154 GROWTH AND DECLINE OF CULTURE. 



the beginner of history, the bringer of wealth and happiness. 

 He is the patron of the craftsman, whom he lights to his la- 

 bour; as it is written in an ancient Sanskrit hymn, " He steps 

 forth, the splendour of the sky, the wide-seeing, the far-aim- 

 ing, the sinning wanderer ; surely, enlivened by the sun, do 

 men go to their tasks and do their work."^ Even his people 

 the Toltecs catch from him solar qualities. Will it be even 

 possible to grant to this famous race, in whose story the legend 

 of Quetzalcohuatl is the leading incident, anything more than 

 a mythic existence ? 



The student, then, may well look suspiciously on state- 

 ments professing to be direct history of the early growth of 

 civilization, and may even find it best to err on the safe side 

 and not admit them at all, unless they are shown to be pro- 

 bable by other evidence, or unless the tradition is of such a 

 character that it could hardly have arisen but on a basis of 

 fact. For instance, both these tests seem to be satisfied by 

 the Chinese legend concerning quipus. In the times of Yung- 

 ching-che, it is related, people used little cords marked by dif- 

 ferent knots, which, by their numbers and distances, served 

 them instead of writing. The invention is ascribed to the 

 Emperor Suy-jin, the Prometheus of China." Putting names 

 and dates out of the question, this story embodies the assertion 

 that in old times the Chinese used quipus for records, till they 

 were superseded by the art of wi-iting. Now in the first place, 

 it is not easy to imagine how such a story could come into 

 existence, unless it were founded on fact ; and in the second 

 place, an examination of what is known of this curious art in 

 other countries, shows that just what the Chinese say once 

 happened to them, is known to have happened to other races 

 in various parts of the world. 



The quipu is a near relation of the rosary and the wampum- 

 string. It consists of a cord with knots tied in it for the pur- 

 pose of recalling or suggesting something to the mind. When 

 a farmer's daughter ties a knot in her handkerchief to re- 



> Miiller, Lectures, 2nd series, p. 497. 



" Groguet, vol. iii. p. 322. De Mailla, Histoire Gen. de la Cliine; Paris, 1777, 

 vol. i. p. -L 



