Cañon City record., 1907-09-12
RAUBLE OF THE SUMNER GIRL
WORSHIPPED BY PRIMITIVE MAN

The swastika Is just now having re-
makable vogue as an ornament for wo-
mans dress. AS brooch, belt buckle,
stick pin, collar fastener, or hat pin,
this upright cross, with each OF Its
four arms bent to right angle at the
end, meets everywhere the eye.
Nearly every woman who buys one
knows that it is in some sense good
luck pin" but how 1t came to be con-
sidered such and where the peculiar
and curiously attractive symbol or
iginated not SO many know.
What is the swastika?
It is one Of the great religious SYM
bols of the world. 1t has been recog-
nized as a religious emblem by more
people, very likely, than has the cross
itself. AS such symbol it is very many
hundreds of years older than the
Christian era; in fact, it is perhaps
the very earliest of religious signs
or characters. 1t has been revered all
over Europe and Asia, and long before
the dawn of Christianity our pagan
ancestors looked up to it as the en-
blem of what they worshipped. 1t is
one of the oldest things in history,
and there is scarcely land in whose
ruined temples it is not found.
"Suastika," the name given it by the
Brahmins and Buddhists of India, is a
Sanscrit word signifying "of good for
tune" In the Pail tongue it Is "suti,"
which is much the same meaning as
the Sanscrit word. The Japanese call
it"manji" and the Chinese know it as
"ouan" or "wan" The French call it
"le croix pattee," the footed cross,
while the ancient English name is
"fylfot," meaning either four-footed or
many-footed.
The most puzzling and interest
ing thing about the swastika is that
it is found in nearly all parts of the
world, in this country as well as in
Europe and Asia, wherever archaeol-
ogists dig up the buried cities of the
remote past. Drawn, painted, cu., WOW
en-, scratched or otherwise designed,
not only upon burial urn and sacrific-
ial stone, but also upon utensils and
objects of everyday use, the curious
symbol appears.
1t has been found among relics that
mark the bronze age in Europe, and
some antiquarians believe they have
discovered the fact of it's existence in
the so-called polished stone age of
man.
Prof. Schliemann found it at His
sarlik in the buried cities that under
lay the ancient Troy, of which Homer
sang, which indicates its existence at
period from 5000 to $500 years ago.
BY those who look upon the region
home of the blonde races of the world,
that the ancient land is also looked
upon as the birthplace of the swastika.
r. P. Greg, an eminent English auth
ority, argues that ''it was "a much
used and favorite religious Symbol
among the earlier Aryan races, and
was intended by them, in the first in
stance, to represent in a cruciform
form an Telegraph or symbol suggest
ed by the forked lightning" Our prim-
al white forbears worshiped Dyausoi-
tar (Jupiter), the sky father. and the
Jagged lightning was the natural en-
blem of this awful power.
So with the successive emigrations
of the Aryans from northern India all
over Europe, the swastika spread and
adopted as a symbol of Buddha in the
seventh century before Christ, is was
later carried into China and Japan
The Arabs and Jews knew it not, nor
did the ancient Egytians, but they
were not of Aryan blood
Thus the hammer of Thor, the
Scandinavian deity for whom Thurs