322 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



coins and ornaments, also on Etruscan terra cotta amphorae, and on 

 old Egyptian monuments where it signifies immortality — an at- 

 tribute of Osiris and Horus.^ It is also a design in many of the 

 forms of Greek art. In India and Eastern Asia it is the symbol of 

 wisdom and the thousandfold virtues of Buddha. The busts and 

 statues of this divinity often display it worn on the breast, espe- 

 cially in Farther India, as was shown on the two gilded statues of 

 Buddha at the French-Indian Colonial Exhibition in Antwerp some 

 years ago. The Hook-cross of western nations, including Egypt 

 also, is distinguished from that of the Buddhistic East by a 

 secondary claw on the arm of the cross. The arms of the Eastern 

 cross also have often an opposite direction, as the accompanying 

 sketches show. 



3 



JL 



A GREEK HOOK-CROSS. 



BUDDHIST. 



GAMMADION. 



The Japanese call the Hook-cross Man-ji ; the Chinese, 

 Man-tse, the word " Man " meaning " ten thousand." By another 

 arrangement of the four Gamma of the Hook-cross, the Gam- 

 madion is formed, which is not only nearly related to that of 

 the old Greeks but is much used as a pattern in surface decoration 

 in the art industry of Eastern Asia. The heliotype of the inlaid 

 vase (see Metal Working) shows the connection of the Man-ji with 

 the Gammadion on both sides of the vine-representation. 



The non-appearance among the Aryan Orientals of the Vitruvian 

 curve which is so important an ornament in Grecian and Christian 

 art, its frequent use again in Chinese and Japanese art industry, 

 is certainly striking, although, so far as I can learn, it has never 

 been noticed before. Is this beautiful design spontaneous among 

 both Greeks and Chinese, or has one of these nations borrowed it 

 from the other, or is its origin to be found farther back, among 

 the Assyrians and Chaldeans t Such questions suggest them- 

 selves, but are not so easy to answer as might appear at first glance. 

 The separate zone of the Arabo-Persian-Indian district from which 

 the Vitruvian curve is entirely absent, points towards spontaneous 

 origin and use, as well as the circumstance that it is found on the 

 cotton fabrics from the old tombs of Peru, though it is not so per- 

 fect in them. 



The art industry of Eastern Asia employs the Vitruvian curve 

 usually as a border decoration. The vine and other creeping 

 plants serve the same purpose. 



^ According to P. Cassel : " Literatur und Symbolik." Leipsic, 1884. 



