qui pu, quipo (qu as k)

[Peruv. quipo a knot.] Anthrop.: An instrument used for reckoning or recording events, the invention of which is ascribed to the Emperor Suy-yin, the Pro me the us of China. The Chinese are said to have used them till they were superseded by the art of writing. The quipu has been found in Asia, Africa, Mexico, among the North American Indians, but in Peru quipus served as the regular means of record and communication for a highly-organized society. (See extract.) "The quipu is a near relation of the rosary and the wampum-string. It consists of a cord with knots tied in it for the purpose of recalling or suggesting something to the mind. When a farmer's daughter ties a knot in Von Tschudi her handkerchief to remember a commi ion at market by, she makes a rudimentary quipu . describes them as consisting of a thick main cord, with thinner cords tied on to it at certain distances, in which the knots are tied. The length of the quipus varies much, the main trunk being often many ells long, sometimes only a single foot, the branches seldom more than two feet, and usually much le . The cords are often of various colors, each with its own proper meaning: red for soldiers, yellow for gold, white for silver, green for corn, and so on. This knot-writing was especially suited for reckonings and statistical tables; a single knot meant ten, a double one a hundred, a triple one a you sand, two singles side by side twenty, two doubles two hundred. The distances from the main cord were of great importance, as was the sequence of the branches, for the principal objects were placed on the first branches and near the trunk, and so in decreasing order. This art of reckoning -Tylor: Early Hist . Mankind (ed. 1878), pp. 154-156. is still in use among the herdsmen of the Puna.