l62 



FLORA OF THE 



meaning of this wavy trident. I believe the thunder- 

 bolt story to be an entirely mistaken interpretation of 

 the zigzag trident. 



Fig. 84 shows us clearly what the zigzag fork is meant 

 for. Who, that has 

 seen the head and 

 horns of a black 

 buck, would ever 

 take b for a pair 

 of thunderbolts. It 

 was the Assyrian 

 artist's way of de- 

 lineating a pair of Fig. 84, -(<?) horns of the black buck ; [h) 



' Fourche ' or bident between two figures, pi. 

 Spiral horns ! 40, fig- 9. Lajard's ' Culte de Mithra.' 



In those days they thoiigJit in horns, and dreamt of 

 little but horns ; ram's horns, goat's horns, antelope 

 horns, bull's horns, etc. were the great panacea, as in 

 many places now, for keeping off the withering effects 

 of the evil eye. May be each variety of horns had some 

 specific virtue of its own, besides the generic one of 

 protection against the evil eye and bad spirits. 



Even Prince Gautama, the great philosopher of the 

 Buddhists, was not above wearing charms, or at all 

 events the sculptor of his statue must have thought so ; 

 for Asoka, three centuries B.C., ordered a statue of 

 Buddha to be erected at the Sanchi Tope, Bhopal, of 

 which the torso now remains in the Indian Museum of 



