3 6 4 



THE HUMAN SPECIES 



Agave americana, and the Bushmen with their inscriptions on 

 rocks and slates, do not bring us much beyond the region of 

 hieroglyphics. Even now the prairie Indians paint their so- 

 called winter annals on the inner surface of hides. In all these 

 cases the figures and their meanings are easy to understand, 

 and the same may be said of the celebrated Walam Olum, the 

 painted board of the Leni-Lenape, on which the entire story 

 of the wanderings of this tribe is represented in plain outlined 

 characters. On the other hand, the rock inscriptions in South 

 America, and in certain South Sea Islands, are not even yet 

 clearly explained, any more than the prehistoric hieroglyphic 

 symbols from the south or north. The signs employed by 

 the tribes from the south and south-west are often derived 

 from objects in daily use, such as the spinning-wheel (crosses, 



FIG. 185. Flints, painted in red, from Mas d'Azil. (Homes.) 



hooked crosses, or crosses with handles), and apparently have 

 a tropological character. The Phoenician T cross, and the 

 Egyptian cross with a handle to it, are known to be abbrevia- 

 tions, standing for the human form, and the volute and double 

 volute as symbols of the female breast. 



The hieroglyphics on the carved stones at Mycenae, Tiryns, 

 Menidi, Vaphio and Corinth are very difficult to interpret, 

 possibly they are figures put together from several animals. 



Homes may very probably be right in supposing that they 

 are hieroglyphic words and sentences in which the chief of 

 some small clan and his relatives gave nai've expression to their 

 views on the mightiness of their totem or tutelary deity as 

 compared with foreign demons. 



The northern hieroglyphics, dating from the end of the 



