WRITING 363 



palaeolithic hunters, for in many utensils made of reindeer bones 

 we find, besides the carving and outline drawings of animals, 

 peculiar linear stripes and curves (Fig. 184) arranged in a de- 

 finite way which must be considered to be either figures or 

 marks to denote proprietorship. The remarkable drawings 

 previously described on the flints of Mas d'Azil (Fig. 185), con- 

 sisting of crosses, rings with dots in the middle, serpentine lines, 

 ladders, tree-shaped signs, zig-zags, etc., were explained by their 

 discoverer Piette as letters, while R. Andree thinks the flints 

 were used for counters, and the marks painted on them denote 

 the proprietor. 



This very probable view implies the existence of hierogly- 

 phic characters, which, according to the opinion of all the 

 authorities, was the first foundation of the art of writing in all 

 parts of the world. Wundt has traced the process of the de- 

 velopment of writing with great clearness and accuracy. Hiero- 

 glyphics, or word-pictures, form naturally the universal starting 



FIG. 184. Rod with marks scratched on it, made of reindeer-horn. (Homes.) 



point ; this consists in copying the shape of an object, in 

 order to represent it graphically. " As soon as speech became 

 capable of expressing abstract ideas, writing had to, follow. 

 From the hieroglyphics were developed sound-symbols, but 

 every one of our letters shows traces of its hieroglyphic origin. 

 Eventually the sound-symbols which had originally denoted 

 one word developed into the alphabetical elements of speech, 

 in order to keep pace with the extended powers of verbal 

 expression." 



Hieroglyphics, which preceded writing proper, consisted 

 either in imitations of natural objects and could thus be under- 

 stood by all the nations of the world, or in symbols, certain 

 simplified outlines of natural objects which could only be 

 understood by the learned. At the present day the Eskimos 

 and Tsuktseu with their signs scratched on wood or ivory, the 

 prairie Indians with their drawings on hides, the inhabitants of 

 Central America with their paintings on paper made from the 



