1S88.] 



185 



[Brinton. 



the mechanical device of the wheel, and could have had, therefore, 

 no notion of such an analogy as the rolling wheel of the sun.* 



When applied to time, the symbol of the circle in primitive art 

 referred to the return of the seasons, not to an idea of motion in 

 space. This is verj^ plainly seen both in art and language. In 

 the year-counts or winter-counts of the American tribes, the 

 yenTB were very generally signified by circles arranged in rows 

 or spires. Fig. 20 shows the Dakota winter-count, as depicted 

 on their buffalo robes. f 



Fig. 20. 



This count is to be read from right to left, because it is writ- 



rig. 21. 



* See Worsaae, Danish Arts, and Yirchow, in various numbers of the Zeitschriftfiir Elh- 

 nologie. The ring-cross is a common figure in American symbolism and decorative art. 

 It frequently occurs on the shields depicted in the Bologna Codex, and the two codices 

 of the Vatican (Kingsborougli's Antiquities of Mexico, Vols, ii and iii). Dr. Ferraz de 

 Macedo says that the most common decorative design on both ancient and modern native 

 Brazilian potterj' is the ring-cross in the form of a double spiral, as in Fig. 19 {Essai Critique 

 szir les Ages Prehistorique de Bresil, p. 40). A veiy similar form will be found in the Bo- 

 logna Codex, pi. xviii, in Kingsborough's Mexico, Vol. ii. 



t See Mallery, Pictography of the North American Indians, pp. 88, 89, 128, etc. 



PKOC. AMER. PHIL08. SOC. XXVI. 129. X. PRINTED JAN. 30, 1889. 



