Chapter II: Part 2

Dr. H. Colley March, in his learned paper on the "Fylfot and the Futhore Tir,"[54] thinks the Swastika had no relation to fire or fire making or the fire god. His theory is that it symbolized axial motion and not merely gyration; that it represented the celestial pole, the axis of the heavens around which revolve the stars of the firmament. This appearance of rotation is most impressive in the constellation of the Great Bear. About four thousand years ago the apparent pivot of rotation was at [Greek: a] _Draconis_, much nearer the Great Bear than now, and at that time the rapid circular sweep must have been far more striking than at present. In addition to the name Ursa Major the Latins called this constellation _Septentriones_, "the seven plowing oxen," that dragged the stars around the pole, and the Greeks called it [Greek: elikê], from its vast spiral movement.[55] In the opinion of Dr. March all these are represented or symbolized by the Swastika.

Prof. W. H. Goodyear, of New York, has lately (1891) published an elaborate quarto work entitled "The Grammar of the Lotus: A New History of Classic Ornament as a Development of Sun Worship."[56] It comprises 408 pages, with 76 plates, and nearly a thousand figures. His theory develops the sun symbol from the lotus by a series of ingenious and complicated evolutions passing through the Ionic style of architecture, the volutes and spirals forming meanders or Greek frets, and from this to the Swastika. The result is attained by the following line of argument and illustrations:

The lotus was a "fetish of immemorial antiquity and has been worshiped in many countries from Japan to the Straits of Gibraltar;" it was a symbol of "fecundity," "life," "immortality," and of "resurrection," and has a mortuary significance and use. But its elementary and most important signification was as a solar symbol.[57]

He describes the Egyptian lotus and traces it through an innumerable number of specimens and with great variety of form. He mentions many of the sacred animals of Egypt and seeks to maintain their relationship by or through the lotus, not only with each other but with solar circles and the sun worship.[58] Direct association of the solar disk and lotus are, according to him, common on the monuments and on Phenician and Assyrian seals; while the lotus and the sacred animals, as in cases cited of the goose representing Seb (solar god, and father of Osiris), also Osiris himself and Horus, the hawk and lotus, bull and lotus, the asp and lotus, the lion and lotus, the sphinx and lotus, the gryphon and lotus, the serpent and lotus, the ram and lotus--all of which animals, and with them the lotus, have, in his opinion, some related signification to the sun or some of his deities.[59] He is of the opinion that the lotus motif was the foundation of the Egyptian style of architecture, and that it appeared at an early date, say, the fourteenth century B. C. By intercommunication with the Greeks it formed the foundation of the Greek Ionic capital, which, he says,[60] "offers no dated example of the earlier time than the sixth century B. C." He supports this contention by authority, argument, and illustration.

Fig. 15. TYPICAL LOTUS ON CYPRIAN VASES.

Fig. 16. TYPICAL LOTUS ON RHODIAN VASES.

Fig. 17. TYPICAL LOTUS ON MELIAN VASES.]

He shows[61] the transfer of the lotus motif to Greece, and its use as an ornament on the painted vases and on those from Cyprus, Rhodes, and Melos (figs. 15, 16, 17).

Chantre[62] notes the presence of spirals similar to those of fig. 17, in the terramares of northern Italy and up and down the Danube, and his fig. 186 (fig. 17) he says represents the decorating motif, the most frequent in all that part of prehistoric Europe. He cites "Notes sur les torques ou ornaments spirals."[63]

That the lotus had a foundation deep and wide in Egyptian mythology is not to be denied; that it was allied to and associated on the monuments and other objects with many sacred and mythologic characters in Egypt and afterwards in Greece is accepted. How far it extends in the direction contended for by Professor Goodyear, is no part of this investigation. It appears well established that in both countries it became highly conventionalized, and it is quite sufficient for the purpose of this argument that it became thus associated with the Swastika. Figs. 18 and 19 represent details of Cyprian vases and amphora belonging to the Cesnola collection in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, showing the lotus with curling sepals among which are interspersed Swastikas of different forms.

According to Professor Goodyear,[64] these bent sepals of the lotus were exaggerated and finally became spirals,[65] which, being projected at a tangent, made volutes, and, continuing one after the other, as shown in fig. 20, formed bands of ornament; or,[66] being connected to right and left, spread the ornament over an extended surface as in fig. 21. One of his paths of evolution closed these volutes and dropped the connecting tangent, when they formed the concentric rings of which we see so much. Several forms of Egyptian scarabæi, showing the evolution of concentric rings, are shown in figs. 22, 23, and 24.

By another path of the evolution of his theory, one has only to square the spiral volutes, and the result is the Greek fret shown in fig. 25.[67] The Greek fret has only to be doubled, when it produces the Swastika shown in fig. 26.[68] Thus we have, according to him, the origin of the Swastika, as shown in figs. 27 and 28.[69]

Professor Goodyear is authority for the statement that the earliest dated instances of the isolated scroll is in the fifth dynasty of Egypt, and of the lotus and spiral is in the eleventh dynasty. The spiral of fig. 19 (above) belongs to the twelfth dynasty.[70]

Fig. 22. CONCENTRIC RINGS CONNECTED BY TANGENTS. From a figure in Petrie's "History of Scarabs."

Fig. 23. CONCENTRIC RINGS WITH DISCONNECTED TANGENTS. Barringer collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 8, fig. 93.

Fig. 24. CONCENTRIC RINGS WITHOUT CONNECTION. Farman collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 8, fig. 95.]

Professor Goodyear devotes an entire chapter to the Swastika. On pages 352, 353 he says:

There is no proposition in archæology which can be so easily
demonstrated as the assertion that the Swastika was originally a
fragment of the Egyptian meander, provided Greek geometric vases are
called in evidence. The connection between the meander and the
Swastika has been long since suggested by Prof. A. S. Murray.[71]
Hindu specialists have suggested that the Swastika produced the
meander. Birdwood[72] says: "I believe the Swastika to be the origin
of the key pattern ornament of Greek and Chinese decorative art."
Zmigrodzki, in a recent publication,[73] has not only reproposed this
derivation of the meander, but has even connected the Mycenæ spirals
with this supposed development, and has proposed to change the name of
the spiral ornament accordingly. * * * The equivalence of the Swastika
with the meander pattern is suggested, in the first instance, by its
appearance in the shape of the meander on the Rhodian (pl. 28, fig.
7), Melian (pl. 60, fig. 8), archæic Greek (pl. 60, fig. 9, and pl.
61, fig. 12), and Greek geometric vases (pl. 56). The appearance, in
shape of the meander may be verified in the British Museum on one
geometric vase of the oldest type, and it also occurs in the Louvre.

On page 354, Goodyear says:

The solar significance of the Swastika is proven by the Hindu coins of
the Jains. Its generative significance is proven by a leaden statuette
from Troy. It is an equivalent of the lotus (pl. 47, figs. 1, 2, 3),
of the solar diagram (pl. 57, fig. 12, and pl. 60, fig. 8), of the
rosette (pl. 20, fig. 8), of concentric rings (pl. 47, fig. 11), of
the spiral scroll (pl. 34, fig. 8, and pl. 39, fig. 2), of the
geometric boss (pl. 48, fig. 12), of the triangle (pl. 46, fig. 5),
and of the anthemion (pl. 28, fig. 7, and pl. 30, fig. 4). It appears
with the solar deer (pl. 60, figs. 1 and 2), with the solar antelope
(pl. 37, fig. 9), with the symbolic fish (pl. 42, fig. 1), with the
ibex (pl. 37, fig. 4), with the solar sphinx (pl. 34, fig. 8), with
the solar lion (pl. 30, fig. 4), the solar ram (pl. 28, fig. 7), and
the solar horse (pl. 61, figs. 1, 4, 5, and 12). Its most emphatic and
constant association is with the solar bird (pl. 60, fig. 15; fig.
173).

Count Goblet d'Alviella, following Ludwig Müller, Percy Gardner, S. Beal, Edward Thomas, Max Müller, H. Gaidoz, and other authors, accepts their theory that the Swastika was a symbolic representation of the sun or of a sun god, and argues it fully.[74] He starts with the proposition that most of the nations of the earth have represented the sun by a circle, although some of them, notably the Assyrians, Hindus, Greeks, and Celts, have represented it by signs more or less cruciform. Examining his fig. 2, wherein signs of the various people are set forth, it is to be remarked that there is no similarity or apparent relationship between the six symbols given, either with themselves or with the sun. Only one of them, that of Assyria, pretends to be a circle; and it may or may not stand for the sun. It has no exterior rays. All the rest are crosses of different kinds. Each of the six symbols is represented as being from a single nation of people. They are prehistoric or of high antiquity, and most of them appear to have no other evidence of their representation of the sun than is contained in the sign itself, so that the first objection is to the premises, to wit, that while his symbols may have sometimes represented the sun, it is far from certain that they are used constantly or steadily as such. An objection is made to the theory or hypothesis presented by Count d'Alviella[75] that it is not the cross part of the Swastika which represents the sun, but its bent arms, which show the revolving motion, by which he says is evolved the tetraskelion or what in this paper is named the "Ogee Swastika." The author is more in accord with Dr. Brinton and others that the Swastika is derived from the cross and not from the wheel, that the bent arms do not represent rotary or gyratory motion, and that it had no association with, or relation to, the circle. This, if true, relieves the Swastika from all relation with the circle as a symbol of the sun. Besides, it is not believed that the symbol of the sun is one which required rotary or gyratory motion or was represented by it, but, as will be explained, in speaking of the Assyrian sun-god Shamash (p. 789), it is rather by a circle with pointed rays extending outward.

D'Alviella[76] presents several figures in support of his contention. The first (_a_) is on a fibula from Etruria (fig. 190 of this paper). His explanation is that the small circle of rays, bent at right angles, on the broad shield of the pin, represents graphically the rotary movement of the sun, and that the bent arms in the Swastikas on the same object are taken from them. It seems curious that so momentous a subject as the existence of a symbol of a great god, the god of light, heat, and thus of life, should be made to depend upon an object of so small importance. This specimen (fig. 190) is a fibula or pin, one of the commonest objects of Etruscan, Greek, or Roman dress. The decorations invoked are on the broad end, which has been flattened to protect the point of the pin, where appears a semicircle of so-called rays, the two Swastikas and two possible crosses. There is nothing about this pin, nor indeed any of the other objects, to indicate any holy or sacred character, nor that any of them were used in any ceremony having relation to the sun, to any god, or to anything holy or sacred. His fig. _b_ is fig. 88 in this paper. It shows a quadrant of the sphere found by Schliemann at Hissarlik. There is a slightly indefinite circle with rays from the outside, which are bent and crooked in many directions. The sphere is of terra cotta; the marks that have been made on it are rough and ill formed. They were made by incision while the clay was soft and were done in the rudest manner. There are dozens more marks upon the same sphere, none of which seem to have received any consideration in this regard. There is a Swastika upon the sphere, and it is the only mark or sign upon the entire object that seems to have been made with care or precision. His third figure (_c_) is taken from a reliquaire of the thirteenth century A. D. It has a greater resemblance to the acanthus plant than it has to any solar disk imaginable. The other two figures (_d_ and _e_) are tetraskelions or ogee Swastikas from ancient coins.

D'Alviella's next argument[77] is that the triskelion, formed by the same process as the tetraskelion, is an "incontestable" representation of solar movement. No evidence is submitted in support of this assertion, and the investigator of the present day is required, as in prehistoric objects, to depend entirely upon the object itself. The bent arms contain no innate evidence (even though they should be held to represent rotary or gyratory motion) representing the sun or sun gods. It is respectfully suggested that in times of antiquity, as in modern times, the sun is not represented as having a rotary motion, but is rather represented by a circle with diminishing rays projecting from the center or exterior. It seems unjustifiable, almost ridiculous, to transform the three flexed human legs, first appearing on the coins of Lycia, into a sun symbol, to make it the reliable evidence of sun worship, and give it a holy or sacred character as representing a god. It is surely pushing the argument too far to say that this is an "incontestable" representation of the solar movement. The illustrations by d'Alviella on his page 71 are practically the same as figs. 224 to 226 of this paper.

Count d'Alviella's further argument[78] is that symbols of the sun god being frequently associated, alternated with, and sometimes replaced by, the Swastika, proves it to have been a sun symbol. But this is doubted, and evidence to sustain the proposition is wanting. Undoubtedly the Swastika was a symbol, was intentional, had a meaning and a degree of importance, and, while it may have been intended to represent the sun and have a higher and holier character, yet these mere associations are not evidence of the fact.

D'Alviella's plate 2, page 80, while divided into sections _a_ and _b_, is filled only with illustrations of Swastika associated with circles, dots, etc., introduced for the purpose of showing the association of the Swastika therewith, and that the permutation and replacing of these signs by the Swastika is evidence that the Swastika represented the sun. Most of the same illustrations are presented in this paper, and it is respectfully submitted that the evidence does not bear out his conclusion. If it be established that these other symbols are representatives of the sun, how does that prove that the Swastika was itself a representative of the sun or the sun god? D'Alviella himself argues[79] against the proposition of equivalence of meaning because of association when applied to the _Crux ansata_, the circle, the crescent, the triskelion, the lightning sign, and other symbolic figures. He denies that because the Swastika is found on objects associated with these signs therefore they became interchangeable in meaning, or that the Swastika stood for any of them. The Count[79] says that more likely the engraver added the Swastika to these in the character of a talisman or phylactery. On page 56 he argues in the same line, that because it is found on an object of sacred character does not necessarily give it the signification of a sacred or holy symbol. He regards the Swastika as a symbol of good fortune, and sees no reason why it may not be employed as an invocation to a god of any name or kind on the principle, "Good Lord, good devil," quoting the Neapolitan proverb, that it will do no harm, and possibly may do good.

Prof. Max Müller[80] refers to the discovery by Prof. Percy Gardner of one of the coins of Mesembria, whereon the Swastika replaces the last two syllables of the word, and he regards this as decisive that in Greece the meaning of the Swastika was equivalent to the sun. This word, Mesembria, being translated _ville de midi_, means town or city of the south, or the sun. He cites from Mr. Thomas's paper on the "Indian Swastika and its Western Counterparts"[81] what he considers an equally decisive discovery made some years ago, wherein it was shown that the wheel, the emblem of the sun in motion, was replaced by the Swastika on certain coins; likewise on some of the Andhra coins and some punched gold coins noted by Sir Walter Elliott.[82] In these cases the circle or wheel alleged to symbolize the sun was replaced by the Swastika. The Swastika has been sometimes inscribed within the rings or normal circles representing what is said to be the four suns on Ujain patterns or coins (fig. 230). Other authorities have adopted the same view, and have extended it to include the lightning, the storm, the fire wheel, the sun chariot, etc. (See Ohnefalsch-Richter, p. 790.) This appears to be a _non sequitur_. All these speculations may be correct, and all these meanings may have been given to the Swastika, but the evidence submitted does not prove the fact. There is in the case of the foregoing coins no evidence yet presented as to which sign, the wheel or the Swastika, preceded and which followed in point of time. The Swastika may have appeared first instead of last, and may not have been a substitution for the disk, but an original design. The disk employed, while possibly representing the sun in some places, may not have done so always nor in this particular case. It assumes too much to say that every time a small circle appears on an ancient object it represented the sun, and the same observation can be made with regard to symbols of the other elements. Until it shall have been satisfactorily established that the symbols represented these elements with practical unanimity, and that the Swastika actually and intentionally replaced it as such, the theory remains undemonstrated, the burden rests on those who take the affirmative side; and until these points shall have been settled with some degree of probability the conclusion is not warranted.

As an illustration of the various significations possible, one has but to turn to Chapter IV, on the various meanings given to the cross among American Indians, where it is shown that among these Indians the cross represented the four winds, the sun, stars, dwellings, the dragon fly, mide' society, flocks of birds, human form, maidenhood, evil spirit, and divers others.

Mr. Edward Thomas, in his work entitled "The Indian Swastika and its Western Counterparts,"[83] says:

As far as I have been able to trace or connect the various
manifestations of this emblem [the Swastika], they one and all resolve
themselves into the primitive conception of solar motion, which was
intuitively associated with the rolling or wheel-like projection of
the sun through the upper or visible arc of the heavens, as understood
and accepted in the crude astronomy of the ancients. The earliest
phase of astronomical science we are at present in position to refer
to, with the still extant aid of indigenous diagrams, is the Chaldean.
The representation of the sun in this system commences with a simple
ring or outline circle, which is speedily advanced toward the
impression of onward revolving motion by the insertion of a cross or
four wheel-like spokes within the circumference of the normal ring. As
the original Chaldean emblem of the sun was typified by a single ring,
so the Indian mind adopted a similar definition, which remains to this
day as the ostensible device or cast-mark of the modern Sauras or sun
worshipers.

The same remarks are made in "Ilios" (pp. 353, 354).

The author will not presume to question, much less deny, the facts stated by this learned gentleman, but it is to be remarked that, on the theory of presumption, the circle might represent many other things than the sun, and unless the evidence in favor of the foregoing statement is susceptible of verification, the theory can hardly be accepted as conclusive. Why should not the circle represent other things than the sun? In modern astronomy the full moon is represented by the plain circle, while the sun, at least in heraldry, is always represented as a circle with rays. It is believed that the "cross or four wheel-like spokes" in the Chaldean emblem of the sun will be found to be rays rather than cross or spokes. A cast is in the U. S. National Museum (Cat. No. 154766) of an original specimen from Niffer, now in the Royal Museum, Berlin, of Shamash, the Assyrian god of the sun. He is represented on this monument by a solar disk, 4 inches in diameter, with eight rays similar to those of stars, their bases on a faint circle at the center, and tapering outwards to a point, the whole surrounded by another faint circle. This is evidence that the sun symbol of Assyria required rays as well as a circle. A similar representation of the sun god is found on a tablet discovered in the temple of the Sun God at Abu-Habba.[84]

Perrot and Chipiez[85] show a tablet from Sippara, of a king, Nabu-abal-iddin, 900 B. C., doing homage to the sun god (identified by the inscription), who is represented by bas-relief of a small circle in the center, with rays and lightning zigzags extending to an outer circle.

In view of these authorities and others which might be cited, it is questionable whether the plain circle was continuously a representation of the sun in the Chaldean or Assyrian astronomy. It is also doubtful whether, if the circle did represent the sun, the insertion of the cross or the four wheel-like spokes necessarily gave the impression of "onward revolving motion;" or whether any or all of the foregoing afford a satisfactory basis for the origin of the Swastika or for its relation to, or representation of, the sun or the sun god.

Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter[86] announces as his opinion that the Swastika in Cyprus had nearly always a signification more or less religious and sacred, though it may have been used as an ornament to fill empty spaces. He attributes to the _Croix swasticale_--or, as he calls it, _Croix cantonnée_--the equivalence of the solar disk, zigzag lightning, and double hatchet; while to the Swastika proper he attributes the signification of rain, storm, lightning, sun, light, seasons, and also that it lends itself easily to the solar disk, the fire wheel, and the sun chariot.

Greg[87] says:

Considered finally, it may be asked if the fylfot or gammadion was an
early symbol of the sun, or, if only an emblem of the solar
revolutions or in movements across the heavens, why it was drawn
square rather than curved: The [Z], even if used in a solar sense,
must have implied something more than, or something distinct from, the
sun, whose proper and almost universal symbol was the circle. It was
evidently more connected with the cross [cross] than with the circle
[circle] or solar disk.

Dr. Brinton[88] considers the Swastika as derived from the cross rather than from the circle, and the author agrees that this is probable, although it may be impossible of demonstration either way.

Several authors, among the rest d'Alviella, Greg, and Thomas, have announced the theory of the evolution of the Swastika, beginning with the triskelion, thence to the tetraskelion, and so to the Swastika. A slight examination is sufficient to overturn this hypothesis. In the first place, the triskelion, which is the foundation of this hypothesis, made its first appearance on the coins of Lycia. But this appearance was within what is called the first period of coinage, to wit, between 700 and 480 B. C., and it did not become settled until the second, and even the third period, 280 to 240 B. C., when it migrated to Sicily. But the Swastika had already appeared in Armenia, on the hill of Hissarlik, in the terramares of northern Italy, and on the hut-urns of southern Italy many hundred, possibly a thousand or more, years prior to that time. Count d'Alviella, in his plate 3 (see Chart I, p. 794), assigns it to a period of the fourteenth or thirteenth century B. C., with an unknown and indefinite past behind it. It is impossible that a symbol which first appeared in 480 B. C. could have been the ancestor of one which appeared in 1400 or 1300 B. C., nearly a thousand years before.

William Simpson[89] makes observations upon the latest discoveries regarding the Swastika and gives his conclusion:

* * * The finding of the Swastika in America gives a very wide
geographical space that is included by the problem connected with it,
but it is wider still, for the Swastika is found over the most of the
habitable world, almost literally "from China to Peru," and it can be
traced back to a very early period. The latest idea formed regarding
the Swastika is that it may be a form of the old wheel symbolism and
that it represents a solar movement, or perhaps, in a wider sense, the
whole celestial movement of the stars. The Dharmachakra, or Buddhist
wheel, of which the so-called "praying wheel" of the Lamas of Thibet
is only a variant, can now be shown to have represented the solar
motion. It did not originate with the Buddhists; they borrowed it from
the Brahminical system to the Veda, where it is called "the wheel of
the sun." I have lately collected a large amount of evidence on this
subject, being engaged in writing upon it, and the numerous passages
from the old Brahminical authorities leave no doubt in the matter. The
late Mr. Edward Thomas * * * and Prof. Percy Gardner * * * declared
that on some Andhra gold coins and one from Mesembria, Greece, the
part of the word which means day, or when the sun shines, is
represented by the Swastika. These details will be found in a letter
published in the "Athenæum" of August 20, 1892, written by Prof. Max
Müller, who affirms that it "is decisive" as to the meaning of the
symbol in Greece. This evidence may be "decisive" for India and
Greece, but it does not make us quite certain about other parts of the
world. Still it raises a strong presumption that its meaning is likely
to be somewhat similar wherever the symbol is found.

It is now assumed that the Triskelion or Three Legs of the Isle of Man
is only a variant of the Swastika. * * * There are many variants
besides this in which the legs, or limbs, differ in number, and they
may all be classed as whorls, and were possibly all, more or less,
forms intended originally to express circular motion. As the subject
is too extensive to be fully treated here, and many illustrations
would be necessary, to those wishing for further details I would
recommend a work just published entitled "The Migration of Symbols,"
by Count Goblet d'Alviella, with an introduction by Sir George
Birdwood. The frontispiece of the book is a representation of Apollo,
from a vase in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, and on the
middle of Apollo's breast there is a large and prominent Swastika. In
this we have another instance going far to show its solar
significance. While accepting these new interpretations of the symbol,
I am still inclined to the notion that the Swastika may, at the same
time, have been looked upon in some cases as a cross--that is, a
pre-Christian cross, which now finds acceptance by some authorities as
representing the four cardinal points. The importance of the cardinal
points in primitive symbolism appears to me to have been very great,
and has not as yet been fully realized. This is too large a matter to
deal with here. All I can state is, that the wheel in India was
connected with the title of a _Chakravartin_--from _Chakra_, a
wheel--the title meaning a supreme ruler, or a universal monarch, who
ruled the four quarters of the world, and on his coronation he had to
drive his chariot, or wheel, to the four cardinal points to signify
his conquest of them. Evidence of other ceremonies of the same kind in
Europe can be produced. From instances such as these, I am inclined to
assume that the Swastika, as a cross, represented the four quarters
over which the solar power by its revolving motion carried its
influence.

ORIGIN AND HABITAT.

Prehistoric archæologists have found in Europe many specimens of ornamental sculpture and engraving belonging to the Paleolithic age, but the cross is not known in any form, Swastika or other. In the Neolithic age, which spread itself over nearly the entire world, with many geometric forms of decoration, no form of the cross appears in times of high antiquity as a symbol or as indicating any other than an ornamental purpose. In the age of bronze, however, the Swastika appears, intentionally used, as a symbol as well as an ornament. Whether its first appearance was in the Orient, and its spread thence throughout prehistoric Europe, or whether the reverse was true, may not now be determined with certainty. It is believed by some to be involved in that other warmly disputed and much-discussed question as to the locality of origin and the mode and routes of dispersion of Aryan peoples. There is evidence to show that it belongs to an earlier epoch than this, and relates to the similar problem concerning the locality of origin and the mode and routes of the dispersion of bronze. Was bronze discovered in eastern Asia and was its migration westward through Europe, or was it discovered on the Mediterranean, and its spread thence? The Swastika spread through the same countries as did the bronze, and there is every reason to believe them to have proceeded contemporaneously--whether at their beginning or not, is undeterminable.

The first appearance of the Swastika was apparently in the Orient, precisely in what country it is impossible to say, but probably in central and southeastern Asia among the forerunners or predecessors of the Bramins and Buddhists. At all events, a religious and symbolic signification was attributed to it by the earliest known peoples of these localities.

M. Michael Zmigrodzki, a Polish scholar, public librarian at Sucha, near Cracow, prepared and sent to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago a manuscript chart in French, showing his opinion of the migration of the Swastika, which was displayed in the Woman's Building. It was arranged in groups: The prehistoric (or Pagan) and Christian. These were divided geographically and with an attempt at chronology, as follows:

I. Prehistoric:
1. India and Bactria.
2. Cyprus, Rhodes.
3. North Europe.
4. Central Europe.
5. South Europe.
6. Asia Minor.
7. Greek and Roman epoch--Numismatics.
II. Christian:
8. Gaul--Numismatics.
9. Byzantine.
10. Merovingian and Carlovingian.
11. Germany.
12. Poland and Sweden.
13. Great Britain.

Lastly he introduces a group of the Swastika in the nineteenth century. He presented figures of Swastikas from these localities and representing these epochs. He had a similar display at the Paris Exposition of 1889, which at its close was deposited in the St. Germain Prehistoric Museum. I met M. Zmigrodzki at the Tenth International Congress of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archæology in Paris, and heard him present the results of his investigations on the Swastika. I have since corresponded with him, and he has kindly sent me separates of his paper published in the Archives für Ethnographie, with 266 illustrations of the Swastika; but on asking his permission to use some of the information in the chart at Chicago, he informed me he had already given the manuscript chart and the right to reproduce it to the Chicago Folk-Lore Society. The secretary of this society declined to permit it to pass out of its possession, though proffering inspection of it in Chicago.

In his elaborate dissertation Count Goblet d'Alviella[90] shows an earlier and prehistoric existence of the Swastika before its appearance on the hill of Hissarlik. From this earlier place of origin it, according to him, spread to the Bronze age terramares of northern Italy. All this was prior to the thirteenth century B. C. From the hill of Hissarlik it spread east and west; to the east into Lycaonia and Caucasus, to the west into Mycenæ and Greece; first on the pottery and then on the coins. From Greece it also spread east and west; east to Asia Minor and west to Thrace and Macedonia. From the terramares he follows it through the Villanova epoch, through Etruria and Grand Greece, to Sicily, Gaul, Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, to all of which migration he assigns various dates down to the second century B. C. It developed westward from Asia Minor to northern Africa and to Rome, with evidence in the Catacombs; on the eastward it goes into India, Persia, China, Tibet, and Japan. All this can be made apparent upon examination of the plate itself. It is introduced as Chart I, p. 794.

The author enters into no discussion with Count d'Alviella over the correctness or completeness of the migrations set forth in his chart. It will be conceded, even by its author, to be largely theoretical and impossible to verify by positive proof. He will only contend that there is a probability of its correctness. It is doubted whether he can maintain his proposition of the constant presence or continued appearance of the Swastika on altars, idols, priestly vestments, and sepulchral urns, and that this demonstrates the Swastika to have always possessed the attributes of a religious symbol. It appears to have been used more frequently upon the smaller and more insignificant things of everyday life--the household utensils, the arms, weapons, the dress, the fibulæ, and the pottery; and while this may be consonant with the attributes of the talisman or amulet or charm, it is still compatible with the theory of the Swastika being a sign or symbol for benediction, blessing, good fortune, or good luck; and that it was rather this than a religious symbol.

["La Migration des Symboles," pl. 3.]]

Count Goblet d'Alviella, in the fourth section of the second chapter[91] relating to the country of its origin, argues that the Swastika sign was employed by all the Aryans except the Persians. This omission he explains by showing that the Swastika in all other lands stood for the sun or for the sun-god, while the Aryans of Persia had other signs for the same thing--the _Crux ansata_ and the winged globe. His conclusion is[92] that there were two zones occupied with different symbols, the frontier between them being from Persia, through Cyprus, Rhodes, and Asia Minor, to Libya; that the first belonged to the Greek civilization, which employed the Swastika as a sun symbol; the second to the Egypto-Babylonian, which employed the _Crux ansata_ and the winged globe as sun symbols.

Professor Sayce, in his preface to "Troja," says:[93]

The same symbol [the Swastika], as is well known, occurs on the
Archaic pottery of Cyprus * * * as well as upon the prehistoric
antiquities of Athens and Mykênæ [same, "Ilios," p. 353], but it was
entirely unknown to Babylonia, to Assyria, to Phoenicia, and to Egypt.
It must therefore either have originated in Europe and spread eastward
through Asia Minor or have been disseminated westward from the
primitive home of the Hittites. The latter alternative is the more
probable; but whether it is so or not, the presence of the symbol in
the land of the Ægean indicates a particular epoch and the influence
of a pre-Phoenician culture.

Dr. Schliemann[94] reports that "Rev. W. Brown Keer observed the Swastika innumerable times in the most ancient Hindu temples, especially those of the Jainas."

Max Müller cites the following paragraph by Professor Sayce:[95]

It is evident to me that the sign found at Hissarlik is identical with
that found at Mycenæ and Athens, as well as on the prehistoric pottery
of Cyprus (Di Cesnola, Cyprus, pls. 44 and 47), since the general
artistic character of the objects with which this sign is associated
in Cyprus and Greece agrees with that of the objects discovered in
Troy. The Cyprian vase [fig. 156, this paper] figured in Di Cesnola's
"Cyprus," pl. 45, which associates the Swastika with the figure of an
animal, is a striking analogue of the Trojan whorls, on which it is
associated with the figure of the stags. The fact that it is drawn
within the vulva of the leaden image on the Asiatic goddess shown in
fig. 226 ("Ilios," fig. 125 this paper) seems to show that it was a
symbol of generation.

Count Goblet d'Alviella,[96] citing Albert Dumont[97] and Perrot and Chipiez,[98] says:

The Swastika appears in Greece, as well as in Cyprus and Rhodes, first
on the pottery, with geometric decorations, which form the second
period in Greek ceramics. From that it passes to a later period, where
the decoration is more artistic and the appearance of which coincides
with the development of the Phoenician influences on the coasts of
Greece.

Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter, in a paper devoted to the consideration of the Swastika in Cyprus,[99] expresses the opinion that the emigrant or commercial Phenicians traveling in far eastern countries brought the Swastika by the sea route of the Persian Gulf to Asia Minor and Cyprus, while, possibly, other people, brought it by the overland route from central Asia, Asia Minor, and Hissarlik, and afterwards by migration to Cyprus, Carthage, and the north of Africa.

Professor Goodyear says:[100]

The true home of the Swastika is the Greek geometric style, as will be
immediately obvious to every expert who examines the question through
the study of that style. In seeking the home of a symbol, we should
consider where it appears in the largest dimension and where it
appears in the most formal and prominent way. The Greek geometric
vases are the only monuments on which the Swastika systematically
appears in panels exclusively assigned to it (pl. 60, fig. 13; and pl.
56, fig. 4). There are no other monuments on which the Swastika can be
found in a dimension taking up one-half the height of the entire
object (pl. 56, fig. 4). The ordinary size of the Swastika, in very
primitive times, is under a third of an inch in diameter. They are
found in Greek geometric pottery 2 or 3 inches in diameter, but they
also appear in the informal scattering way (pl. 61, fig. 4) which
characterizes the Swastika in other styles.

* * * * *

The Swastika dates from the earliest diffusion of the Egyptian meander
in the basin of the Mediterranean, and it is a profound remark of De
Morgan (Mission Scientifique au Caucase) that the area of the Swastika
appears to be coextensive with the area of bronze. In northern
prehistoric Europe, where the Swastika has attracted considerable
attention, it is distinctly connected with the bronze culture derived
from the south. When found on prehistoric pottery of the north, the
southern home of its beginnings is equally clear.

In seeking the home of a symbol, we should consider not only the
nature of its appearance, but also where it is found in the largest
amount, for this shows the center of vogue and power--that is to say,
the center of diffusion. The vogue of the Swastika at Troy is not as
great as its vogue in Cyprian Greek pottery (pl. 60, fig. 15) and
Rhodian pottery (pl. 60, fig. 2). * * * It is well known to Melian
vases (pl. 60, fig. 8) and to archaic Greek vases (pl. 61, fig. 12),
but its greatest prominence is on the pottery of the Greek geometric
style (pl. 60, fig. 13; pl. 56, fig. 4; pl. 61, figs. 1 and 4; and
figs. 173 and 171). * * *

Aside from the Greek geometric style, our earliest reference for the
Swastika, and very possibly an earlier reference than the first, is
its appearance on the "hut urns" of Italy. On such it appears rather
as a fragment of the more complicated meander patterns, from which it
is derived. My precise view is that the earliest and, consequently,
imperfect, forms of the Swastika are on the hut urns of Italy, but
that, as an independent and definitely shaped pattern, it first
belongs to the Greek geometric style. I do not assert that the
Swastika is very common on hut urns, which are often undecorated. * *
* Our present intermediate link with India for the Swastika lies in
the Caucasus and in the adjacent territory of Koban. This last ancient
center of the arts in metal has lately attracted attention through the
publication of Virchow (Das Gräberfeld von Koban). In the original
Coban bronzes of the Prehistoric Museum of St. Germain there is
abundant matter for study (p. 351).

Mr. R. P. Greg, in "Fret or Key Ornamentation in Mexico and Peru,"[101] says:

Both the Greek fret and the fylfot appear to have been unknown to the
Semitic nations as an ornament or as a symbol.

In Egypt the fylfot does not occur. It is, I believe, generally
admitted or supposed that the fylfot is of early Aryan origin.
Eastward toward India, Tibet, and China it was adopted, in all
probability, as a sacred symbol of Buddha; westward it may have spread
in one form or another to Greece, Asia Minor, and even to North
Germany.

Cartailhac says:[102]

Modern Christian archæologists have obstinately contended that the
Swastika was composed of four gamma, and so have called it the Croix
Gammée. But the Ramâyana placed it on the boat of the Rama long before
they had any knowledge of Greek. It is found on a number of Buddhist
edifices; the Sectarians of Vishnu placed it as a sign upon their
foreheads. Burnouf says it is the Aryan sign par excellence. It was
surely a religious emblem in use in India fifteen centuries before the
Christian era, and thence it spread to every part. In Europe it
appeared about the middle of the civilization of the bronze age, and
we find it, pure or transformed into a cross, on a mass of objects in
metal or pottery during the first age of iron. Sometimes its lines
were rounded and given a graceful curve instead of straight and square
at its ends and angles. [See letter by Gandhi, pp. 803, 805.]

M. Cartailhac notes[103] several facts concerning the associations of the Swastika found by him in Spain and Portugal and belonging to the first (prehistoric) age of iron: (1) The Swastika was associated with the silhouettes of the duck, or bird, similar to those in Greece, noted by Goodyear; (2) the association (in his fig. 41) on a slab from the lake dwellings, of the Maltese cross and reproduction of the triskelion; (3) a tetraskelion, which he calls a Swastika "flamboyant," being the triskelion, but with four arms, the same shown on Lycian coins as being ancestors of the true triskelion (his fig. 412); (4) those objects were principally found in the ancient lake dwellings of Sambroso and Briteiros, supposedly dating from the eighth and ninth centuries B. C. With them were found many ornaments, borders representing cords, spirals, meanders, etc., which had the same appearance as those found by Schliemann at Mycenæ. Cartailhac says:[104]

Without doubt Asiatic influences are evident in both cases; first
appearing in the Troad, then in Greece, they were spread through
Iberia and, possibly, who can tell, finally planted in a far-away
Occident.

A writer in the Edinburgh Review, in an extended discussion on "The pre-Christian cross," treats of the Swastika under the local name of "Fylfot," but in such an enigmatical and uncertain manner that it is difficult to distinguish it from other and commoner forms of the cross. Mr. Waring[105] criticises him somewhat severely for his errors:

He states that it is found * * * in the sculptured stones of Scotland
(but after careful search we can find only one or two imperfect
representations of it, putting aside the Newton stone inscription,
where it is probably a letter or numeral only); that it is carved on
the temples and other edifices of Mexico and Central America (where
again we have sought for it in vain); that it is found on the cinerary
urns of the terramare of Parma and Vicenza, the date of which has been
assigned by Italian antiquaries to 1000 B. C. (but there again we have
found only the plain cross, and not the fylfot), and, finally, he
asserts that "it was the emblem of Libitina or Persephone, the awful
Queen of the Shades, and is therefore commonly found on the dress of
the tumulorum fossor in the Roman catacombs," but we have only found
one such example. "It is noteworthy, too," he continues, "in reference
to its extreme popularity, or the superstitious veneration in which it
has been also universally held, that the cross pattée, or cruciform
hammer (but we shall show these are different symbols), was among the
very last of purely pagan symbols which was religiously preserved in
Europe long after the establishment of Christianity (not in Europe,
but in Scandinavia and wherever the Scandinavians had penetrated). * *
* It may be seen upon the bells of many of our parish churches, as at
Appleby, Mexborough, Haythersaye, Waddington, Bishop's Norton, West
Barkwith, and other places, where it was placed as a magical sign to
subdue the vicious spirit of the tempest;" and he subsequently points
out its constant use in relation to water or rain.

Mr. Waring continues:

The Rev. C. Boutell, in "Notes and Queries," points out that it is to
be found on many mediæval monuments and bells, and occurs--e. g., at
Appleby in Lincolnshire (peopled by Northmen)--as an initial cross to
the formula on the bell "Sta. Maria, o. p. n. and c." In these cases
it has clearly been adopted as a Christian symbol. In the same
author's "Heraldry," he merely describes it as a mystic cross.

Mr. Waring makes one statement which, being within his jurisdiction, should be given full credit. He says, on page 15:

It [the Swastika] appears in Scotland and England only in those parts
where Scandinavians penetrated and settled, but is not once found in
any works of purely Irish or Franco-Celtic art.

He qualifies this, however, by a note:

I believe it occurs twice on an "Ogam" stone in the Museum of the
Royal Irish Academy, figured in Wilde's Catalogue (p. 136), but the
fylfots are omitted in the wood cut. [See fig. 215.]

Dr. Brinton,[106] describing the normal Swastika, "with four arms of equal length, the hook usually pointing from left to right," says: "In this form it occurs in India and on very early (Neolithic) Grecian, Italic, and Iberian remains." Dr. Brinton is the only author who, writing at length or in a critical manner, attributes the Swastika to the Neolithic period in Europe, and in this, more than likely, he is correct. Professor Virchow's opinion as to the antiquity of the hill of Hissarlik, wherein Dr. Schliemann found so many Swastikas, should be considered in this connection. (See p. 832, 833 of this paper.) Of course, its appearance among the aborigines of America, we can imagine, must have been within the Neolithic period.

II.--DISPERSION OF THE SWASTIKA.

EXTREME ORIENT.

JAPAN.

The Swastika was in use in Japan in ancient as well as modern times. Fig. 29 represents a bronze statue of Buddha, one-fifteenth natural size, from Japan, in the collection of M. Cernuschi, Paris. It has eight Swastikas on the pedestal, the ends all turned at right angles to the right. This specimen is shown by De Mortillet[107] because it relates to prehistoric man. The image or statue holds a cane in the form of a "tintinnabulum," with movable rings arranged to make a jingling noise, and De Mortillet inserted it in his volume to show the likeness of this work in Japan with a number of similar objects found in the Swiss lake dwellings in the prehistoric age of bronze (p. 806).

The Swastika mark was employed by the Japanese on their porcelain. Sir Augustus W. Franks[108] shows one of these marks, a small Swastika turned to the left and inclosed in a circle (fig. 30). Fig. 9 also represents a mark on Japanese bronzes.[109]

KOREA.

The U. S. National Museum has a ladies' sedan or carrying chair from Korea. It bears eight Swastika marks, cut by stencil in the brass-bound corners, two on each corner, one looking each way. The Swastika is normal, with arms crossing at right angles, the ends bent at right angles and to the right. It is quite plain; the lines are all straight, heavy, of equal thickness, and the angles all at 90 degrees. In appearance it resembles the Swastika in fig. 9.

CHINA.

In the Chinese language the sign of the Swastika is pronounced _wan_ (p. 801), and stands for "many," "a great number," "ten thousand," "infinity," and by a synecdoche is construed to mean "long life, a multitude of blessings, great happiness," etc.; as is said in French, "mille pardons," "mille remercîments," a thousand thanks, etc. During a visit to the Chinese legation in the city of Washington, while this paper was in progress, the author met one of the attachés, Mr. Chung, dressed in his robes of state; his outer garment was of moiré silk. The pattern woven in the fabric consisted of a large circle with certain marks therein, prominent among which were two Swastikas, one turned to the right, the other to the left. The name given to the sign was as reported above, wan, and the signification was "longevity," "long life," "many years." Thus was shown that in far as well as near countries, in modern as well as ancient times, this sign stood for blessing, good wishes, and, by a slight extension, for good luck.

The author conferred with the Chinese minister, Yang Yu, with the request that he should furnish any appropriate information concerning the Swastika in China. In due course the author received the following letter and accompanying notes with drawings:

* * * I have the pleasure to submit abstracts from historical and
literary works on the origin of the Swastika in China and the
circumstances connected with it in Chinese ancient history. I have had
this paper translated into English and illustrated by india-ink
drawings. The Chinese copy is made by Mr. Ho Yen-Shing, the first
secretary of the legation, translation by Mr. Chung, and drawings by
Mr. Li.

With assurance of my high esteem, I am,
Very cordially,
YANG YU.

Buddhist philosophers consider simple characters as half or incomplete
characters and compound characters as complete characters, while the
Swastika [Z] is regarded as a natural formation. A Buddhist priest of
the Tang Dynasty, Tao Shih by name, in a chapter of his work entitled
Fa Yuen Chu Lin, on the original Buddha, describes him as having this
[Z] mark on his breast and sitting on a high lily of innumerable
petals. [Pl. 1.]

Empress Wu (684-704 A. D.), of the Tang Dynasty, invented a number of
new forms for characters already in existence, amongst which [Z
circle] was the word for sun, [symbol] for moon, [circle] for star,
and so on. These characters were once very extensively used in
ornamental writing, and even now the word [Z circle] sun may be found
in many of the famous stone inscriptions of that age, which have been
preserved to us up to the present day. [Pl. 2.]

The history of the Tang Dynasty (620-906 A. D.), by Lui Hsu and others
of the Tsin Dynasty, records a decree issued by Emperor Tai Tsung
(763-779 A. D.) forbidding the use of the Swastika on silk fabrics
manufactured for any purpose. [Pl. 3.]

Fung Tse, of the Tang Dynasty, records a practice among the people of
Loh-yang to endeavor, on the 7th of the 7th month of each year, to
obtain spiders to weave the Swastika on their web. Kung Ping-Chung, of
the Sung Dynasty, says that the people of Loh-yang believe it to be
good luck to find the Swastika woven by spiders over fruits or melons.
[Pl. 4.]

Sung Pai, of the Sung Dynasty, records an offering made to the Emperor
by Li Yuen-su, a high official of the Tang Dynasty, of a buffalo with
a Swastika on the forehead, in return for which offering he was given
a horse by the Emperor. [Pl. 5.]