The National tribune., 1897-04-01
THE SwASTIKA.

The Swastiks symbol has been Of course.
much specialized. Everywhere. it seems, as far
as Mr. Wilson has been able to discover. thar
it has meant i'm general way good fortune.
but in addition to this il has frequently meant
special. concrete things. As early rs 600 Il. C.
the Aryaus used it to indicate the Supreme
Being In the fourth century b. G. the mama
appears in the Sanskrit literature as designat-
ing the letter "a" Later it became tho
accepted symbol of Buddhist sect. the Jains-
In China it became one of the workshops iBdi-
eating the sun. aud other people have also ap-
parently used it as representing the orb of day.
Nevertheless. in spite of its occasional use as
4 purely religious symbol among the Aryan
folk. Mr. Wilson is of the opinion that, as .
rule. il has been more of a sub-reiigious char
acter-a charm. or something OF that sorr-
Apparently it has been used mostly as decora-
ton on articles of daily use-pottery and the
like-or engraved on amulet5 for the purpose
of bringing good luck or ayerting the evil eye.
very much as nowadays horseshoe is hung
above doors What it signi6ed among the pre-
historic peoples of America-the Mound Build-
er5 and the highly civilized pre-CoIumbian
jewellers in Central America--is of course noe
known, since no record of them exists save ia
the more or less dubious accounts of Dir. Don
nelly and the Mormon Bible. At present tho
symbol is apparently widely spread throughout
Asia, but it is curious fact that it has been
practically unused in any portion of EGropes
with one exception. for a thousand years In
Lapland and Finland il is still used. Recently
the Theosophists have adopted il as their seal.
The Swastika has received many names the
most English being "Crutched cross The
dictionaries do not mention it under - was-
tika," except the Century. which merely gives
| it as synonym for "Fyifote." The symbol
! itself has. of course, been modified almost III
| definitely. When the arms are again turned
once or more at right angles It becomes " Me-
| ander." In this form it frequently occurs IN
| Greek art Where, instead of bending the brs6
l time at right angles, the arms OF the cross are
| converted into curlicues, it is a Tetrasselion
| or "Ogee Swastika." Occasionally it Is made
! with three arms-a Triskelion. The famous
| arms of the Isle of Man. which consist of three
| lexed legs united at the hip joint, were proba-
bly, borrowed from Sicily. Although true
| Triskelion, bearing much resemblance to g
| modified Swastika, Mr. Wilson does not think
it derivative.
! Mr. Wilson also discusses the distribution
over the earths surface of other symbols and
of arts of the various kinds known TO primitive
| peoples. 1t appears that the ordinary cross
! latin cross) occurs among the Dakota5 n y
conventionalized symbol for the dragon hy,
which plays a part in their mythology. Among
the Oiibway5 it denotes the fourth degree IN
the order of the "Shamans-"
Mr. Wilson is inclined to believe that many
SYMBOLS and arts originated and were developed
by man before the separation occurred which
left one group of people in the Western Hemis.
phere and another in the Eastern wholly uu-
connected with one another The bow and
arrow, a highly specialized and relatively COM
plicated tool occurs in the possession OF man
wherever found, yet the probability of It's
independent invention by different races APP
pears but small. Prehistoric jade implements
have been found extensively. Jade is an ex-
tremely rare mineral, and its saving. drilling,
carving, etc., offer great difficulties because oil
its density and hardness. let, primitive man
+ in both hemispheres seems to have surmounted
these difficulties in about the same way. and to
have somewhere managed To find supplies of it.
i Flint chipping, an art requiring great skill, was
carried on in Europe and America with great
i similarity in results. Spinning is found as a
highly developed art among nearly all tribes
and the spndle-whorls on both continent;
show many points of resemblance.
Mr. Wilson is inclined to think that the use
of the Swastika also dates back to primitive
man.
The book is profusely illustrated. aud many
of the pictures extremely good The author
does not take advantage of his superior knowl
|, | edge to write books mot underStanded of the
common people" but says what he has to say
in "a way that, while precise and to the point
does not involve frequent reference to u lext
con. This is a virtue more unusual than il
ought to be, for scientific people prone Il
overdo the use of polysyllables-to use what
Hunter calls the "sang of science