THE MIGRATION OF SYMBOLS. 675 



pal directions from which rain comes, and is thus the symbol 

 of the god dispenser of the celestial waters. If the Toltec cross 

 could be related with a similar figure of the Old World, it would 

 rather be the cross of ancient Mesopotamia — where that sign was 

 also adopted to symbolize the four directions of space, and by ex- 

 tension the sky, or the god of the sky, Anou. But it would have 

 to be established first that direct or indirect relations could have 

 existed between the religious art of Mesopotamia and that of 

 ancient America. To remove this hypothesis — even if we refuse 

 to admit the development of a pre-Columbian civilization — it is 

 only necessary to reflect upon the number of centuries that sepa- 

 rate the American races from the great empires of the Euphrates 

 and the Tigris. It would be wiser to see in the coincidence the 

 simple result of two courses of reasoning identical in their sim- 

 plicity. 



On the other hand, we can not contest the facility with which 

 symbols have been transmitted. Current products of industry, 

 favorite themes of artists, they have passed continually from one 

 country to another with articles of exchange and objects of adorn- 

 ment: witness the specimens of Hindoo, Chinese, and Japanese 

 symbolical works and iconography which have come to us with 

 the potteries, ivories, cloths, and all the curiosities of the extreme 

 East. Soldiers, sailors, and travelers of every profession in former 

 days could not start on a journey without taking in some form or 

 another their symbols and gods, of which they carried the knowl- 

 edge to a distance, bringing back in return those of the foreigner. 

 Slavery would likewise favor the importation of symbols by the 

 intervention of innumerable captives whom the fortunes of war 

 or the hazards of piracy brought and caused to flow in from the 

 most distant regions without taking away from them the remem- 

 brance of their gods or their worship. Coins, also, have never 

 been wanting to carry to enormous distances the symbols of the 

 nations which issued them : Gallic pieces are only counterparts of 

 the Greek coinage of Philip and Alexander; and pieces rudely 

 imitating Bactrian money have been found in the tumuli of Scan- 

 dinavia. 



Nothing, except perhaps a superstition, is as contagious as a 

 symbol; much more contageous should both be when they are 

 united — as they usually were with the people of antiquity, who 

 seldom adopted a symbol without attaching to it the value of a 

 talisman. Even now there are tourists who come back from Naples 

 with a coral charm hung, according to their sex, from the bracelet 

 or the watch-chain. Do they really believe that they find a defence 

 against the evil eye in this Italian survival of an ancient Chal- 

 dean symbol ? To many among them it is certainly only a local 

 curiosity, a souvenir ; but there are some in v the number who 



