BUDDHIST OPINIONS AND MONUMENTS OF ASIA. 263 



(7'), a bull (8), &c, on other coins. This proves their identity with the symbols on 

 the stones in Scotland. 



Various other examples and modifications might be stated, but I shall now 

 only mention the interesting and solitary example of such symbols upon a rock 

 in Galloway. In this example, the sculptured " spectacle ornament," is near the 

 top of the rock, with organized matter in the form of a horn, having an orna- 

 mented large extremity or mouth, turned to the symbol of the deity, and from 

 what might be considered as its navel, two diverging lines proceed and termi- 

 nate in a circle, or embryo head (fig. m) ; whilst lower down another (/3), more 

 formed and detached, is intended as a human head, with two feelers or antennae, 

 to communicate with the external world ; by which means, the embryo was most 

 probably fancied to be developed to its full size and figure. 



The serpent is represented on several of the engraved stones of Scotland, as 

 the symbol of the deity, or spirit ; and this bore allusion to objects of a divine or 

 intellectual nature.* It was therefore represented as transfixed by a cross-bar, 

 uniting the extremities of two sceptres (fig. n) ; as on the stone of Belutheron 

 and of Meigle, over which an embryo elephant is the representation of crude 

 organized matter; which, like those near the circles, it was supposed to 



typify- 

 in some cases the trinity is represented in the form of a horse-shoe, with or- 

 ganized matter in the form of a fowl (fig. x). 



A third variety of the symbol of the spiritual deity is a sculptured square, or 

 oblong fork-like figure ; a modification of the cross, or Buddhist sacred labyrinth. 

 This is the complicated form of the Buddhist cross (fig. 9), which forms a cu- 

 rious subject of inquiry, as it is found on ancient Phoenician pottery, and on 

 Gaza Coins ; and is considered to be the Phoenician letter Tau (fig. /3), the sym- 

 bol of divine life.f It is also found on Christian monuments,:): and on the dress 

 of a gravedigger in the catacombs of Rome.§ In Scotland this cross occurs 

 in the fourth line of the Newton stone (fig. y). Such examples of squares, or 

 modifications of the Buddhist cross, are to be found on the Maiden stone, and on 

 the Abernethy and other stones (fig. o,p). 



On further examining these interesting sculptured stones of this country, we 

 find other symbols of the faith of the Buddhists. The veneration which they had for 

 certain trees affords a striking similarity, and appears to have given origin to their 



* Physici vero serpentem spiritualissimum animal esse dicunt ; itaque res divinas, per ser- 

 pentis naturam notabant. — Eusebius, Prep. Evang., liii., c. 3. 



f Raoul-Rochette, Mem. de 1'Academie Royal des Ins. et Belles Lettres, torn, xvi., p. 312, et 

 xvii., part 2, p. 329. 



J Loc. cit., p. 302. Boldetti Cosservazioni, pp. 87 and 350. Lupi. (Epitaph S. Sever. Mart., 

 p. 11); and on a Christian sarcophagus described by Allegranza (Sacri Monumenti, Milan, 1577), 

 tab. iv. and vi. 



| Louis Perrets sur les Catacombes de Rome, vol. i., p. 30. 



VOL. XXI. PART II. 4 B 



