This whole inscription seems to represent one idea, figuring a collection of villages of vast proportions, inclosed by fortifications on two sides, at which it seems most accessible. On these same sides this collection of villages has external constructions or means of security, a kind of meanders or symbolic figures, which perhaps signify difficulties besetting the communication of the inhabitants with the surrounding fields.
In the lower part of the left-hand side there is a group of figures which seem to represent residences of chiefs, war houses, or redoubts, built near the principal entrance to the villages or to the city for its defense. There are found three figures of saurians, one with a large tail, on the side of the redoubts or fortified houses, as if representing the population, and two with small tails, which seem strange, and which walk toward the first.
This inscription is evidently the most perfect and the most notable of those found till now in all America [?], not only by its perfect condition and dimensions, but also by the mode in which a series of ideas has here been brought together.
The same author, on p. 552, furnishes copies of inscriptions carved on stones in the valley of the Rio Negro, and remarks: “In this series there are notable the two crowned personages [represented here in Fig. 112], one of whom holds a staff in the right hand, and below and under them there are two figures of capibars (sea-hogs) facing each other, and whose representation in black color resembles some figures from the inscriptions of North America.”
The following account is in Dr. E. R. Heath’s (a) Exploration of the River Beni:
Hieroglyphics were found on rocks at the falls and rapids of the rivers Madeira and Mamoré. * * * By accident we found some at the rapids at the foot of Caldierão do Inferno. Designs d and b are figures on the same rock side by side. a is another face of the same rock 10 feet across. e and f are on the upper surface of a rock, and c on one of its sides near the bottom; g is upon a rock 15 feet above the surface of the river. Many more were on the other rocks, but our time did not permit further copying. Mr. T. M. Fetterman, my companion, and myself sketched as fast as possible.
Fig. 113 is a reproduction of the illustration given.
The moment we arrived at the falls of Girão we searched for stone carvings, finding a few, and several repetitions of circles similar to those already found. Designs a and d are on the west and east side of the same rock, which is 9 feet in length. The figure is 21 inches high, the five circles 1 foot across. The east side was almost obliterated. Designs b and c are on loose stones; b, facing west, is 16 inches long; the rock is 50 inches long and 35 wide; c is 22 inches long; the rock 70 inches long by 27 inches broad, and was 30 feet above the river at date. The rocks are basaltic, dipping north at an angle of 86°. Many small stones, 1 and 2 feet in diameter, lie about, with marks on them nearly defaced.
Fig. 114 is a reproduction of the illustration.
At Pederneira all the rocks on the right side at the foot of the rapids are literally covered with figures. Fig. 115 a is on a large bowlder facing the south; b has joined to its right side, c; d, e, and f are on the same stone. Most of these rocks are only a few feet above low water and are covered at least eight months each year.
At Araras rapids the river is very wide, [containing] two islands and a rocky ledge crossing the river from the rapid. Nearly all the rocks on the right bank are covered with figures.
These are reproduced in Fig. 116.
Having no small canoe we could not pass a small channel so as to gather copies of the figures we could see at a distance. The approaches both above and below the rapids and falls are many times as difficult to pass as the rapid or fall itself, giving rise to the division into “head,” “body,” and “tail.” Some not only have these divisions, but also have these subdivided into “head, body, and tail.” One is constantly hearing “el rabo,” “el rabo del rabo,” “el rabo del cuerpo,” or “cabeza,” and so on.
Ribeiráo.—The tail of the rapid is 3 miles in length, a continuous broken current and fields of rocks. It is here, on a rock but a foot or two above the river, that the hieroglyphic shown in F. Keller’s “Amazon and Madeira” is found. As both Mr. Fetterman and myself made copies of it, unknown to the other till finished, our copies may be relied on, although differing from Keller’s. The length of the upper part is 45 inches and of the lower 36 inches, with 13 inches depth of each.
The copy mentioned is given here as Fig. 117.
The character of the lower right-hand corner was at one time as clearly cut as we represent it, some of the edges being yet clear and distinct.
At the rapid of Madeira there were a number of circles similar to 15 and 16 at Ribeiráo. On a ridge of rocks in the middle of the river, just above Larges rapids, are figures, and we had only time to sketch one, Fig. 118.
At Pao Grande we had a better harvest, showing evidently a later period than the former. One could easily believe these were made at the time of the Spanish conquest, the anchors, shields, and hearts being so often found in Spanish religious rites. Without doubt these were notices for navigators, as they were only out of water and seen when that passage was dangerous. Where projecting points of rock gave a face both up and down stream the same figure was on both faces. These rocks are syenitic granite and are cut to a depth of a half inch.
Fig. 119 is a reproduction of the copy published.
Senhor Tristão de Alencar Araripe (a) gives a large number of descriptions with illustrations, a selection of which, with translations, is as follows:
In the province of Ceará district of Inhamun, on the plantation of Carrapateira, is a small hill (or mound). On the face of one of its rocks, on the eastern side, near the edge of the road, is the inscription given in Fig. 120 painted in red.
In the district of Inhamun, on the plantation of Carrapateira, in Morcego, on the top of a mound, is a semicircular stone bearing on the face toward the mound the four characters which appear in Fig. 121.
In Inhamun, on the plantation of Carrapateira, in Morcego, is a large stone mound, the stones being piled up in a form of a tower; and in the inside of this tower, on the south or southwest side, are the characters given in Fig. 122 painted in bright, cochineal color.
Near the road from Cracará to Favelas, Inhamun, is a large rock, on the face of which, at the top of the western side, is the inscription [given on the upper part of Fig. 123,] all in red paint, as is also that following.
The under part of this rock forms a shelter, and on the roof of this shelter are all the remaining characters of the figure.
To the right or south of the shelter containing the inscription is a stone, with the form of the figure represented in the third place in the lower row of characters, counting from left to right, on a small heap, with the rear end raised up and the sharp point toward the east, its side inclining toward the west, in such a way that it can be climbed to the end which is erect.
On the same side, at the south, but beyond this, on the top of a rise, is a mound in sight, which is represented by the figure [delineated in the lower part of Fig. 123 at the extreme right,] resembling an inclosure (corral) with the 21 small lines before it.
Fig. 124 is a copy of an inscription at Pedra Lavrada, Province of Parahiba, published loc. cit., but the description by Senhor de Alencar Araripe is very meager, amounting in substance to the following:
This is an inscription of vast proportions on a large rock in the town of Pedra Lavrada, which takes its name from that of the rock.
Other petroglyphs in Brazil are copied in Figs. 1107, 1108, 1109, 1110, 1111, 1113, 1114, and also under the heading of Cup Sculptures, Chapter V, infra.
F. P. Moreno (a), Museo de La Plata, Catamarca, gives an illustration of an inscribed rock at Bajo de Canota, Mendoza, reproduced as Fig. 125.
The following account is furnished by Messrs. de Rivero and Von Tschudi (a):
Eight leagues north of Arequipa there exist a multitude of engravings on granite which represent figures of animals, flowers, and fortifications, and which doubtless tell the story of events anterior to the dynasty of the Incas.
The illustration presented is copied here as Fig. 126.
The account is continued as follows:
In the province of Castro-Vireyna, in the town of Huaytara, there is found in the ruins of a large edifice, of similar construction to the celebrated palace of old Huanuco, a mass of granite many square yards in size, with coarse engravings like those last mentioned near Arequipa. None of the most trustworthy historians allude to these inscriptions or representations, or give the smallest direct information concerning the Peruvian hieroglyphics, from which it may possibly be inferred that in the times of the Incas there was no knowledge of the art of writing in characters and that all of these sculptures are the remains of a very remote period. * * * In many parts of Peru, chiefly in situations greatly elevated above the sea are vestiges of inscriptions very much obliterated by time.
The illustration is copied here as Fig. 127.
Charles Wiener (a), in Pérou et Bolivie, gives another statement, viz:
The archeologists of Peru have only found a single point—Tiahuanaco—where there were a limited number, though very interesting, of signs on rocks or stones which seemed to all observers to be symbolic. While there are a few petroglyphs found in Peru there are a large number of inscriptions properly so called on the tissues which cover or are found in connection with remains in the graves.
A number of pictographs from Peru are described and illustrated infra (see Figs. 688, 720, and 1167).
Prof. Edwyn C. Reed, of Valparaiso, Chile, presented through A. P. Niblack, ensign U. S. Navy, a photograph of a large bowlder bearing numerous sculpturings. No information pertaining to the locality at which the rock is situated or details respecting the characters upon it were furnished. The photograph is reproduced in Fig. 128.
Mr. R. A. Philippi, of Santiago, a corresponding member, made a communication to the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, session of January 19, 1876, page 38, from which the following is extracted and translated:
I made a visit to the valley “Cajon de los Cipreses” in order to see the glacier giving rise to the Rio de los Cipreses, a tributary of the Cachapoal, and on that occasion had a cursory view of a rock with some pictures. I send you herewith a drawing of the rock and some of the figures cut on it. The rock, a kind of greenstone, lies at an altitude of about 5,000 feet above sea level, and the surface covered with figures, gently inclined down to the ground, may be 8 feet long and 5 or 6 feet high. The lines are about 4 mm. broad and 1 to ½ mm. deep. The carved figures on the stone are without any sort of order. When I spoke before a meeting of our faculty of physical and mathematical sciences concerning this stone which the shepherds of the region called piedra marcada, I learned that similar stones with carved figures are found in various places.
The figure mentioned is here reproduced as Fig. 129.
The term “extra-limital,” familiar to naturalists, refers in its present connection to the sculptures, paintings, and drawings on rocks beyond the continents of North and South America, which are now introduced for comparison and as evidence of the occurrence throughout the world of similar forms in the department of work now under examination.
Mr. Edward G. Porter (a), in “The Aborigines of Australia,” says: “Their rock carvings are only outline sketches of men, fish, animals, etc., sometimes seen on the top of large flat rocks. Two localities are mentioned, one on Sydney common and another on a rock between Brisbane water and Hawkesbury river.”
Much more detailed information is given by Thomas Worsnop, viz:
At Chasm island, which lies 1½ miles from “Groote Eylandt,” in the steep sides of the chasms, were deep holes or caverns undermining the cliffs, upon the walls of which are found rude drawings, made with charcoal and something like red paint, upon the white ground of the rock. These drawings represented porpoises, turtle, kangaroos, and a human hand, and Mr. Westall found the representations of a kangaroo with a file of thirty-two persons following after it.
In the MacDonnell ranges, 6 miles from Alice springs, in a large cave, there were paintings made by the aborigines, well defined parallel lines, intersected with footprints of the emu, kangaroo rat, and birds, with the outlines of iguana, hands of men, well sketched and almost perfect.
The parallel lines were of deep red and yellow colors, with brown and white borders; the footprints of light red, light yellow, and black; the outlines of the animals and hands were of red, yellow, white, black, wonderfully (considering it was done by savages) displayed and blended. All the paintings were in good preservation and evidently touched up occasionally, as they looked quite fresh.
I can only conjecture that these paintings were left as a record, a life-long charm, against the total destruction of the above animals. The paintings were seen by Mr. S. Gason, of Beltana, in the year 1873.
Very interesting groups of native drawings are to be seen in the caves of the Emily gorge in the MacDonnell ranges. Many of these drawings represent life-size objects.
The same author, page 20, describes the petroglyph copied in Fig. 130 as follows:
Mr. Arthur John Giles in the year 1873 discovered, at the junction of Sullivan’s creek with the Finke river, carvings on rocks. The sketch represents a smooth-faced rock, portion of a rock cliff about 45 feet high, composed of hard metamorphic slate. The lower portion of the sculptured face has been worn and broken away, forming a sort of cave. From the level of the creek to the lower edge of the sculptured rock is about 15 feet. The perpendicular lines are cut out, forming semicircular grooves about 1½ inches in diameter, cut in to a depth of nearly half an inch; all remaining figures are also carved into the solid rock to a depth of one-fourth of an inch.
The same author, page 14, gives the following description of some pictures discovered between 1831 and 1840 by Capt. Stokes on Depuch island, one of the Forestier group in Dampier archipelago, on the western coast of Australia:
Depuch island would seem to be their favorite resort, and we found several of their huts still standing. The natives are doubtless attracted to the place partly by the reservoirs of water they find among the rocks after rain; partly that they may enjoy the pleasure of delineating the various objects that attract their attention on the smooth surface of the rocks. This they do by removing the hard red outer coating and baring to view the natural color of the greenstone, according to the outline they have traced. Much ability is displayed in many of these representations, the subject of which could be discovered at a glance. The number of specimens are immense, so that the natives must have been in the habit of amusing themselves in this innocent manner for a long period of time.
These savages of Australia, who have adorned the rocks of Depuch island with their drawings, have in one thing proved themselves superior to the Egyptian and the Etruscan, whose works have elicited so much admiration and afforded food to so many speculations, namely, there is not in them to be observed the slightest trace of indecency.
Fig. 131 shows a number of the characters drawn on these rocks. They are supposed to represent objects as follows:
a, a goose or duck; b, a beetle; c, a fish, with a quarter moon over, considered to have some reference to fishing by moonlight; d, a native, armed with spear and wommera or throwing stick, probably relating his adventures, which is usually done by song and accompanied with great action and flourishing of weapons, particularly when boasting of his powers; e, a duck and a gull; f, a native in a hut, with portion of the matting with which they cover their habitations; g, shark and pilot fish; h, a corroboreeo or native dance; i, a native dog; j, a crab; k, a kangaroo; l, appears to be a bird of prey, having seized upon a kangaroo rat.
The same author, page 5, describes another locality as follows:
In New South Wales, in the neighborhood of Botany bay and port Jackson, the figures of animals, of shields and weapons, and even of men, have been found carved upon the rocks, roughly, indeed, but sufficiently well to ascertain very fully what was the object intended. Fish were often represented, and in one place the form of a large lizard was sketched out with tolerable accuracy. On top of one of the hills the figure of a man, in the attitude usually assumed by them when they begin to dance, was executed in a still superior style.
The figure last mentioned was probably the god Daramūlŭn, see Howitt, Australian Customs of Initiation (a).
A special account of the aboriginal rock carvings at the head of Bantry bay is furnished by R. Etheridge, jr. (a), as follows, the illustration referred to being presented here as Fig. 132:
Of the numerous traces of aboriginal rock carvings to be seen on the shores of Port Jackson, none probably equal in extent or completeness of detail those on the heights at the head and on the eastern side of Bantry bay, Middle harbor, Australia.
The table of sandstone over which the carvings are scattered measures 2 chains in one direction by 3 in the contrary, and has a gentle slope of 7 degrees to the southwest. The high road as now laid out passes over a portion of them. * * *
The figures are represented in their present state in outline by a continuous indentation or groove from 1 to 1½ inches broad by half an inch to 1 inch in depth. Some are single subjects scattered promiscuously over the surface; others form small groups, illustrating compound subjects, but all appear to have been executed about one and the same time. * * *
An advance on the other sculptures existing at this place seems to be made in the originals of the designs a and b, from the fact that an attempt was apparently made to represent a compound idea in the form of a single combat between two warriors. The figures are quite contiguous to one another. The individual marked a seems to be holding in his right hand a body similar to that represented as c, and the position in which it is held would lend color to the belief in its shield-like nature. In the opposite hand are a bundle of rods which have been suggested to be spears, and this explanation for the want of a better may be accepted. On the other hand, we are confronted with the fact that these weapons of offense and defense are held in the wrong hands, unless the holder be regarded as sinistral; otherwise it must be conceived that the warrior’s back is presented to the observer, which is contrary to the other evidence existing in the carving. The opponent, marked as b, with legs astride and arms outstretched much in the position of an aboriginal when throwing the boomerang, is equally definitive. I conceive it quite possible that the position of the boomerang close to the right hand conveys the idea that this man has just thrown the missile at the subject of a, allowing, of course, for the want of a knowledge of perspective on the part of the aboriginal artist. * * *
In several other figures the head is a mere rounded outline, but in b it is presented with a rather bird-like appearance. Another peculiarity is the great angularity given to the kneecap: this is visible both in a and b. It is further exemplified in the elbow of the left arms of both a and b.
The term “Oceanica” is used here without geographic precision, to include several islands not mentioned in other sections of the present work, in different parts of the globe, where specially interesting petroglyphs have been found and made known in publications. Although more such localities are known than are now mentioned, the pictographs from them are not of sufficient importance to justify description or illustration, but it may be remarked that they show the universality of the pictographic practice.
Dr. Julius von Haast (a) published notes, condensed as follows, descriptive of the illustration produced here as Fig. 133:
The most remarkable petroglyphs found in New Zealand are situated about 1 mile on the western side of the Weka Pass road in a rock shelter, which is washed out of a vertical wall of rock lining a small valley for about 300 feet on its right or southern side. The whole length of the rock below the shelter has been used for painting, and it is evident that some order has been followed in the arrangement of the subjects and figures. The paint consists of kokowai (red oxide of iron), of which the present aborigines of New Zealand make still extensive use, and of some fatty substance, such as fish oil, or perhaps some oily bird fat. It has been well fixed upon the somewhat porous rock and no amount of rubbing will get it off.
Some of the principal objects evidently belong to the animal kingdom, and represent animals which either do not occur in New Zealand or are only of a mythical or fabulous character. The paintings occur over a face of about 65 feet, and the upper end of some reaches 8 feet above the floor, the average height, however, being 4 to 5 feet. They are all of considerable size, most of them measuring several feet, and one of them even having a length of 15 feet.
Beginning at the eastern end in the left-hand corner is the representation a of what might be taken for a sperm whale with its mouth wide open diving downward. This figure is 3 feet long. Five feet from it is another figure c, which might also represent a whale or some fabulous two-headed marine monster. This painting is 3 feet 4 inches long. Below it, a little to the right in d, we have the representation of a large snake possessing a swollen head and a long protruding tongue. This figure is nearly 3 feet long, and shows numerous windings.
It is difficult to conceive how the natives in a country without snakes could not only have traditions about them but actually be able to picture them, unless they had received amongst them immigrants from tropical countries who had landed on the coasts of New Zealand.
Between the two fishes or whales is b, which might represent a fishhook, and below the snake d a sword e with a curved blade.
Advancing toward the right is a group which is of special interest, the figure i, which is nearly a foot long, having all the appearance of a long-necked bird carrying the head as the cassowary and emu do, and as the moa has done. If this design should represent the moa, I might suggest that it was either a conventional way of drawing that bird or that it was already extinct when this representation was painted according to tradition; in which latter case k might represent the taniwha or gigantic fabulous lizard which is said to have watched the moa. h is doubtless a quadruped, probably a dog, which was a contemporary of the moa and was used also as food by the moa hunters. j is evidently a weapon, probably an adz or tomahawk, and might, being close to the supposed bird, indicate the manner in which the latter was killed during the chase. The post, with the two branches near the top l, finds a counterpart in the remnant of a similar figure g between the figures c and i. They might represent some of the means by which the moa was caught or indicate that it existed in open country between the forest. m, under which the rock in the central portion has scaled off, is like f, one of the designs which resemble ancient oriental writing.
Approaching the middle portion of the wall we find here a well-shaped group of paintings, the center of which n has all the appearance of a hat ornamented on the crown. The rim of this broad-brimmed relic measures 2 feet across. The expert of ancient customs and habits of the Malayan and South Indian countries might perhaps be able to throw some light upon this and the surrounding figures, o to r.
From q, which is altogether 3 feet high, evidently issues fire or smoke; it therefore might represent a tree on fire, a lamp or an altar with incense offering. * * * The figure o is particularly well painted, and the outlines are clearly defined, but I can make no suggestion as to its meaning. In s we have, doubtless, the picture of a human being who is running away from q, the object from the top of which issues fire or smoke. I am strengthened in my conviction that it is meant for a man by observing a similar figure running away from the monster aa. p, which has been placed below that group, might be compared to a pair of spectacles, but is probably a letter or an imitation of such a sign.
A little more to the right a figure 6 feet long is very prominent. It is probably the representation of a right whale in the act of spouting. Above it, in v, the figure of a mantis is easily recognizable, whilst u and the characters to the right below the supposed right whale again resemble cyphers or letters. w and y, although in many respects different, belong doubtless to the same group, and represent large lizards or crocodiles. * * * w is 4 feet long; it is unfortunately deficient in its lower portion, but it is still sufficiently preserved to show that besides four legs it possesses two other lower appendages, of which one is forked and the other has the appearance of a trident. I wish also to draw attention to the unusual form of the head. y is a similar animal 3 feet long, but it has eight legs, and head and tail are well defined. The head is well rounded off, and both animals represent, without doubt, some fabulous animal, such as the taniwha, which is generally described as a huge crocodile, of which the ancient legends give so many accounts.
aa, a huge snake-like animal 15 feet long, is probably a representation of the tuna tuoro, a mythical monster. It is evident that the tuna tuoro is in the act of swallowing a man, who tries to save himself by running away from it.
Mr. A. Langen (a) made a report on the Kei islands and their Ghost grottoes, with a plate now reproduced as Fig. 134. He says:
The group of the small Kei islands, more correctly Arue islands [southwest from New Guinea], is a sea bottom raised by volcanic forces and covered with corals and shells. The corals appear but at a few points. They are in the main covered with a layer of shells cemented together, whose cement is so hard and firm that it offers resistance to the influence of time even after the shell has been weathered away.
On the whole, all the figures in similar genre are represented in thousands of specimens. [They may be divided into three series, the first including letters a to k; the second, letters l to t; the third, letters u to cc.] Many are effaced and unrecognizable, only letter k, series 1; letters n, o, s, t, series 2; and letters cc, series 3, stand isolated and seem to have a peculiar meaning. The popular legend ascribes the greatest age to the characters of series 1 and series 2, and it is said that the signs record a terrible fight in which the islanders lost many dead, but yet remained victors. It is stated that the signs were produced by the ghosts of the fallen. The signs of series 3 are said to be the work of a woman named Tewaheru, who was able to converse with ghosts as well as with the living. But, when on one occasion she helped a living man to recover his dead wife by betraying to him the secret of making the spirit return to the body, she is said to have been destroyed by the ghosts and changed into a blackbird, whose call even at this day indicates death. Since that time no medium is said to exist between the living and the dead, nor do any new signs appear on the rock.
Investigation in place showed me that the color of series 3 consists of ocher made up with water. The very oldest drawings seem to have been made with water color, as the color has nowhere penetrated into the rock. Most of the figures are painted on overhanging rocks in such a way as to be protected as much as possible against wind and weather; whether they bear any relation to the signs on the rocks of Papua, and what that relation may be, I am not yet able to judge.
It may safely be assumed that the caves as abodes of spirits were sacred, but did not serve as places of burial. The lead rings and pieces of copper gongs found in small number before some of the caves seem to be derived from sacrifices offered to the spirits. At the present day no more sacrifices are offered there, and the islanders knew nothing of the existence of these things.
In this island carved human figures of colossal size have been frequently noticed in various publications, with and without illustrations, but apart from those statues ancient stone houses remain in which have been found large stone slabs bearing painted figures. Paymaster William J. Thompson, U. S. Navy (a) says of the Orongo houses, that the “smooth slabs lining the walls and ceilings were ornamented with mythological figures and rude designs painted in white, red, and black pigments.” The figures partake of the form of fish and bird-like animals, the exaggerated outlines clearly indicating mythologic beings, the type of which does not exist in nature. Fig. 135 is presented here, extracted by permission from the work above cited, and it may be of interest to know that nearly all, if not all, of the original specimens are now deposited in the U. S. National Museum.
While the curious carvings on the wooden tablets which are discussed in the work of Paymaster Thompson are not petroglyphs, it seems proper to mention them in this connection. Fig. 136 is taken from Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft, in Wien (a), and shows one of the tablets, which does not appear to be presented in this exact form in the work before mentioned.
The following remarks by Prof. de Lacouperie (b) are quoted on account of the eminence of his authority, though the subject is still under discussion:
The character of eastern India, the Vengi-Châlukya, was also carried to north Celebes islands. The people have not remained at the level required for the practical use of a phonetic writing. It is no more used as an alphabet. Curiously enough, it is employed as pictorial ornaments on the MSS. they now write in a pictographic style of the lowest scale. This I have seen on the facsimile (Bilderschriften des Ostindischen Archipels, Pl. I, 1, 11) published by Dr. A. B. Meyer, of Dresden, in his splendid album on the writings of this region.
In the Easter island, or Vaihu, some fourteen inscriptions have been found incised on wooden boards, perhaps of driftwood. The characters are peculiar. Most of them display strange shapes, in which, with a little imagination, forms of men, fishes, trees, birds, and many other things have been fancied. A curious characteristic is that the upper part of the signs are shaped somewhat like the head of the herronia or albatross. A pictorial tendency is obvious in all of these. Some persons in Europe have taken them for hieroglyphics, and have ventured to find a connection with the flora and fauna of the island. The knowledge of this writing is now lost; and it is not sure that the few priests and other men of the last generation who boasted of being able to read them could do so thoroughly. Anyhow, in 1770, some chiefs were still able to write down their names on a deed of gift when the island was taken in the name of Carlos III of Spain.
In examining carefully the characters I was struck by the forked heads of many of them, which reminded me of the forked matras of the Vengi-Châlukya inscriptions. A closer comparison with Pls. i to viii of the Elements of South Indian Paleography (A. C. Burnell, Elements of South Indian Paleography, from the fourth to the seventeenth century A. D., being An Introduction to the Study of South Indian Inscriptions and MSS., 2d edit., London and Mangalore, 1878; Pls. i, vii, viii are specially interesting for the forked matras) soon showed me that I was on the right track, and a further study of the Vaihu characters, and their analysis by comparing the small differences (vocalic notation) existing between several of them, convinced me that they are nothing else than a decayed form of the above writing of southern India returning to the hieroglyphical stage. With this clue, the inscriptions of Easter island are no more a sealed text. They can easily be read after a little training. Their language is Polynesian, and I can say that the vocabulary of the Samoan dialect has proved very useful to me for the purpose.
In the more settled and civilized parts of Europe petroglyphs are now rarely found. This is, perhaps, accounted for in part by the many occasions for use of the inscribed rocks or by their demolition during the long period after the glyphs upon them had ceased to have their original interest and significance and before their value as now understood had become recognized. Yet from time to time such glyphs have been noticed, and they have been copied and described in publications.
But few of the petroglyphs in the civilized portions of Europe not familiar by publication have that kind of interest which requires their reproduction in the present paper. It may be sufficient to state in general terms that Europe is no exception to the rest of the world in the presence of petroglyphs.
A number of these extant in the British islands and in the Scandinavian peninsula, besides the few examples presented in this chapter, are described and illustrated in other parts of this work, and brief accounts of others recently noted in France, Spain, and Italy are also furnished.
Nearly all of the petroglyphs found in the British islands, accounts of which have been published, belong to the class of cup sculptures discussed in Chapter V, infra, but several inscriptions showing characters not limited to that category are mentioned in “Archaic Rock Inscriptions,” (a) from which the following condensed extract referring to a cairn in county Meath, Ireland, is taken:
The ornamentation may be thus described: Small circles, with or without a central dot; two or many more concentric circles; a small circle with a central dot, surrounded by a spiral line; the single spiral; the double spiral, or two spirals starting from different centers; rows of small lozenges or ovals; stars of six to thirteen rays; wheels of nine rays; flower ornaments, sometimes inclosed in a circle or wide oval; wave-like lines; groups of lunette-shaped lines; pothooks; small squares attached to each other side by side, so as to form a reticulated pattern; small attached concentric circles; large and small hollows; a cup hollow surrounded by one or more circles; lozenges crossed from angle to angle (these and the squares produced by scrapings); an ornament like the spine of a fish with ribs attached, or the fiber system of some leaf; short equiarmed crosses, starting sometimes from a dot and small circle; a circle with rays round it, and the whole contained in a circle; a series of compressed semicircles like the letters ∩ ∩ ∩ inverted; vertical lines far apart, with ribs sloping downwards from them like twigs; an ornament like the fiber system of a broad leaf, with the stem attached; rude concentric circles with short rays extending from part of the outer one; an ornament very like the simple Greek fret, with dots in the center of the loop; five zigzag lines and two parallel lines, on each of which, and pointing toward each other, is a series of cones ornamented by lines radiating from the apex, crossed by others parallel to the base—this design has been produced by scraping, and I propose to call it the Patella ornament, as it strikingly resembles the large species of that shell so common on our coasts, and which shell Mr. Conwell discovered in numbers in some of the cists, in connection with fragments of pottery and human bones; a semicircle with three or four straight lines proceeding from it, but not touching it; a dot with several lines radiating from it; combinations of short straight lines arranged either at right angles to or sloping from a central line; an S-shaped curve, each loop inclosing concentric circles; and a vast number of other combinations of the circle, spiral, line, and dot, which can not be described in writing.
Some of the ancient “Turf-Monuments” of England are to be classed as petroglyphs. The following extracts from the work of Rev. W. A. Plenderleath (b) give sufficient information on these curious pictures: