37 



THE HUMAN SPECIES 



of peace. It had all the significance of a state document, for 

 each colour, each knot, and each shell had its own particular 

 meaning. It was the duty of the tribal chief to preserve the 

 wampum girdle in the treasury of the tribe, and to teach the 

 growing youths from time to time the history of their tribe by 

 showing them the girdle ; its peculiar arrangement was thus 

 impressed on their minds and served to refresh their memory. 



FIG. 190. Knotted cord from Hepatone, Tahuata, Marquesas Islands. (After 

 v. d. Steinen.) 



Psychological Retrospect and Forecast. 



We who live in the twentieth century with our rapidly 

 printed books and newspapers may well smile at the naive 

 inadequacy of these knotted cords and hieroglyphs. [t is 

 only right, however, to remember that these things are but 

 the prelude to a higher civilisation, just as the freehand draw- 

 ings of the palaeolithic hunter-artists and the geometrical 

 ornament of the neolithic period formed the foundation of 



