414 THE POZO STONE. 



to possess a spirit such as that of man." I " The Indians of Guiana 

 know nothing about the picture writings by tradition. They scout 

 the idea of their having been made by man, and ascribe them to the 

 handiwork of the Makunaima, their great spirit. "§ 



The literature on this subject is very extensive, sufficient has 

 been referred to shewing the probability that petroglyphs are very 

 old, that in Peru a nation has flourished long before the Incas, who 

 were workers in the arts ; that picture writing is a very ancient 

 method of expressing thought, in fact the most primitive we are 

 acquainted with ; that these stone-inscriptions have no meaning 

 to recent Indian tribes, and that they are symbolic of various 

 expressions. Mr. Harvey says* that the rocks on the hill, from 

 whence the stone was sent, had on them figures of a hand-distaff, 

 &c, supposed to be signs to the traveller of the direction to be taken 

 to the coast. This is an attempt to read the inscriptions, and 

 similar efforts are being made everywhere by writers to learned 

 journals. There are some stones, figured in Mr. Hutchinson's 

 work on Peru,+ from Yonan Pass of River Jejetepeque, a little 

 over forty miles from Pacasmayo, on which are inscribed some 

 similar figures, amongst them being circles, with and without the 

 central dot. Such petroglyphs near streams may have to do with 

 the exorcising of evil spirits. 



The Pozo Stone seems to have little in common with such 

 stones, or those covered wholly by circles, but pictorially represents 

 the doings of some king. The inscriptions run on three faces of 

 the gentler weathered portion of the stone and one narrow strip 

 beneath the deeply weathered aspect. On the first face are spectacle 

 rings, a small deer, a small centred or dotted circle, two feet of 

 different sizes, a deer, two square markings touching at the corners* 

 a staff with two projections, a bird on a ring, another circle and the 

 hinder part of a vicuna, which is completed on the next face of the 

 stone, and beneath it, but looking the other way, is a smaller form 

 of the same animal. 



J "On the Animism of the Indians of British Guiana," by E. F. im Thurn, 

 Anthrop. Inst., Vol. II, p. 363. 



§ " Indian Pieture Writing in British Guiana," by Chai-les B. Brown, 

 Anthrop. Inst., Vol. II, p. 254. 



* Page 404. 



t " Two years in Peru," by Thomas J. Hutchinson, Vol. II, p. 176. 



