Miss Russell's Additional Notes. 603 



hitherto been noticed, that in the imperfect system of the Egyptian 

 hieroglyphics, the ring and dot stands for Ra — the sun, and also for the 

 syllable ra. What is more remarkable is, that it also stands for the snn 

 in the ancient Chinese writing ; in the character now used, the picture 

 element has become unrecognisable. I see it mentioned that in Syria the 

 fear of the " evil eye " is much mixed up with that of sunstroke and 

 moonstroke. 



The rock-cuttings may possibly, or perhaps rather probably, be of the 

 nature of charms. I see that the Egyptian god Kneph, when represented 

 as Knouhmra, wears the solar disk above his horns ; this is certainly sug- 

 gestive of circles and spirals. Mr Villiers Stuart (" Nile Gleanings,") says 

 that from the particular relations of the ancient Egyptian language with 

 the languages of Europe, his impression is that the old Greek accounts are 

 true which bring colonies directly from Egypt into Europe ; and indeed 

 I do not see any reason to doubt them. However, the disk and the volutes 

 are also to be seen together in the bas-relief of the sun-temple of Babylon, 

 engraved in a little book which gives the results of cruciform readings up to 

 the present year — " Babylonian Life and History." The volutes have here 

 lost the character of horns to a certain degree. The pre-historic temple 

 in a small island off Malta is profusely marked with the opposed spirals, 

 with only a few concentric circles. Captain Conder in " Heth and Moab," 

 describes gigantic stone disks, which he thought might be sun-imagea, 

 much about the size of that in the Babylonian temple. He also says that 

 spirals, palm-branches, and badly-drawn concentric circles, are painted in 

 tombs in Syria at the present day. The fern of the coins, and of the 

 dolmens of Brittany, may be a European substitute for the palm-branch ; 

 as I quite believe the rowan represents the mystic apple of the fairy tales, 

 which again is a substitute for the pomegranate. Fern seed was mystical 

 in the middle ages. 



With reference to Patrick and Nennius, it may be added that the 

 heroine martyr-abbess of Coludesburg is called the second St Ebba; and 

 no doubt she was officially called by the name of the foundress. (Cold- 

 ngham is the ing or shore at some distance from St Abbs Head.) 



A name in the Nennius list of cities may suggest how Gerontiaa turned 

 into Vortigern ; Caer Guorthigern looka like Garth Geraint. 



