Chapter LXXXVI: Section 2: Signs, Symbols, and Emblems

The terms sign, symbol, and emblem are often used interchangeably and therefore incorrectly. Many persons ascribe an occult and mystic signification to symbols, probably from their general religious and esoteric employment. All characters in Indian picture-writing have been loosely styled symbols, and, as there is no logical distinction between the characters impressed with enduring form and when merely outlined in the ambient air, all Indian gestures, motions, and attitudes, intended to be significant, might with equal appropriateness be called symbolic. But an Indian sign-talker or a deaf-mute represents a person by mimicry, and an object by the outline of some striking part of its form, or by the pantomime of some peculiarity in its actions or relations. Their attempt is to bring to mind the person or thing through its characteristics, not to distinguish the characteristics themselves, which is a second step. In the same manner a simple pictorial sign attempts to express an object, idea, or fact without any approach to symbolism. Symbols are less obvious and more artificial than mere signs, are not only abstract, but metaphysical, and often need explanation from history, religion, and customs. They do not depict, but suggest subjects; do not speak directly through the eye to the intelligence, but presuppose in the mind knowledge of an event or fact which the sign recalls. The symbols of the ark, dove, olive branch, and rainbow would be wholly meaningless to people unfamiliar with the Mosaic or some similar cosmology, as would the cross and the crescent be to those ignorant of history.

The loose classification by which symbols would include every gesture or pictorial sign that naturally or conventionally recalls a corresponding idea, only recognizes the fact that every action and object can, under some circumstances, become a symbol. And indeed lovers of the symbolic live in, on, and by the symbols which they manufacture.

A curious instance of the successful manufacture of a symbol by the ingenuity of one man is in the one now commonly pictured of a fish to represent Christ. The fish for obvious reasons has been connected with Eurasian mythology, and therefore was a heathen symbol many centuries before the Christian era; indeed, probably before the creed of the Israelites had become formulated. It was used metaphorically or emblematically by the early Christians without the apparent propriety of the lamb-bearing shepherd, the dove, and other emblems or symbols found in the catacombs, and Didron (_b_) says that only in the middle of the fourth century Optatus, bishop of Milesia, in Africa, declared the significance of the letters of the Greek word for fish, ΙΧΘΥΣ, to be the initials of Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Ὑιος Σωτηρ, which acrostic was received with acclamation, and new characteristics were from time to time invented, adding force to the thenceforth commonly displayed symbol. It may be noted that when symbols, which were generally religious, received acceptance, they were soon used objectively as amulets or talismans.

This chapter is not intended to be a treatise on symbolism, but it is proper to mention the distinction in the writer’s mind between a pictorial sign, an emblem, and a symbol; though it is not easy to preserve accurate discrimination in classification of ideographic characters. To partly express the distinction, nearly all of the characters in the Winter Counts in this work are regarded as pictorial signs, and the class represented by tribal and clan designations, insignia, etc., is considered to belong to the category of emblems. There is no doubt, however, that true symbols exist among the Indians, as they must exist to some extent among all peoples not devoid of poetic imagination. Some of them are shown in this work. The pipe is generally a symbol of peace, although in certain positions and connections it signifies preparation for war, and, again, subsequent victory. The hatchet is a common symbol for war, and joined hands or approaching palms denote peace. The tortoise has been clearly used as a symbol for land, and many other examples can be admitted. Apart from the exaggerations of Schoolcraft, true symbolism is found among the Ojibwa, of which illustrations are presented. The accounts of the Zuñi, Moki, and Navajo, before mentioned, show the constant employment of symbolic devices by those tribes which are notably devoted to mystic ceremonies. Nevertheless the writer’s personal experience is that when he has at first supposed a character to be a genuine symbol, better means of understanding has often proved it to be not even an ideograph, but a mere objective representation. In this connection the remarks on the circle, in Lone-Dog’s Winter Count for 1811-’12, and those on the cross infra, may be in point.

The connection, to the unlettered Indian, between printed words, pictures, and signs, was well illustrated through the spontaneous copial, by a Cheyenne, of the ornate labels on packages of sugar and coffee, which he had seen at a reservation, and the lines of which he rather skillfully and very ingeniously repeated on a piece of paper when sending to a post-trader to purchase more of the articles. The printed label was to him the pictorial sign for those articles.

The following remarks are quoted from D’Alviella (_a_):

There is a symbolism so natural, that, like certain implements
peculiar to the stone age, it does not belong to any particular
race, but constitutes a characteristic trait of mankind at a certain
phase of its development. Of this class are representations of
the sun by a disk or radiating face, of the moon by a crescent,
of the air by birds, of water by fishes or a broken line, of
thunder by an arrow or a club, etc. We ought, perhaps, to add a
few more complicated analogies, as those which lead to symbolizing
the different phases of human life by the growth of a tree, the
generative forces of nature by phallic emblems, the divine triads
by an equilateral triangle, or in general by any triple combination
the members of which are equal, and the four principal directions
of space by a cross. How many theories have been built upon the
presence of the cross as an object of veneration among nearly all
the peoples of the Old and New Worlds? Roman Catholic writers have
justly protested, in recent years, against attributing a pagan
origin to the cross of the Christians, because there were cruciform
signs in the symbolism of religions anterior to Christianity. It is
also right, by the same reason, to refuse to accept the attempts to
seek for infiltrations of Christianity in foreign religions because
they also possess the sign of redemption. * * * Nearly all peoples
have represented the fire from the sky by an arm and, sometimes
also, by a bird of strong and rapid flight. It was symbolized among
the Chaldeans by a trident. Cylinders going back to the most ancient
ages of Chaldean art exhibit a water jet gushing from a trident
which is held by the god of the sky or of the storm. The Assyrian
artist who first, on the bas-reliefs of Nimroud or Malthai, doubled
the trident or transformed it into a trifid fascicle, docile to the
refinements and elegancies of classic art, by that means secured for
the ancient Mesopotamian symbol the advantage over all the other
representations of thunder with which it could compete. The Greeks,
like the other Indo-European nations, seem to have represented
the storm-fire under the features of a bird of prey. When they
received the Asiatic figure of the thunderbolt, they put it in the
eagle’s claws and made of it the scepter of Zeus, explaining the
combination, after their habit, by the story of the eagles bringing
thunder to Zeus when he was preparing for the war against the
Titans. Latin Italy transmitted the thunderbolt to Gaul, where, in
the last centuries of paganism, it alternated on the Gallo-Roman
monuments with the two-headed hammer.

The emblem writers, so designated, have furnished an immense body of literature, and apparently have considered such pictures as those of the Winter Counts in the present work and also all symbols to be included in their proper scope. The best summary on the subject is by Henry Greene (_a_), from which the following condensed extract is taken:

Of the changes through which a word may pass the word emblem
presents one of the most remarkable instances. Its present
signification, type, or allusive representation is of comparatively
modern use, while its original meaning is obsolete. Among the Greeks
an emblem meant something thrown in or inserted after the fashion
of what we now call marquetry and mosaic work, or in the form of a
detached ornament to be affixed to a pillar, a tablet, or a vase,
and put off or on as there might be occasion.

Quintilian (lib. 2, cap. 4), in enumerating the arts of oratory
used by the pleaders of his day, describes some of them as in the
habit of preparing and committing to memory certain highly finished
clauses, to be inserted (as occasion might arise) like emblems in
the body of their orations. Such was the meaning of the term in the
classical ages of Greece and Rome; nor was its signification altered
until some time after the revival of literature in the fifteenth
century.

Thus, in their origin, emblems were the figures or ornaments
fashioned by the tools of the artists, in metal or wood, independent
of the vase, or the column, or the furniture they were intended to
adorn; they might be affixed or detached at the promptings of the
owner’s fancy. Then they were formed, as in mosaic, by placing side
by side little blocks of colored stone, or tiles, or small sections
of variegated wood. Raised or carved figures, however produced, came
next to be considered as emblems; and afterwards any kind of figured
ornament or device, whether carved or engraved or simply traced, on
the walls and floors of houses or on vessels of wood, clay, stone,
or metal.

By a very easy and natural step figures and ornaments of many
kinds, when placed on smooth surfaces, were named emblems; and as
these figures and ornaments were very often symbolical, i. e.,
signs or tokens of a thought, a sentiment, a saying, or an event,
the term emblem was applied to any painting, drawing, or print
that was representative of an action, of a quality of the mind,
or of any peculiarity or attribute of character. Emblems in fact
were and are a species of hieroglyphics, in which the figures or
pictures, besides denoting the natural objects to which they bear
resemblances, were employed to express properties of the mind,
virtues and abstract ideas, and all the operations of the soul.

The following remarks of the same author (_b_) are presented in this connection, though they pass beyond the scope of either symbols or emblems into other divisions of pictography, as classified in the present work:

Coins and medals furnish most valuable examples of emblematical
figures; indeed some of the emblem writers, as Sambucus, in 1564,
were among the earliest to publish impressions or engravings of
ancient Roman money, on which are frequently given very interesting
representations of customs and symbolical acts. On Grecian coins
we find, to use heraldic language, that the owl is the crest of
Athens, a wolf’s head that of Argos, and a tortoise the badge of the
Peloponnesus. The whole history of Louis XIV and that of his great
adversary, William III, is represented in volumes containing the
medals that were struck to commemorate the leading events of their
reigns, and, though outrageously untrue to nature and reality by
the adoption of Roman costumes and classic symbols, they serve as
records of remarkable occurrences.

Heraldry throughout employs the language of emblems; it is the
picture-history of families, of tribes, and of nations, of princes
and emperors. Many a legend and many a strange fancy may be mixed
up with it, and demand almost the credulity of simplest childhood
in order to obtain our credence; yet in the literature of chivalry
and honors there are enshrined abundant records of the glory that
belonged to mighty names.

The custom of taking a device or badge, if not a motto, is
traced to the earliest times of history. It is a point not to be
doubted that the ancients used to bear crests and ornaments in the
helmets and on the shields; for we see this clearly in Virgil, when
he made the catalogue of the nations which came in favor of Turnus
against the Trojans, in the eighth book of the Æneid; Amphiaraus
then (as Pindar says), at the war of Thebes, bore a dragon on his
shield. Similarly Statius writes of Capaneus and of Polinices that
the one bore the Hydra and the other the Sphynx.

Emblems do not necessarily require any analogy between the objects representing and the objects or qualities represented, but may arise from pure accident. They may bear any meaning that men may choose to attach to them, so their value still more than that of symbols depends upon extrinsic facts and not intrinsic features. After a scurrilous jest the beggar’s wallet became the emblem of the confederated nobles, the Gueux of the Netherlands; and a sling, in the early minority of Louis XIV, was adopted from the refrain of a song by the Frondeur opponents of Mazarin.

The several tribal designations for Sioux, Arapaho, Cheyenne, etc., are their emblems, precisely as the star-spangled flag is that of the United States, but there is no intrinsic symbolism in them. So the designs for individuals, when not merely translations of their names, are emblematic of their family totems or personal distinctions, and are no more symbols than are the distinctive shoulder-straps of an army officer.

The point urged is that while many signs can be used as emblems and both can be converted by convention into symbols or be explained as such by perverted ingenuity, it is futile to seek for that form of psychological exuberance in the stage of development attained by the greater part of the American tribes. All predetermination to interpret their pictographs on the principles of symbolism as understood or pretended to be understood by its admirers, and as are sometimes properly applied not only to Egyptian hieroglyphics, but to Mexican, Maya, and some other southern pictographs, results in mooning mysticism.

The following examples are presented as being either symbols or emblems, according to the definition of those terms, and therefore appropriate to this section. More will be found in Chapter XX, on Special Comparisons, and indeed may appear under different headings; e. g., Battiste Good symbolizes hunting by a buffalo head and arrow, Fig. 321, and war by a special head-dress, Fig. 395.

Sir A. Mackenzie (_c_) narrates that in 1793 he found among the Athabascans an emblem of a country abounding in animals. This was a small round piece of green wood chewed at one end in the form of a brush, which the Indians use to pick the marrow out of bones.

Mr. Frank H. Cushing, in notes not yet reduced to final shape for publication, gives two excellent examples of symbols among the Zuñi:

(1) The circle or halo around the sun is supposed to be and is
called by the Zuñi the House of the Sun-God. This is explained by
analogy. A man seeks shelter on the approach of a rainstorm. As
the sun circle almost invariably appears only with the coming of a
storm, the Sun, like his child, the man, seeks shelter in his house,
which the circle has thus come to be.

The influence of this simple inference myth on the folklore
of the Zuñi shows itself in the perpetuation, until within recent
generations, of the round sun towers and circular estufas so
intimately associated with sun worship, yet which were at first but
survivals of the round medicine lodge.

(2) The rainbow is a deified animal having the attributes of
a human being, yet also the body and some of the functions of a
measuring worm. Obviously, the striped back and arched attitude of
the measuring worm, its sudden appearance and disappearance among
the leaves of the plants which it inhabits, are the analogies on
which this personification is based. As the measuring worm consumes
the herbage of the plants and causes them to dry up, so the rainbow,
which appears only after rains, is supposed to cause a cessation
of rains, consequently to be the originator of droughts, under the
influence of which latter plants parch and wither away as they do
under the ravages of the measuring worms. Here it will be seen
that the visible phenomenon called the rainbow gets by analogy the
personality of the measuring worm, while from the measuring worm in
turn the rainbow gets its functions as a god. Of this the cessation
of rain on the appearance of the rainbow is adduced as proof.

The following is reported by Dr. W. H. Dall (_e_), and explains how the otter protruding his tongue is the emblem of Shaman:

The carvings on the rattles of the Tlinkit are matters belonging
particularly to the shaman or medicine man, and characteristic of
his profession. Among these very generally, if not invariably, the
rattle is composed of the figure of a bird, from which, near the
head of the bird or carved upon the back of the bird’s head, is
represented a human face with the tongue protruding.

This tongue is bent downward and usually meets the mouth of a
frog or an otter, the tongue of either appearing continuous with
that of the human face. In case it is a frog it usually appears
impaled upon the tongue of a kingfisher, whose head and variegated
plumage are represented near the handle in a conventional way. It is
asserted that this represents the medicine man absorbing from the
frog, which has been brought to him by the kingfisher, either poison
or the power of producing evil effects on other people.

In case it is an otter the tongue of the otter touches the
tongue of the medicine man, as represented on the carving. * * *

This carving is represented, not only on rattles, but on totem
posts, fronts of houses, and other objects associated with the
medicine man, the myth being that when the young aspirant for the
position of medicine man goes out into the woods after fasting for
a considerable period, in order that his to be familiar spirit
may seek him, and that he may become possessed of the power to
communicate with supernatural beings; if successful he meets with a
river otter, which is a supernatural animal. The otter approaches
him and he seizes it, kills it with the blow of a club, and takes
out the tongue, after which he is able to understand the language
of all inanimate objects, of birds, animals, and other living
creatures. * * *

This ceremony or occurrence happens to every real medicine man.
Consequently the otter presenting his tongue is the most universal
type of the profession as such, and is sure to be found somewhere in
the paraphernalia of every individual of that profession.

With this account from the Pacific coast a similar determination of emblems by the Indians in the northeastern parts of the United States may be compared. The objects seen by them in their fasting visions not only were decisive of their names but were held to show the course of their lives. If a youth saw an eagle or bear he was destined to be a warrior; if a deer he would be a man of peace; and a turkey buzzard or serpent was the sign that he would be a medicine man. The figures of those animals therefore were respectively the emblems of the qualities and dispositions implied. See Fig. 159, supra, for a drawing of the Sci-Manzi or “Mescal Woman” of the Kaiowa as it appears on a sacred gourd rattle used in the mescal ceremony of that tribe, with description.

In Kingsborough (_h_) is the record that “in the year of Ten Houses, or 1489, a very large comet, which they name Xihuitli, appeared.”

The comet is represented in the plate by the symbol of a caterpillar, in allusion, perhaps, to its supposed influence in causing blights. This may be compared with the measuring worm, symbol of the rainbow, supra. The character is reproduced in Fig. 977.

In the same work and Codex, Pls. 10, 12, and 33, are three characters, somewhat differing, representing earthquakes, which, according to the text in Vol. VI, p. 137, et seq., occurred in Mexico in the years A. D. 1461, 1467, and 1542. The concept appears to be that of the disruption and change of the position of the several strata of soil, which are indicated by the diverse coloration. These characters are reproduced in the present work in Pl. XLIX as the three on the right hand in the lower line.

Fig. 978 is from the same work (_i_), Codex Mendoza, and is the symbol for robbery, in allusion to the punishment of the convicted robber.

In the same work (_k_), Codex Vaticanus, is the following description, in quaint language, of the plate now reproduced in Pl. XLIX:

MEXICAN SYMBOLS.]

These are the twenty letters or figures which they employed in
all their calculations, which they supposed ruled over men, as the
figure shows, and they cured in a corresponding manner those who
became ill or suffered pains in any part of the body. The sign of
the wind was assigned to the liver; the rose to the breast; the
earthquake to the tongue; the eagle to the right arm; the vulture to
the right ear; the rabbit to the left ear; the flint to the teeth;
the air to the breath; the monkey to the left arm; the cane to the
heart; the herb, to the bowels; the lizard to the womb of women; the
tiger to the left foot; the serpent to the male organ of generation,
as that from which their diseases proceeded in their commencement;
for in this manner they considered the serpent, wherever it
occurred, as the most ominous of all their signs. Even still
physicians continue to use this figure when they perform cures,
and, according to the sign and hour in which the patient became
ill, they examined whether the disease corresponded with the ruling
sign; from which it is plain that this nation is not as brutal as
some persons pretend, since they observed so much method and order
in their affairs and employed the same means as our astrologers and
physicians use, as this figure still obtains amongst them and may be
found in their repertoires.

_a_, deer or stag; _b_, wind; _c_, rose; _d_, earthquake; _e_, eagle; _f_, eagle of a different species; _g_, water; _h_, house; _i_, skull or death; _j_, rain; _k_, dog; _l_, rabbit; _m_, flint; _n_, air; _o_, monkey; _p_, cane; _q_, grass or herb; _r_, lizard; _s_, tiger; _t_, serpent.

Dr. S. Habel (_d_) gives the description concerning Fig. 979, which is presented here on account of the several symbols and gestures exhibited:

This is a block of dark gray porphyry (vulcanite) 12 feet long,
3 feet broad and 2 feet thick, the upper left corner of which is
slightly broken off. The sculpture occupies 9 feet of its upper
part. The upper portion represents the head and breast of a female,
surrounded by a circle, from which the arms project. Besides the
stereotyped frill surrounding the forehead, the only ornament of
the head consists of two entwined rattlesnakes. The hair is of
medium length and descends in tresses to the shoulders and breast.
The ear is ornamented with circular disks inclosing smaller ones.
Around the neck is a broad necklace of irregularly-shaped stones
of extraordinary size. Below the necklace the breast is covered
with a kind of scarf or textile fabric, the upper ends of which
are fastened by buttons. To the center of this scarf seems to be
attached a globe, the upper part of which is adorned by a knotted
band from which four others ascend. From the lower part of the globe
descends another band, with incisions characteristic of Mexican
sculpture, while its sides are adorned by wreaths like wings. The
wrists of both hands are covered with strings of large stones
perforated in the center. From the semicircular bands emanate two
of the twining staves; to the staves are attached knots, leaves,
flowers, and various other emblems of a mythical character. The
most conspicuous of these is the representation of a human face in
a circle resembling the ordinary pictures of the full moon. The
two central staves, originating from the neck, pass downward, and
are differently ornamented. The fact that the head and part of the
breast are surrounded by a circle, and that the image of the moon
forms one of its ornaments, induces us to believe that this is the
figure of the moon goddess. In the lower part of the sculpture
appears, again, an individual imploring the deity with face upturned
and elevated hand. The supplication is indicated by a curved staff
knotted on the sides. Excepting a circular disk attached to the
hair, the head is without ornament; the long hair hangs down to
the breast and back, ending in a complicated ornament extending
below the knees. In the lobe of the ear is a small ring from which
a larger one depends. The breast is adorned with a globe similar
to that on the breast of the goddess, only it is smaller. Around
the wrist of the right hand is a plain cuff, while the left hand is
covered by a skull; a stiff girdle, with a boar’s head ornamenting
its back part, surrounds the waist. This girdle differs from the
previous ones by being ornamented with circular depressions. From
the front of the girdle descend two twisted cords surrounding the
thigh, and a band tied in bow and ends. Below the right knee is a
kind of garter with a pear-shaped pendant. The left foot, with the
exception of the toes, is inclosed in a sort of shoe.

In front of the adorer is a small altar, the cover of which has
incisions similar to those in the pendant of the globe on the breast
of the deity. On the altar is a human head, from the mouth of which
issues a curved staff, while other staves in the shape of arrows
appear on the side of the head.

Fig. 980 is reproduced by permission from Lieut. H. R. Lemly (_a_), U. S. Army, who calls it a “stone calendar.” It is the work of the Chibcha Indians of the United States of Colombia, and its several parts, some of which are to be compared with similar designs in other regions, are explained as follows:

_a_, Ata, a small frog in the act of leaping. This animal was
the base of the system, and in this attitude denoted the abundance
of water. _b_, Bosa, a rectangular figure with various divisions,
imitating cultivated fields. _c_, Mica, a bicephalous figure,
with the eyes distended, as if to examine minutely. It signified
the selection and planting of seed. _d_, Muihica, similar to the
preceding, but with the eyes almost closed. It represented the dark
and tempestuous epoch in which, favored by the rain, the seed began
to sprout. _e_, Hisca, resembling _c_ and _d_ of the stone, but
larger, with no division between the heads. It was the symbol of
the conjunction of the sun and moon, which the Chibchas considered
the nuptials or actual union of these celestial spouses--one of the
cardinal dogmas of their creed. _f_, Ta, almost identical with _b_.
It represented the harvest month. _g_, Cuhupcua, an earless human
head upon one of the lateral faces of the stone. It was the symbol
of the useless or so-called deaf month of the Chibchan year. _h_,
Suhuza, perhaps a tadpole, and probably referred to the generation
of these animals. _i_, Aca, a figure of a frog, larger than _a_, but
in a similar posture. It announced the approach of the rainy season.
_j_, Ulchihica, two united rhomboids--a fruit or seed, and perhaps
an ear. It referred to their invitations and feasts. _k_, Guesa,
a human figure in an humble attitude, the hands folded, and a halo
about the head. It is supposed to represent the unfortunate youth
selected as the victim of the sacrifice made every twenty Chibchan
years to the god of the harvest.

The characters _b_ and _f_ below, markedly resemble one given by Pipart (_a_), with the same signification. It referred to the preparation of the ground for sowing.

Wiener (_f_) gives the following summary of prominent Peruvian symbols:

In the conventional system of the Peruvians a bird indicates
velocity, a lion strength, the lion and the bird united in one
figure strength and velocity together, and, deductively, power.
The meander indicates fertility and the pyramid with degrees or
steps indicates defense. A bird combined with the meander indicates
rapid production. A rectangular oblong figure (the mouth) indicates
speech and discourse. A circle with a depression almost in the form
of a heart means a female child, a circle with a small blade or
stalk a male child. The circle with two stalks is the symbol of a
man--the worker. The circle with four stalks means a married couple,
marriage, etc.

Fig. 981 is presented to show another collection of engraved symbols, some of which with different execution resemble some found in North America. It is a bronze tablet found in Syria in the collection of M. Péretié, and is described by Maj. Claude R. Conder, R. F. (_a_):

It measures 4-1/2 inches in height by 3-1/4 in width. The design
is supposed to represent the fate of the soul according to Assyrian
or Phenician belief. The tablet is divided into four compartments
horizontally, the lowest being the largest and highest the most
narrow. In the top compartment various astronomical symbols occur,
many of which, as M. Canneau points out, occur on other Assyrian
monuments. On the extreme right are the seven stars, next to these
the crescent, next the winged solar disk, then an eight-rayed star
in a circle. The remaining symbols are less easily explained, but
the last is called by M. Canneau a “cidaris” or Persian tiara, while
another appears to approach most nearly to the Trisul, or symbol of
“fire,” the emblem of the Indian Siva.

Below these symbols stand seven deities facing to the right,
with long robes, and the heads of various animals. The first to the
left resembles a lion, the second a wolf or hound, the fourth a
ram, the sixth a bird, the seventh a serpent, while the third and
fifth are less easily recognized. In the third compartment a body
lies on a bier, with a deity at the head, and another at the feet.
These deities have the right hand held up, and the left down (a
common feature of Indian symbolism also observable in the attitude
of the Mâlawiyeh dervishes), and the figure to the left appears to
hold a branch or three ears of corn. Both are robed in the peculiar
fish-headed costume, with a scaly body and fish tail, which is
supposed to be symbolical of the mythical Oannes, who according to
Berosus, issued from the Persian gulf and taught laws and arts to
the early dwellers on the Euphrates. Behind the left-hand fish-god
is a tripod stand, on which is an indefinite object; to the right of
the other fish-god are two lion-headed human figures with eagles’
claws, apparently contending with one another, the right arms being
raised, the left holding hand by hand. To the right of these is
another figure of Assyrian type, with a domed headdress and beard.

In the lowest compartment the infernal river fringed with
rushes, and full of fish, is represented. A fearful lion-headed
goddess with eagles’ claws kneels on one knee on a horse (the emblem
of death) which is carried in a kneeling attitude on a boat with
bird-headed prow. The goddess crushes a serpent in either hand,
and two lion cubs are represented sucking her breasts. To the left
is a demon bearing a close resemblance to the one which supports
the tablet itself, and which appears to urge on the boat from the
bank; to the right are various objects, mostly of an indefinite
character, among which M. Ganneau recognizes a vase, and a bottle,
a horse’s leg with hoof, etc.; possibly offerings to appease the
infernal deities. The lion-headed goddess might well be taken for
the terrible infernal deity Kali or Durga, the worship of whose
consort, Yama, was the original source of that of the later Serapis,
whose dog was the ancestor of Cerberus. There is also a general
resemblance between this design and the well-known Egyptian picture
representing the wicked soul conveyed to hell in the form of a pig.

The Oannes figures take the place of the two goddesses who in
Egyptian designs stand at either end of the mummy and who form the
prototype of the two angels for whom the pious Moslem provides
seats at the head and foot of his tombstone. Perhaps the miserable
horse who stumbles under the weight of the gigantic lion goddess
may represent the unhappy soul itself, while the three ears of corn
remind us of the grains of corn which have been found in skulls
dug up in Syria by Capt. Burton. Corn is intimately connected with
Dagon, the Syrian fish-god.

As a tentative suggestion I may, perhaps, be allowed to propose
that the seven deities in the second compartment are the planets,
and that the symbols above belong to them as follows, commencing on
the right:

------------+----------------+----------------+-------------
Planet. | Assyrian name. | Head of deity. | Symbol.
------------+----------------+----------------+-------------
1. Saturn | Chiun | Serpent | Seven stars.
2. Moon | Nannar | Bird | Crescent.
3. Sun | Shamash | Boar (?) | Winged Disc.
4. Mars | Marduk | Ram | Rayed disc.
5. Mercury | Nebo | (?) | Two columns.
6. Venus | Ishtar | Wolf (?) | Trisul.
7. Jupiter | Ishn | Lion | Cidaris (?).
------------+----------------+----------------+-------------

The serpent is often the emblem of Saturn, who, as the eldest
of the seven (“the great serpent father of the gods”), naturally
comes first and therefore on the right, and has seven stars for his
symbol.

The moon, according to Lenormant, was always an older divinity
than the sun.

The boar is often an emblem of the sun in its strength.

The disc (litu) was the weapon employed by Marduk, the warrior
god, as mentioned by Lenormant.

The two pillars of Hermes are the proper emblem of the ancient
Set or Thoth, the planet Mercury.

The trisul belongs properly to the Asherah, god or goddess of
fertility--the planet Venus.

The Cidaris occurs in the Bavian sculptures in connection with
a similar emblem. In the Chaldean system, Jupiter and Venus occur
together as the youngest of the planets.

It should also be noted that the position of the arms and the
long robe covering the feet resemble the attitudes and dress of the
Mâlawîyeh dervishes in their sacred dance, symbolic of the seven
planets revolving (according to the Ptolemaic system) round the
earth.

Didron (_c_) thus remarks upon the emblems in the Roman catacombs:

The large fish marks the fisher who catches it or the
manufacturer who extracts the oil from it. The trident indicates the
sailor, as the pick the digger. The trade of digger in the catacombs
was quite elevated; the primitive monuments thus represent these men
who are of the lower class among us, and who in the beginning of the
Christian era, when they dug the graves of saints and martyrs, were
interred side by side with the rich and even beside saints, and were
represented holding a pickaxe in one hand and a lamp in the other;
the lamp lighted them in their subterranean labors. The hatchet
indicates a carpenter, and the capital a sculptor or an architect.
As to the dove, it probably designates the duties of the mother of
a family who nourishes the domestic birdlings as would appear to be
indicated by a mortuary design in Bosis. It is possible, moreover,
that it originated from a symbolic idea, but this idea would be
borrowed from profane rather than religious sentiments, and I would
more willingly see in it the memorial of the good qualities of the
dead, man or woman, the fidelity of the wife, or of the dove, which
returning to the ark after the deluge announced that the waters
had retired and the land had again appeared; from this we can not
conclude that the fish filled a rôle analogous to it, nor above all
that it is the symbol of Christ; the dove is in the Old Testament,
the fish neither in the old nor in the new.

Edkins (_b_) says respecting the Chinese:

It is easy to trace the process of symbol-making in the words
used for the crenelated top of city walls, which are ya and c’hi,
both meaning “teeth” and both being pictures of the object, and
further, when the former is found also to be used for “tree buds”
and “to bud.” Such instances of word creation show how considerable
has been the prevalence of analogy and the association of ideas. The
picture writing of the Chinese is to a large extent a continuation
of the process of forming analogies to which the human mind had
already become accustomed in the earlier stages of the history of
language.

D’Alviella (_b_) furnishes this poetical and truthful suggestion:

It is not surprising that the Hindoos and Egyptians should both
have adopted as the symbol of the sun the lotus flower, which opens
its petals to the dawn and infolds them on the approach of night,
and which seems to be born of itself on the surface of the still
waters.