PRIMITIVE MAP-MAKING. 683 



As a rule, cartography begins with road-maps. Peoples whose ter- 

 ritory is a terminating point or is traversed by important trade-routes, 

 and who perform a carrier-service, are accustomed as a matter of 

 course to learn to depend upon drafted representations of their roads. 

 Appolonius Rhodius says that such maps were used by the ancient 

 Colchians of the Southwestern Caucasus and Northern Armenia, 

 through whose territory ran the great caravan routes from the Black 

 Sea to the East and South. Herodotus and Xenophon describe the 

 great post-routes of the Persians, over which the royal orders were 

 carried to all parts of the kingdom, as systematically laid out and pro- 

 vided with stations and inns, and arrangements for changing horses. 

 The caravan-roads now mark the most practicable routes for railways ; 

 and the French might make good use of the itineraries of the Tuaregs 

 in laying their tracks across the Sahara, if they were only accessible. 

 That the sons of the desert, who are able to speed with unerring ac- 

 curacy for hundreds of miles across the ocean of sand, possess at least 

 the capacity to make a representation of their route, is shown by the 

 statement of Duverrier, that the Sheik Othman drew in the sand for 

 him a plan of the central range of Hoggar. 



The accounts that have been given of the map-making of the negro 

 races have a still higher interest for us. Stanley says that the Wagan- 

 da frequently have recourse to drawings which they make upon the 

 ground to render their imperfect verbal descriptions more clear. The 

 sand of the sea-shore has, in fact, played a very important part in the 

 beginnings of cartography. Travelers of widely different periods, 

 whether speaking of the German coasts or of the shores of America 

 and Asia, have made the same observation, that the coast people, in 

 order to give a more distinct answer to any question about the roads 

 and paths, have spontaneously made drawings in the sand of the 

 stretch of country they were talking of. Examples in point may be 

 cited from the Baltic coasts, from the Island of Jesso, and from North- 

 ern Siberia. Ainos and Tunguses have directed travelers in the same 

 illustrative way. 



The more intelligent ones divide the roads which they would rep- 

 resent into days' journeys, and designate mountains and islands with 

 little piles of sand, and towns and fishing-stations with sticks. Kotze- 

 bue, Chamisso, and Beechey tell stories of the same kind of peoples of 

 the great ocean. The inhabitants of Tahiti and the Marshall Islands 

 give, by means of stones arranged on the beach-sand, a clear view of 

 whole groups of islands, between which they point out the navigable 

 channels. The islanders have also a kind of portable maps of their 

 own designing, showing, by means of strings with knots tied in them, 

 the direction of the principal currents. According to Captain F. H. 

 Witt, the Micronesians of the Caroline and Marshall Islands make a 

 frame of ribs of palm-leaves, across which they weave the blades to 

 serve as the foundation for their map. The islands are then represented 



