12 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



b. a, and shortly after this date the ivory form was devised. Their 

 use is one of great antiquity in Japan, as attested by references to it 

 in the ancient records of that country. One may search in vain for 

 the trace of any object in the nature of a chopstick in Central or 

 South America. Knitting needles of wood are found in the work ' 

 baskets associated with ancient Peruvian mummies, but the chop- 

 stick has not been found. Curious pottery rests for the chopsticks 

 are exhumed in Japan, but even this enduring testimony of its early 

 use is yet to be revealed in this country. 



The plow in all its varieties has existed in China for countless 

 centuries. Its ideograph is written in a score of ways. It was early 

 introduced into Korea and Japan, and spread westward through the 

 Old World to Scandinavia. There it has been found in the peat 

 bogs. It is figured on ancient Egyptian monuments, yet it made its 

 appearance in the New World only with the advent of the Spaniards. 

 This indispensable implement of agriculture when once introduced 

 was instantly adopted by the races who came in contact with the 

 Spaniards. Even in Peru, with its wonderful agricultural develop- 

 ment and irrigating canals, no trace of this device is anciently known, 

 and to-day the tribes of Central and South America still follow the 

 rude and primitive model first introduced by their conquerors. 



If we study the musical instruments of the New World races 

 we find various forms of whistles, flutes, rattles, split bells, and 

 drums, but seek in vain for a stringed instrument of any kind. This 

 is all the more surprising when we find evidences of the ancient use 

 of the bow. If Dr. Tylor is right, we may well imagine that the lute 

 of ancient Egypt was evolved from the musical bow with its gourd 

 resonator (so common in various parts of Africa), and this in turn 

 an outgrowth of the archer's bow, or, what at the moment seems 

 quite as probable, the musical bow might have been the primitive 

 form from which was evolved the archer's bow on the one hand and 

 the lute on the other. Dr. Mason, in a brief study of the musical 

 bow, finds it in various forms in Africa and sporadic cases of it in 

 this country, and expresses the conviction that stringed musical in- 

 struments were not known to any of the aborigines of the western 

 hemisphere before Columbus. Dr. Brinton is inclined to dispute 

 this conclusion, though I am led to believe that Dr. Mason is right; 

 for had this simple musical device been known anciently in this 

 country, it would have spread so widely that its pre-Columbian use 

 would have been beyond any contention. In Japan evidences of a 

 stringed instrument run back to the third or fourth century of our 

 era, and in China the kin (five strings) and seih (thirteen strings) 

 were known a thousand years before Christ. These were played in 

 temples of worship, at religious rites, times of offering, etc. It seems 



