It would be an excellent thing to dissect and analyze the Swastika
material we have found; to generalize and deduce from it a possible theory
as to the origin, spread, and meaning of the Swastika and its related
forms, and endeavor, by examination of its associated works, to discover
if these were religious symbols or charms or mere decorations; and,
following this, determine if possible whether the spread of these objects,
whatever their meaning, was the result of migration, contact, or
communication. Were they the result of similar, but independent,
operations of the human mind, or were they but duplicate inventions, the
result of parallelism in human thought? This investigation must
necessarily be theoretical and speculative. The most that the author
proposes is to suggest probabilities and point the way for further
investigation. He may theorize and speculate, but recognizes what many
persons seem not able to do--that speculation and theory are not to be
substituted for cold facts. He may do no more than propound questions from
which other men, by study, experience, philosophy, or psychology, may
possibly evolve some general principle, or a theory pointing to a general
principle, concerning the mode of extension and spread of culture among
separate and independent peoples. When the facts shall have been gathered,
marshaled, arranged side by side, and each aggregation of facts shall have
been weighed, _pro_ and _con_, and its fair value given "without
prejudice or preconceived opinion," then will be time enough to announce
the final conclusion, and even then not dogmatically, but tentatively and
subject to future discoveries.
[Illustration: Fig. 313. POTTERY VASE FINELY DECORATED IN RED AND WHITE
GLAZE. Maltese cross with sun symbol (?). Cat. No. 132975, U. S. N. M.]
Throughout this paper the author has sought but little more than to
prepare material on the Swastika which can be utilized by those who come
after him in the determination of the difficult and abstruse problems
presented.
[Illustration: Fig. 314. GREEK CROSS REPRESENTING WINDS FROM CARDINAL
POINTS. Dakota Indians. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
fig. 1255.]
It is rare in the study of archæology and, indeed, in any science, that a
person is able to assert a negative and say what does not exist. The
present investigations are rendered much more comprehensive by the
appearance of the extensive and valuable work of Col. Garrick Mallery in
the Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, on the subject of
"Picture Writing of the American Indians." It is a work of about 800
pages, with 1,300 illustrations, and is the result of many years of
laborious study. It purports to be a history, more or less complete, of
the picture writing, signs, symbols, totems, marks, and messages of the
American Indian, whether pictographs or petroglyphs. A large portion of
his work is devoted to ideography, conventional signs, syllabaries and
alphabets, homorophs and symmorophs, and their respective means of
interpretation. Among these he deals, not specifically with the Swastika,
but in general terms with the cross. Therefore, by looking at Colonel
Mallery's work upon this chapter (p. 724), one is able to say negatively
what has not been found.
_Apropos_ of the meanings of the cross among the North American Indians
Count Goblet d'Alviella says:[286]
It is nevertheless incontestable that the pre-Columbian cross of
America is a "_rose des vents_," representing the four directions
whence comes the rain, or the cardinal points of the compass, etc.,
etc.
Colonel Mallery's volume shows that it meant many other things as well.
_The four winds._--The Greek cross is the form found by Colonel Mallery to
be most common among the North American aborigines, possibly because it is
the simplest. In this the four arms are equal in length, and the sign
placed upright so that it stands on one foot and not on two, as does the
St. Andrew's cross. The Greek cross (fig. 314) represents, among the
Dakotas, the four winds issuing out of the four caverns in which souls of
men existed before the incarnation of the human body. All the medicine
men--that is, conjurors and magicians--recollect their previous dreamy
life in these places, and the instructions then received from the gods,
demons, and sages; they recollect and describe their preexistent life, but
only dream and speculate as to the future life beyond the grave. The top
of the cross is the cold, all-conquering giant, the North Wind, most
powerful of all. It is worn on the body nearest the head, the seat of
intelligence and conquering devices. The left arm covers the heart; it is
the East Wind, coming from the seat of life and love. The foot is the
melting, burning South Wind, indicating, as it is worn, the seat of fiery
passion. The right arm is the gentle West Wind, blowing from the spirit
land, covering the lungs, from which the breath at last goes out gently,
but into unknown night. The center of the cross is the earth and man,
moved by the conflicting influences of gods and winds.
[Illustration: Fig. 315. THE CROSS IN CONNECTION WITH THE CIRCLE. Sun
symbols (?). Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 1118,
1120, 1126.]
[Illustration: Fig. 316. FIGURES OF CIRCLES AND RAYS PROBABLY REPRESENTING
SUN SYMBOLS. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, figs.
1118-1121, 1123.]
Rev. John McLain, in his work on the "Blackfoot Sun-dance," says:
On the sacred pole of the sun lodge of the Blood Indian is a bundle of
small brushwood taken from the birch tree, which is placed in the form
of a cross. This was an ancient symbol evidently referring to the four
winds.
[Illustration: Fig. 317. FIGURES OF CROSSES AND CIRCLES REPRESENTING STAR
SYMBOLS. Oakley Springs, Ariz. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 1129.]
[Illustration: Fig. 318. STAR SYMBOL. Circle and rays without cross.
Oakley Springs, Ariz. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig.
1129.]
[Illustration: Fig. 319. FIGURES OF CROSSES, CIRCLES, AND SQUARES
REPRESENTING LODGES. Dakota Indians. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 1203.]
_Sun and star symbols._--Great speculation has been made, both in Europe
and America, over the relation between the Swastika and the sun, because
the two signs have been associated by primitive peoples. Colonel Mallery
gives the Indian signs for the sun, stars, and light.[287] These have been
segregated, and it will be seen that the cross and circle are used
indiscriminately for one and the other, and the fact of the two being
found associated is no evidence of relationship in religious ideas (figs.
315-319).
_Dwellings._--Among the Hidatsa, the cross and the circle represent
neither the sun nor any religious ideas, but merely lodges, houses, or
dwellings. The crosses in fig. 319 represent Dakota lodges; the small
circles signify earth lodges, the points representing the supporting
poles. Buildings erected by civilized people were represented by small
rectangular figures, while the circles with dots in a square represent
earth lodges, the home of the Hidatsa.
[Illustration: Fig. 320. LATIN CROSSES REPRESENTING THE DRAGON FLY. Dakota
Indians.]
_Dragon fly (Susbeca)._--Among some of the Indian tribes, the Dakotas
among others, the Latin cross is found, i. e., upright with three members
of equal length, and the fourth, the foot, much longer. The use of this
symbol antedates the discovery of America, and is carried back in
tradition and myth. This sign signifies the mosquito hawk or the dragon
fly (fig. 320). It is called in that language the "Susbeca," and is a
supernatural being gifted with speech, warning man of danger, approaching
his ear silently and at right angles, saying, "Tci," "tci," "tci," an
interjection equivalent to "Look out!" "You are surely going to
destruction!" "Look out!" "Tci," "tci," "tci!" The adoption of the dragon
fly as a mysterious and supernatural being is on account of its sudden
appearance in numbers. In the still of the evening, when the shades of
darkness come, then is heard in the meadows a sound as of crickets or
frogs, but indistinct and prolonged; on the morrow the Susbeca will be
hovering over it. It is the sound of their coming, but whence no one
knows. The cross not only represents the shape of the insect, but also the
angle of its approach. It is variously drawn, but usually as in fig. 320
_a_ or _b_, and, in painting or embroidery, _c_, and sometimes _d_.
[Illustration: Fig. 321. DOUBLE CROSS OF SIX ARMS REPRESENTING THE DRAGON
FLY. Moki Indians, Arizona. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 1165.]
Fig. 321 is described in Keam's MS. as follows:
This is a conventional design of dragon flies, and is often found
among rock etchings throughout the plateau [Arizona]. The dragon flies
have always been held in great veneration by the Mokis and their
ancestors, as they have been often sent by Oman to reopen springs
which Muingwa had destroyed and to confer other benefits upon the
people.
This form of the figure, with little vertical lines added to the
transverse lines, connects the Batolatci with the Ho-bo-bo emblems.
The youth who was sacrificed and translated by Ho-bo-bo reappeared a
long time afterwards, during a season of great drought, in the form of
a gigantic dragon fly, who led the rain clouds over the lands of
Ho-pi-tu, bringing plenteous rains.
[Illustration: Fig. 322. FIGURES OF CROSSES AS USED BY THE ESKIMO TO
REPRESENT FLOCKS OF BIRDS. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
fig. 1228. Cat Nos. 44211 and 45020, U. S. N. M.]
[Illustration: Fig. 323. PETROGLYPH FROM TULARE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. Large
white Greek cross. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig.
1229.]
_Mide' or Shamans._--Colonel Mallery (or Dr. Hoffman) tells us (p. 726)
that among the Ojibways of northern Minnesota the cross is one of the
sacred symbols of the Society of Mide' or Shamans and has special
reference to the fourth degree. The building in which the initiation is
carried on has its opening toward the four cardinal points. The cross is
made of saplings, the upright poles approaching the height of four to six
feet, the transverse arms being somewhat shorter, each being of the same
length as the top; the upper parts are painted white or besmeared with
white clay, over which are spread small spots of red, the latter
suggesting the sacred shell of Mide', the symbol of the order. The lower
arm of the pole is square, the side toward the east being painted white to
denote the source of light and warmth; the face on the south is green,
denoting the source of the thunder bird which brings the rains and
vegetation; the surface toward the west is covered with vermilion,
relating to the land of the setting sun, the abode of the dead; the north
is painted black, as the direction from which comes affliction, cold, and
hunger.
_Flocks of birds._--Groups of small crosses on the sides of Eskimo bow
drills represent flocks of birds (Cat. Nos. 45020 and 44211, U. S. N. M.).
They are reproduced in fig. 322. Colonel Mallery's fig. 28, page 67,
represents a cross copied from the Najowe Valley group of colored
pictographs, 40 miles west of Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, Cal.
The cross measured 20 inches in length, the interior being painted black
while the border is of a dark red tint. This design, as well as others in
close connection, is painted on the walls of a shallow cave or rock
shelter in the limestone formation. Fourteen miles west of Santa Barbara,
on the summit of the Santa Ynez Mountains, is a cavern having a large
opening west and north, in which are crosses of the Greek type, the
interior portion being painted a dull earthy red, while the outside line
is a faded-black tint. The cross measures nearly a foot in extent. At the
Tulare Indian Agency, Cal., is an immense bowlder of granite. It has been
split, and one of the lower quarters has been moved sufficiently to leave
a passageway six feet wide and nearly ten feet high. The interior walls
are well covered with large painted figures, while upon the ceilings are
numerous forms of animals, birds, and insects. Among this latter group is
a white cross about 18 inches in length (fig. 323), presenting a unique
appearance, for the reason that it is the only petroglyph in that region
to which the white coloring matter has been applied.
[Illustration: Fig. 324. PETROGLYPHS FROM OWEN'S VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. (_a_,
_b_) Greek crosses, (_c_) double Latin cross, (_d-f_) Latin crosses
representing human figures. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 1230.]
An interesting example of rock sculpturing in groups is in Owens Valley,
south of Benton, Cal. Among them are various forms of crosses, and circles
containing crosses of simple and complex types. The most interesting in
this connection are the groups in fig. 324, _a_ and _b_. The larger one,
_a_, occurs upon a large bowlder of tracite 16 miles south of Benton, at
the "Chalk grave." The circle is a depression about one inch in depth, the
cross being in high relief. The small cross _b_, found three miles north
from this is almost identical, the arms of the cross, however, extending
to the rim of the circle. In this locality occurs also the cross, _c_,
same figure, and some examples having more than two cross arms.
[Illustration: Fig. 325. CROSS IN ZIGZAG LINES REPRESENTING THE HUMAN
FORM. Navajo Indians.]
_Human forms._--Other simple crosses represent the human form. Some of
these are engraved or cut on the rocks of Owens Valley and are similar to
those above described (fig. 324), but they have been eroded, so that
beyond the mere cross they show slight relation to the human body (fig.
324, _d_, _e_, _f_). Col. James Stevenson, describing the Hasjelti
ceremony of the Navajoes,[288] shows the form of a man drawn in the sand
(fig. 325). Describing the character shown in fig. 326, Keam says: "The
figure represents a woman. The breath is displayed in the interior."[289]
[Illustration: Fig. 326. MALTESE CROSS(?) REPRESENTING A WOMAN. The figure
in the center is intended to indicate the breath.]
[Illustration: Fig. 327. MALTESE AND SAINT ANDREW'S CROSSES. Emblems of
maidenhood. Moki Indians.]
_Maidenhood._--Concerning fig. 327 Keam, in his manuscript, says the
Maltese cross was the emblem of a virgin, and is still so recognized by
the Moki. It is a conventional development of the common emblem of
maidenhood, wherein the maidens wear their hair arranged as in a disk
three or four inches in diameter on each side of the head (fig. 327_b_).
This discoidal arrangement of the hair is typical of the emblem of
fructification worn by the virgin in the Muingwa festival. Sometimes the
hair, instead of being worn in the complete discoidal form, is dressed
upon two curving twigs, and presents the form of two semicircles upon each
side of the head. The partition of these is sometimes horizontal,
sometimes vertical. The combination of these styles (fig. 327 _a_ and _b_)
present the forms from which the Maltese cross was conventionalized.[290]
[Illustration: Fig. 328. CROSS WITH BIFURCATED FOOT. Used by the Innuits
to represent a shaman or evil spirit.]
_Shaman's spirit._--Among the Kiatéxamut and Innuit tribes, a cross placed
on the head, as in fig. 328, signified a shaman's evil spirit or demon.
This is an imaginary being under the control of the shaman to execute his
wishes.[291]
_Divers significations._--The figure of the cross among the North American
Indians, says Colonel Mallery,[292] has many differing significations. It
appears "as the tribal sign for Cheyenne" (p. 383); "as Dakota lodges" (p.
582); "as a symbol for trade or exchange" (p. 613); "as a conventional
sign for prisoners" (p. 227); "for personal exploits while elsewhere it is
used in simple enumeration" (p. 348). Although this device is used for a
variety of meanings when it is employed ceremonially or in elaborate
pictographs of the Indians both of North and South America, it represents
the four winds. This view long ago was suggested as being the
signification of many Mexican crosses, and it is sustained by Prof. Cyrus
Thomas in his "Notes on Mayan Mexican Manuscript,"[293] where strong
confirmatory evidence is produced by the arms of the crosses having the
appearance of conventionalized wings similar to some representations of
the thunder bird of the northern tribes; yet the same author, in his paper
on the study of the "Troano Manuscript,"[294] gives fig. 329 as a symbol
for wood, thus further showing the manifold concepts attached to the
general form of the cross. Bandelier thinks that the cross so frequently
used by the aborigines of Mexico and Central America were merely ornaments
and not objects of worship, while the so-called crucifixes, like that on
the Palenque tablet, were only the symbol of the "new fire," or the close
of the period of fifty-two years. He believes them to be representations
of the fire drills more or less ornamented. Zamacois[295] says that the
cross was used in the religion of various tribes of the peninsula of
Yucatan, and that it represented the god of rain.
[Illustration: Fig. 329. ST. ANDREW'S CROSSES, USED AS A SYMBOL FOR WOOD.
Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 1233.]
It is a favorite theory with Major Powell, Director of the Bureau of
Ethnology, that the cross was an original invention of the North American
Indian, possibly a sign common to all savages; that it represented, first,
the four cardinal points, north, south, east, and west; and afterwards by
accretion, seven points, north, south, east, west, zenith, nadir, and
here.
Capt. John G. Bourke, in his paper on the "Medicine Men of the
Apache"[296] discourses on their symbolism of the cross. He says it is
related to the cardinal points, to the four winds, and is painted by
warriors on their moccasins when going through a strange district to keep
them from getting on a wrong trail. He notes how he saw, in October, 1884,
a procession of Apache men and women bearing two crosses, 4 feet 10 inches
long, appropriately decorated "in honor of Guzanutlí to induce her to send
rain."
Dr. Brinton[297] tells of the rain maker of the Lenni Lenape who first
drew on the earth the figure of a cross. Captain Bourke quotes from Father
Le Clerq[298] as to the veneration in which the cross was held by the
Gaspesian Indians, also from Herrara to the same effect. Professor
Holmes[299] makes some pertinent observations with regard to the meanings
of the cross given by the American Indians:
Some very ingenious theories have been elaborated in attempting to
account for the cross among American symbols. Brinton believes that
the great importance attached to the points of the compass--the four
quarters of the heavens--by savage peoples, has given rise to the
sign of the cross. With others, the cross is a phallic symbol derived,
by some obscure process of evolution, from the veneration accorded to
the procreative principle in nature. It is also frequently associated
with sun worship, and is recognized as a symbol of the sun--the four
arms being remaining rays after a gradual process of elimination.
Whatever is finally determined in reference to the origin of the cross
as a religious symbol in America will probably result from exhaustive
study of the history, language, and art of the ancient peoples,
combined with a thorough knowledge of the religious conceptions of
modern tribes, and when these sources of information are all exhausted
it is probable that the writer who asserts more than a probability
will overreach his proofs. * * * A study of the designs associated
with the cross in these gorgets [figs. 302-304] is instructive, but
does not lead to any definite result; in one case the cross is
inscribed on the back of a great spider [figs. 275-278]; in another it
is surrounded by a rectangular framework of lines, looped at the
corners and guarded by four mysterious birds [figs. 263-266], while in
others it is without attendant characters, but the workmanship is
purely aboriginal. I have not seen a single example of engraving upon
the shell that suggested a foreign hand, or a design, with the
exception of this one [a cross], that could claim a European
derivation. * * * Such delineations of the cross as we find embodied
in ancient aboriginal art, represent only the final stages of its
evolution, and it is not to be expected that its origin can be traced
through them.
[Illustration: Fig. 330. GRAPHIC DELINEATION OF ALLIGATOR. From a vase of
the lost color group. Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 257.]
[Illustration: Fig. 331. GRAPHIC DELINEATION OF ALLIGATOR. From a vase of
the lost color group. Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 258.]
Continuing in his "Ancient Art in Chiriqui,"[300] presenting his "Series
showing stages in the simplification of animal characters," and
"derivation of the alligator," Professor Holmes elaborates the theory how
the alligator was the original, and out of it, by evolution, grew the
cross. His language and accompanying figures are quoted:
Of all the animal forms utilized by the Chiriquians, the alligator is
the best suited to the purpose of this study, as it is presented most
frequently and in the most varied forms. In figs. 257 and 258 [figs.
330 and 331 in the present paper] I reproduce drawings from the outer
surface of a tripod bowl of the lost color group. Simple and formal as
these figures are, the characteristic features of the creature--the
sinuous body, the strong jaws, the upturned snout, the feet, and the
scales--are forcibly expressed. It is not to be assumed that these
examples represent the best delineative skill of the Chiriquian
artist. The native painter must have executed very much superior work
upon the more usual delineating surfaces, such as bark and skins. The
examples here shown have already experienced decided changes through
the constraints of the ceramic art, but are the most graphic
delineations preserved to us. They are free-hand products, executed by
mere decorators, perhaps by women, who were servile copyists of the
forms employed by those skilled in sacred art.
A third illustration from the same group of ware, given in fig. 259
[fig. 332 of the present paper] shows, in some respects, a higher
degree of convention. * * *
I shall now call attention to some important individualized or
well-defined agencies of convention. First, and most potent, may be
mentioned the enforced limits of the spaces to be decorated, which
spaces take shape independently of the subject to be inserted. When
the figures must occupy a narrow zone, they are elongated; when they
must occupy a square, they are restricted longitudinally, and when
they occupy a circle, they are of necessity coiled up. Fig. 265 [fig.
333 of the present paper] illustrates the effect produced by crowding
the oblong figure into a short rectangular space. The head is turned
back over the body and the tail is thrown down along the side of the
space. In fig. 266 [fig. 334 of the present paper] the figure occupies
a circle and is, in consequence, closely coiled up, giving the effect
of a serpent rather than an alligator. * * *
[Illustration: Fig. 332. CONVENTIONAL FIGURE OF ALLIGATOR. From a vessel
of the lost color group. Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 259.]
[Illustration: Fig. 333. CONVENTIONAL FIGURE OF ALLIGATOR CROWDED INTO A
SMALL GEOMETRICAL FIGURE. Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology, fig. 265.]
I present five series of figures designed to illustrate the stages
through which life forms pass in descending from the realistic to
highly specialized conventional shapes. In the first series (fig. 277)
[fig. 335 of the present paper] we begin with _a_, a meager but
graphic sketch of the alligator; the second figure, _b_, is hardly
less characteristic, but is much simplified; in the third, _c_, we
have still three leading features of the creature--the body line, the
spots, and the stroke at the back of the head; and in the fourth, _d_,
nothing remains but a compound yoke-like curve, standing for the body
of the creature, and a single dot.
[Illustration: Fig. 334. CONVENTIONAL FIGURE OF ALLIGATOR CROWDED INTO A
CIRCLE. Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig.
266.]
The figures of the second series (fig. 278) [fig. 336 of the present
paper] are nearly all painted upon low, round nodes placed about the
body of the alligator vases, and hence are inclosed in circles. The
animal figure in the first example is coiled up like a serpent [fig.
334], but still preserves some of the well-known characters of the
alligator. In the second example [fig. 336_b_] we have a double hook
near the center of the space which takes the place of the body, but
the dotted triangles are placed separately against the encircling
line. In the next figure the body symbol is omitted and the three
triangles remain to represent the animal. In the fourth there are four
triangles, and the body device being restored in red takes the form of
a cross. In the fifth two of the inclosing triangles are omitted and
the idea is preserved by the simple dots. In the sixth the dots are
placed within the bars of the cross, the triangles becoming mere
interspaces, and in the seventh the dots form a line between the two
encircling lines. This series could be filled up by other examples,
thus showing by what infinitesimal steps the transformations take
place. * * *
We learn by the series of steps illustrated in the annexed cuts that
the alligator radical, under peculiar restraints and influences,
assumes conventional forms that merge imperceptibly into these classic
devices.
[Illustration: Fig. 335. SERIES OF FIGURES OF ALLIGATORS SHOWING STAGES OF
SIMPLIFICATION. Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
fig. 277.]
[Illustration: Fig. 336. SERIES SHOWING STAGES IN THE SIMPLIFICATION OF
ANIMAL CHARACTERS, BEGINNING WITH THE ALLIGATOR AND ENDING WITH THE GREEK
CROSS. Chiriqui. Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig.
278.]
Professor Holmes's theory of the evolution of the cross from the alligator
and its location in Chiriqui is opposed to that of Professor Goodyear,
who, in his "Grammar of the Lotus," ascribes the origin of the cross to
the lotus and locates it in Egypt. I file what in law would be an
"interpleader"--I admit my want of knowledge of the subject under
discussion, and leave the question to these gentlemen.