WRITING (the verbal noun of “to write,” O. Eng. writan, to inscribe), the use of letters, symbols or other conventional characters, for the recording by visible means of significant sounds; more specifically, the art of tracing by hand these symbols on paper or other material, by pen and ink, pencil, stylus or other such means, as opposed to mechanical methods such as printing. The principal features in the development of writing in its primary sense are dealt with in separate articles (see Alphabet, Palaeography, Inscriptions, Book, Manuscript, Shorthand, &c.). Here it is only necessary briefly to refer to the origins of a system which has eventually followed the history of the various languages and has been stereotyped by the progress of typography (q.v.). Very early in the history of mankind three needs become pressing. These are (a) to recall at a particular time something that has to be done; (b) to communicate with some other person who is not present, nor for the moment easily accessible; (c) to assert rights over tools, cattle, &c., by a distinctive mark, or by a similar mark to distinguish one's own production (e.g. a special make of pottery) from that of others. The last-named use, out of which in time develops every kind of trade-mark, is itself a development of the earlier property mark. The right to property must be established before traffic, whether by way of barter or of sale, is possible.
Every one is familiar with devices to achieve the first of these aims; one of the commonest is to tie a knot in a Knot signs. handkerchief. It is obvious that by multiplying the number of knots a number of points equal to the number of knots might in this way be referred to, though it is probable that the untrained memory would fail to recall the meaning attached to more than a very limited number of knots. The simplest application of these knots is in keeping a record of a number of days, as in the story related by Herodotus (iv. 98), to the effect that Darius, on crossing the Ister in his Scythian expedition, left with the Greeks appointed to guard the bridge a thong with a number of knots equal to the number of days that their watch over the bridge was to be continued. One knot was to be undone each day, and if the king had not returned by the time that all the knots were undone, the Greeks were to break down the bridge and go away. A development of this is found in the Peruvian quipus, which consists of a number of thongs or cords hanging from a top-band or cross-bar. In its simplified form, knots are merely tied upon the individual cords. In its more elaborate forms the cords are of different colours, and are knotted together so as to form open loops of various shapes. In the Antiguedades Peruanas,[1] we are told that the knots of the quipus in all probability indicated only numbers originally, but that as time went on the skill of the makers became so great that historical events, laws and edicts could thus be communicated. In every place of any importance there was an official whose business it was to interpret quipus received from a distance, and to make quipus himself. If, however, the quipus which was received came from a distant province, it was not intelligible without an oral explanation. Unfortunately, the art of interpretation of quipus is lost, so that it is impossible to ascertain how far the knots were merely a mnemonic for the messenger, and how far they were intelligible without explanation to a stranger. Similar mnemonics are said to have been used in the remotest antiquity amongst the Chinese, the Tibetans, and other peoples of the Old World.[2]
Similar in character to the quipus is the message-stick, which is still in use amongst the natives of Australia. A branch of a Message-sticks. tree is taken and notches made upon it. These are now cut with a knife; in earlier times they were made with the edge of a mussel shell. The notches are made in the presence of the messenger, who receives his instructions while they are being made. The notches are thus merely aids to memory, and not self-explanatory, though if messages frequently passed between two persons, practice would in time help the person to whom the message was sent to guess at the meaning, even without a verbal explanation. The following was the method of the Wotjoballuk of the Wimmera river in Victoria.[3] “The messenger carried the message-stick in a net bag, and on arriving at the camp to which he was sent, he handed it to the headman at some place apart from the others, saying to him, ‘So-and-so sent you this,’ and he then gives his message, referring as he does so to the notches on the message-stick; and if his message requires it, also enumerates the days or stages, as the case may be,” by a method of counting on different parts of the body.
For the purposes of communication with absent persons, however, another method commended itself, which in time was Marked pebbles. adopted also for mnemonic purposes. This method was the beginning whence some forms at least of later writing have been derived. From the very earliest times to which the energy of man can be traced, date two kinds of writing: (a) engraving of a visible object on some hard substance, such as the flat surface of a bone; (b) drawing, painting or engraving marks which could again be identified. Of the first kind are the engravings of reindeer, buffaloes and other animals by the cave men of prehistoric times; of the second are a large number of pebbles discovered by M. Ed. Piette at Mas d'Azil, on the left bank of the Arize, an account of which was published by the discoverer in L'Anthropologie (1896), vii. 384 sqq. This layer of coloured pebbles is intercalated between the last layer of the Reindeer Age and the first of the Neolithic period. The layer is over 2 ft. thick, of a reddish-black colour, and along with the pebbles are found cinders, peroxide of iron, teeth of deer perforated, probably in order to be strung like beads, harpoons of various kinds, and the bones of a large number of animals, some wheat, and, in the upper part of the layer, nuts, cherry-stones and plums. The stones were coloured with peroxide of iron. The characters are of two kinds: (a) a series of strokes which possibly indicate numbers, (b) graphic symbols. The stones were scattered about without connexion or relation one with another. Whatever the meaning may be, it is clear that the markings are not accidental. It is noticeable, however, that none of them definitely represent any animal, though some of them bear a certain resemblance to caterpillars or serpents. Others look like rough attempts to represent trees and river plants. A great number closely resemble symbols of the alphabet. Piette himself was inclined to see in the symbols the forerunners of the later syllabaries and alphabets of the East, nine of them agreeing with forms in the Cypriot syllabary (see below) and eleven with those of the Phoenician alphabet. A certain amount of likeness, however, could not well be avoided, for as soon as the artist advances beyond the single perpendicular or horizontal line he must, by crossing two lines, get forms which resemble alphabetical symbols. It might be therefore a safer conclusion to suppose that if they passed beyond magic symbols, to be buried like the Australian churinga, they were conventional marks understood by the members of the clan or tribe which frequented the caves of Mas d'Azil. It has been suggested that, like similar things among the American Indians, they may have been used in playing games or gambling.
A very large number of conventional marks, however, are demonstrably reductions from still older forms, conventional American picture-writing, &c. marks often developing out of pictographs. Pictography has, in fact, left its traces in all parts of the world. It has, however, been most widely developed in the New World as a system lasting down to modern times. The American Indians, besides picture-writing, used also (1) the simple mnemonic of a notched stick to record various incidents, such as the number of days spent on an expedition, the number of enemies slain and the like; (2) wampum belts, consisting of strung beads, which could be utilized as a mnemonic, exactly like a rosary. Wampum belts, however, were employed in more intricate forms; white beads indicated peace, purple or violet meant war. Sometimes a pattern was made in the belt with beads of a different colour, as in the belt presented to
