1890.] 
A  Strange  Wooden  Object. 
11 
reached  Persia.  There  are,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  instances  of  such 
an  impulse,  which  woulcl  be  quite  opposecl  to  the  ordinary  marcli  of 
culture.  But  if  it  is  so,  then  the  northern  article  is  not  the  original  one, 
and  it  follows,  that  the  Persian  specimen  is  the  modern  descenclant 
of  an  apparatus  which,  in  Persia  (or  in  auother  country  from  which 
Persia  has  obtained  impulses)  must  be  at  least  as  old,  or  probably 
still  older  than  the  article  found  in  our  Norwegian  tumulus  from 
the  middle  of  the  first  millennium.  And  then  we  must  also  be  able 
to  follow  in  Persia,  or  other  southern  country,  the  history  of  the 
apparatus,  procure  more  specimens,  and  discover  what  meaning 
is  attached  to  it. 
The  designation  attached  to  the  Persian  object  in  the  cata- 
logue  of  the  English  Museum  shows,  that  there — just  as  here  with 
the  Evebo  specimen — it  had  been  classed  with  the  puzzles  met  with 
in  so  many  places.  Mr.  Duncombe  remarks  that  in  its  construc- 
tion  it  may  be  compared  with  the  Mohammedan  reading  desk, 
concerning  which  I  will  speak  immediately,  and  adds  ''as  a  puzzle 
it  is  probably  Chinese  originally". 
I  have,  with  the  assistance  of  a  friend,  made  inquiry  in  Persia 
whether  such  apparati  are  common  there  and  what  the  opinion 
concerning  them  is.  Mr.  Carless,  in  Ispahan,  has  kindly  replied 
that,  although  he  had  made  every  effort  to  trace  similar  articles, 
he  had  not  been  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  any  information  con- 
cerning them.  I  have  myself  written  to  a  gentleman  in  Teheran, 
but  have  not  received  any  reply,  presumably  for  the  reason  that 
he  has  not  had  any  information  a  bont  it  to  i  mp  art.  Neither  have 
I,  in  the  small  amount  of  literature  concerning  Persia  which  has 
stood  at  my  disposal,  found  anything  stated  in  regard  to  such 
an  apparatus.  It  is  therefore  possible  that  the  specimen  in  South 
Kensington  has  been  quite  acciclentally  met  with  in  Persia,  and 
that  it  is  in  some  other  southern  country  that  we  must  search 
for  similar  objects.  But  the  apparatus  must  in  the  south — in 
Persia  or  elsewhere — have  a  pedigree  that  goes  back  for  about  a 
millennium  and  a  half.  Such  a  long  existence  appears,  however,. 
little  conceivable,  if  the  article  is  only  a  piece  of  art,  a  toy 
without  particular  significance.  The  existence  of  this  Persian. 
article  appears,  to  me,  to  give  increased  weight  to  the  loose 
impressions  formed  in  my  niind  after  the  discovery  at  Evebo, 
chiefly  on  account  of  the  appearance  of  the  characteristic  article 
in  a  prominent  place  in  the  grave — suppositions  of  one  or  other 
