The morning call., 1893-07-06
SCIENTISTS PUZZLED.
How Did Barbarous Tribes Get the
Art Works of Civilized People.
London Daily New

IDere Is question which constantly
haunts the antiquarian mind like ghost
in an old house. That question is. how
did trifiing matters-a song. story, a
game, t0y-come to be scattered widely
among the most remote and ignorant peo-
pie? In the case of customs and Of
myths we may often deem hat the mind
Of man reacts alike to the same impulses
from nature or from human needs. An
ancestor of GibboD, who was a her.
aid and had been Blue Mantle, re-
tired TO America in the seventeenth
century, and there he found her.
aldic bearings among the red men
of Virginia. The savage dpncers "were
painted, some party per pale, 'gul' and
'sab.' some party per Jesse Of the same
colors," whence Edward Gibbon inferred
that ''heraldry was ngrafted naturally
into the sense of the human race" That
is. heraldry is an Inmate idea" AS Mr..
Max Muller remarks in his new volume
of Lectures on Theosopny," we can no
longer accept this theory of innate ideas
and of party per fesse," or crests. as
ready-made parts of the human intellect.
Certain arrangements OF colors. certain
indications of lineage by creSts. are attrac-
tive and convenient; so they have been
adopted everywhere. IL is more puzzling
when we find what is call d in 1ndit the
'svastika." a cross with legs at right
angles to the main limos, not only eX-
but carved on stones In South
America. This does not seem to have
an obvious original meaning as SYM
Dol. Is it merely an ornan entail design 10
which the Indian mind later attached a
sa red sense? Ii is found on pottery from
Hissarlik, Dr. Schiemann's Troy. and on
OLD Mexican pottery. If it is only piece
OF decoration, like the Greek key pattern
and wave pattern, also found in old Peru.
we may perhaps decide that the human
mind naturally hits on some simple pat
terms. like the spirals of Mycen8an art,
found also in the ruined palace of kuena-
ten, in Egypt, aud IN New Zealand and
Celtic art. We can conceive that the pat
tern spread from Egypt and Greece and
thence to the Norsemen and the Celts, but
we can scarcel yimagine that it was car
ried in prehistoric times to New Zealand
Again. Mr.. Tylor has traced an oriental
form of backgammon to Mexico. and we
cannot be certain whether rather COM
plicated game reached America from Asia
or was independently invented by the
AZtecs.
A very curious example of this class of
problem has been discovered by E. S.
Morse and is published in the Bulletin Of
the Essex Institute. Salem. Mass. In the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford may be
seen an old Egyptian toy. found by Fin
ders Petrie in the cemetery of Havana,
Beahmu, and Arsin0e, cities OF the
FayOum. The cemetery of Havana is only
about as old as our era. which is modern
for Egypt. The toy is of wood and repre-
sents a bird on wheels. In the neck is a
hole. through which string was tied, and
some child of Hawara led his toy about
by the string. This is not very OBJ
vous kind of toy. for the movement of
haoIc 10 nfl II hn hoy 81 hi I'd In
mo ern toyshops dogs set on wheeled
boards are common; in the Egyptian
example there is no board, but the wheels
are under the wings ana level with the
body. The Egyptians of course as civil
lied people had for thousands OF years
been familiar with wheels. and the toy.
though rare in kind. has nothing to arouse
curiosity. But it is another matter when
Mr.. Morse discovers precisely similar
Aino toy, probably some 200 years old.
The Amos are peculiarly hairy race, who
have fable that they are descended from
bears. which they ignorantly worship.
They are. or very lately were, savages
in low grade, and with wheels they have
no acquaintance any more than LiddesdaIe
had before Scott drove the first d0gcart
through the region. Mr.. Morse decides
that the bird, which he engraves, is not Of
Japanese work-the wheels have the pecu-
liarity OF being "irregularly Ovate. rather
than circular" The hole for The string is
in the tail. and the irregular wheel makes
the bird hop when it is dragged. Here.
then, we find rare form of Egyptian toy.
about SO A. D.. and at the ends of the earth.
among the hairy Amos. a smaller toy, re-
markable for possessing wheels. otherwise
unused by the Amos. The problem is, has
the pattern filtered far East in some un-
known manner, or has it been indepen-
IDENTIFY invented. wheels and all. by some
Aino genius. who never carried his valua-
BILE invention any further?