568 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



their collars and garters on occasion of tlieir religious fetes, although 

 it is not possible that tliey should know the sense which is attached to 

 it/ and the Wolpis paint it on their dance rattles.^ 



I have omitted to treat of numerous figurines ornamented with the 

 Swastika in the hope to find an explanation of this mysterious symbol. 

 We find it engraved on a figure of Buddha in the United States 

 National Museum,-' on the base of a bronze Buddha from Japan, and 

 on a vase in the Kunsthistorische Museum of Vienna, where it figures 

 on the breast of Apollo.* Astarte bears it on her arms and shoulders,^ 

 Adonis on his arms, a follower of Aphrodite, on her robe,*" a centaur 

 from Cyprus on his right shonlder.' In a rude representation of 

 Apollo directing the car of the sun it is found on the wheels of the 

 chariot.** A female statue in lead found at Troy wears a triangular 

 covering over the vulva, the center of which bears a Swastika.^ 

 Numerous cinctures or girdles worn by women bore this same Swas- 

 tika sign. Does this not indicate that it may have been regarded as 

 an emblem of the generative forces of nature? 



But we will not venture further in our researches for the signification 

 of a sign so obscure as is the Swastika. Probably (and the figurines 

 just mentioned give this hypothesis a semblance of truth) it was a 

 religious emblem, an amulet consecrated by the varied superstitions of 

 man, as is the hand with the fingers raised a survival of an ancient Chal- 

 dean symbol which is worn to-day by the Italians, as is the little pig by 

 the-Parisians.^" Was it dedicated to the living sun; to Zeus or Baal; to 

 Astarte or to Aphrodite; to Agni, the god of fire; or to Indra, the god 

 of rain; or, still further, to Vishnu or to Siva, the Hindu representa- 

 tives of creation and destruction? All these hypotheses are possible; 

 more than this, all of them are probable, for the signification of Swas- 

 tika has singularly varied according to the time and to tradition.^' 

 Those persons who in the actual state of our knowledge pretend to 

 formulate general conclusions are sadly in error. 



I approach the end of my task. By the side of the similarity of the 



1 Wilson, 1. c, Pis. XV and XVI. (Nevertheless these Indians recognize it as a sign 

 of good luck and give it a corresponding name. — T. W.) 



2 Eev. d'Ethnographie, 1885, No. 1. 

 3Wilson,l. c., PI. i. 



" Goblet d'Alviella, 1. c, PI. I. 



5 Bul. Soc. d'Anth., 1888, page 676. 



6 This statuette was found in 1887 in a Greek tomb. Bul. Soc. d'Anth., 1888, 

 page 677. 



^ Cesnola, Salaminia, page 243. 



^ Cesnola, idem. 



9 Scbliemann, Ilios, fig. 226. 



low. W. Rockhill (Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet, 1891-92) cites 

 the Tibetan who bad a Swastika tatooed on his hand. 



" Sewell (Indian Anticiuary, July, 1881) presents innumerable hypotheses to which 

 the Swastika has given rise. To cite but one : Mr. Cunningham, a distinguished 

 savant, believes the Swastika to have been a monogram. 



