March Sth, igio.\ Proceedings. xvii 



their leaders, even then the native language was uncouth, and 

 calculations and accounts were kept by knotted cords. 



It is difficult for us to believe that these people, with their 

 symbolism in this pottery, should have had no alphabet and no 

 method of record. They must have had some, unknown at 

 present, and that is the quest that should crown Mr Myring's 

 work, if his health permits ; then we shall hail him as another 

 Young, who discovered in the Rosetta stone the key to unlock 

 the doors of ancient Bablyon. 



When looking at the Peruvian pottery we cannot escape the 

 feeling of Chinese and Indian influence, and then again, in 

 looking at the head gear of some, we feel an Egyptian bias ; 

 indeed, the Egyptian pottery of any dynasty is not equal to the 

 best of these Peruvian specimens, for the modelling of the human 

 face is human and startling in its art ; there we find dignity and 

 even laughter ; the muscles of the cheeks, and the wrinkles in 

 the skin, and the flexibility of the nostrils, all show great care, 

 skill and art. 



The signs on some of the figures suggest Egyptian influence, 

 but the resemblance may be due to natural independent evolu- 

 tion : it makes us wonder, however, if Atalanta was not more 

 than a dream of Plato's, who wrote that beyond the pillars of 

 Hercules (Gibraltar) there was a large island in the sea. 

 Peruvian and INIexican art bear traces of evolution and progress 

 almost identical with early Egyptian work, but stopped half way. 

 Professor Zerffi, in "The Historical Development of Art," sa\ s ; — 

 " By some means Atalanta was separated from the East, and 

 the pyramids, temples and palaces of Central America remained 

 in the same relation to the pyramids, temples and palaces of 

 Egypt, as the tapir to the elephant, the alligator to the crocodile, 

 and the llama to the camel." 



One of the gods discovered in Peru, carved from a lava 

 block, has a head strip like a sphinx and is also like the goddess 

 Isis. The word God is similar in the west to the Deus of the 

 east, for in Peru it is Teotl. Sepulchral mounds are similar. 

 Astronomy had made similar progress in both east and west. 



