Quï'pu, n.

(kē'po͞o), n.; pl. QUÏ'PUS. [Peruv. quipu, a knot.] 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;—used for recording events, and the like, among the ancient Peruvians, Mexicans, &c. [Written also quippo.]

☞ The threads were also of different colors, and were tied in knots. The colors denoted sensible objects, as white for silver, yellow for gold; and sometimes, also, abstract ideas, as white for peace, and red for war. The quipus were used chiefly for arithmetical purposes, the knots serving as ciphers. They constituted a rude register of certain important facts or events, as of births and deaths, marriages, the number of persons qualified to bear arms, the amount of stores in the royal magazines. “The mysterious science of the quipus . . . supplied the Peruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to one another, and of transmitting them to future generations.” Prescott.