deft stroke leave considerable information on a tree's trunk, there is not a shred of testimony or evidence that the Indian ever marked out the course of his paths by means of blazed trees. Upon consideration it seems beneath the dignity of such crafty woodsmen as were the aborigines of America to cut upon each succeeding tree a mark to guide them on the course; it also would require an amount of labor and patience which has seldom, if ever, been accredited to them. True, the trees, next to the stars, were the pilot of
- ↑ There was an Indian village "Standing Stone" near Lancaster, Ohio; and another by the same name on the Juniata in Pennsylvania, mentioned in Weiser's Journal under date of August 18, 1748. See Pownall's map. There was a well-known Kentucky village "Painted Stone" near Shelbyville.—Collins's History of Kentucky, vol. i., p. 13.
