Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1907-09-22

Bells were often marked with the |
fylfot, or cross OF Thor" says s. Bar
ing-Gould. especially where the
Morse settled"
A most striking illustration of the
alteration paid the swastika is to be
seen in the Boston museum of fine
arts. This is huge painting on silk,
used in temple decoration in Japan
500 year ago. It pictures the Buddha
enthroned, surrounded by hosts of
adoring saints and deities, and above
him, on either side, an angelic form.
But between these and directly above
his head, in the center of concentric
circles cushioned on a cloud, is al
splendid swastika. Glittering in sill
yer white against the dull brown
tones of the background, it seems the
motif of the whole picture, and domi-
mates the figures below as might the
cross of Constantine when first it
filled the sight.
1t is one of the signs by which
Buddha is to be recognized when he
comes upon earth; and Sir Edwin Ar
mold in "The Light of Asia" makes
Asita, the aged saint who examined
the Sakya Buddha at his birth, find
upon his baby foot sole-the soft
curled tendrils of the swastika.
q And SO the tiny images and, the
gigantic statues of Buddha show in
many case the swastika upon his
feet, while in others it appears in
the center of his forehead.
4, Mr.. Wilson of the National mus
cum at Washington discovered it EN-
broidered on the silk robes of attache
Chung of the Chinese legation at
Washington and was told that it was
an ancient Chinese device signifying
many years" or long life" and in
general an emblem of good fortune.
Major General Gordon found it Oh
the breech chasing of Chinese can
non captured at the Taku forts.
Rev.oF. G. Chalfant, missionary at
Shantung, writes in Science that cit
is among the mystic Chinese charac-
tiers, is called wan and is a favorite
with the Chinese
And not only in the orient, but in
the most remote corners of Europe is
the swastika to be found. 1t is
among the remains of the early lake
villages of the Swiss The Firms and
the Lapps know it. 1t is on the early
Grecian pottery and vases. Germanic
museums show it as an ornament OF
early bronze centuries and the Scan
dinavians stamped it deep in their
weapons of war. 1t began before his
tory.
The puzzle of the archaeologists,
however, is its appearance in this
country many hundred and perhaps
thousands Of years ago. 1t has been
discovered carved on shells in pre-
historic burial mounds in Tennessee.
silhouetted on copper plates in Ohio
tumuli, carved on stone metate
from Nicaragua, and at the present
day the. Kansas Indians draw it on
their song charts. 1t is woven in the
bead necklace of the Sac women,
painted on the ground rattle of the
Pueblos, figures in the dry sand
painting Of the Navajos, ornaments
the beadwork of the Kickapoos and
decorates the bullhide war shields of
the Pimas of Arizona.
But where did the ancient mound
builders and the modern Indians get
it?
Did they think it up themselves
and 1t certainly is a rather compli-
Gated thing to think up; or is it that
the primal inhabitants of the new
world came from the old and brought
swastika with them?
But in the sculptured ruins at
Palenque in Central America appear
not only the cross but also three
other great religious symbols, the
"triskeles," the "yinyang" and the
Egyptian 'crux ansata." And wheth-
er this proves that the western con-
tinent was peopled from the old
world, or whether it indicates that
primitative mans ideas were the
same everywhere, archaeologists are
not agreed.
But when the twentieth century
girl sticks her swastika in her, shirt
waist she should know that knees
bent before it and eyes were uplifted
to it in the dawn of the world, when
man first sought to make the sign of
that which he worshiped.