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SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



spiral coil or helix — especially in the painting of pottery. 

 When the curved rays are many in number, as in Fig. 

 57, the design has been interpreted by some archae- 

 ologists as symbolizing the sun, and it is important to 

 remember that the Swastika itself was used in China 

 as the pictograph of the sun. A single curved S-like 

 line has been found cut on a great circular slab, an 

 ancient altar-stone (Fig. 59) in Honduras (Copan) — so as 



to divide the circle as is 

 done in the Japanese 

 Tombye. It is obvious 

 that the exact geo- 

 metric character of the 

 S-like division is of 

 great significance in 

 these designs and re- 

 quires careful study 

 and explanation. I 

 have briefly discussed 

 this matter at the end 

 of the chapter. In 

 the common " ogee 

 Swastika," Fig. 56, B, 

 the more or less 

 elaborately helicoid 

 arms are merely care- 

 less flourishes of the painter's brush. The simple four- 

 rayed figure, shown in Fig. 56, A, is often spoken of as 

 a " tetraskelion," or four-legged scroll, and is associated 

 with the three-legged figure or triskelion which I wrote 

 of in the last chapter. If the curvilinear "tetraskelion" 

 be angularized — that is to say, rectangles substituted for 

 semicircles, we get the correct fully developed Swastika, 

 Fig. 56, C. And if, abandoning the circle, the draughts- 

 man rapidly drew with a brush or on soft clay lines like 



Fig. 58. — Scalloped Shell Disk, from a 

 mound near Nashville, Tennessee, showing 

 in the centre a tetraskelion with four 

 curved arms, about four inches in 

 diameter, made of polished shell. (Pea- 

 body Museum.) 



