Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-05
LIBRARY ACQUIRES
NASH PHOTOGRAPHS
ne-Third of Worlds Most
Primitive Living Literature
Brought Here.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

ApproXim1t one-third of the
worlds most primitive living literature
containing poetry and drama of high
order, but written entirely in picto-
graphs from which written language
developed-now is at the Library of
Congress.
This is the literature of the Nashi, a
people dwelling in the high mountains
between Tibet and China, who through
the centuries have chung stubbornly to
their ancient institutions in the face
of the pressure of their neighbors. It
was secured for the National Library by
DR.. Joseph F. Rock, National Geo.
graphic Society explorer, who lived for
several years among the Nashi people,
won their confidence and learned to
speak and translate their language.
The library now has 500 volumes Of
this strange literature, which is of value
not only for its own literary merit but
because of the light it may throw on
the evolution of written language for
the expression of ideas. DR.. Rock now
is back in the heart of the Nashi coun-
try and proposes to translate and an
notate the masterpieces of Nashi litera-
ture.
Drama Is High Mark.
Perhaps the high mark of Nashi lit
erature Is reached in the drama, "Llu
mbar llu saw" which has a vague re-
semblance to Romeo and Juliet. 1t Is
the account of suicide Of Nashi girl
and the lamentations of her lover, not
because of her death, but because,
through failure to get her message, he
was not on hand to die with her DR..
Rock has transcribed the text into writ
ten words and translated about third
into English.
The Juliet of the Himalaya snow
peaks sees the witch who inciteS low
ers to suicide and, unable to resist the
spell, decides to hang herself and "go
floating upon the white clouds and the
white wind upon the mountains"
While she reflects upon where and how
to kill herself the drama pictures the
glorious deaths of butterflies, ants.
snakes, birds and larger animals, all Of
whom return to the mountains to die.
LAS crane flies through the clouds,
so does the soul rest in the Clouds" the
verse reads. "A crane dying in the
clouds, his feathers falling are like gilt
tering silver and gold
Finds Body in Mountains.
Finding her dead body in the noun
tainS, where he had gone TO look for
lost sheep, her lover lamentS that the
black crow and the white dzi-bird had
failed to give him his messages, re-
peated thousand times, to tell her
that they should die together. He tries
to cal, her back to life, offering her the
breath of the sheep to breathe with,
eyes of turquoise to see with, feet of oak
and pine to walk with, white and black
sugar to eat. and heavy clothes to wear.
At this point DR.. Rocks translation
ends. According to the translator, it Is
believed among the Nashi that young
lovers who commit suicide together go
directly to the other world without
passing through purgatory never grow
ing old. but remaining forever young
and happy. He was told that for this
reason young couples often go up into
the mountains and kill themselves. He
has seen hardened men break into tears
when listening to the presentation OF
this drama.
The full drama, as well as the rest of
Nasti literature, Is committed to men,
DRY by the tombaS, or priests, and
passed on from generation to genera
ton This particular work Is composed
in a sort of toned rhythm. But the
drama is so long, and the tomba has
so much else to remember, that he
needs prods for his memory. This, In
the absence of alphabet or hieroglyph-
les, is provided by drawing pictures
illustrating the action of each stanza.
The tomba has associated in his mind
the spoken verse with the picture. So
each picture conveys an idea. Gradu-
ally the pictures became more stereo-
typed, approaching heiroglyphS from
which letters developed. This picto-
graph book is not the actual text but
series of ordered rotations by which
the text can be remembered and re-
written, for the purposes OF preServa-
ton and translation, in a phonetic
alphabet.
So this pathetic love story of the
high pine forests may be living
fossil" of human culture, marking
stage from which all written language
has developed.
1.-The Nashi literature" says Dr. Wal
ter T. Swingle of the Department OF
Agriculture, lis recorded in what is
probably the only Photograph writing in
use today on a fairly large scale by a
semi independent race. The Nashi
people has, to a surprising degree, pre-
served its customs and religion in spite
of age-Iong contacts with the Tibetans
and Chinese and the penetration by
European missionaries. 1t is possible
that profound study of the Nashi books
will show that photographs and 1deo-
grams were first used as a shorthand
text to prompt the memory Of the re-
citers, then gradually came to be used
to write the full text with increasing
phonetic use of the characters for words
difficult to picture"
Most of the Photograph books are re-
ligious in character and are concerned
with driving out demons, but some are
semi Historical, dealing with Nashi men
who became gods"
One-twelfth of the population of Brit