560 Colonel Tod's Observations on a Gold Ring found al Montrose. 



" claim for it an eastern origin ; and I have begged her Ladyship's permis- 

 " sion to send it to you, hoping you will offer to the Royal Asiatic Society 

 " of Great Britain and Ireland such observations on the discovery of so 

 " extraordinary a relic in so unlooked-for a quarter, as your extensive infor- 

 " mation respecting the history and antiquities of India may suggest. 



" My dear Sir, 



•' Most truly your's, 

 (Signed) " G. Fitzclarence." 

 " To Lieut.-Colonel Tod, Birdhurst, Croydon." 



As Colonel Fitzclarence justly remarks, " it requires but a slight know- 

 " ledge of Hindu mythology at once to claim for this ring an eastern origin," 

 though it will not be so easy to assign a satisfactory solution of its discovery 

 " in so unlooked-for a quarter." Were it stamped with less unquestionable 

 characteristics of Hindu art, we might argue on the possibility of its being 

 a Celtic relic ; but participating somewhat in the scepticism of the noble 

 proprietor of the ring, we shall " avisez la fin"* before we commit our- 

 selves to the suggestion that it may have appertained to some Celtic adorer 

 of Isis, or one of those " giant Getes " from Scania, who in ancient times 

 found sepulture in their descents on the Scots. But let us describe what it 

 actually is, ere we speculate further on its origin. 



This mystic amulet has at once an astrological and mythological import. 

 It represents the symbol of the sun-god Bal-nat'h, around which is 

 wreathed a serpent guardant, with two bulls as supporters : or the powers of 

 creative nature in unison, typified in the miniature Lingam and Yoni — in 

 short, a graven image of that primeval worship which prevailed among the 

 nations of antiquity. This is " the pillar and the calf worshipped on the 

 15th of the month " (the sacred Amavus of the Hindus) by the Israelites, 

 when they adopted the rites of the Syro- Phoenician adorers of Bal, the sun. 

 This, the pillar of Belenus (whose rites were introduced by those early 

 navigators into Gaul and Britain), to whom were raised those rude unchiselled 

 columns scattered over Europe wherever the Celtic name was known. 



In Hindu mythology the bull, Nanda, is at once the guardian of one of the 

 tx£o\ gates of the heaven of Iswara t or Bal-Siva, and his steed. The 



* The motto of the Cassih's family. f The equinoctial signs. 



t Nanda, the bull of the Hindu Iswara, is the Mnevis or Apis of, Osiris. The mysteries of 

 the Lingam and Phallus are evidently the same. 



