MALLERY.] FEET AND TRACKS. 715 
Phenicians is the hand oceurring on votive steles at Carthage, sometimes in connec- 
tion with the sacred fish. This hand is still a charm in Syria, called Kef Miriam, 
‘the Virgin Mary’s hand,’ and sovereign against the evil eye. The red hand is 
painted on walls, and occurs, for instance, in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople 
and elsewhere. It is common also in Ireland and in India (Siva’s hand) and on early 
scepters, always as an emblem of good luck.” What actual foundation is there for the 
above statement as regards Ireland? About twenty years ago the first Monday in 
January was known in the south of Ireland as ‘‘ Handsel Monday,” and looked upon 
as in some way indicating the prosperity the year succeeding was to bring forth. But 
whether, as the name would seem to imply, this had any connection with the hand 
as an emblem of good luck I am unaware.—J. C. 
Gen. Forlong (b) makes the following remarks: 
The ‘‘red hand of Ireland” is known alike to Turanians, Shemites, and Aryans, 
and from the Americas to farthest Asia. The hand, 
being an organ peculiar to man, is in the East a 
sign of Siva, and seems to have been identified 
with his emblem even by the Medes. All men have 
usually worshiped and plighted their troth or 
sworn by manual signs, so the hand naturally 
stands as the sign of man himself; but more than 
this, Easterns attach a significance to it as an 
organ without which the procreating one is use- 
less. In Germany, says J. Grimm, the hand was 
Tyr, or the son of Odin, ‘‘the one-handed,” for he 
lost one limb by the biting wintry wolf—that is, 
he became powerless to produce. . . . . He 
was then the “ golden-hande¢ ,»” fertilizer, whom 
ancient Irans denoted by their name Zerdosht, and Irish Kelts placed as a talisman 
on their Ulster shield. . . . . The Irish solo-phalik idea is seen in the “ crosses” 
of Clon-Mac-Noise and Monasterboise, where, asin Fig. 1179, all the fingers are care- 
fully placed in the center of the circle of fertility. The Vedas constantly speak of 
Savatar as “the golden-handed sun,” who lost this limb owing to his efforts when 
at sacrifice, and who remained impotent until the deity restored to him a hand of 
gold. 
Hindus, like the high Asian tribes and the old Mexicans, usually 
impress a hand covered with blood or vermilion on the door posts 
of their temple—that is, on the Delpheus or “door of life;” and the 
great Islamite, Mahmood, when he captured Constantinople, rode up 
to the holy feminine shrine of St. Sophia, and reaching up as high as 
he could, there unwittingly imprinted this bloody sign of Great Siva. 
We must remember how often the hand appears with other signifi- 
cant objects on the arms of men and nations, and notably so on Roman 
standards. . . . . Fig. 1180. 
In the old shrines of America, Leslie says, the ‘‘ sacred hand was 
a favorite subject of art,” and Stevens in his Yucatan says, ‘‘The red 
hand stared us in the face over all the ruined buildings of the country, 
not drawn or printed, but stamped by the living hand, the 
pressure of the palm upon the stone being quite distinct, the thumb Fra. 1180.—Roman 
and fingers being extended as we see in the Irish and Hindu hands. Secacinat 
Fia. 1179.—Ivish cross. 
FEET AND TRACKS. 
In the two first illustrations of this group the respective figures of 
the man and the eagle are in the act of forming tracks on the ground. 
Such tracks are shown in the next two figures, but without the context 
