. The book, its history and development. were only copiesof things seen. But inscriptions and symbols were presentlyscratched on them, and the blade bones of buffaloes inNorth America as well as the shoulder blades of sheep usedby the Arabs are equally convenient for writing upon. InSumatra inscriptions are commonly cut in flat pieces ofbone. Instances of inscriptions in ivory are very numerous,and the finest examples of these occur in the case of the Eomanconsular dij)tychs which are described a little further on. Information as to direction is still often given by meansof marks or blazes on
. The book, its history and development. were only copiesof things seen. But inscriptions and symbols were presentlyscratched on them, and the blade bones of buffaloes inNorth America as well as the shoulder blades of sheep usedby the Arabs are equally convenient for writing upon. InSumatra inscriptions are commonly cut in flat pieces ofbone. Instances of inscriptions in ivory are very numerous,and the finest examples of these occur in the case of the Eomanconsular dij)tychs which are described a little further on. Information as to direction is still often given by meansof marks or blazes on trees, a survival of a primitivemethod, and American lumbermen or loggers cuthieroglyphic marks of ownership on their logs when theysend them down stream. In times of trouble it often happens that primitivemethods of communication are resorted to, like that receivedby a Cavalier from his lady love who heard that thePioundheads were after him—she sent him a feather, andhe flew away and escaped. 10 THE BOOK: ITS HISTORY AND Fig. 6. Such symbolical messages are common enough amongsavage tribes, but without some key it is almost impossibleto interpret them. They are sovarious in their composition that nouseful analysis of them can be one such message from WestAfrica, strung on a string of fiat fibreknotted at each end, are a bit of shell, abit of fur, a bean, a cylindrical stick,a piece of leather, a mass of frogs eggsor something like it, a fiat piece ofbark, a feather, a tooth and a another are two pieces of fiat glasskept together with red thread, andtwo teeth on each side of it, allstrung on fibre, and so on. The Battas of Sumatra use different and probably moreelaborate messages, as theyconsist of carefully cut stripsof wood, resembling the oldspillikins with which our child-hoods days were made strips of thin wood,about three inches in length,are cut into various shapeswhich have no obvious col-lective meaning. In one ofthem is a c
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