Page:The Ancient Quipu, a Peruvian Knot Record.djvu/8

The following problems are presented by the Spanish accounts of the quipu:

1. Was the quipu used to record historical events, other than dates and numerical data?

2. Were the knots, mode of tying, grouping, color of cord, twisting of the strand, and distances used to convey ideas?^[1] Or were they used merely as memoria technica, without any individual significance, as is the case with the beads of the rosary?

Figure 45 from "The Ancient Quipu, A Peruvian Knot Record" by Leslie Leland Locke, 1912.

Fig. 45. — Manner of grouping the pendent cords and of attaching the top cord.

3. What was the significance of color? It is well known that there was a system of using roughly suggestive colors, as red for war, yellow for gold, etc.^[2]

4. What is the significance of grouping: of distances between the knots and from the main cord; and, finally, of the individual knot? It is the purpose of this paper to present a study of a represen-AM. ANTH. N. S., 14—22

1. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1888-89, p. 369.
2. Cf. Bastian, loc. cit., and Uhle, loc. cit., and also Bastian, Die Culturländer des alten America, iii, p. 74.