Chapter XCV: Section 2: Homomorphs and Symmorphs (2)

Fig. 1201 is from Landa (_b_) and suggests one of the gestures for “talk,” and more especially that for “sing,” in which the extended and separated fingers are passed forward and slightly downward from the mouth--“many voices.” Although late criticisms of the bishop’s work are unfavorable to its authenticity, yet even if it were prepared by a Maya, under his supervision, the latter would probably have given him some genuine native conceptions, and among them gestures would be likely to occur.

Gustav Eisen (_a_), in describing Fig. 1202, says:

The original, from near Santa Lucia, Guatemala, represents a
sepulchral tablet, on which are seen the portraits of perhaps man
and wife, their different headdresses, etc., indicating decidedly
their different sexes. From the mouths of the respective portraits
extend as usual curved figures with notes or nodes.

DWELLINGS.

Irving (_c_) noticed fifty years ago that each tribe of Indians has a different mode of shaping and arranging lodges, and especially that the Omaha make theirs gay and fanciful with undulating bands of red and yellow or with dressed and painted buffalo skins.

The left-hand upper characters of Fig. 1203 represents Dakota lodges as drawn by the Hidatsa. These characters when carelessly or rudely drawn can only be distinguished from personal marks by their position and their relation to other characters.

The right-hand upper characters of the same figure signify, among the Hidatsa, earth lodges. The circles represent the ground plan of the lodges, while the central markings are intended to represent the upright poles, which support the roof on the interior. Some of these are similar to the Kadiak drawing for island, Fig. 439.

The left-hand lower character of the figure represents buildings erected by civilized men; the character is generally used by the Hidatsa to designate government buildings and traders’ stores.

The remaining character is the Hidatsati, the home of the Hidatsa; an inclosure having earth lodges within it.

Fig. 1204.--Dakotas and Rees meet in camp together and are at peace. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1792-’93. The two styles of dwellings, viz, the tipi of the Dakotas and the earth lodge of the Arikaras, are depicted.

Fig. 1205.--The Dakotas camped on the Missouri river, near the Gros Ventres, and fought with them a long time. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1792-’93. The Dakota tipi and the Gros Ventre lodge are shown in the figure. The gun shows that war was raging.

Fig. 1206.--The Dakotas camped near the Rees and fought with them. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1795-’96. This figure is a variant of the one foregoing.

Fig. 1207.--Some of the Dakotas built a large house and lived in it during the winter. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1815-’16. White-Cow-Killer calls it “Made-a-house-winter.” It would seem to be a larger dwelling than the ordinary tipi, and that wood entered into its construction. This is made more clear by the figure next following.

Fig. 1208.--They lived in the same house that they did last winter. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1816-’17.

Fig. 1209.--Adobe houses were built by Maj. J. W. Wham, Indian agent (afterwards paymaster, U. S. Army), on the Platte river, about 30 miles below Fort Laramie. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1871-’72. White-Cow-Killer calls it “Major-Wham’s-house-built-on-Platte-river winter.”

Fig. 1210.--American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1815-’16. The figure is intended to represent a white man’s house. Other forms are shown in Lone-Dog’s Winter Count, Chap. X, sec. 2.

Fig. 1211 shows different representations of Moki houses copied from a petroglyph at Oakley Springs, Arizona.

Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in A Study of the Manuscript Troano, Contrib. N. A. Ethn., Vol. V, p. 128, gives the following description of Fig. 1212:

The side wall in Fig. 1212 appears to be composed of blocks of
some kind placed one upon another, probably of stone, each bearing
the _Muluc_ character. The character at the top of the wall with a
cross in it, somewhat resembling that in the symbol for _Ezanab_,
is very common in these figures. This probably marks the end of the
beam which was placed on the wall to support the roof. The curved
line running from this to the top portion probably represents the
rafter; the slender thread-like lines (yellow in the original) the
straw or grass with which the roof was thatched.

The checkered part may represent a matting of reeds or brushwood
on which the straw was placed.

Champollion (_h_) gives the Egyptian characters for house, reproduced in Fig. 1213.

ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.

Fig. 1214.--Dakotas witnessed eclipse of the sun; they were terribly frightened. The sun is a dark globe and the stars appear. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1869-’70.

The left-hand design on the lower line of Pl. XLIX is reproduced from Kingsborough. “In this year there was a great eclipse of the sun.”

Humboldt infers from this painting that the Mexicans were informed of the real cause of the eclipses; which would not be at all surprising considering the many other curious things with which they were acquainted, the knowledge of which they must have derived from the West. It is proper to observe that on the 127th page of the Vatican MS., where a representation of the same eclipse occurs, the disk of the moon does not appear to be projecting over that of the sun. The Vatican MS. appears to have been copied from a Mexican painting similar to but not the same as that which Pedro de los Rios copied, whose notes and interpretations the Italian interpreter had before his eyes and strictly followed.

METEORS.

This group shows the pictorial representation of meteors by the Dakotas. The translations as well as the devices are suggestive.

Fig. 1215.--A large roaring star fell. It came from the east and shot out sparks of fire along its course. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1821-’22. Its track and the sparks are shown in the figure. White-Cow-Killer says “One-star-made-a-great-noise winter.”

This and the three following figures evidently refer to the fall of a single large meteor in the land of the Dakotas some time in the winter of 1821-’22. The fact can not be verified by scientific records. There were not many correspondents of scientific institutions in the upper Missouri region at the date mentioned.

Fig. 1216.--Large ball of fire with hissing noise (aerolite). The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1821-’22.

Fig. 1217.--Dakota Indians saw an immense meteor passing from southeast to northwest, which exploded with great noise. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1821-’22.

Battiste Good says for the same phenomenon: “Star-passed-by-with-loud-noise winter.” His device is shown in Fig. 1218, showing the meteor, its pathway, and the clouds from which it came.

The five winter counts next cited all undoubtedly refer to the magnificent meteoric display of the morning of November 13, 1833, which was witnessed throughout North America and which was correctly assigned to the winter corresponding with that of 1833-’34. All of them represent stars having four points, except The-Swan, who draws a globular object followed by a linear track.

Fig. 1219.--It rained stars. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1833-’34. White-Cow-Killer calls it “Plenty-stars winter.”

Fig. 1220.--The stars moved around. American-Horse’s Winter Count, 1833-’34. This shows one large four-pointed star as the characterizing object and many small stars, also four-pointed.

Fig. 1221.--Many stars fell. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1833-’34. The character shows six stars above the concavity of the moon.

Fig. 1222.--Dakotas witnessed magnificent meteoric showers; much terrified. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1833-’34.

Battiste Good calls it “Storm-of-stars winter,” and gives as the device a tipi with stars falling around it. This is presented in Fig. 1223. The tipi is colored yellow in the original and so represented in the figure according to the heraldic scheme.

Fig. 1224 is taken from Kingsborough, I, Pls. XXIX and XXX. The description, given in Codex Tell.-Rem., VI, p. 148, et seq., is as follows: Regarding the left-hand device figure, “In the year of Three Rabbits, or in 1534, Don Antonio de Mendoça arrived as Viceroy of New Spain. They say that the star smoked.”

Regarding the lower figure: “In the year of Eleven Houses, or in 1529, Nuño de Guzman set out for Yalisco on his march to subdue that territory; they pretend that a serpent descended from the sky, exclaiming that troubles were preparing for the natives since the Christians were directing their course thither.”

THE CROSS.

Referring to the numerous forms of cross delineated in the work of Mr. W. H. Holmes (_d_), it is to be noted that most of them are equilateral or the Greek pattern, and that similar ornaments or instruments now used by the Dakotas are always worn so that the cross upon them stands as if resting on one foot only and not on two, as is the mode in which St. Andrew’s cross is drawn.

The “Greek” cross represents to the Dakota the four winds, which issue from the four caverns in which the souls of men existed before their incarnation in the human body. All “medicine-men,” i. e., conjurers and magicians, recollect their previous dreamy life in those 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 the gods and winds. This cross is often illustrated as in Fig. 1225. It is sometimes drawn and depicted in beadwork and also on copper, as in Fig. 1226, extracted from the Second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., Pl. LII, Fig. 4, where it appears cut out of a copper plate found in an Ohio mound.

But among some of the Indian tribes the true Latin cross is found, viz, 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 far back in tradition and myth. When a missionary first asked a Dakota the name of this figure, which he drew for him in the sand, wishing to use the information in his translation of Bible and Creed, the Dakota promptly replied Sus-be-ca, and retraced the figure saying “That is a Sus-be-ca.” It was therefore promptly transferred to Scripture and Creed where it still reads “He was nailed to the Susbeca,” etc. “God forbid that I should glory save in the Susbeca of our Lord Jesus Christ.” To the good missionary this was plain and satisfactory; for the Dakota had demonstrated by tracing it in the sand that Susbeca was the name of the figure called in English, “cross.” The foregoing statement is made on the excellent authority of Rev. S. D. Hinman.

But when the Dakota read his new Bible or Creed, he must have been puzzled or confused to find, “He was nailed to a mosquito-hawk,” or, “God forbid that I should glory save in the mosquito-hawk of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The same disposition of straight lines which is called the Latin cross was and is used by the Dakota to picture or signify both in pictograph and gesture sign, the mosquito-hawk, more generally called dragon fly. The Susbeca or mosquito-hawk is a supernatural being. He is gifted with speech. He warns men of danger. He approaches the ear of the man moving carelessly or unconcernedly through the deep grass of the meadow or marsh--approaches his ear silently and at right angles, as shown in Fig. 1227_a_, and says to him, now alarmed, “Tci”-“tci”-“tci!”--which is an interjection equivalent to “Look out!” “You are surely going to destruction!” “Look out!” “Tci”-“tci”-“tci!”

Now the mosquito-hawk is easily knocked down and caught and has a temptingly small neck. But woe to the man or woman or child who with the cruelty commonly practiced on all living things by Indians of all ages and states, dares to wring off his head. Whoever shall do this before the winter comes shall be beheaded by the detested Ojibwa. It is true, for long ago a reckless young warrior feeling annoyed or insulted by the infernal “Tci”-“tci”-“tci!” so unceremoniously uttered in explosive breaths near his ear, tried it, and his headless trunk was found ere he escaped from the swamp.

The cross has its proper significance in this use not only in representing quite faithfully the shape of the insect but also the angle of his approach. It is variously drawn, but usually as in Fig. 1227, _a_, or _b_, and in painting or embroidery, _c_, and sometimes _d_.

One reason for the adoption of the dragon fly as a mysterious and supernatural being, is on account of its sudden appearance in large numbers. When in the still of the evening, before the shades of darkness come, there is heard from the meadow a hum as of the sound 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 man kens. See also Fig. 1165 and remarks.

Among the Ojibwa of northern Minnesota the cross is one of the sacred symbols of the society of the Midē or shamans, and has special reference to the fourth degree. A neophyte who has been advanced to the third initiation or degree, is instructed in ritualistic chants purporting to relate the struggle between Mi'nabō'zho, the mediator between the Ojibwa and Ki'tshi Ma'nidō, and the malevolent Bear spirit, which contest occurred when Mi'nabō'zho entered the fourth degree structure at the time when the first Indian was inducted therein for initiation.

The structure as erected at this day is built in the form of an oblong square having openings or doors at the four cardinal points. At these openings Mi'nabō'zho appeared and shot into the inclosure charmed arrows, to expel the horde of demons occupying the sacred place, and the Bear spirit was the last to yield to his superior powers. The openings being opposite to one another, north and south and east and west, suggested to Mi'nabō'zho the cross, which is now erected whenever a third degree Midē receives this last and highest honor.

The cross is made of saplings, the upright pole reaching the height of 4 to 6 feet, the transverse arms being somewhat shorter, each being of the same length as that part of the pole between the arms and 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 or mēgis, the symbol of the order. The lower arm or pole is squared, the surface 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 who brings the rains and causes the appearance of vegetation; the surface toward the west is covered with vermilion and relates to the land of the setting sun, the abode of the dead. The north is painted black, as that faces the direction from which come affliction, cold, and hunger.

Illustrations and additional details on this topic are presented in the paper of Dr. Hoffman (_a_).

In the chart presented in that paper, Pl. B, a midē' structure is also shown, within which are a number of crosses, each of which designates the spirit of a deceased midē priest.

Upon several birch-bark scrolls received from Ojibwa midē priests are characters resembling rude crosses, which are merely intended to designate wigwams, resembling in this respect similar characters made by Hidatsa to designate Sioux lodges as shown in Fig. 1203.

Groups of small crosses incised upon ivory bow drills and representing flocks of birds, occur on Eskimo specimens, Nos. 45020 and 44211, in the collection of the U. S. National Museum. They are reproduced in Fig. 1228. In Figs. 429 and 1129, representing petroglyphs at Oakley Springs, Arizona, are crosses which are mentioned by Mr. G. K. Gilbert as signifying stars. The simple cross appears to be the simplest type of character to represent stellar forms. See Figs. 1219, 1220, 1221 and 1223.

Fig. 28, supra, represents a cross copied from the Najowe Valley group of colored pictographs, 40 miles west of Santa Barbara, California. The cross measures 10 inches in length, the interior portion being painted black, while the outside or border is of a dark red tint. This drawing, as well as numerous 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, are caverns having a large opening, facing the northwest and north, in which crosses occur of the types given in Fig. 33, supra.

The interior portion of the cross is of a dull, earthy red, while the outside line is of a faded black tint. The cross measures nearly a foot in extent.

At Tulare Indian agency, Tulare valley, California, is an immense bowlder of granite which has become broken in such a manner that one of the lower quarters has moved away from the larger mass sufficiently to leave a passageway 6 feet wide and nearly 10 feet high. The interior walls are well covered with large, painted figures, while upon the ceiling are numerous forms of animals, birds, and insects. Among this latter group is a white cross measuring about 18 inches in length, Fig. 1229, presenting a unique appearance, for the reason that white coloring matter applied to petroglyphs is, with this single exception, entirely absent in that region.

One of the most interesting series of rock sculpturings in groups is that in Owens valley, south of Benton, California. Among these various forms of crosses occur, and circles containing crosses of various simple and complex types, as shown in Pls. I to XI and in Mojave desert, California, illustrated in Fig. 19, but the examples of most interest in the present connection are the two shown herewith in Fig. 1230, _a_ and _b_.

The larger one, _a_, occurs upon a large bowlder of trachyte, blackened by exposure, located 16 miles south of Benton, at a locality known as the Chalk Grade. The circle is a depression about 1 inch in depth, the cross being in high relief within. Another smaller cross, _b_, found 3 miles north of the one above-mentioned, is almost identical, each of the arms of the cross, however, extending to the rim of the circle.

In this locality occurs also the form of the cross _c_, in the same figure, and some examples having more than two cross arms. Other simple forms clearly represent the human form, but by erosion the arms and body have become partially obliterated so as to lose all trace of resemblance to humanity.

In the same figure, _d_, from a rock in the neighborhood, exhibits the outline of the human form, while in _e_ parts of the extremities have been removed by erosion so that the resemblance is less striking; in _f_ a simple cross occurs, which may also have been intended to represent the same, but through disintegration the extremities have been so greatly changed or erased that their original forms can not be determined.

Rev. John McLean (_a_) says: “On the sacred pole of the sun lodge of the Blood Indians two bundles of small brushwood taken from the birch tree were placed in the form of a cross. This was an ancient symbol evidently referring to the four winds.”

Among the Kiatéxamut, an Innuit tribe, a cross placed on the head, as in Fig. 1231, signifies a Shaman’s evil spirit or demon. This is an imaginary being under control of the Shaman to execute the wishes of the latter.

Many of the mescal eaters at the Kaiowa mescal ceremony wear the ordinary Roman Catholic crucifixes, which they adopt as sacred emblems of the rite, the cross representing the cross of scented leaves upon which the consecrated mescal rests during the ceremony, while the human figure is the mescal goddess.

Concerning Fig. 1232, Keam, in his MS., says:

The Maltese cross is the emblem of a virgin; still so recognized
by the Moki. It is a conventional development of a more common
emblem of maidenhood, the form in which the maidens wear their hair
arranged as a disk of 3 or 4 inches in diameter upon each side of
the head. This discoidal arrangement of their hair is typical of the
emblem of fructification worn by the virgin in the Muingwa festival,
as exhibited in the head-dress illustration _a_. Sometimes the hair,
instead of being worn in the complete discoid form, is dressed from
two curving twigs and presents the form of two semicircles upon each
side of the head. The partition of these is sometimes horizontal
and sometimes vertical. A combination of both of these styles, _b_,
presents the form from which the Maltese cross was conventionalized.
The brim decorations are of ornamental locks of hair which a maiden
trains to grow upon the sides of the forehead.

The ceremonial employment of the cross by the Pueblo is detailed in Mr. Stevenson’s paper entitled Ceremonial of Hasjelti Dailjis and Mythical Sand-painting of the Navajo Indians, in the Eighth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethn., p. 266, where it denotes the scalp-lock.

In the present paper the figure of the cross among the North American Indians is presented under other headings with many differing significations. Among other instances it appears on p. 383 as the tribal sign for Cheyenne; on p. 582 as Dakota lodges; on p. 613 as the character for trade or exchange; on p. 227 as the conventional sign for prisoner; on p. 438 for personal exploits; while elsewhere it is used in simple numeration.

But, although this device is used with a great variety of meanings, when it is employed ceremonially or in elaborate pictographs by the Indians both of North and South America, it represents the four winds. The view long ago suggested that such was the significance of the many Mexican crosses, is sustained by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in his Notes on Maya and Mexican MSS., Second Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., p. 61, 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 by more northern tribes. Yet the same author, in his paper on the Study of the MS. Troano, Contrib. N. A. Ethn., V, 144, gives Fig. 1233 as the symbol for wood, thus further showing the manifold concepts attached to the general form.

Bandelier (_a_) thinks that the crosses which were frequently used before the conquest by the aborigines of Mexico and Central America were merely ornaments and were not objects of worship, while the so-called crucifixes, like that on the “Palenque tablet,” were only the symbol of the “new fire” or close of a period of fifty-two years. He believes them to be merely representations of “fire-drills,” more or less ornamented.

Mr. W. H. Holmes (_e_) shows by a series representing steps in the simplification of animal characters that in Chiriqui a symmetrical cross was developed from the design of an alligator.

Carl Bovallius (_a_) gives an illustration, copied here as Fig. 1234, of pictographs in the island of Ceiba, Nicaragua.

Zamacois (_a_) says that “the cross figured in the religion of various tribes of the peninsula of Yucatan and that it represented the god of rain.”

Dr. S. Habel (_f_), describing Fig. 1235, says:

On it is a person in a reclining position, with a single band
tied around his forehead, forming a knot with two pendent tassels.
From his temple rises an ornament resembling the wing of a bird.
The emaciated face, as well as the recumbent position of the body,
indicates a state of sickness. The hair is interwoven behind with
many ribbons forming loops, which are bound together by a clasp,
and then spread out in the shape of a fan. The ear is ornamented
with a circular disk, to the center of which are attached a plume
and a twisted ornament similar to a queue. On the breast is a kind
of brooch, which is hollow like a shell, and in which are imbedded
seven pearls. Around the waist are three rows of a twisted fabric,
which is knotted in front in a bow, the ends descending between
the thighs. Another band, of a different texture, stretches out
horizontally from the region of the above-mentioned knot. Attached
to this girdle is another fabric, of a scaly texture, which
surrounds the thighs. The right leg, below the knee, is encircled
with a ribbon and a rosette. This would seem to be the undress
substitute for the band and pendant. In front of the recumbent
person stands the representation of a skeleton, quite well executed.
Other points noticeable about this skeleton are the hair on the head
and the fact that its hands are fleshy and the fingers and toes have
nails. Like all representations by these sculptures, the skeleton is
also embellished with ornaments.

From the back of the head emanate two objects similar to horns,
which, if they were not differently ribbed, might represent flames.
The ear is ornamented with a circular disk, with a pendant from its
center. A double-ruffled collar surrounds the neck and a serpent
encircles the loins. Both the shoulders and arms are enveloped in
flames. From the mouth emanates a bent staff, touching the first of
a row of ten circles. Beneath the second and third circles are five
bars, three of which are horizontal. The lowest one is the longest,
while the two upper ones are shorter and of different lengths. On
the uppermost of these bars rest two others, crossing each other
obliquely, and touching with their upper ends two of the aforesaid
circles. From the last of these circles descend serpentine lines,
which touch the ground behind the recumbent person.

Gustav Eisen, op. cit., describing Fig. 1236, says:

From near Santa Lucia, Guatemala, is a stone tablet, most likely
a sepulchral tablet, having in its center a forced dead head, with
outstretched tongue. Above the same are seen two crossed bars,
perhaps meant to represent two crossed bones.

W. F. Wakeman (_a_) makes the following remarks:

A cross was used by the people of Erin as a symbol of some
significance at a period long antecedent to the mission of St.
Patrick or the introduction of Christianity to this island. It is
found, not unfrequently, amongst the scribings picked or carved
upon rock surfaces and associated with a class of archaic designs,
to the meaning of which we possess no key. * * * It may be seen on
prehistoric monuments in America, on objects of pottery found by Dr.
Schliemann at Hissarlik and at Mycenæ, and, in more than one form,
on pagan Roman altars still preserved in Germany and Britain. With
the Chinese it was for untold ages a symbol of the earth. The Rev.
Samuel Beal, B. A., rector of Flastone, North Tyrone, professor of
Chinese in University College, London, writes: “Now, the earliest
symbol of the earth was a plain cross, denoting the four cardinal
points; hence we have the word chaturanta, i. e., the four sides,
both in Pâli and Sanscrit, for the earth; and on the Nestorian
tablet, found at Siganfu some years ago, the mode of saying “God
created the earth” is simply this: “God created the +.””

A writer in the Edinburgh Review in an article entitled “The Pre-Christian Cross,” January, 1870, p. 254, remarks: “The Buddhists and Brahmins who together constitute nearly half the population of the world, tell us that the decussated figure of the cross, whether in a simple or complex form, symbolizes the traditional happy abode of their primeval ancestors.”

Rudolf Cronau (_c_), describing Fig. 1237, says that in the Berlin Zeughause are swords of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, bearing the marks shown in _a_, _b_, _c_, and _d_, while those having the marks _e_ and _f_ are from swords in the Historical Museum at Dresden.

The remarkable resemblance of some of these characters to forms on petroglyphs in the three Americas, presented in this paper, will at once be noticed.

D’Alviella (_c_), remarks:

One of the most frequent forms of the cross is called the gamma
cross, because its four arms are bent at a right angle so as to form
a figure like that of four Greek gammas turned in the same direction
and joined at the base. We meet it among all the peoples of the Old
World, from Japan to Iceland, and it is found in the two Americas.
There is nothing to prevent us from supposing that in the instance
it was spontaneously conceived everywhere, like the equilateral
crosses, circles, triangles, chevrons, and other geometrical
ornaments so frequent in primitive decoration. But we see it, at
least among the peoples of the Old Continent, invariably passing for
talisman, appearing in the funeral scenes or on the tombstones of
Greece, Scandinavia, Numidia, and Thibet, and adorning the breasts
of divine personages--of Apollo and Buddha--without forgetting
certain representations of the Good Shepherd in the Catacombs.

It is, however, impossible within the present limits, to attempt even a summary of the vast amount of literature on this topic. Perhaps one symbolic use of the form which is not commonly known is of sufficient interest to be noted. Travelers say that crosses are exhibited in the curtains of the monasteries of the Thibetan Buddhists, to mean peace and quietness. With the same conception the loopholes of the Japanese forts were in time of peace covered with curtains embroidered with crosses, which when war broke out were removed.

It is also impossible to refrain from quoting the following, translated with condensation, from de Mortillet (_a_). The illustration referred to is reproduced in the present paper by Fig. 1238, the right-hand figure being from the vase, and that on the left the recognized monogram of Christ:

There can no longer be any doubt as to the use of the cross as a
religious symbol long before the advent of Christianity. The worship
of the cross, extensive throughout Gaul before the conquest, already
existed during the bronze age, more than a thousand years before
Christ.

It is especially in the sepulchres of Golasecca that this
worship is revealed in the most complete manner, and there, strange
to say, has been found a vessel bearing the ancient monogram of
Christ, designed perhaps 1,000 years before the coming of Jesus
Christ. Is the isolated presence of this monogram of Christ in the
midst of numerous crosses, an entirely accidental coincidence?

Another curious fact, very interesting to prove, is that this
great development of the worship of the cross before the coming
of Christ seems to coincide with the absence of idols and indeed
of any representation of living objects. Whenever such objects
appear, it may be said that the crosses become more rare and finally
disappear altogether. The cross has then been, in remote antiquity,
long before Christ, the sacred emblem of a religious sect which
repudiated idolatry.

The author, with considerable naiveté, has evidently determined that the form of the cross was significant of a high state of religious culture, and that its being succeeded by effigies, which he calls idols, showed a lapse into idolatry. The fact is simply that, next after one straight line, the combination of two straight lines forming a cross is the easiest figure to draw, and its use before art could attain to the drawing of animal forms, or their representation in plastic material, is merely an evidence of crudeness or imperfection in designing. It is worthy of remark that Dr. Schliemann, in his “Troja,” page 107, presents as his Fig. 38 a much more distinct cross than that given by M. de Mortillet, with the simple remark that it is “a geometrical ornamentation.”

Probably no cause has more frequently produced archeologic and ethnologic blunders than the determination of Christian explorers and missionaries to find monograms of Christ in every monument or inscription where the cross figure appears. The early missionaries to America were obliged to explain the presence of this figure there by a miraculous visit of an apostle, St. Thomas being their favorite. Other generations of the same good people were worried in the same manner by the cross pattée or Thor hammer of the Scandinavians, and by the conventionalized clover leaf of the Druids. This figure often has been a symbol and as often an emblem or a mere sign, but it is so common in every variety of application that actual evidence is necessary to show in any special case what is its real significance.

* * * * *

Gen. G. P. Thruston (_a_) gives the following account of Pl. LI, which suggests several points of comparison with figures under other headings in this paper:

THRUSTON TABLET, TENNESSEE.]

There has been discovered in Sumner county, Tennessee, near the
stone graves and mounds of Castalian springs, a valuable pictograph,
the ancient engraved stone which we have taken the liberty to
entitle a Group of Tennessee Mound Builders.

This engraved stone, the property of the Tennessee Historical
Society, is a flat, irregular slab of hard limestone, about 19
inches long and 15 inches wide. It bears every evidence of very
great age. * * * The stone was found on Rocky creek, in Sumner
county, and was presented, with other relics, to the Tennessee
Historical Society about twelve years ago. * * *

It is evidently an ideograph of significance, graven with a
steady and skillful hand, for a specific purpose, and probably
records or commemorates some important treaty or public or tribal
event. * * * Indian chiefs fully equipped with the insignia of
office, are arrayed in fine apparel. Two leading characters
are vigorously shaking hands in a confirmatory way. The banner
or shield, ornamented with the double serpent emblem and other
symbols, is, doubtless, an important feature of the occasion. Among
the historic Indians, no treaty was made without the presence or
presentation of the belt of wampum. This, the well-dressed female of
the group appears to grasp in her hand, perhaps as a pledge of the
contract. The dressing of the hair, the remarkable scalloped skirts,
the implements used, the waistbands, the wristlets, the garters, the
Indian leggings and moccasins, the necklace and breastplates, the
two banners, the serpent emblem, the tattoo stripes, the ancient
pipe, all invest this pictograph with unusual interest. * * * The
double serpent emblem or ornament upon the banner may have been
the badge or totem of the tribe, clan, or family that occupied
the extensive earthworks at Castalian springs in Sumner county,
near where the stone was found. The serpent was a favorite emblem
or totem of the Stone Grave race of Tennessee, and is one of the
common devices engraved on the shell gorgets taken from the ancient
cemeteries. * * * The circles or sun symbol ornaments on the banners
and dresses are the figures most frequently graven on the shell
gorgets found near Nashville.

The following summary of the translation, kindly furnished by Mr. Pom K. Soh of an article, “Pictures of Dokatu or so-called bronze bell,” by Mr. K. Wakabayashi (_a_), in the Bulletin of the Tōkyō Anthropological Society, refers to Pl. LII. The author saw the bell described at the town of Takoka, Japan, in August, 1891. The “pictures” on it were fourteen in number, cast in the metal of the bell, each one occupying a separate compartment and running around the bell in several bands. The author took rubbings of the pictures, lithographs of which are published as illustrations of his article, and from these the eight pictures now presented in actual size are selected, the remainder being of the same general character, and some of them nearly identical with those selected. The information obtained is that the bell, which is iron and not bronze, was procured before, and perhaps long before, the present century from Jisei, in the village of Sasakura in the state of Yetsin, and had been excavated from a mountain at Samki. Copies of the markings upon it were taken in 1817 to a high authority at Yedo, now Tōkyō. It is believed that the markings illustrate or are related to a national story, “Kanden Ko Hitsu,” written by Ban Kokei. A few similar bells or fragments of them, some being bronze, have been found in various parts of the Japanese empire. One, which is bronze, height about 3-1/2 feet, and diameter somewhat more than 1 foot, was dug up in Hanina in the year A. D. 821.

PICTURES ON DŌTAKU, JAPAN.]

The interest of the drawings on Pl. LII, in the present connection, consists in their remarkable similarity, both in form and apparent motive, with several of those found in the western continent and figured in the present work. Thus, _a_ is to be compared with characters on Figs. 437 and 1227 and others referring to the human form, the cross, and the dragon-fly; _b_ with Figs. 57, 165 _b_ and 1261 _l_; the two characters in _c_, respectively, with Fig. 1262; the mantis, and Fig. 1129, one form of star; _d_ with a common turtle form, as in Fig. 50; _e_ with Fig. 166, an Ojibwa human form, and also exhibiting gesture, and Fig. 113 a Brazilian petroglyph; and _f_ with Fig. 657, a north-eastern Algonquian drawing. The three last-mentioned pictures, _e_ and _f_ and _g_, exhibit the peculiar internal life organ (often the conventionalized heart), noticed in Figs. 50, 700, and 701, and it is to be remarked that the largest quadruped in _g_ has the life organ connected with the mouth, while the other quadrupeds, and those in _h_, show no depiction of internal organs. The human figure in _g_ is noticeable for the American form of bow, and the upper character of _h_ is to be compared with Figs. 104 and 148.