The author of this volume explains in her preface how she came to be led beyond her special field of research into a comparative study of the early civilizations of the Old World; and how she traced the origin of the swastika, in Mexico, to an astronomical source and, in all countries alike, found its use as a sacred symbol accompanied by evidences of a certain phase of culture based on pole-star worship, and the recognition of the fixed laws of nature, which found expression in the ideal of cel

In the line of Maya investigation notable advances have been made since I wrote (on page 221 ), about the “septenary set of signs” described by Mr. A. P. Maudslay in 1886, and about the inscription on the tablet of the Temple of the Cross at Palenque (pp. 237-39 ). Since that time an important publication on the Tablet of the Cross, to which I should have liked to refer, has been issued by the much esteemed Nestor of Maya investigations, Herr Geheimrath Dr. Förstemann. My attention has also been

The Codex Fuenleal (Anales del Museo Nacional, Mexico, tomo ii , p. 88) preserves an important myth relating how Tezcatlipoca, after having been the sun, was cast down from this supreme position by Huitzilopochtli, “descended to the water,” but had arisen again in the shape of an ocelot, and transformed himself into the constellation of Ursa Major. According to Sahagun the native name of this star-group was Citlal-Colotl or “star scorpion.” Reference to Nahuatl dictionaries revealed that this in

The control of the feet and entire body was, of course, assigned to the head. It is only when the full metaphorical significance of the eagle, as an emblem of the state, is understood, that the meaning of the eagle in the arms of Mexico and the native bird symbolism begin to become apparent. I have shown that in Peru and Yucatan the word for head was synonymous for chief. It remains to be ascertained how far the same symbolism prevailed throughout the American Continent and whether in other case

It happens to be the festival of the Star-worshippers celebrated on the last day of the year and known as the Kanshio Zahlo , or day of renunciation. This is the eve of the new year, the great watch-night of the sect, when the annual prayer-meeting is held and a solemn sacrifice made to Avather Ramo, the Judge of the under world, and Ptahiel, his colleague; and the white-robed figures we observe down by the riverside are those of members of the sect making the needful preparations for the prayer

UI or HWEI=verb to turn around. Chinese. YUL, YEUL, YEOL=wheel (Icelandic hjol, O. Swedish hiugl, Swedish hjul). HVEL=disk, orb. Iceland. WUOTAN=ODIN=supreme divinity. Scandinavia. JOVLA=sacred hearth fire of Northern Finns, under guardianship of mother of family. JOVIS=Roman supreme divinity, associated with wheel. YAHWE=Hebrew name for God, translated as “heaven,” was pronounced Yahu. According to the Masoretes must be read Yeho (Yăhu). The early Gnostics wrote Iao, that is Yaho (Sayce). The f

Referring the reader to p. 348 of this work where “the seven kings” of Babylon are mentioned and seven-fold organization is discussed, I merely state that the importance of the Babylonian map can scarcely be overrated as a proof of the application in remote antiquity of the cosmical scheme to territorial divisions. It will be for Assyriologists to determine for us the relative ages of the Sippara tablet (p. 332 and fig. 65 , 1), and the Babylonian Map tablet and to define their respective connec