272 MR. E. H. C. WALSH, I.C.S., ON 



in various parts of Scotland and in other parts of the British Isles, in the Isle of Man, the 

 Channel Islands and Brittany. It was consequently at that time considered that they were 

 a Celtic form of ornamentation ; and Professor Nilson, the Swedish Archaeologist, put 

 forward the theory that they were due to Phoenician influence and connected with solar 

 worship. This theory, however, besides being untenable on other grounds, was soon dis- 

 proved by the discovery of such marks on rocks in various parts of Europe, and marks of 

 this character have now been found widely distributed in various countries throughout the 

 world. 



Their existence in India was first noticed by Mr. Rivett Carnac in 1870, who pointed 

 out the existence of such marks on tumuli in Central India, 1 and subsequently on rocks in 

 Kumaon " and suggested that they might possibly represent a primitive form of writing, 

 analogous to the long and short marks used as a form of expression in the Morse Code 

 of telegraphy. He has since further developed the theory 3 that these cup marks are a 

 very ancient form of writing, and that the accompanying circles, where they also are 

 found, are the symbols of the faith of those by whom these inscriptions were made. By 

 the term " writing " he means that the marks were ideographs used when the material 

 for record was limited to stone and long before the discovery of an alphabetical system, 

 and that they were analogous, as a form of expression, to the signals by means of balls 

 or cones that are hoisted in different combinations to convey information to mariners. 



As Mr. Rivett Carnac pointed out, the Kumaon markings and many others show a 

 methodical arrangement which militates against the theory of ornamentation or accidental 

 grouping. The same feature is found in the markings of the Chumbi Valley inscription, 

 which, in the arrangement of double lines of cups, bears a close resemblance to those 

 on the Kumaon rocks. 



The papers of Mr. Rivett Carnac on these markings in Central India and Kumaon 

 suggested to Professor Douglas + the probability that similar cup marks formed the founda- 

 tion of the diagrams upon which the " Book of Changes " (Yh king), the oldest book in 

 the Chinese language, is said to have been based. The question is fully discussed in a 

 paper read by Mr. Rivett Carnac 5 before the Royal Asiatic Society. 



According to Chinese Tradition, the discovery of writing was made by the Emperor 

 Fuh-he (2852-2737 b.c.) from a rough system which had been already worked out by 

 a "tribe of troglodytes," an alien nomad people, who inscribed on the rocks as a form of 

 record certain round, starlike marks, the " map of the Ho River." Fuh-he carried away 

 with him the secret of this system by copying or scratching it on a tortoise shell, and 

 this shell, long since lost, is said to have been preserved for centuries as a sacred relic in 

 the treasure-house of successive Chinese monarchs. 



The original having been lost, the "map" was reconstructed centuries afterwards 

 from the general idea then retained, and it forms the basis of the Yh King ox "Book of 

 Changes" or Permutations. The system of this book is based on the permutation of two 

 round marks, the one dark and the other light, but, as pointed out by Mr. Rivett Carnac » 



1 Proc. Asiat. Soc, Bengal, 1870, p. 57. * Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, 1903, p. 524. 



2 Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xlvi. 1877, (1), p. I. & Journ. Roy, Asiat. Soc , 1903, p. 517- 

 s Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc, 1903, p. 524. 



