Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
View full book text
________________
156
MINAHASSA SCRIPT
"Minahassa," from Nimahasa, means "confederation," or rather a "country that has been formed by binding a number of territories into one." It is the northeastern extremity of Celebes, now constituting a district of the Residency of Menado; 4.786 sq. kilometres, inhabited by 250,000 people living in about 300 villages, The Minahassas are divided into eight tribes.
90=21 foursapte nerstrenor
"కస్
Unlike the other peoples of Celebes, professing mainly (as far as they are not pagans) the Muslim faith, nearly the whole population of Minahassa is Christian. Very few are illiterates, although the Minahassas are also called "Alfuros," meaning "wild, half-savage." They speak Malay dialects, but physically they are different from the other tribes of the island; some authorities even suggested Japanese characteristics. According to their tradition, they immigrated from the north into the island.
DC B
2
THE
(6
ALPHABET
21 22 23 24
8 IP G H
45
6
Fig. 81
1. Chukcha inscribed tablet. 2, Chukcha ideograms
1, "Father." 2, "Mother." 3. "Son."
4. "Reindeer," "herd." 5, "On the river." 6,"Small, little."7. "Rich." 8, "Poor." 9, "Good." 10, "Bad." 11, "L." 12, "My, mine." 10 13. "Our."
14. "Food," "to eat." 15. "To live," 16, "To be." 17, "There." 18, "No." 19, "Only." 20, "Also." 21-23. Various kinds of fishes. 24, "Plate."
100
78
9
008322 ID & I
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19
20
$$ of orwor
28
25 26 27 29
26, Tea-pot." 27. "Milk."
(28, Tobacco-pipe.") 29, "Cigarette."
The Minahassas seem to have had an ideographic script, of which very little is now known. Only two pages of a Minahassa manuscript (partly reproduced in Fig. 79, 4) have been published.
CHUKCHA SCRIPT
Mention should also be made of some undeveloped ideographic scripts used by nomadic tribes of north-eastern European Russia and of Asiatic Russia, particularly in the Chukcha or Chukotsky peninsula; some tribes have spread to Kamtchatka.
They belong to the aboriginal or Paleo-Siberian group, and are mainly nomad reindeer breeders and hunters, as well as seal and whale hunters.
