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Chapter 10. The Message On The Birchbark

Birch bark Strips | Picture Writing | Invisible Inks | Secret Codes

The Indians, as we know from all the tales about them, drew their messages on strips of birchbark. There is no need for us to be that authentic, and it's far better today to leave the birchbark on the birch trees. Strips of brown wrapping paper will serve as well. And if you carefully singe the edges with a candle, the paper will look positively ancient. After all, the important thing is the message, not what it is written on.

BIRCHBARK STRIPS

The illustrations on the next page show what Indian birchbark strips looked like. The pictures drawn on them tell stories about the life of an Indian. Since you have not had any practice in reading these picture stories, there is a short text added to each picture.

PICTURE WRITING

Unless you can draw fairly well, this kind of birchbark picture story is not for you. (Message-writing on birchbark isr not usually practiced during your art class at school.) Instead, you and your friends can make up a picture alphabet. Of course, the meaning will be known only to the insiders. Choose signs that are easy to learn, as illustrated by the examples given here. (See pages 87 and 88.)

INVISIBLE INKS

You can write clever messages and have a lot of fun using a secret ink that only you and your friends know how to make visible.

To make your ink, use only harmless solutions. On the trail, you can always carry your bottles and writing materials with you so that they will be handy.

Writing with secret ink so that outsiders cannot read your message is not as simple as you might assume. If you use a sharp penpoint your writing will not be as secret as you wish, for the point will scratch the paper slightly with every stroke. Even if the scratches are not visible to the naked eye, they can be seen with a magnifying glass .

Therefore you should use a smooth, broad penpoint. However, this also has a drawback. The writing fluid leaves a slight shine on the paper. If the strokes are too wide, the writing will be perfectly legible when the sheet is held at an angle to the light.

The most suitable writing tool is a soft stick of wood sharpened to a point. Or you can use a toothpick.

Write on light-colored paper that is not too thin, because thin paper wrinkles where it has been moistened. This wrinkling can betray the presence of invisible writing and even make it legible. The best thing is a solid, hard-surface paper. Cautious writers never use blank sheets for their messages. Instead, they write some message with regular ink or pencil which will confuse the outsiders. Then they write the really important message between the lines with invisible ink. This diverts the attention of anyone not in on the secret from any possible traces of the dried invisible ink.

If you want to be really clever, combine the invisible ink with the normal writing. For instance, write a regular message that is confusing or meaningless. Then, using invisible ink, cross out some letters in the false message or put a dot over or under these letters in a way to make them spell out the really important message.

Natural Formulas for Invisible Inks

You can make your invisible ink out of any one of the following liquids:

Onion juice Lemon juice Salt
water Sugar and water Milk
thinned slightly with water
Water in which eggshells have been soaked for a few days. After these fluids dry, they become invisible. To make the writing reappear, carefully warm the sheet by holding the written side over a flame. Lo and behold!—the writing will be visible in a faint brown color.

SECRET CODES

Ciphering or encoding means making a piece of writing incomprehensible to those not in on the secret. Deciphering or decoding is the reverse process. A code is a table of words, abbreviations, numbers, or other symbols which can be substituted for words. You can even combine different symbols according to your needs.

Most people already know some simple codes. Perhaps you're familiar with the code, which is created by reversing the alphabet— Z is substituted for A, Y for B, and so on. Or there is the code that simply uses numbers instead of letters, starting at any letter of the alphabet and going backward or forward.

You can make such simple codes more difficult if you combine them. For example, you might replace the first and last letters of a word by the letters immediately following them in the alphabet. It is a good idea to break up long words into two parts when using this code.

WE ARE WAITING FOR YOU
XF BRF XAITINH GOS ZOV

In addition, you could also encode the result with an alphabet of numbers.

Typewriter Code

If you know how to touch type with all ten fingers, you can construct a code by typing from a different basic position. For example, instead of resting your left fingers on asdf and the right on jkl;, shift them a line up on the keyboard to qwer and uiop. Thus, when you type

wait for us

it comes out:

2q85 r94 7w.

Strip Writing

You do not need a key to read or write this remarkable code. All that is necessary is a rod or a stick. However, you have to be careful that the sender's and receiver's sticks are exactly the same size. For this purpose, two pieces of the same broomstick are ideal.

If you are the one who is sending the message, wrap a strip of paper around the rod so that the edges touch each other, and fasten the ends with thumbtacks. Then, write the message along the rod, turning it a bit after each line. To send the message, simply take off the strip and roll it up. Anyone intercepting the message will rack his brains trying to figure it out. But the intended receiver merely has to wrap the strip around his half of the stick, and he can read the message without any trouble.

Chessboard Code

The accompanying illustration gives a key for a code that substitutes two numbers for every letter. The letter "i" has been omitted because it can be confused with the number 1, and you

	1	2	3	4	5		a	e	i	0	u
6	A	B	C	D	E	b	A	B	C	D	E
7	F	G	H	J	K	d	F	G	H	J	K
8	L	M	N	0	p	f	L	M	N	0	P
9	Q	R	S	T	U	g	Q	R	S	T	U
0	V	W	X	Y	Z	p	V	W	X	Y	z

may substitute "x" or any other letter of your choice. First find the letter you want, then the number in the column to the left, and finally the number in the row at the top. Always write the number from the left column first. In this code, the words MEET ME AT THE SEASHORE would read:

82656594 8265 6194 947365 9365619373849265.

To make it harder for outsiders to break the code, you can divide the numbers into random groups. The receiver will know that each pair of numbers represents one letter. In this case, a comma was placed between two words:
8 265/6594, 8 265 61-9 4 947 3-65/, 936 5619/ 373" 84 92*65.

The other signs are there just to confuse the outsiders.
Another such code uses two letters for each letter of the message. Use any consonants at the left; put the vowels at the top. Using this key, VACATION would come out RABABIBAGORIFOFI. The same sorts of complications to prevent interception of the message can be used here as with the other example.

Pattern Code

Make a pattern of alphabets like the one in the illustration. In addition, you need a code word which should be preserved only in your memory. It should be as long as possible and be kept strictly secret. You should also change it from time to time.

*                 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
a                 bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza
b                 cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzab
c                 defghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabc
d                 efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcd
e                 fghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcde
f                  ghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdef
g                 hijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefg
h                 ijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefgh
i                  jklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghi
j                  klmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghij
k                 lmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk
1                 mnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijkl
m                nopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm
n                 opqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmn
o                 pqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmno
p                 qrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnop
q                 rstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopq
r                  stuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqr
s                  tuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrs
t                  uvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrst
u                 vwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstu
v                 wxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
w                xyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvw
x                 yzabcdefghijklinnopqrstuvwx
y                 zabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy
z                  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

For example, take a code word like ACCOMPLICE. If the message you want to send is MEET ME AT JOE'S CAVE, then write the code word under the message again and again:

MEET ME AT JOE'S CAVE ACCO MP LI CEA C COMP
From every vertical pair of letters in the original message and the code word, make a single letter by using the pattern. The first pair is M/A. Find the text letter (M) in the left column, and follow this horizontal row until you arrive at the vertical column under the code word letter (A). In this case, you find the letter N in the horizontal column. E/C gives you H, and so on. The coded message will read:

Nhhi zu me mtfv cpoyz.

Without knowing the code word, it is almost impossible to decipher this code, for it conceals the frequency with which certain letters are repeated.

To decode the message, write the code word under the coded message. Look up the letter of the code word in the left-hand column, then follow the horizontal row to the letter of the coded message. The letter above this vertical column will be the letter of the original message.

Writing with a Stencil

With the help of a stencil you can encode a message which can be written and read very quickly. Cut a stencil of thin cardboard exactly according to the design shown in the illustration below.

Stencil	Writing in stencil position

Lay the stencil on a piece of paper so that the figure 1 is in the upper left-hand corner. Then start writing your message in the openings, one letter per hole. When all the holes are filled, turn the stencil so that 2 is at the top. Continue the same way with 3 and 4. Fill all the remaining holes at the end of the message with some meaningless letter such as X to make it harder for an outsider to decode.

Shifting Alphabets

The secret of this code is in shifting two alphabets.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ—message letters
BCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZA—code letters

Take the code letter under the message letter in the first alphabet. For example, HURRY UP becomes IVSSZ VQ. The code can be varied by shifting the second alphabet a different number of letters.

Code Box

Divide the alphabet into nine groups and number them, starting in the upper left-hand corner. ABC=1, MNO=5, VWX=8, etc. In each group the letters are numbered 1 to 3. In this way, each letter of the alphabet is designated with two numbers. In the empty spot in box 9 you can add an e> the letter which occurs most frequently in English. Thus, you can use either 22 or 93 for e, thereby making it more difficult for outsiders to break the code. O, for example, is the third letter in box 5. Therefore 53=0. In this code, BEWITCHED becomes: 12/22/82/33/72/13/32/93/21, or, more simply, 1222823372133293-21.

ABC	DEF	GHI
JKL	MNO	PQR
STU	VWX	YZE

For a variation, instead of numbering each group of letters in a box from 1 to 3, number them continuously. In this code, s is 7/19, for the 7th box and the 19th letter. Then SALT would be 7/19-1/1-4/12-7/20.

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