Chapter XVIII: Section 2: South America

Alexander von Humboldt (_a_) gives general remarks, now condensed, upon petroglyphs in South America:

In the interior of South America, between the second and fourth
degrees of north latitude, a forest-covered plain is inclosed by
four rivers, the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the
Cassiquiare. In this district are found rocks of granite and of
syenite, covered with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles and
tigers, and drawings of household utensils, and of the sun and moon.
The tribes nearest to its boundaries are wandering naked savages,
in the lowest stages of human existence, and far removed from any
thoughts of carving hieroglyphics on rocks. One may trace in South
America an entire zone, extending through more than 8° of longitude,
of rocks so ornamented, viz, from the Rupuniri, Essequibo, and the
mountains of Pacaraima, to the banks of the Orinoco and of the
Yupura. These carvings may belong to very different epochs, for
Sir Robert Schomburgk even found on the Rio Negro representations
of a Spanish galiot, which must have been of a later date than the
beginning of the sixteenth century; and this in a wilderness where
the natives were probably as rude then as at the present time. Some
miles from Encaramada there rises in the middle of the savannah
the rock Tepu-Mereme, or painted rock. It shows several figures of
animals and symbolical outlines which resemble much those observed
by us at some distance above Encaramada, near Caycara. Rocks thus
marked are found between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo and, what
is particularly remarkable, 560 geographical miles farther to the
east, in the solitudes of Parime. Nicholas Hortsmann found on the
banks of the Rupunuri, at the spot where the river winding between
the Macarana mountains forms several small cascades, and before
arriving at the district immediately surrounding lake Amucu, “rocks
covered with figures,” or, as he says in Portuguese, “de varias
letras.” We were shown at the rock of Culimacari, on the banks of
the Cassiquiare, signs which were called characters, arranged in
lines, but they were only ill-shaped figures of heavenly bodies,
boa-serpents, and the utensils employed in preparing manioc meal. I
have never found among these painted rocks (piedras pintadas) any
symmetrical arrangement or any regular even-spaced characters. I am
therefore disposed to think that the word “letras,” in Hortsmann’s
journal, must not be taken in the strictest sense.

Schomburgk saw and described other petroglyphs on the banks of
the Essequibo, near the cascade of Warraputa. Neither promises nor
threats could prevail on the Indians to give a single blow with
a hammer to these rocks, the venerable monuments of the superior
mental cultivation of their predecessors. They regard them as the
work of the Great Spirit, and the different tribes whom we met with,
though living at a great distance, were nevertheless acquainted with
them. Terror was painted on the faces of my Indian companions, who
appeared to expect every moment that the fire of heaven would fall
on my head. I saw clearly that my endeavors to detach a portion of
the rock would be fruitless, and I contented myself with bringing
away a complete drawing of these memorials. Even the veneration
everywhere testified by the Indians of the present day for these
rude sculptures of their predecessors show that they have no idea of
the execution of similar works. There is another circumstance which
should be mentioned. Between Encaramada and Caycara, on the banks of
the Orinoco, a number of these hieroglyphical figures are sculptured
on the face of precipices at a height which could now be reached
only by means of extraordinarily high scaffolding. If one asks the
natives how these figures have been cut, they answer, laughing, as
if it were a fact of which none but a white man could be ignorant,
that “in the days of the great waters their fathers went in canoes
at that height.”

UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA.

Mr. W. H. Holmes (_b_), of the Bureau of Ethnology, gives this account of petroglyphs in the province of Chiriqui, state of Panama:

_Pictured rocks._--Our accounts of these objects are very
meager. The only one definitely described is the “piedra pintal.” A
few of the figures engraved upon it are given by Seemann, from whom
the following paragraph is quoted:

“At Caldera, a few leagues (north) from the town of David, lies
a granite block known to the country people as the piedra pintal or
painted stone. It is 15 feet high, nearly 50 feet in circumference,
and flat on the top. Every part, especially the eastern side, is
covered with figures. One represents a radiant sun; it is followed
by a series of heads, all with some variations, scorpions, and
fantastic figures. The top and the other side have signs of a
circular and oval form, crossed by lines. The sculpture is ascribed
to the Dorachos (or Dorasques), but to what purpose the stone was
applied no historical account or tradition reveals.”

These inscriptions are irregularly placed and much scattered.
They are thought to have been originally nearly an inch deep, but in
places are almost effaced by weathering, thus giving a suggestion of
great antiquity. Tracings of these figures made recently by Mr. A.
L. Pinart show decided differences in detail, and Mr. McNiel gives
still another transcription.

In Fig. 105 Mr. McNiel’s sketch of the southwest face of the rock is presented.

Other illustrations from Colombia appear as Figs. 151 and 1166, infra.

GUIANA.

The name of Guiana has been applied to the territory between the rivers Amazon, Orinoco, Negro, and Cassiquiare. It was once divided into the French, British, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish Guianas. The Portuguese Guiana now belongs to Brazil and Spanish Guiana is part of Venezuela. Many petroglyphs have been found in the several Guianas. They appear throughout the whole of the part belonging to Venezuela, but they are more thickly grouped in parts of the valley of the Orinoco.

The subject is well discussed in the following extract from Among the Indians of Guiana, by im Thurn (_a_):

The pictured rocks of Guiana are not all of one kind. In all
cases various figures are rudely depicted on larger or smaller
surfaces of rocks. Sometimes these figures are painted, though such
cases are few and of but little moment; more generally they are
graven on the rock, and these alone are of great importance. Rock
sculptures may, again, be distinguished into two kinds, differing
in the depth of incision, the apparent mode of execution, and, most
important of all, the character of the figures represented.

Painted rocks in British Guiana are mentioned by Mr. C.
Barrington Brown. He says that in coming down past Amailah fall,
on the Cooriebrong river, he passed “a large white sandstone rock
ornamented with figures in red paint.” * * * Mr. Wallace, in his
account of his Travels on the Amazons, mentions the occurrence of
similar drawings in more than one place near the Amazons. * * *

The engraved rocks must be of some antiquity; that is to
say, they must certainly date from a time before the influence
of Europeans was much felt in Guiana. As has already been said,
the engravings are of two kinds and are probably the work of two
different people; nor is there even any reason to suppose that the
two kinds were produced at one and the same time.

These two kinds of engravings may, for the sake of convenience,
be distinguished as “deep” and “shallow,” respectively, according
as the figures are deeply cut into the rock or are merely scratched
on the surface. The former vary from one-eighth to one-half of an
inch, or even more, in depth; the latter are of quite inconsiderable
depth. This difference probably corresponds with a difference in the
means by which they were produced. The deep engravings seem cut into
the rock with an edged tool, probably of stone; the shallow figures
were apparently formed by long continued friction with stones and
moist sand. The two kinds seem never to occur in the same place or
even near to each other; in fact, a distinct line may almost be
drawn between the districts in which the deep and shallow kinds
occur, respectively; the deep form occurs at several spots on the
Mazeruni, Essequibo, Ireng, Cotinga, Potaro, and Berbice rivers. The
shallow form has as yet only been reported from the Corentyn river
and its tributaries, where, however, examples occur in considerable
abundance. But the two kinds differ not only in the depth of
incision, in the apparent mode of their production, and in the place
of their occurrence, but also--and this is the chief difference
between the two--in the figures represented.

Fig. 106 is a typical example of the shallow carvings.

Fig. 1104, infra, is a similar example of the deep carvings.

The shallow engravings seem always to occur on comparatively
large and more or less smooth surfaces of rock, and rarely, if
ever, as the deep figures, on detached blocks of rock, piled
one on the other. The shallow figures, too, are generally much
larger, always combinations of straight or curved lines in figures
much more elaborate than those in the deep engravings; and these
shallow pictures always represent not animals, but greater or less
variations of the figure which has been described. Lastly, though I
am not certain that much significance can be attributed to this, all
the examples that I have seen face more or less accurately eastward.

The deep engravings, on the other hand, consist not of a single
figure but of a greater or less number of rude drawings. * * * These
depict the human form, monkeys, snakes, and other animals, and also
very simple combinations of two or three straight or curved lines
in a pattern, and occasionally more elaborate combinations. The
individual figures are small, averaging from 12 to 18 inches in
height, but a considerable number are generally represented in a
group.

Some of the best examples of this latter kind are at Warrapoota
cataracts, about six days’ journey up the Essequibo.

* * * The commonest figures at Warrapoota are figures of men
or perhaps sometimes monkeys. These are very simple and generally
consist of one straight line, representing the trunk, crossed by
two straight lines at right angles to the body line; one about
two-thirds of the distance from the top, represents the two arms as
far as the elbows, where upward lines represent the lower part of
the arms; the other, which is at the lower end, represent the two
legs as far as the knees, from which point downward lines represent
the lower part of the legs. A round dot, or a small circle, at the
top of the trunk line, forms the head; and there are a few radiating
lines where the fingers, a few more where the toes, should be.
Occasionally the trunk line is produced downwards as if to represent
a long tail. Perhaps the tailless figures represent men, the
tailed monkeys. In a few cases the trunk, instead of being indicated
by one straight line, is formed by two curved lines, representing
the rounded outlines of the body; and the body thus formed is
bisected by a row of dots, almost invariably nine in number, which
seem to represent vertebræ.

Most of the other figures at Warrapoota are very simple
combinations of two, three, or four straight lines similar to the
so-called “Greek meander pattern,” which is of such widespread
occurrence. Combinations of curved and simple spiral lines also
frequently occur. Many of these combinations closely resemble the
figures which the Indians of the present day paint on their faces
and naked bodies.

The same author (pp. 368, 369) gives the following account of the superstitious reverence entertained for the petroglyphs by the living Indians of Guiana:

Every time a sculptured rock or striking mountain or stone is
seen, Indians avert the ill will of the spirits of such places by
rubbing red peppers (_Capsicum_) each in his or her own eyes. * *
* Though the old practitioners inflict this self-torture with the
utmost stoicism, I have again and again seen that otherwise rare
sight of Indians children, and even young men, sobbing under the
infliction. Yet the ceremony was never omitted. Sometimes, when by
a rare chance no member of the party had had the forethought to
provide peppers, lime juice was used as a substitute; and once, when
neither peppers nor limes were at hand, a piece of blue indigo-dyed
cloth was carefully soaked, and the dye was then rubbed into the
eyes.

The same author (_b_) adds:

It may be as well briefly to sum up the few facts that can be
said, with any probability, of these rock pictures in Guiana. The
engravings are of two kinds, which may or may not have had different
authors and different intention. They were still produced after the
first arrival of Europeans, as is shown by the sculptured ship. They
were, therefore, probably made by the ancestors of the Indians now
in the country; for, from the writings of Raleigh and other early
explorers, as well as from the statements of early colonists, it is
to be gathered that the present tribes were already in Guiana at
the time of the first arrival of Europeans, though not perhaps in
the same relative positions as at present. The art of stone-working
being destroyed by the arrival of Europeans, the practice of
rock-engraving ceased. Possibly the customary figures were for a
time painted instead of engraved; but this degenerated habit was
also soon relinquished. As to the intention of the figures, that
they had some seems certain, but what kind this was is not clear.
Finally, these figures really seem to indicate some very slight
connection with Mexican civilization.

The following extract from a paper on the Indian picture-writing in British Guiana, by Mr. Charles B. Brown (_a_), gives views and details somewhat different from the foregoing:

These writings or markings are visible at a greater or less
distance in proportion to the depth of the furrows. In some
instances they are distinctly visible upon the rocks on the banks
of the river at a distance of 100 yards; in others they are so
faint that they can only be seen in certain lights by reflected
rays from their polished surfaces. They occur upon greenstone,
granite, quartz-porphyry, gneiss, and jasperous sandstone, both in
a vertical and horizontal position, at various elevations above
the water. Sometimes they can only be seen during the dry season
when the rivers are low, as in several instances on the Berbice
and Cassikytyn rivers. In one instance, on the Corentyn river,
the markings on the rock are so much above the level of the river
when at its greatest height, that they could only have been made
by erecting a staging against the face of the rock, unless the
river was at the time much above its usual level. The widths of the
furrows vary from half an inch to 1 inch, while the depth never
exceeds one-fourth of an inch. * * * The furrows present the same
weather-stained aspect as the rocks upon which they are cut. * * *

The Indians of Guiana know nothing about the picture-writing by
tradition. They scout the idea of their having been made by the hand
of man, and ascribe them to the handiwork of the Makunaima, their
great spirit. * * *

As these figures were evidently cut with great care and at much
labor by a former race of men, I conclude that they were made for
some great purpose, probably a religious one, as some of the figures
give indications of phallic worship.

VENEZUELA.

Prof. R. Hartmann (_a_) presented a pencil drawing of a South American rock, covered with sculptures, sketched by Mr. Anton Goering, a painter in Leipzig, which is here reproduced as Fig. 107. The rock is situated not far from San Esteban, a village in the vicinity of Puerto Cabello, in Venezuela. C. F. Appun, in Unter den Tropen, I, p. 82, remarks as follows in reference to this “Piedra de los Indios” (Indians’ stone), a large granite block lying by the side of the road:

These drawings, cut in the stone to a depth of half an inch,
mostly represent snakes and other animal forms, human heads and
spiral lines, and differ from those which I afterward saw in Guiana,
on the Essequibo and Rupununi, in characters and forms, but
their execution, like that of the latter, is rude. Though greatly
weathered by the influence of rain and the atmosphere, the figures
can still be perfectly distinguished and gigantic patience, such as
none but Indians possess, was surely needed to carve them in the
hard granite mass by means of a stone.

Dr. G. Marcano (_a_) gives an account translated as follows, which is connected with Fig. 108:

A tradition, the legend of the rock of Tepumereme, has been
preserved by Father Gili. Some old writers, adhering to the Tamanak
acceptation of the word, say indifferently tepumeremes or rocas
pintadas (painted rocks). Usage has converted Tepumereme into a
proper noun. At the present day it is applied exclusively to the
rock situated some leagues from Encaramada, in the midst of the
savanna, this rock having been the Mount Ararat of the Tamanaks.

Supposing that it is authentic, this legend, which we will
relate further on [see page 33, supra], yields no information that
might aid us in interpreting hieroglyphs, and so we are reduced to
describing its principal characters.

Not all our pictographs correspond to the region of the Raudals,
but in our ignorance of the peoples who carved them we see no harm
in bringing them together so long as they all come from the banks
of the Orinoco, and so long as the localities where they exist are
indicated. The copies which we give of them have been very carefully
made and reduced to one-tenth.

The first thing that strikes one on looking at them is that,
despite differences in detail, the design presents a general common
character. In fact, there is question not of figures with undecided
forms, but with sure lines perfectly traced and combined in one and
the same style. They are geometric designs rather than objective
representations. The illustration [Fig. 108] came from a rock in
the vicinity of Caïcara, a town situated on the right bank of the
Orinoco, close to its last great bend. It represents three jaguars,
one large and two small, the former being separated from the latter
by an ornamented sun placed at the level of their feet. The spotting
of their hides is rendered by means of angular lines arranged in so
regular a manner that one might take them to be tigers did he not
know that these felines never existed in these regions. The jaguars
differ in insignificant details which, however, must have a purpose,
in view of the general regularity. The largest shows six radiating
lines on the muzzle and a circle in one of the ears. The second
shows two hooks on the lower part of the body. The third is preceded
by an isolated head, which is unfinished, without ears, inclined
differently from the others. Some differences are also noted in the
limbs.

Placed in the attitude of marching, these animals seem to
descend from a height and to follow the same direction. Perhaps
there is question here of a mnemonic whole, and, we might add, of a
totem, if we knew that that system had been employed by the Indians
of the region.

The same author (p. 205) gives a description of the petroglyphs of the rapids of Chicagua, here presented as Fig. 109.

This interesting collection includes the most varied ideographs.

Alongside of representations analogous to the preceding there
appear new characters and partial groupings which we had not
yet found. On running over them one passes successively from
simple points to figures made up of tangled lines, to objective
representations, and even to letters of the alphabet, a resemblance
which, of course, is fortuitous.

The first group begins by three points similar to those in Fig.
19 [of Marcano, occurring in Fig. 1105 in this paper], followed by
two circles with central dots, and terminates below in a plexus of
broken lines. The second group, placed at the right, is composed of
regular figures of great variety. Among them we note the two lowest,
one of which resembles a K and the other a reversed A. A spiral, two
circles, one of which has two appendices, and a figure in broken
lines make up the third group. Below is seen a coiled serpent. Its
head is characteristic; it is found in other pre-Columbian carvings
of the Orinoco. As regards design e, we will merely call attention
to the sign analogous to the E of our alphabet. It is found at times
in the United States of America. [For this remark the author refers
to the ideograph for pain, in Figs. 824 and 872, infra.]

Design _f_ is an animal difficult to characterize; its head and
tail may be guessed at. The body is covered with ornaments and the
legs, very incomplete, are in the attitude of running. Design _g_
represents probably a tree with an appendix of undulating lines;
design _h_, a head surmounted by a complicated headgear. This is
the first distinctly human representation that we have found in
the country. The strange combinations of designs _j_, _k_, and _l_
exhibit the dots at the end of the lines which we have already
spoken of. Design _m_ resembles an M; design _n_ shows a circle with
plane face.

Thus we see that the statements of some travelers concerning
mysterious hieroglyphic combinations are far from being realized.
As regards the exaggerations of Humboldt, they arise from the fact
that he did not content himself with describing what he had seen.
This is illustrated by the following sentence: “There is even seen
on a grassy plain near Uruana an isolated granite rock on which,
according to the account of _trustworthy people_, there are seen
at a height of 80 feet deeply carved images which appear arranged
in rows and represent the sun, the moon, and different species of
animals, especially crocodiles and boas.” Elsewhere he speaks of
kitchen and household utensils and of a number of objects which he
can only have seen with the eyes of his imagination.

Other illustrations of pictographs in Venezuela are presented as Figs. 152, 153, 1105 and 1106, infra.

BRAZIL.

Remarks of general applicability to this region are made by Mr. J. Whitfield (_a_), an abstract of which follows:

The rock inscriptions were visited in August, 1865. Several
similar inscriptions are said to exist in the interior of the
province of Ceará, as well as in the provinces of Pernambuco and
Piauhy, especially in the Sertaōs, that is, in the thinly-wooded
parts of the interior, but no mention is ever made of their having
been seen near the coast.

In the margin and bed only of the river are the rocks inscribed.
On the margin they extend in some instances to 15 or 20 yards.
Except in the rainy season the stream is dry. The rock is a
silicious schist of excessively hard and flinty texture. The marks
have the appearance of having been made with a blunt, heavy tool,
such as might be made with an almost worn-out mason’s hammer. The
situation is about midway between Serra Grande or Ibiapaba and
Serra Merioca, about 70 miles from the coast and 40 west of the
town Sobral. The native population attribute all the “Letreiros”
(inscriptions), as they do everything else of which they have no
information, to the Dutch, as records of hidden wealth. The Dutch,
however, only occupied the country for a few years in the early part
of the seventeenth century. Along the coast numerous forts, the
works of the Dutch, still remain; but there are no authentic records
of their ever having established themselves in the interior of the
country, and less probability still of their amusing themselves
with inscribing puzzling hieroglyphics, which must have been a work
of time, on the rocks of the far interior, for the admiration of
wandering Indians.

Mr. Franz Keller (_a_) narrates as follows regarding Fig. 110:

I found a “written rock” covered with spiral lines and
concentric rings, evenly carved in the black gneiss-like material,
and similar to those of the Caldeirão. Looking about for more, I
discovered a perfect inscription, whose straight orderly lines can
hardly be thought the result of lazy Indians’ “hours of idleness.”
These characters were incised on a very hard smooth block 3 feet
4 inches in length, and 3-1/4 feet in height and breadth. It lay
at an angle of 45°, only 8 feet above low water, and close to the
water’s edge of the second smaller rapid, the Cachoeira do Ribeirão.
The transverse section of the characters is not very deep, and
their surface is as worn as that of the inscription farther down.
In some places they are almost effaced by time and are to be seen
distinctly only with a favorable light. A dark brown coat of glaze,
found everywhere on the surface of the stones, laved at times by
the water, covers the block so uniformly well on the concave glyphs
as on the parts untouched by instrument, that many ages must have
elapsed since some patient Indian spent long hours in cutting them
out with his quartz chisel. As the lines of the inscription run
almost perfectly horizontally, and as the figures near the Caldeirão
and the Cachoeira and the Cachoeira das Lages are so little above
low-water mark, the present position of the block seems to have been
the original one. * * * On the rocky shores of the Araguaya, that
huge tributary of the Tocantino, there are similar rude outlines of
animals near a rapid called Martirios, from the first Portuguese
explorers fancying they recognized the instruments of the Passion
in the clumsy representation.

Dr. Ladisláu Netto (_a_) gives the illustration, reproduced as Fig. 111, of an inscription discovered by Domingos S. Ferreira Penna on the rock called Itamaraca, on the Rio Xingu. Dr. Netto’s description is translated as follows:

This whole inscription seems to represent one idea, figuring
a collection of villages of vast proportions, inclosed by
fortifications on two sides, at which it seems most accessible.
On these same sides this collection of villages has external
constructions or means of security, a kind of meanders or symbolic
figures, which perhaps signify difficulties besetting the
communication of the inhabitants with the surrounding fields.

In the lower part of the left-hand side there is a group of
figures which seem to represent residences of chiefs, war houses, or
redoubts, built near the principal entrance to the villages or to
the city for its defense. There are found three figures of saurians,
one with a large tail, on the side of the redoubts or fortified
houses, as if representing the population, and two with small tails,
which seem strange, and which walk toward the first.

This inscription is evidently the most perfect and the most
notable of those found till now in all America [?], not only by its
perfect condition and dimensions, but also by the mode in which a
series of ideas has here been brought together.

The same author, on p. 552, furnishes copies of inscriptions carved on stones in the valley of the Rio Negro, and remarks: “In this series there are notable the two crowned personages [represented here in Fig. 112], one of whom holds a staff in the right hand, and below and under them there are two figures of capibars (sea-hogs) facing each other, and whose representation in black color resembles some figures from the inscriptions of North America.”

The following account is in Dr. E. R. Heath’s (_a_) Exploration of the River Beni:

Hieroglyphics were found on rocks at the falls and rapids of the
rivers Madeira and Mamoré. * * * By accident we found some at the
rapids at the foot of Caldierão do Inferno. Designs _d_ and _b_ are
figures on the same rock side by side. _a_ is another face of the
same rock 10 feet across. _e_ and _f_ are on the upper surface of
a rock, and _c_ on one of its sides near the bottom; _g_ is upon a
rock 15 feet above the surface of the river. Many more were on the
other rocks, but our time did not permit further copying. Mr. T. M.
Fetterman, my companion, and myself sketched as fast as possible.

Fig. 113 is a reproduction of the illustration given.

The moment we arrived at the falls of Girão we searched for
stone carvings, finding a few, and several repetitions of circles
similar to those already found. Designs _a_ and _d_ are on the
west and east side of the same rock, which is 9 feet in length.
The figure is 21 inches high, the five circles 1 foot across. The
east side was almost obliterated. Designs _b_ and _c_ are on loose
stones; _b_, facing west, is 16 inches long; the rock is 50 inches
long and 35 wide; _c_ is 22 inches long; the rock 70 inches long by
27 inches broad, and was 30 feet above the river at date. The rocks
are basaltic, dipping north at an angle of 86°. Many small stones,
1 and 2 feet in diameter, lie about, with marks on them nearly
defaced.

Fig. 114 is a reproduction of the illustration.

At Pederneira all the rocks on the right side at the foot of
the rapids are literally covered with figures. Fig. 115 _a_ is on a
large bowlder facing the south; _b_ has joined to its right side,
_c_; _d_, _e_, and _f_ are on the same stone. Most of these rocks
are only a few feet above low water and are covered at least eight
months each year.

At Araras rapids the river is very wide, [containing] two
islands and a rocky ledge crossing the river from the rapid. Nearly
all the rocks on the right bank are covered with figures.

These are reproduced in Fig. 116.

Having no small canoe we could not pass a small channel so as
to gather copies of the figures we could see at a distance. The
approaches both above and below the rapids and falls are many times
as difficult to pass as the rapid or fall itself, giving rise to the
division into “head,” “body,” and “tail.” Some not only have these
divisions, but also have these subdivided into “head, body, and
tail.” One is constantly hearing “el rabo,” “el rabo del rabo,” “el
rabo del cuerpo,” or “cabeza,” and so on.

Ribeiráo.--The tail of the rapid is 3 miles in length, a
continuous broken current and fields of rocks. It is here, on a rock
but a foot or two above the river, that the hieroglyphic shown in
F. Keller’s “Amazon and Madeira” is found. As both Mr. Fetterman
and myself made copies of it, unknown to the other till finished,
our copies may be relied on, although differing from Keller’s. The
length of the upper part is 45 inches and of the lower 36 inches,
with 13 inches depth of each.

The copy mentioned is given here as Fig. 117.

The character of the lower right-hand corner was at one time as
clearly cut as we represent it, some of the edges being yet clear
and distinct.

At the rapid of Madeira there were a number of circles similar
to 15 and 16 at Ribeiráo. On a ridge of rocks in the middle of the
river, just above Larges rapids, are figures, and we had only time
to sketch one, Fig. 118.

At Pao Grande we had a better harvest, showing evidently a later
period than the former. One could easily believe these were made at
the time of the Spanish conquest, the anchors, shields, and hearts
being so often found in Spanish religious rites. Without doubt these
were notices for navigators, as they were only out of water and seen
when that passage was dangerous. Where projecting points of rock
gave a face both up and down stream the same figure was on both
faces. These rocks are syenitic granite and are cut to a depth of a
half inch.

Fig. 119 is a reproduction of the copy published.

Senhor Tristão de Alencar Araripe (_a_) gives a large number of descriptions with illustrations, a selection of which, with translations, is as follows:

In the province of Ceará district of Inhamun, on the plantation
of Carrapateira, is a small hill (or mound). On the face of one of
its rocks, on the eastern side, near the edge of the road, is the
inscription given in Fig. 120 painted in red.

In the district of Inhamun, on the plantation of Carrapateira,
in Morcego, on the top of a mound, is a semicircular stone bearing
on the face toward the mound the four characters which appear in
Fig. 121.

In Inhamun, on the plantation of Carrapateira, in Morcego, is a
large stone mound, the stones being piled up in a form of a tower;
and in the inside of this tower, on the south or southwest side, are
the characters given in Fig. 122 painted in bright, cochineal color.

Near the road from Cracará to Favelas, Inhamun, is a large
rock, on the face of which, at the top of the western side, is the
inscription [given on the upper part of Fig. 123,] all in red paint,
as is also that following.

The under part of this rock forms a shelter, and on the roof of
this shelter are all the remaining characters of the figure.

To the right or south of the shelter containing the inscription
is a stone, with the form of the figure represented in the third
place in the lower row of characters, counting from left to right,
on a small heap, with the rear end raised up and the sharp point
toward the east, its side inclining toward the west, in such a way
that it can be climbed to the end which is erect.

On the same side, at the south, but beyond this, on the top of
a rise, is a mound in sight, which is represented by the figure
[delineated in the lower part of Fig. 123 at the extreme right,]
resembling an inclosure (corral) with the 21 small lines before it.

Fig. 124 is a copy of an inscription at Pedra Lavrada, Province of Parahiba, published loc. cit., but the description by Senhor de Alencar Araripe is very meager, amounting in substance to the following:

This is an inscription of vast proportions on a large rock in
the town of Pedra Lavrada, which takes its name from that of the
rock.

Other petroglyphs in Brazil are copied in Figs. 1107, 1108, 1109, 1110, 1111, 1113, 1114, and also under the heading of Cup Sculptures, Chapter V, infra.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

F. P. Moreno (_a_), Museo de La Plata, Catamarca, gives an illustration of an inscribed rock at Bajo de Canota, Mendoza, reproduced as Fig. 125.

PERU.

The following account is furnished by Messrs. de Rivero and Von Tschudi (_a_):

Eight leagues north of Arequipa there exist a multitude of
engravings on granite which represent figures of animals, flowers,
and fortifications, and which doubtless tell the story of events
anterior to the dynasty of the Incas.

The illustration presented is copied here as Fig. 126.

The account is continued as follows:

In the province of Castro-Vireyna, in the town of Huaytara,
there is found in the ruins of a large edifice, of similar
construction to the celebrated palace of old Huanuco, a mass of
granite many square yards in size, with coarse engravings like
those last mentioned near Arequipa. None of the most trustworthy
historians allude to these inscriptions or representations, or
give the smallest direct information concerning the Peruvian
hieroglyphics, from which it may possibly be inferred that in the
times of the Incas there was no knowledge of the art of writing
in characters and that all of these sculptures are the remains
of a very remote period. * * * In many parts of Peru, chiefly
in situations greatly elevated above the sea are vestiges of
inscriptions very much obliterated by time.

The illustration is copied here as Fig. 127.

Charles Wiener (_a_), in Pérou et Bolivie, gives another statement, viz:

The archeologists of Peru have only found a single
point--Tiahuanaco--where there were a limited number, though very
interesting, of signs on rocks or stones which seemed to all
observers to be symbolic. While there are a few petroglyphs found in
Peru there are a large number of inscriptions properly so called on
the tissues which cover or are found in connection with remains in
the graves.

A number of pictographs from Peru are described and illustrated infra (see Figs. 688, 720, and 1167).

CHILE.

Prof. Edwyn C. Reed, of Valparaiso, Chile, presented through A. P. Niblack, ensign U. S. Navy, a photograph of a large bowlder bearing numerous sculpturings. No information pertaining to the locality at which the rock is situated or details respecting the characters upon it were furnished. The photograph is reproduced in Fig. 128.

Mr. R. A. Philippi, of Santiago, a corresponding member, made a communication to the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, session of January 19, 1876, page 38, from which the following is extracted and translated:

I made a visit to the valley “Cajon de los Cipreses” in order to
see the glacier giving rise to the Rio de los Cipreses, a tributary
of the Cachapoal, and on that occasion had a cursory view of a rock
with some pictures. I send you herewith a drawing of the rock and
some of the figures cut on it. The rock, a kind of greenstone, lies
at an altitude of about 5,000 feet above sea level, and the surface
covered with figures, gently inclined down to the ground, may be
8 feet long and 5 or 6 feet high. The lines are about 4 mm. broad
and 1 to 1/2 mm. deep. The carved figures on the stone are without
any sort of order. When I spoke before a meeting of our faculty
of physical and mathematical sciences concerning this stone which
the shepherds of the region called piedra marcada, I learned that
similar stones with carved figures are found in various places.

The figure mentioned is here reproduced as Fig. 129.