Evening journal., 1893-08-05
SCIENTISTS PUZZLED.
9ov Did Barbarous Tribes Get the ART
Works of Civilized People?

Hov Did Barbarous Tribes Get the Art
Works of Civilized PeopIe9
There is question which constantly
haunts the antiquarian mind like ghost
in an old house. That question is. How did
triling mattefs-a song, a story, game. a
toy-come to be scattered widely among
the most remote and ignorant peoplesf In
the case of customs and Of myths we may
iften deem that the mind Of man reacts
alike 20 the same impulses from nature or
from human needs.
An ancestor Of Gibbon, who was herald
and had been blue mantle, retired 70 Amer
lea in the seventeenth century and there
he found heraldic bearings among the red
men Of Virginia. The savage dancers "were
painted, some party per pale 'guP and
sab some party per Jesse Of the same
colors," whence Edward Gibbon inferred
that "heraldry was engrafted naturally into
the sense Of the human race" That Is,
heraldry is an Inmate idea" As Mr. Max
Muller remarks In his Lectures on TheOs-
ophy," 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,
certainindications Of lineage by crests, are
attractive and convenient, 50 they have been
adopted everywhere.
Il IS more puzzling when we find what IS
called in India the "svastika," a cross with
legs mt right angles 20 the main limbs, not
only existing as a sacred emblem in India,
but carved on stones in South America.
This does not seem to have an obvious orig
inal meaning as a symbol. is it merely an
ornamental design to which the Indian
mind later attached sacred sense? lt is
found on pottery from Hissarlik, Dr. Schlie-
mann's Troy, and on old Mexican pottery.
II 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 patterns, like the spirals OF Myce-
mean art, found also in the ruined palace Of
Kuenaten, in Egypt, and in New Zealand
and Celtic art We can conceive that the
pattern spread from Egypt to Greece and
thence to the Norsemen and the Celts, but
we can scarcely imagine that it was carried
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 complicated game
reached America from Asia or was indie
pendently invented by the Aztecs.
A very curious example of this class Of
problem has been discovered by Mr.. Il. 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 Mr.. Flinders
Petrie in the cemetery Of Havana. 1t is
engraved in his work on Havana, Beahmu
and Arsinoe, 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 represents a bird on
wheels In the neck is n hole, through
which n string was tied and some child Of
Havana led his toy about by the string.
This Is not very obvious kind of toy, for
the movement ID the wheels Is not like the
hop Of a bird In modern toy shops dogs
set on wheeled boards are common. In the
Egyptian example there is no board, but
the wheels are under the wings and level
with the body. The Egyptians OF course
as a civilized 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, prob
ably some 200 years old. The Amos are a
peculiarly hairy race, who have fable that
they are descended from bears, which they
! ignorantly worship. They are, or very late
ly were, savages in "a low grade, and with
wheels they have no acquaintance any
more than Liddesdale had before Scott
drove the first dogcart through the region.
| Mr. Morse decides that the bird, which he
engraves, is not of japanese work-the
wheels have the popularity Of being sir
regularly ovate, rather than circular" The
hole for the string is in the tail, and the
| irregular wheel makes the bird hop when
il is dragged. Here, then, we find a rar,
form of Egyptian toy, about 80 A. d., and
at the ends OF the earth, among the hairy
Amos, similar toy, remarkable for pos
sessing wheels, otherwise unused by ia,
Amos. The problem is, Has the pattern fl
tered far east in some unknown manner, Oh
has it been independently invented, wheel.
and all, by some Aino genius, who never
carried his valuable invention any furtherl
London News.