670 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



PI. clxiii represents a slab of granite one-fifth natural size from the 

 dolmen of Gavr'Iuis, Morbihau, on wlricli is engraved in deep lines the 

 outline of a polished stone hatchet with its handle. This has been so 

 protected froui weathering by being under the tumulus as that it is not 

 degraded and has been cited as one of the evidences of that manner of 

 handling the polished stone hatchet. 



The display of pictographic writing at the French Exposition was as 

 follows : 



1. Marks on the dolmen of Men-er-Hroek, Morbihau, France. (Cast.) 



2. Rock carving at Skebbervall, Bohnslan, Sweden. (Cast.) 



3. Modern — An Indian petition claiming the possession of certain lakes. The original 



is in the Museum of Santiago, Chili. A cast given by Dr. Meyer, of Dresden. 

 4 and 5. Inscriptions from Easter Island, engraved on wood. 

 6 and 6a. Mayas writing from Yucatan — inscription from the steps of the temple of 



Palenque. From the Musee Trocadero. (Cast.) 

 7. Mexican writing — a mixture of pictographs and hieroglyphs. Dedication of the 

 grand temple by Ahuitzotl. 



This bas-relief represented the king laying the corner-stone. Above and 

 below appeared the date, of which a translation has been attempted, 

 viz: "The day 7 Roseau, 13 of the month Itzeallt Xochilluit of the 

 year Eight Roseaux (Feb. 19th, 1487). " Cast. The original at the Na- 

 tional Museum, Mexico. 



HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. 



When the pictographic system had so progressed that each picture 

 represented an idea, and when made after a given design, it represented 

 the same idea continuously, the art of writing was born. This was 

 ideography, and was thus named because it rendered the ideas of the 

 writer, by sigus, the meaning of which was fixed or had been agreed 

 upon. The ideas to be expressed were naturally of great number, and 

 the ideographs became complicated. It was called hieroglyphic be. 

 cause it was practiced principally by the priests — the hierarchy. The 

 term ''hieroglyphic" was applied first to the ancient Egyptian writing, 

 but afterwards to all analogous systems. 



The ideographic or hieroglyphic system extended to many nations 

 or peoples, but the codes of hieroglyphs were different. The principal 

 hieroglyphic writings were the Chinese, Egyptian, Assyrian, or Cunei- 

 form, and Hittites in the eastern hemisphere; and the Aztecs and 

 Mayas in the western. 



The resources of language and the needs of writers caused the intro- 

 duction of other signs and characters, which completed the ideographic 

 signs and added precision to their sense. Thus it cauie that some of 

 the ancient writing employed all three of the systems; the ancient 

 Egyptian writing was at the same time hieroglyphic aud alphabetic. 



The first growth by which written language came, into being is un- 

 known. It is surmised that because of the needs of people for the 

 recording of facts, or for the transmission of messages, some system 



