MATERIALS TO WHITE UPON BEFORE INVENTION OF PRTN'I'ING. 



641 



Fio. 2. Australian message stick. 



orrrTZ^^.. 





^^g^'"^ 



Fu; 



Bird mouud uuar Milwaukee. 



South America used grains of corn or variously colored [)el)l)les, 

 which Ihev arran«2:e(l in a certain order, for tJie purpose of express- 

 ing certain ideas, trans- 

 mitting" nu"^sa<ies. or 

 recount iiiii' (he li'real 

 deeds of their nation. 

 Later these same [)eo- 

 j)les em[)loyed strings 



of varvinir lengths and colors, in which they made knots and loops 

 at greater or less intervals. This is called the '' quippo."' 



We must mention likewise the 

 small sticks of the Scythians, the 

 stick of memory ; " stick messages " 

 of the Australians, means employed 

 to correspond at a distance. 

 (Fig. 2.)« 



What shall we say of the mounds 

 (fig. ^^),'' raised burial jDlaces, of 

 North Auierica, abounding particu- 

 larly in Ohio and AVisconsin, and 

 the outline of Avhose base assumes 

 the shape of an animal — quadruped, bird, serpent, lizard, or turtle? 

 It is permissible to suppose that these forms designated the totem 

 of the tribe or the individual 

 Avho reposed in these tombs. 



The strangely shaped rocks, 

 with a length of more than 12 

 kilometers, which project 

 from the waters of the Nani- 

 Ou, in Upper Laos (fig. 4),'" 

 and the trees and bushes cut 

 in the shape of animals which 

 one sees on both banks of the 

 river, are indeed rather diffi- 

 cult to explain. 



After this digression, some- 

 what beside the subject, but Fjo- 4. Rocks bewn in the form of animals and 

 , 1 •, 1 , the human head in Nam-Ou. 



nevertheless necessary, let us 



return to the materials upon which writing has been done. 



oRoth (W. E.) : Ethnological Studies Among the North-West-Centrul Abo- 

 ligines. Brisbane, London, 1897, S°. pi. xviii. No. 32. 



^Lapliam (I. A.) : The Antiquities of Wisconsin (Sniithsoniun Contributions 

 to Knowledge, 1885, 4°, Vol. VII ''). 



c Neis (P.): Voyage duns lo llaut-Laos (Tour du Monde, 1885,' pp. 51 

 and 83) 



SM 1004 41 



