| Description |
Man learned early to read the messages of the footprint and the broken twig and the book of the clouds and the tides, as truly as though these were printed texts. Soon he began to make readable marks, blazing trails, signaling with piled stones and scratches on rock. Out of this came primitive pictograph for purposes of magic, commemoration, and communication. He talked to strangers in a sign language, the very symbols of which later were written down as characters. Simple pictures of these things came to stand for complicated ideas, as well as the things themselves. This opening program shows how very elaborate messages were early conveyed by simple signs.
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