MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 
Care must be taken not to overvalue fantastic and distorted symbols, due to 
illiteracy or intentional alteration. Sometimes a pictograph occurs where a descrip- 
tive ideogram already existed for the same object. Thus in a certain old inscription 
the picture ) occurs for the descriptive symbol, ‘A (modern oe ki “ chicken.”’), 
colpimcliee 4 with “claws” and “feathers,” f§. While the latter contains nothing 
characteristic of a chicken as compared with other birds, still it is descriptive and 
not pictorial. The picture of the bird answers the purpose of conveying thought 
just as well as the descriptive symbol, but it would be wrong to infer that the two 
are identical as pictographs. They are merely two separate signs for the same idea. 
Possibly the writer in this case was not familiar with the existing sign, and so drew 
a picture of a chicken which answered just as well, and was quite in keeping with 
‘the genius of his language. Instances do occur where an incongruous collection of 
elementary signs in the modern symbol resolves itself into a pictograph as the forms 
are traced back. Take the symbol “to fly” (fet) as an illustration of this, beginning 
with the modern form : AN < ft <ARAR SAAS Here, from a conventional modern 
sign, we trace the successive forms to that of an undoubted pictograph, wherein the 
idea of flight is beautifully portrayed. 
The appended list of some four hundred symbols will suffice to show that 
etymology, when applied to the Chinese language, appeals mainly to the eye, and 
hence has more of orthography in it than it has of phonology, the main thing in the 
study of alphabetic languages. 
Sources oF KNowLEepDGE Concernina Earty CuinesE WRritrna. 
The modern style of Chinese writing had its beginning in the reign of the 
founder of the Ch‘in Dynasty (B. C. 240), when the substitution of the hair-pencil 
for the metal stylus (Fig. 1) for engraving hard surfaces wrought an important 
change in the shape of the symbols. Prior to that date the prevailing scheme was 
that of curved lines, due to the habit of engraving upon copper, stone, bamboo, or 
other hard substances by means of a metal point. This rendered curved lines 
easier of execution than straight lines and angles. The hair-pencil on paper did 
not lend itself readily to these shapes, and we find the ‘square character” in the 
ascendency until it entirely supplanted the older system of “seal character” about 
A. D. 400. 
This change in penmanship so modified the appearance of the written signs as 
to greatly obscure and almost obliterate their pictorial character. Hence the neces- 
5 This resembles the pictograph for ‘‘kite,’’ & see Plate XV., No, 204. 
