WAS MIDDLE AMERICA PEOPLED FROM ASIA? 13 



incredible that any contact sufficient to affect the religious customs 

 of Mexico or Central America could have occurred without the in- 

 troduction of a stringed instrument of some kind.* 



In the Ceremonial Usages of the Chinese (1100 b. a), a work 

 already referred to, one may find allusions to a number of forms of 

 wheeled carriages, with directions for their construction. Minute 

 details even are given as to material and dimensions, such as measur- 

 ing the spoke holes in the rim with millet seed (reminding one of the 

 modern method of ascertaining the cubic contents of crania), all 

 indicating the advanced development of wheeled vehicles. If from 

 this early date in China up to the fifth century a. d., any people had 

 found their way from China to middle America, one wonders why 

 the wheel was not introduced. Its absence must be accounted for. 

 It was certainly not for lack of good roads or constructive skill. Its 

 appearance in this hemisphere was synchronous with the Spanish 

 invasion, and when once introduced spread rapidly north and south. 

 Like the plow, it still remains to-day the clumsy and primitive 

 model of its Spanish prototype. 



The potter's wheel is known to have existed in Asia from the 

 earliest times; the evidence is not only historical, but is attested by 

 the occurrence of lathe-turned pottery in ancient graves. We look 

 in vain for a trace of a potter's wheel in America previous to the 

 sixteenth century. Mr. Henry C. Mercer regards a potter's device 

 used in Yucatan as a potter's wheel, and believes it to have been pre- 

 Columbian. This device, known as the Jcabal, consists of a thick 

 disk of wood which rests on a slippery board, the potter turning the 

 disk with his feet. The primitive workman uses his feet to turn, 

 hold, and move objects in many operations. The primitive potter 

 has always turned his jar in manipulation rather than move himself 

 about it. Resting the vessel on a block and revolving it with his 

 feet is certainly the initial step toward the potter's wheel, but so 

 simple an expedient must not be regarded as having any relation to 

 the true potter's wheel, which originated in regions where other 

 kinds of wheels revolving on pivots were known. 



It seems reasonable to believe that had the Chinese, Japanese, 

 or Koreans visited the Mexican coast in such numbers as is believed 

 they did, we ought certainly to find some influence, some faint strain, 

 at least, of the Chinese method of writing in the hitherto unfathom- 

 able inscriptions of Maya and Aztec. Until recently it was not 

 known whether they were phonetic or ideographic ; indeed, Dr. Brin- 



* Since the above was written Dr. Brinton and Mr. Saville have called my attention to 

 such evidences as would warrant the belief in the existence of a pre-Columbian stringed 

 musical instrument. The devices are, however, of such a nature as to indicate their inde- 

 pendent origin. 



