380 
LANGUAGE. 
he accepted the invitation, and would join him with his gnns 
and powder. Another sent a waterproof coat with the sleeves 
made of patchwork, red, blue, yellow, and green, intimating 
that they must wait until all the tribes were united before 
their force would be waterproof, i.e., able to encounter the 
European. Another chief sent a large pipe, which would 
hold a pound of tobacco, which was lighted in a large 
assembly, the emissary taking the first whiff, and then pass- 
ing it round, whoever smoked it showed that he joined in 
the war. 
“ The ancient Peruvians had no manuscript letters for 
single sounds, but they had a method by which they com- 
posed words and incorporated ideas ; this consisted in 
the dexterous intertwining of knots on strings, so as to 
render them auxiliaries to the memory ; this was called the 
Quipu ; it was composed of one thick head, or top string, 
to which, at certain distances, thinner ones were fastened ; 
the top string was much thicker than the pendant ones, and 
consisted of two doubly twisted threads, over which twe 
single threads were wound ; the branches, if I may apply 
the term to these strings, were fastened to the top by a 
simple loop, the knots made were either single or manifold ; 
the lengths of the strings used in making the quipu were 
various ; the transverse or top one often measured several 
yards, and sometimes only a foot long; the branches were 
seldom more than two feet, and in general much shorter; 
the strings were often of different colors, each having its 
own particular meaning ; that for soldiers was red ; for 
gold, yellow ; for silver, white ; for corn, green, &c. ; this 
writing by knots was especially employed for numerical 
and statistical tables, each single knot representing ten ; 
each double one stood for a hundred ; each triple one for 
a thousand, &c. ; two single knots standing together made 
twenty ; and two double ones two hundred ; this method 
of calculation is still practised by the shepherds of the Puna. 
They explained it as follows : on the first branch or string they 
usually placed the number of the bulls ; on the second that 
of the cows, these being classed into those in milk, and those 
