Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1920 — Hieroglyphic and Cursive Writing Unknown to Tribes Until Almost Modern Times [ARTICLE]

Hieroglyphic and Cursive Writing Unknown to Tribes Until Almost Modern Times

Hieroglyphic writing preceded the art of cursive writing, and the latter, being at first regarded as sacred, was confined to the priesthood. Before the invention of either, communications between individuals, tribes and nations wef^madebymeansof the interchange of material objects, which were regarded symbolically, and a code of signals was thus devised for the transmission of important messages. For instance, Cooper in his “Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce,” says that a piece of chicken liver, two pieces of chicken fat, and a chill wrapped in red paper, meant: “Prepare to fight at once.” Cursive, or even hieroglyphic, writing was unknown to many savage tribes until almost modern times. About 1295. Toktai. a Kipshak prince, sent a symbolical declaration of war to Noghai, one of the most influential of Mongol princes. It consisted of a hoe. an arrow, and a handful of earth, which Noghai Interpreted as meaning: “If you hide in the earth, I will dig you out; if you rise to the heavens, I will shoot you down; choose a battlefield.” The ancient Peruvian Indians used a system of small stones, by means of which they learned the words they desired to remember.