THE POZO STONE. 413 



British inscribed stones, "that they were done not less than 2,000 

 years ago, and probably some were done a thousand years earlier." 

 It was early suggested that they were plans of camps, but Mr. Tate 

 proposed a different view and advocated the notion that they were 

 symbolical, representing religious thought. He ridicules that they 

 may be read as camps at some length. In the same work the view 

 is expressed by the Rev. William Procter, of Doddington, that the 

 ring-like markings on stones are monumental inscriptions, in 

 memory of departed friends, whose remains have been deposited 

 near them.* My own view, taking the Pozo stone inscriptions, 

 and many other forms, as guides, is, that petroglyphs may indicate 

 camps, be symbolical of religion, of witchcraft, shew directions 

 and positions, and in various ways express the thoughts of those 

 who wrote them. There is apparently no precise rule that can be 

 laid down, for the cupiform markings are accompanied in different 

 countries by inscriptions of indigenous animals. 



Rock writings certainly are widely spread, and in uncivilised 

 countries they disturb the mind of the savage to a terrible degree. 

 " In many places they are placed over water as conjurations for 

 luck in fishing and hunting, propitiatory to the spirits of the fish and 

 animals sought for, objugatory towards envious or malicious 

 supernatural powers. The present Indians know nothing of the 

 origin, age, or meaning of these monuments, and do not pretend to 

 imitate them."f This somewhat weakens the idea that, in all cases, 

 they are in memory of the dead. But we can well understand their 

 dread, for " every Indian believes that he himself, and consequently 

 every other man, consists of two parts, a body and a spirit. * * * * 

 When a man dies something goes, something is left. The survivors 

 necessarily distinguish in thought between these two parts, and they 

 call them respectively by some such names as spirit and body. 

 Hence the many rocks, on which are so called petroglyphs or rock 

 drawings, are regarded with especial awe. It is unnecessary to 

 multiply instances, further than by saying that every rock, and, 

 indeed, every natural object, however different its body, is supposed 



*" The Ancient British Sculptured Bocks of Northumberland and the Eastern 

 Borders," by George Tate, F.G.S. 



f " On a Petroglyph from the Island of St. Vincent, West Indies," by Dr. 

 Brinton, Procs. of the Acad, of Nat. Scs. of Philadelphia, 1889, p. 417. 



