398 beport— 1879. 



men of their day, hut notoriously given to the old Pagan faiths, and who met with 

 symbols of the old faith of their Pagan forefather? in their contact with Orientals. 

 He considered there was abundant evidence from their design to attribute all inter- 

 laced work, and the sculptured stones of Britain and Ireland, to the influence and 

 designs of the Templars. They all perpetuated, directly or indirectly, the form of 

 the serpent. The author then examined the art of pre-Christian Rome — not in 

 Rome itself, but in the countries where such art was significant of matters con- 

 nected with them — in Gaul, Britain, the Campania, and others. In special countries, 

 and even in particular districts of those countries, the grand object of Pagan Roman 

 sculpture was the serpent or dragon. For example, the works of this class in 

 Provence were abundant, but though more and better preserved Roman remains 

 Tvere to be found of the same date in Languedoc, as at Nimes, there was no indica- 

 tion of the serpent. Other emblems, used as standards by Gauls and Teutons were 

 profusely shown in some of the early Roman sculptures in Provence, but they were 

 nowhere perpetuated, showing that the great emblem — the greatest of their stan- 

 dards and, no doubt, therefore their chief deity — was the dragon. It was even 

 adopted by the Popes in their dealings with Gaul, and in one notable instance they 

 used only two emblems — the eagle of pagan Rome and the dragon of Gaul — and 

 gave equal honour and position to both, as a compliment to the people of both 

 countries, showing that these emblems of nationality were retained irrespective of 

 the new faith. He had referred so much to the serpent or dragon simply because 

 it was the most prominent object. The whole district he was treating of was 

 dragonesque. He had lately officiated himself at a great dragon ceremony, in 

 which the clergy of the district took the chief part. In this case, cakes in the 

 form of the dragon were distributed ; when the ceremony is abolished the form of 

 these cakes will not be understood ; all the ordinary loaves of the district were 

 formed like sections of a creeping thing like a caterpillar. Nothing of the sort 

 existed in the adjoining districts. The dragon was only appeased by the death of 

 children. These things strongly pointed to immolation to a serpent deity. There 

 were many other examples he could from want of time only enumerate. The 

 schoolboy notches on a stick the number of runs at cricket ; in doing so he per- 

 petuates the old custom of the Exchequer. The baker of Brittany still notches a 

 stick for the number of loaves he sells you, instead of making a bill. The milk and 

 other tallies in England were till recently kept in the same way. This was, no 

 doubt, a very old custom amongst the Gauls, and he (Dr. Phen^) discovered in the 

 former temple of Triptolemus, near Eleusis, two disused columns, the flutings of 

 which, though rude and very ancient, gave the number of days of the week and 

 month, in fact, formed a lunar calendar. Our schoolboys and Breton bakers of 

 to-day had no idea they were perpetuating these ancient customs. 



The disc found on the forehead of Dr. Schliemann's cow's head, or Hera, had 

 been perpetuated by Greek sculptors, apparently without the meaning, and had 

 subsequently been represented merely by the concentric form the hair of a cow or 

 bull takes on the forehead ; the exhumation of this antique showed it to have a 

 special meaning. In the Persian mace he (Dr. Phent?) produced, the cow's horns 

 were gilt, showing, though the meaning had been lost, that the horns were those 

 of the moon. This agreed also with the horns of Schliemann's Hera. In a bronze 

 head of Isis he (Dr. Phend) had lately found, the crescent was between the cow's 

 horns, and this was evidently the original emblem from which the Mahommedans 

 of to-day derived their crescent and star ; instead of giving a double crescent, as 

 the horns and crescent if perpetuated would have done, they introduced the star ; 

 but your Mahommedan, although scrupulous in praying at sunrise and sunset, 

 would repudiate the idea that he worshipped Astarte or Isis, and does not know 

 that he uses the special symbol of those deities. The success of Mohammed was, 

 no doubt, greatly attributable to this emblem, as all these scattered worshippers, 

 finding their own deity debased, gathered round his standard. This emblem was, 

 as he pointed out last year, found in Ireland, on a cow's head, of which he gave an 

 illustration. 



He exhibited a tile from the monastery at Patmos ; it had three serpents — 

 everything at Patmos had three serpents. He also exhibited a horse from Troy ; 

 no child at Troy would be content without a horse for a toy ; it was the old Trojan 



