The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1895-05-18
SCIENTISTS PUZZLED.


How Did Barbarous Tribes Get tho Art
Works of Civilized People?
There Is a question which constantly
haunts the antiquarian mind like ghost
In an old house. That question Is. How did
trifling mattcrs--a song, n story, game. n
toy-come TO be scattered widely among
the most remote and Ignorant peoplcsi In
the case OF customs and OF myths we may
often deem that the mind Of man reacts
alike TO the same impulses from nature or
from human needs.
An ancestor OF Gibbon. who was a herald
and had been blue mantle. retired to Amer
lea In the seventeenth century. and there
he found hcraidic bearings among the red
men Of Virginia. The savage dancers were
painted, some party per pale, gull 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 ia his Lectures on Theos
ophy." we can no longer accept this theory
OF innate ideas and Of party per Jesse" or
crests, ms ready made parts of the human
intellect. Certain arrangements OF colors,
certain Indications OF lineage by crests, are
attractive and convenient. 80 they have been
adopted everywhere
IL Is more puzzling when we find what Is
called Ia India the 'svastika." cross with
legs at right angles TO the main limbs. not
only existing as sacred emblem In India
but carved on stones In South America
This does not seem TO have nn obvious orig
inal meaning "a symbol Il u merely an
ornamental design to which the Indian
mind later attached sacred sensei IL Il
found on pottery from IIissarlik DIR. Schlie
MAINS Troy. and on old Mexican pottery
II IL II only "A 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 aud the Celts. but
we can scarcely imagine that IL was carried
In prehistoric times TO New Zealand. Again
Mr. 1ylor has traced an oriental form OF
backgammon 10 Mexico and we cannot be
certain whether rather complicated game
reached America from Asia or was indie
pendcntly 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
Petre In the cemetery OF Hawara 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
cur era, which Is modern for Egypt. The
toy Is OF wood and represents bird on
wheels. In the neck Is a hole through
which a string was tied. and some child Of
Havana led his toy about by the string.
This h not n very obvious kind Of toy, for
the movement OF the wheels is not like the
hop Of 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 IL Is another matter when Mr.. Morse
discovers precisely similar Aino toy, prob
ably some POO years old. The Amos are a
peculiarly hairy race. who have a fable that
they are descended from bears. which they
ignornntly worship They are. or very late
ly were. savages In low grade and with
wheels they have no acquaintance any
more than l.iddesdalo had before Scott
drove the FIRST dogcart through the region
MIR. Morse decides that the bird, which he
cngraves, Is not OF japanese work-the
wheels have the popularity of being "ir-
regularly ovatc, 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 rare
form OF Egyptian toy, about 80 A. d., and
at the ends Of the earth. among the hairy
Amos. a similar toy. remarkable for pos
sessing wheels, otherwise unused by the
Amos. The problem Is. Has the pattern III.
tered FAR east In some unknown manner, or
has IL been Independently invented. wheels
and all, by some Aino genius who never
carried his valuable invention any furthcri
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