212 



SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



spiral coil or helix especially in the painting of pottery. 

 When the curved rays are many in number, as in Fig. 

 57, the design has been interpreted by some archae- 

 ologists as symbolizing the sun, and it is important to 

 remember that the Swastika itself was used in China 

 as the pictograph of the sun. A single curved S-like 

 line has been found cut on a great circular slab, an 

 ancient altar-stone (Fig. 59) in Honduras (Copan) so as 



to divide the circle as is 

 done in the Japanese 

 Tomoye. It is obvious 

 that the exact geo- 

 metric character of the 

 S-like division is of 

 great significance in 

 these designs and re- 

 quires careful study 

 and explanation. I 

 have briefly discussed 

 this matter at the end 

 of the chapter. ' In 

 the common " ogee 



FIG. 58. Scalloped Shell Disk, from 

 mound near Nashville, Tennessee, showing 



in the centre a tetraskelion with four Swastika," Fig. 56, B, 

 curved arms, about four inches in ^Q more or less 

 diameter, made of polished shell. (Pea- , , . , , , . 

 body Museum.) elaborately hehcoid 



arms are merely care- 

 less flourishes of the painter's brush. The simple four- 

 rayed figure, shown in Fig. 56, A, is often spoken of as 

 a "tetraskelion," or four-legged scroll, and is associated 

 with the three-legged figure or triskelion which I wrote 

 of in the last chapter. If the curvilinear "tetraskelion" 

 be angularized that is to say, rectangles substituted for 

 semicircles, we get the correct fully developed Swastika, 

 Fig. 56, C. And if, abandoning the circle, the draughts- 

 man rapidly drew with a brush or on soft clay lines like 



