quippo

Updated: May 3, 2025

"Yes, I have frequently thought that the MS of every human life was like a Peruvian Quippo, a mass of many colored cords or threads, tied and knotted by unseen, and, possibly, angel hands. Here, my dear, put these violets in water, they are withering.

Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans - St. Elmo

To preserve the memory of their transactions, they used a bunch of threads of several colours called pron, similar to the quippo of the Peruvians, oh which they cast a number of knots according to circumstances.

Robert Kerr - A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 05 : Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the : Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea : and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time

The quippo is still used by the shepherds in Peru, to keep an account of the number in their flocks, to mark the day and hour when the different ewes yeaned, or when any of their lambs are lost. The religious system of the Araucanians, formerly that of all the native tribes of Chili, resembles in a great measure the freedom of their modes of life and government.

Robert Kerr - A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 05 : Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the : Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea : and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time