123 The original name for Phrygia is said to have been Askanios, from
Askanios its first ruler. The cenotaph of Midas is built in the rock
at Jazylykaia, in the vicinity of Kumbet, where other similarly
decorated royal tombs exist.
124 It would be interesting to learn whether the Arabian title
Om-al-kara, “the mother of cities,” has ever been connected with
Roma by investigators.
125 It is recalled here that the twin brothers Romulus and Remus are
supposed to have been the issue of the union, in the temple of Mars,
of the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia with a personification of the god
Mars.
126 The recurrence of the square plan, employed in Babylonia and Egypt
(see pp. 333 and 369), is noteworthy.
127 In course of time each Roman civitas, or political canton or
community, possessed such “a centre, which was termed capitolium,
_i. e._ the height, from being originally fixed on a height or
hill-top, corresponding to the Greek akra. Round this stronghold of
the canton, which formed the nucleus of the earliest Latin towns,
houses sprang up, which were in turn surrounded by the oppidum or
the urbs (ring-wall connected with urbus, curvus, orbis); hence, in
later times, oppidum and urbs became, naturally enough, the
recognized designations of town and city.”—Chambers’ Encyclopædia.
128 Diocletian (A.D. 292) revived dual rulership and quadruplicate
organization by instituting the quadruple hierarchy of two Augusti
and two Cæsars. The prevalence of quadruplicate division with
current cosmical conceptions is shown by the following text: “The
usual form of taking an augury was very solemn; the augur ascending
a tower, bearing in his hand a curved stick called a _litus_. He
turned his face to the east and marked out some distant objects as
the limits within which he would make his observations and _divided
mentally the enclosed space into four divisions_.... He next ...
prayed and offered sacrifices....” “We learn from ... the augur
Cicero that while the Romans only had four divisions to their
heavens-templum, the Etruscans had sixteen, obtained by bisecting
and rebisecting the four angles” (O’Neil, p. 433).
129 The cult of Ishtar=Isis, associated with mystery and of
Serapis=Osiris, had been instituted in Rome by Domitian (A.D. 82)
who caused temples to be built for them. Curious instances of the
spread of the cults of other countries throughout the Roman empire
have come under my personal notice. In the Museum at Bonn, Germany,
there is a Roman tombstone the inscription on which consists of a
wheel above the name Jovis, the association of Jove with the wheel,
being very remarkable and significant in connection with the present
subject.
At Nîmes in the South of France, a curious statue of Mithra was
found in the ruins of the Roman city. It consists of a Hermes,
surmounted by a hairy, dog-like face. A great serpent is wound
around the Hermes, the signs of the zodiac being sculptured between
the coils. In the light of the present investigation the meaning of
the symbolical statue seems too obvious to require explanation. It
is strange that the recollection of seeing this statue at the age of
nine with my father, who pointed out and explained the signs of the
zodiac to me, is one of the most vivid of my childhood.
130 The curious association of the number seven with Stonehenge in gypsy
folk-lore, which possibly contains vestiges of Druidical folk-lore,
is brought out by R. G. Haliburton in his paper on “Gypsy folk-lore
as to Stonehenge,” to which I refer the reader.
131 In the case of Mayapan, Yucatan, the practical use of analogous
council-houses is described (p. 209). The Irish tower and seven
houses are remarkably in accord with the scheme of organization used
in ancient Greece where, at Tenos, each gens was known as “a tower”
and each gens, as well as its town, was divided into at least seven
parts (p. 456).
132 John Speed relates that one of the kings of Kent, named Catigera,
“was interred upon a plain where his monument vulgarly called
‘citscotehouse,’ consisted of four stones pitched in the manner of
the stonehenge.” It is tempting to see in the four stones “pitched”
around the grave, the underlying thought of a resting-place in the
cosmical centre, of the symbolized four quarters, and to view the
prehistoric crosses of Ireland and Scotland as emblematic of the
Middle and Four Quarters, associated with secret pole-star and
cosmical cult and employed as symbols of time and of quadruplicate
government.
133 Celi-Ced and the cult of the wren. Theosophical review, June 15,
1900.
134 Light is thrown upon the possible conception of Ursa Major as Thor’s
wagon and the most primitive form of chariots in general by the
archaic chariot of state used, to this day, in Corea and formerly in
Japan. It is one-wheeled and the seat, destined for one person, is
placed high above the single wheel and rests upon two long poles,
the ends of which project in front and behind. Four men are required
to support and push this chariot of state, a fine example of which
has lately been secured for the Museum of Salem, Mass., by Prof. E.
S. Morse.
135 It is with keenest interest that I look forward to learning, from
the distinguished archæologists of Sweden, among whom I have the
honor of having highly-esteemed, personal friends, how far their
observation and deeper knowledge lead them to entertain views I have
advanced concerning the origin of the swastika and the influence of
pole-star worship upon the development of primitive religion and
social organization. It is from them that I expect information as to
the relation of the prehistoric inhabitants of Scandinavia to the
ancient centres of civilization which have been discussed.
136 Hewitt states (p. 90) that, “it was successively immigrating races
from the North ... who placed a king at the head of the confederated
provinces formed from their confederated villages.... The
confederate form of these kingdoms is shown in such names as
Chuttisgurh which means the 36 gurhs or united provinces. But the
final consolidated form of the pre-Aryan Indian village was that
framed by the Kushites. It was they who placed the royal province in
the centre of the kingdom.... It was on these principles that the
government of the Ooraon village of Chota Nagpore was constructed.
The Ooraon form of village government is that which has been
preserved with less alteration from subsequent invaders than that of
any other part of India, for the Ooraons, Mundas, Ho-kals and Bhuyas
have always been able, under the protection of their mountain
fastnesses, their political organization and their natural love of
independence, to keep their country free from the interference of
the hated Sadhs, the name by which they call the Hindus. But these
people, who repelled and held themselves aloof from later invaders
were of no less foreign origin than those who succeeded them, for
they were all formed by the union with the matriarchal Australioids
_and patriarchal Mongols or Finnish and other Northern stocks_, most
of whom were formed into confederated tribes of artisans and
agriculturists in Asia Minor and it was from the southern part of
Asia Minor or Northern Palestine, that the Ooraons came. They
themselves say that they came from Western India, from the land of
Ruhidas [the land of the red men], but this means Syria, the country
whose people were called Rotou by the Egyptians, and they were the
race who introduced barley and plough-tillage into India and Chota
Nagpore.”
Particular attention is drawn to Wylie’s statements, quoted on p.
303, concerning the migration of Israelites to China, via Persia
(about A.D. 58-75) and the native record that Christianity was the
ancient religion of Ta-Tsin=Syria. Hewitt’s identification of Syria
as the “red land” causes the Ooraon and Chinese traditions to agree
in assigning it as the common source of origin of their
civilization. According to Professor Sayce it was “about B.C. 600
that the Phœnicians penetrated to the northwest coast of India,” and
“tradition brought them originally from the Persian Gulf” (Ancient
Empire of the East, p. 183).
137 The recent discovery, by Prof. Flinders Petrie, of the mummy of
Aha-Mena, and of six other kings of the first dynasty, suggests the
possibility that they may have reigned simultaneously and
constituted a heptarchy(?). Although it would materially affect
Egyptian and Babylonian-Assyrian chronology as it now stands,
historians may yet find it necessary to make a revision taking into
deeper consideration the existence of tetrarchies and heptarchies in
which a number of kings and subrulers reigned simultaneously.
138 To assist these four principal secretaries are two
under-secretaries, one Manchu and one Chinese, and a board of ten
assistants. Together, these sixteen secretaries divided between two
races, constitute a grand secretariat, which acts as nearly as
possible as the cabinet of the Emperor. (Missions in China. Jas. S.
Dennis, D.D.)
139 This association of Tenos with seven-fold division is particularly
suggestive because, in Pythagorean philosophy, the number seven was
named Parthenos, Athene, also Apollo, Hermes, Hephaistos, Heracles,
Dionysius, Rex, etc. These divinities, the second and third of which
are specially known as patrons of cities, appear in a new light when
it is realized that they were personifications of the number seven
and, by extension, of the seven-fold cosmos, state and city. On p.
449, Plato’s division of the Cosmos is cited. Reference to the
history of Greek philosophy shows, however that the spurious
existence of four or five elements had not always been accepted in
Greece, that Thalês (640-550 B.C.) had laid down the doctrine of a
single eternal, original element, water or fluid substance, and
“assimilated the universe to an organized body or system.”
Xenophanës (570-480 B.C.) conceived “nature as one unchangeable and
indivisible whole, spherical, animated ... penetrated by or indeed
identical with God.” It is usually accepted that it was Empedocles
(444 B.C.) who first formulated the elements, earth, air, fire and
water, to which later philosophers added a fifth, the all-embracing
æther.
In a luminous monograph (Pythagoras und die Inder, Leipzig, 1884.),
Professor L. von Schroeder, of Dorpat, Russia, quoting the authority
of Professor Max Müller, Edward Zeller and Oldenburg, has
conclusively shown that the five elements, earth, fire, water, air
and æther (Sanskrit ākaçā) already occur in the Brahmanas; were
taught in the Sāmkhya philosophy of the Kapila and were therefore
known in India at least as far back as in the seventh century B.C.
The idea of the five elements is so familiar to the Hindus at the
present time that death is usually spoken of as “a dissolution into
the five elements,” or a “going over into the Five.” Professor von
Schroeder’s conclusion is that Pythagorean philosophy derived the
elemental divisions from India as well as its doctrine of
transmigration, etc., and its science of geometry and of number,
mentioning, in support of the latter assertion, the fact that
Sâmkya, the name of the ancient Indian school of philosophy,
signifies “number,” that its followers were therefore designated as
“philosophers or teachers of numbers.” At the same time I point out
that, according to Oliver, “a large portion of Egyptian philosophy
and religion was constructed almost wholly upon the science of
numbers and we are assured by Kircher (Oedip. Egypt, II, 2) that
everything in nature was explained on this principle alone.”
Returning to Professor von Schroeder’s work I refer the reader to
pp. 59 and 65, and notes for an extremely interesting discussion of
the Greek name of the fifth element that figures in the work of
Philolaus, the first who wrote a treatise on the Pythagorean system
of philosophy. The name employed has been deciphered by different
authorities as ὅλχας, ὁλχας, χυχλάς, ογχος, ὁγοτας, or ὅλας. The
interpretation given is that the name (the first syllable of which
recurs in the word Olympus) signified “that which moves or carries
with it the universe.” Professor von Schroeder suggests that the
name may be a corruption of the Sanscrit name for æther, the
all-embracing element, âkâça. I venture to recall here the curious
fact that, in ancient Mexico, the symbol, enclosing the four
elements, is always designated as the ollin, a word associated with
the idea of “movement” and of life=yoli.
In his work on the “Pythagorean Triangle,” the Rev. G. Oliver gives
an extremely clear account of the Pythagorean philosophy and tells
us that its central thought is the idea of number, the recognition
of the “numerical and mathematical relations of things....” “The
Pythagoreans seem,” says Aristotle, “to have looked upon number as
the principle and, so to speak, the matter of which existences
consist;” and again “they supposed the elements of number to be the
elements of existence, and pronounced the whole heaven to be harmony
and number.”
Concerning the universe, like many early thinkers, as a sphere, they
placed in the heart of it the central fire to which they gave the
name of Hestia, the hearth or altar of the universe, the citadel or
throne of Zeus. Around this move the ten heavenly bodies ... the
earth revolved on its own axis....
They developed a list of ten fundamental oppositions: 1, limited and
unlimited; 2, odd and even; 3, one and many; 4, right and left; 5,
masculine and feminine; 6, rest and motion; 7, straight and crooked;
8, light and darkness; 9, good and evil.... The union of opposites
in which consists the existence of things is harmony; hence the
expression that the whole heaven or the whole universe is harmony.
Pointing out that it is only by a combination of odd and even
numbers that a harmonious cycle is created, I continue to cite from
Mr. Oliver’s work: “The decade, as the basis of the numerical
system, appeared to them to comprehend all other numbers in itself,
and to it are applied, therefore, the epithets quoted above of
number in general. Similar language is held of the number ‘four’
because it is the first square number and is also the potential
decade (1+2+3+4=10). Pythagoras is celebrated as the discoverer of
the holy ‘Tetraktos’ the fountain and root of ever-living nature, or
the Cosmos consisting of Fire, Air, Earth, Water, the four roots of
all existing things.
“Number,” says Philolaus, “is great and perfect and omnipotent, and
the principle and guide of divine and human life. Number then is the
principle of order, the principle on which cosmos or ordered world
exists.” Without number and the limitation which number brings,
there would only be chaos and the illimitable, a thought abhorrent
to the Greek mind.
140 “The four Ionic tribes were abolished by Kleisthenes (510 B.C.) who
created, in their place, ten new tribes founded on a new principle,
independent of the gentes and phratries. Each new tribe comprised a
certain number of demes or cantons with the enrolled proprietors and
residents in each of them. Each tribe had a chapel, sacred rites and
festivals and a common fund for such meetings, in honor of its
eponymous hero, administered by members of its own choice; and the
statues of all the ten eponymous heroes, fraternal patrons of the
democracy, were planted in the most conspicuous part of the agora of
Athens.... The demes taken altogether, included the entire surface
of Attica. Simultaneously Kleisthenes divided the year into ten
portions called Prytanies,—the fifty senators of each tribe taking
by turns the duty of constant attendance during one prytany and
receiving during that time, the title of The Prytanes. The order of
precedence among the tribes in these duties was annually determined
by lot.... Moreover, a further subdivision of the prytany into five
periods of seven days each and of the fifty tribe-senators into five
bodies of ten each, was recognized; each body of ten presided in the
senate for one period of seven days, drawing lots every day among
their number for a new chairman called Epistates, to whom, during
his day of office were confided the keys of the acropolis and the
treasury, together with the city seal.” The remaining senators, not
belonging to the prytanizing tribe, might of course attend if they
chose, but the attendance of nine among them, one from each of the
remaining nine tribes, was imperatively necessary to constitute a
valid meeting and to insure a constant representation of the
collective people. During those later times—the ekklesia or formal
assembly of the citizens, was convened four times regularly during
each prytany ... (_op. cit._, vol. IV, p. 138). Special attention is
drawn here to the intimate association of the system of government
and the calendar, analogous to the ancient Mexican system.
“The number of inhabitants an ideal state should contain and their
numerical organization were evidently subjects of supreme interest
to Greek statesmen and philosophers. The great work by Aristoteles
(384-322 B.C.) on Politics, ‘according to Grote,’ was based on a
collection made by himself, of 158 different constitutions of
states, which collection has, unfortunately, been lost.” “The
purpose of comfortable subsistence for which commonwealths are
instituted, requiring a minute subdivision of labor,” Aristotle
says, that “in this particular view, the more populous the community
its end will be the more completely attained.... All things
considered he declares in favour of what would be now deemed a very
small commonwealth, consisting of 15,000 or 20,000 citizens....”
“In his ‘Book of Laws’ Plato intended to delineate a more
practicable scheme of government than that of his first.... His two
republics nearly agree in form, though they differ in magnitude; the
first containing one thousand and the second five thousand and forty
men bearing arms.... In his second republic he equalizes estates but
leaves population unlimited.... A regulation directly the reverse of
this is introduced by one of the most ancient writers on the subject
of politics, Pheidon of Corinth, who limits population, but does not
equalize possessions.... The republic, planned by the architect
Hippodamus, consisted of ten thousand men, divided into the three
classes of artificers, husbandmen and soldiers. The territory he
likewise divides into three portions: the sacred, destined for the
various exigencies of public worship; the common, to be cultivated
for the common benefit of the soldiers; and the private, to be
separately appropriated by the husbandmen. His laws were also
divided into three kinds....” (Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics, John
Gillies, LL.D., London 1804).
The knowledge that a republic was actually planned on the scheme of
three-fold division naturally suggests the possibility that the
Sicilian coat of arms, the triskeles, may be a survival of a period
when a similar republic existed in Sicily and the year was divided
into three seasons only. (For interesting details concerning the
employment and spread of a year of three seasons in ancient times,
see Hewitt, _op. cit._ Preface XVI, vol. I.)
In Grote’s history we learn that after the establishment of the
first Athenian democracy by Kleisthenes and the victory they gained
over the Bœotians and Chalkidians, the Athenians _planted a body of
four thousand_ of their citizens as kleruchs (lot-holders) or
settlers upon the lands of the wealthy conquered Chalkidians. This
is a system which we shall find hereafter extensively followed out
by the Athenians in the days of their power; partly with a view of
providing for their poorer citizens, partly to serve as garrison
among a population either hostile or of doubtful fidelity. These
Attic kleruchs did not lose their birthright as Athenian citizens:
they were not colonists in the Grecian sense and they are known by a
totally different name—but they corresponded very nearly to the
colonies formally planted out on the conquered lands by Rome. The
increase of the poorer population was always more or less painfully
felt in every Grecian city ... the numerous kleruchies sent out by
Athens, of which this to Eubœa was the first, arose in a great
measure out of the multiplication of the poorer population, which
her extended power was employed in providing for ... (_op. cit._
vol. 4, p. 171). The number “four thousand” specially designated is
of particular interest because the letter of the Greek alphabet
expressing it was the delta, in the form of a triangle or pyramid,
which also signified “the fourth” or “a quarter.” The ideas
suggested by these facts are: that the foundation of such a colony
would have been commemorated by the building of a pyramid by the
conquered race, the division of labor amongst them preparing the way
for the institution of a social organization on the familiar plan
(_cf._ p. 273). It is only when we reflect what an admirable means
of establishing communal life and activity the mere act of building
under direction and guidance must have been, that we appreciate the
fine wisdom of the ancient kings, civilizers and culture-heroes, who
were, first of all, master builders, architects and masons and who
began the work of rearing an empire by directing the erection of a
monument which, by its form, expressed the all-pervading plan of
organization.
141 “Taylor says that the reason Plato adopted this division is because
the number 12, the image of all-perfect progression, is the product
of 3 by 4, both of which numbers, according to the Pythagoreans, are
images of perfection. On the other hand, Ast conceives that Plato
had in mind the division of the country in twelve parts found in
Egypt and elsewhere, and which seems, as may be inferred from other
portions of his work, to have been connected with the division of
the year into twelve months, each under the superintendence of one
of the twelve greater gods.” To this note I add the remark that, in
B. VI, C. 8, Plato distinctly refers to the twelve tribes as “the
thrice four tribes, recommending that they should appoint thrice
four interpreters,” one for each tribe. It should also be recalled
that Cecrops is said to have employed the division into twelve and
is supposed to have brought it from Egypt. In the present summary
the employment of the same division in other countries can be
verified.
It may be of interest to note here that, like the Egyptians, the
Greeks divided their month into 3 decades. The year consequently
contained 3×12=36 decades+5 days.
142 Considering that the employment of silver or gold currency among the
nations of antiquity has been regarded, by some, as a proof of
advanced culture, it is interesting to learn, from the following
passage, that, as a result of experience and with wisdom and
foresight, Plato recommended the adoption of different forms of
currency in each different state, in order to avert the dangers
resulting from the accumulation of riches. “A law ... that no
private person be permitted to possess any gold or silver; but that
there be a coin for the sake of daily exchange, which it is almost
necessary for handicrafts to change and for all who have need of
such things to pay the wages due to hired persons, be they slaves or
domestic servants. On which account we say that _they must possess
coin which is of value to themselves, but of no worth amongst the
rest of mankind_.” It is curious to note how closely the employment
of the cocoa bean, in ancient Mexico and of wampum in North America,
as the staple currency, fulfilled the purpose recognized as
desirable, by Plato.
143 At the last moment I learn that fragments of Ægean pottery lately
found at Abydos in tombs of the Egyptian kings of the first dynasty,
by Prof. Flinders Petrie are considered to prove that, “Grecian
merchants sailed the seas in 4500 B.C., ... a conclusion further
borne-out by the pictures of vessels with 60 oarsmen, vessels quite
large enough for crossing the Mediterranean, which have been seen on
prehistoric memorials of the oldest inhabitants of Egypt”
(Rawnsley). In this connection it is interesting to learn, from
Professor Sayce, that the Phœnician galley was the model of the
Greek one, that it was at Carthage that a ship, with more than three
banks of oars, was first built, and that its pilots steered by the
pole star, not, like the Greeks, by the Great Bear (Ancient Empires
of the East, p. 205).
144 An interesting interpretation of this somewhat obscure sentence is
obtained by collating it with the conception of “the revolving eye
of the Norse world mill-stone which was directly above Oergelmer and
through which the waters flowed to and fro from the great fountain
of the Universe mountains” (p. 472). The analogy is strengthened by
the fact that the mountainous region in which Kyrênê was situated
has always been noted for its fertility, the water, from the
mountains enclosing its plains, settling in pools and lakes,
affording a constant supply, during the summer months, to the Arabs
who frequent it. The feature of Kyrênê, most renowned in antiquity,
was its inexhaustible Fountain of Apollo, and travellers describe
how, to this day, the Bedouin Arabs flock to it when their supply of
water and herbage fails in the interior. Grote states that the same
circumstance must have operated in ancient times to hold the nomadic
Libyans in a sort of dependence upon Kyrênê (Grote, _op. cit._ vol.
IV, p. 37).
The realization that an inexhaustible fountain of water meant life
to primitive nomadic people, enables us to understand the expression
“fountain of life” and the constant associations of the sacred
central mountain with pools of water and streams flowing in four
directions. It is remarkable and highly suggestive how closely the
following topographical details, given by Grote, of the original
seat of the Macedonians (which were in the regions east of the chain
of Skardus, north of the chain which connects Olympus with Pindus
and which forms the northwestern boundary of Thessaly), coincide
with the conception of Mt. Meru, for instance.
“Reckoning the basin of Thessaly as a fourth, here are four distinct
inclosed plains on the east side of this long range of Skardus and
Pindus,—each generally bounded by mountains which rise precipitously
to an alpine height, and each leaving only one cleft for drainage by
a single river,—the Axius, the Erigōn, the Haliakmōn and the Peneius
respectively. All four plains ... are of distinguished fertility
...” (Grote, _op. cit._ vol. IV, p. 10). The close vicinity of
Olympus, the Grecian “divine mountain,” is particularly suggestive,
inasmuch as it proves to be geographically associated with four
remarkable plains and rivers.
145 “This metaphorical name (the Krittakas) was derived from the
vocabulary of the Northern races, who had learned in Asia Minor and
the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea to spin thread and weave cloth
from the flax of Asia Minor, and the hemp of the shores of the
Caspian Sea, and who had taken their knowledge with them when
emigrating to the villages of the Neolithic life in Europe and to
the Kushite Empire in India, where they divided the people into
guilds or trade unions, founded on community of function, and
discovered how to use cotton thread for weaving. The reverence of
the Ashura Kushika for the Pleiades, whose mother star is Amba, also
proves them to be connected with the southwestern Semites, the
Himydritic Arabs of Southern Arabia, the land of Sheba, meaning
_seven_, meaning the seven stars of the constellation of the Great
Bear, called by the Arabs Al-suha, who first worshipped the Pleiades
with its 6 stars, the sacred number of the Ashura, as their mother
constellation, under the name of Tur-ayya, or children of the
father-pole (tur, of the Turanian race) ...” (Hewitt).
146 Various writers have observed and pointed out the close resemblance
in form and decoration, between the terra-cotta whorls found, in
profusion, in Mexico and those of Troy.
147 There is, however, a wide difference between Hewitt’s views and mine
concerning the stars associated with the year wheel and the origin
and meaning of the primitive cross-symbols and swastika, although at
times they partially agree. As Hewitt gives several totally distinct
and different explanations of the origin and significance of crosses
and swastikas, it is difficult to understand clearly his standpoint.
On p. 9, vol. II, he makes an interesting differentiation between a
diagonal or transverse and upright cross, respectively designating
them as rain-cross and fire-cross, and states that their
superposition forms the eight-rayed star, the Akkadian and early
Indian sign of Anu=god. On p. 145, vol. II he names the transverse
cross a sun-cross and says it describes the track of the sun across
the heavens, on solstitial days and distinctly describes the
swastika in the centre of the triangle on the Hindu altar, as “a
symbolic picture of the sun rising at midsummer in the N. E. and
setting in the N. W., and at the winter solstice rising in the S. E.
and setting in the S. W.” On the other hand Hewitt associates the
right-angled cross with the fire-god and the pole-star (p. 191, vol.
II), and the five-rayed star of Horus as the rain or meridian pole,
or mountain standing in the midst of the four stars marking the four
quarters of the heavens (p. 9, vol. II and p. 17, vol. I). I
recommend a careful re-perusal of all of Hewitt’s interpretations of
cross-symbols and swastika and a close comparison of these with my
views, as set forth in the beginning of the present publication, to
Mr. Stansbury Hagar who, somewhat hastily, upon hearing my brief
communication to Section H of the A. A. A. S. in New York, June
1900, stated (in the October number of the Folklore Journal) that my
view concerning the origin of the swastika was the same as that
suggested by Hewitt.
148 Referring the reader to pp. 186-192 for details concerning native
tree worship, I shall but add that to this day, among certain North
American tribes, the planting of the sacred tribal pole in the
hallowed earth socket is accompanied by curious ritualistic marriage
rites, and the ceremonial kindling of the sacred fire of the fire
drill. For the association of four Mexican tribes with four tribal
trees and totemic birds, see fig. 53, and note that the central
figure, enclosed in a square, is represented as though four streams
of blood, flowing from the four angles, converged in his person,
constituting him the “Four in One.”
149 The only mention of a movable axle or hub that I know of in Mexican
chronicles is the cylinder of wood, described on p. 24 as being
shaped like a mortar. The only native illustration I have met which
suggests the native employment of some kind of revolving press or
axle is the curious and clumsy apparatus figured on pp. 11 and 12 of
the Selden MS. preserved at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and
reproduced by Kingsborough. An examination of this strange
mechanical contrivance apparently associated with a monkey=ozomatli,
and the sacrifice of two prisoners, will be found as interesting as
it is puzzling.
150 In a paper read to the Section of Anthropology of the New York
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Mr. Stansbury Hagar communicated the interesting results of his
study of the Salcamayhua tablet which has been alluded to on p. 162
of the present publication. With his kind authorization I take
pleasure in citing here his interpretation of the name of the
Peruvian Creator, an abbreviation of which is inscribed on the plate
or tablet. It will be found to accord with that given by Sir
Clements B. Markham (History of Peru, p. 20), but to be more
explicit. According to his view the name should be analyzed as
follows: illa=light, lightning=fire; ticci=foundation, brick=earth;
uayra _i. e._ huaii=air, wind; cocha=lake=water.
“Illa ticci uayra cocha would thus mean: the universal spirit
defined by naming what seemed to a people unacquainted with
scientific chemistry to be the four ultimate elements.”
Referring to the cognate Aymara language, Mr. Hagar interprets the
name pachaya chachic as “source, lit. male ancestor, grandfather of
all things,” and states that the opening inscription on the tablet
should therefore read: “Spirit of Fire, Earth, Air and Water, source
of all things” ... that is to say “image of the source whence heaven
and earth have emanated.” Mr. Hagar states that this source seems to
be appropriately figured by the oval form which he interprets as an
egg (see fig. 28, _c_). On the other hand I point out that the flat
plate of fine gold, which was set up by the Inca Manco Capac between
images of the sun and moon, is figured as circular in shape (fig.
28, _b_).
I draw attention to Mr. Stansbury Hagar’s interesting and suggestive
paper on “The Celestial Bear,” which appeared in vol. XIII, no.
XLIX, of the Journal of American Folk-lore, in July, 1900. In this
he relates the legend connected with Ursa Major by the Micmac
Indians, that “this group of stars served to mark the divisions of
the night and the seasons for the Micmacs.” A point of particular
interest in connection with the Micmac legend is the fact, so
clearly distinguishable, that the story was suggested to the minds
of the Indians by the different positions assumed by the
constellation in its annual circuit around Polaris.
“The Micmacs say,.... In all things as it was and is in the sky, so
it is on earth.... In midspring the bear does actually seem to be
climbing down out of her [celestial] den [_corona borealis_], which
appears higher up to the northern horizon. In midsummer ... the bear
runs along the northern horizon.... Soon after the bear assumes an
erect position she topples over on her back [is slain] in the
autumn. In midwinter she lies dead on her back, ... but the den
[_corona borealis_] has re-appeared, with the bear of the new year
lying therein, invisible. But this does not end the story of the
bear, ... through the winter her skeleton lies upon its back in the
sky, but her life spirit has entered another bear who also lies upon
her back in the den, invisible and sleeping the winter sleep. When
the spring comes around again, this bear will again issue forth from
the den to be again pursued by the hunters, to be again slain, but
again to send into the den her life-spirit, to issue forth yet again
when the sun once more awakens the sleeping earth. And so the drama
keeps on eternally.” Reasoning by induction, I am strongly tempted
to assign the origin of the Egyptian myth of Osiris and of the
“child in its cradle,” to the same source of inspiration—possibly
also other myths of antiquity, such as the twelve labors of Hercules
(held by O’Neil to be a pole-star god) may be assigned to the same
source. At all events, the Micmac example is extremely instructive
and suggestive.
The following extracts from Mr. Hagar’s paper establish that Ursa
Major was known as the Bear to several North American tribes, and
generally served to mark time and seasons. “In a Blackfoot myth we
read: The seven Persons slowly swung around and pointed downward. It
was the middle of the night,” showing that they too marked the time
at night by the position of these stars. So the Zuñis tell, when
winter comes, how the bear, lying, sleeps, no longer guarding the
West land from the cold of the Ice gods, etc., a story which
demonstrates that in Zuñi mythology there was a marked association
between the terrestrial bear [the “great white bear of the seven
stars,” Cushing] and the seasons.
The Ojibways mention the constellation in connection with the four
quarters in heaven, showing that they, at some time, were accustomed
to mark their seasons not only by the position of the stars of the
Bear, but also by the rising and setting of various fixed stars.
In conclusion I would state that Miss Alice Fletcher has informed me
that, among the Omaha Indians, time is measured by Ursa Major, and
that the pole-star is named the “Star which never travels.”
151 “The amulet is of finely wrought silver, with magic inscription, the
seven-branched candlestick of Jerusalem and the usual Christian
monogram. The inscription is in Greek, mixed with barbarous and
unintelligible forms. It contains however express allusions to
Christianity and states that whoever wore it would be sure to please
gods and men.” It is well known that Constantine had on the reverse
of his coin the inscription Sol Invictus and on the obverse the
monogram of Christ. “This has been interpreted as a proof that the
sun was his own guardian deity,” but I venture to explain the
adoption of the sun as analogous to the ancient Egyptian mode of
designating the sovereign as the son of the sun, the sacred
representation of Heaven. Dean Stanley (Eastern Church, p. 193)
refers to Constantine’s “mode of harmonizing the discordant
religions of the empire under one institution and retention of the
old Pagan name of Dies Solis or Sunday, for the weekly Christian
festival,” which was recommended by Constantine to his subjects,
Pagan and Christian alike, as “the venerable day of the Sun.”
152 “No country in the world can compare with India for the exposition
of the pyramidal cross.... The body of the great temple of Bindh
madhu (formerly the boast of the ancient city of Benares ...
demolished in the seventeenth century) was constructed in the figure
of a colossal cross, with a lofty dome at the centre, above which
rose a massive structure of a pyramidal form. At the four
extremities of the cross there were four other pyramids.... A
similar building existed at Mhuttra.... By pyramidal towers placed
crosswise the Hindoo also displayed the all-pervading sign of the
cross. At the famous temple of Chillambrum, on the Coromandel coast,
there were _seven_ lofty walls, one within the other, round a
central quadrangle, and as many pyramidal gateways in the midst of
each side which forms the limbs of a vast cross” (Faber, quoted by
Donelly in Atlantis, p. 335).
153 “The Tur-vasu, or people whose creating god (vasu) was the pole
(tur), when united with the traders of the south, became the
mercantile mariners of the Indian Ocean, who had imposed their rule
and traditions both on the lands of Northern India and on those of
the twin rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris.... From India, the only
land on the Indian Ocean where they could build sea-going ships,
they extended their trade, forms of government and national myths,
first to the Euphratean kingdoms and afterwards to Egypt and Syria,
where they were known to the Greeks as the Phœnicians” (p. 356).
“These people had seven parent stars whose names are preserved.
Professor Sayce has identified the first of these, Sugi, with ‘the
star of the Wain’ and states that it means the
‘creating-spirit-reed’ or the northern khu=bird, the ‘reed of the
bird, the mother of life.’ Sugi is therefore an additional name for
the Bear to that of Bel, distributor of waters.... In both names the
metaphor is the same, for it is from the reeds at the source of the
rivers, their point of distribution, that the rivers are born....
Both names denoted the star that led the year and it was the Great
Bear, as Sugi, that led the earliest year, opening with the week of
creation” ... (p. 357). ... “The sons of the Tur or pole were the
Indian Tur-vashu, the Zend Turanians, the mariners of Asia Minor
called by the Egyptians Tour-sha (Maspero), the sea traders of the
Mediterranean called the Tur-sene of Lydia, the Tur-sena or
Tyrrhenians of Lemnos and Etruria, who spoke a language closely
allied to that of the Akkadians. That their god was worshiped in
Cyprus and Asia Minor is proved by the _terra-cotta whorl_ found in
one of the settlements on the site of Troy, dedicated in Cypriote
characters to Patori-Turi, the father Tur, who gave his name to the
Phrygian city of Turiaion. The great antiquity of the settlement is
proved by the fact that though some bronze knives and instruments
were found in it, by far the greater number of implements were of
stone and the pottery, though similar to that of Mycenæ, is of a
more archaic type” (Schuchhardt’s Schliemann’s Excavations, App. I,
331-332 and 334).
“They were also the first spinners, weavers, makers of pottery and
built canoes and worked in mines.... They grew wheat, barley, peas,
flax and fruit trees.... These men covered the whole of Europe and
Southern Asia ... and the Indian Dekhan with cromlechs and stone
circles, which were certainly in some cases roofed over, dolmens,
meaning stone tables, shrines, altars, tumuli and memorial stones or
pillars and all of these, whether found in Western Europe or
Southern Asia, are completely identical in character. These people
had, in their migrations, established an active and widespread
foreign trade...” (p. 178).
“These maritime Tursena were intermingled with the matriarchal
Amazonian tribes who preceded them, and who seemed to have founded
the ancient ports of Asia Minor and Palestine, especially the Ionian
cities of Smyrna and Ephesus and that of _Askelon_. It was in the
land of Phrygia, the mountain countries of the Caucasus range and
the snowy heights whence the Euphrates rose, that the earliest
shepherds met the matriarchal races, the immigrants from the
southeast, the Hindu village communities, who are called by the
Greeks Amazons, and are described as the earliest ruling races of
Asia Minor and Greece (p. 175).”
“... The Great Naga is the Akkadian god Ner-gal, and the Phœnician
god Sarrahu, or the Great Sar. His name among the Shuites, or the
worshippers of Susi-nag on the west of the Euphrates, is Emu, a name
which is letter for letter the same as that of the national god of
the Ammonites, Amun” (Sayce: Hibbert Lectures, 1887, III, p. 196,
note 1. “Amun means the builder, or architect, and is, like that of
the Egyptian god, formed of aman, to sustain” (Gesenius, Thesaurus,
p. 115). “He was the god of the house pole, who became in Egyptian
Thebes, Amen-Ra, the hidden, and it was the people who made the
house-pole the symbol of their ancestors, ... who brought to Egypt
as well as to Assyria and India, the custom of having cities for the
dead apart from those for the living.... It was from the rains of
the summer-solstice ... generated from the Naga snake that the
Phœnician sons of Kush were born, whose kings, like those of Egypt,
wore the Uræus snake as a sign of royal authority. Their original
settlement, according to a tradition recorded by Theophrastus, was
at _Tulos_ or Turos, in the Persian Gulf, the modern Bahrein. This
was the holy island of Diloun, called Dilmun by the Akkadians.... It
was the settlement of Hindu navigators in the holy island of Dilmun
in the Persian gulf, and at Eridu, which first brought them in
contact with the Arabian star-gazers and merchants, and it was the
union, in the ancient city of Ur, of these races with the Hebrew
tribe of Gad (who built, not only the cities of Bashan, but also
those of Assyria and were the great builders of the ancient world),
which first formed the Semite race. It was the meridian pole, the
heavenly, revolving pole, the Tur of the Akkadians, which the
Dravidian traders of India brought with them to Eridu” (p. 292). “It
was these Tursena who, by developing the ancient organization of the
village and province in India, divided all the countries they
occupied into confederacies of cities, such as we find among the
Euphratean nations, the Egyptians, Canaanites and the people of Asia
Minor, Greece and Italy. It was they who were the fathers of Greek
and Latin civilization.” (p. 296). “It was these people who brought
from India their village institutions, their holy groves and
seasonal dances.... Among them the Finnic mining races descended....
It was in Phrygia that they were mixed with the Daktuloi, or race of
handicraftsmen and artificers, the sons of Dak, the showing or
teaching god, the god Daksha, the father of the Kush race.... They
were the carpenters and builders of the Stone age.”
Prof. Sayce’s “Ancient Empires of the East” furnishes further
interesting details concerning the Phœnicians. According to this
eminent authority, at an early date, in order to relieve the
pressure of population, they sent out organized colonies to the
recently discovered lands of the West. Accordingly commercial marts
were established at Thera and Melos,.... Colonies were established
at Attica, on the coast of Africa, in Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica,
and beyond the columns of Herakles, in Gadeira. The three cities of
Rhodes were planned by Phœnician architects.... The Assyrian
character of early Greek art is due to its Phœnician inspiration....
It was about “B.C. 600 that these people penetrated to the northwest
coast of India and probably to the island of Britain as well....
They were the intermediaries of ancient civilization ... and the
chief elements of Greek art and civilization came from Assyria
through the hands of Phœnicians.... Phœnician art was essentially
catholic ... it assimilated the art of Babylonia, Egypt and Assyria
superadding something of its own.... Their chief deity was Yeud or
Ekhad=the Only One ... they worshipped the Kabeiri ... originally
seven stars ... who were the makers of the world, the founders of
civilization, the inventors of ships.... The cities of Phœnicia were
the first trading communities the world has seen.... Their colonies
were originally mere marts and their voyages of discovery were taken
in the interests of trade. The tin of Britain, the silver of Spain,
the birds of the Canaries, the frankincense of Arabia, the pearls
and ivory of India, all flowed into their harbours.... Many of their
colonies were wholly independent, and governed by their own kings
and benefiting Phœnicia only in the way of trade.... In Phœnicia ...
the king seems to have been but the first among a body of ruling ...
princes and ... chiefs. In time the monarchy disappeared altogether,
its place being supplied by suffetes or ‘judges,’ whose term of
office lasted sometimes for a year, sometimes for more, sometimes
even for life.... At Carthage there were two suffetes, who were
merely presidents of the senate of thirty ... whose power was
subsequently checked by a board of one hundred and four.... By
providing that no member of the board should hold office for two
years running, Hannibal changed the government into a democracy.”