MALLERY.] CUP SCULPTURES IN SWITZERLAND. 199 
while on the other hand we meet “‘Leuk” stones, which on their restricted heads, 
often also on the side walls, indicate their environs for (Leuk) miles around, up, 
down, and sidewise, while a third class of this form merely adorn crossroads, and 
indicate deviations by means of lines and points (waranden). Thus we find quite 
extensive slabs or structures that signify only some hectares, often only one, while 
we meet very small ones, or, at any rate, of moderate size, which one man can move, 
that represent very large districts, some presenting only lines and grooves, others 
with shells of various sizes, a third kind with both kinds of ornaments and samples 
of ornaments, and again others with no sign at all, but yet respected as stones of 
special meaning by the population, and called “hot stone,” ‘‘ pointed stone,” 
‘heath stone,” ‘“child’s stone,” ete. Other stones have basin-like or platter-like 
depressions, and finally there are outcropping rocks with marks of one kind or 
another, holes, rents, clefts, etc. A further great difficulty hampering the deciphering 
of these wonderful stones is the lack of opportunities for comparison and experience. 
I have been markedly favored in this respect by my sojourn and wanderings in 
valley, mountain and alp. Western Switzerland is a very paradise for investiga- 
tions of this kind, especially the lake country and the upper part of the canton of 
Solothurn (Soleure). A third difficulty, often insuperable, lies in the nonexist- 
ence of appropriate good maps for comparison. In this respect too we are well off 
in Switzerland. 
According to my observations in this field, now continued nearly-12 years, pre- 
historic man had: (1) His land or province survey; (2) his circle, district, and com- 
munal surveys, in reference to which (3) the Alpine surveys deserve special mention, 
in cantons which down to the present day know nothing of such surveys; (4) private 
and special surveys. Thus it seems that my observations lend full confirmation to 
the oldest historic or traditional statements concerning the tenure of land of the 
Kelto-Germans or Germano-Kelts. 
Among the Ojibwa concentric circles, according to Schoolcraft (d), 
constituted the symbol of time. It would be dangerous to explain the 
many markings of this character by the suggested symbolism, which 
also recalls that of Egypt in relation to the circle-figure. Inquiries 
have often been made whether the North American Indians have any 
superstitious or religious practices connected with the markings under 
consideration, e. g., in relation to the desire for offspring, which un- 
doubtedly is connected with the sculpturing of cup depressions and 
furrows in the eastern hemisphere. No evidence is yet produced of 
any such correspondence of practice or tradition relating to it. In the 
absence of any extrinsic explanation the prosaic and disappointing 
suggestion intrudes that circular concentric rings are easy to draw and 
that the act of drawing them suggests the accentuation of depressions or 
hollows within their curves. Much stress is laid upon the fact that the 
characters are found in so many parts of the earth, with the implica- 
tion that all the sculptors used them with the same significance, thus 
affording ground for the hypothesis that anciently one race of people 
penetrated all the regions designated. But in such an implication the 
history of the character formed by two intersecting straight lines is 
forgotten. The cross is as common as the cup-stone, and has, or an- 
ciently had, a different signification among the different people who 
used it, beginning as a mark and ending as a symbol. Therefore, it 
may readily be imagined that the rings in question, which are drawn 
