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The messages might be verbal, or conveyed by means of the 'quipus. A quipu was a cord two feet long, composed of differently coloured threads twisted together, from which were hung a number of smaller threads, also differently coloured and tied in knots.
Indeed, the word 'quipu' means 'a knot. By means of the colours and the various knots the Peruvians expressed ideas it was their method of writing but the quipus were chiefly used for arithmetical purposes.
The quipu was a cord about two feet long, composed of different colored threads tightly twisted together, from which a quantity of smaller threads were suspended in the manner of a fringe. The threads were of different colors and were tied into knots. The word quipu, indeed, signifies a knot. The colors denoted sensible objects; as, for instance, white represented silver, and yellow, gold.
Quipu: Knotted, parti-colored strings used by the ancient Peruvians to keep records. A mnemonic device. Roof-peg: A roughly cylindrical block of stone bonded into a gable wall and allowed to project 12 or 15 inches on the outside. Used in connection with "eye-bonders," the roof-pegs served as points to which the roof could be tied down.
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