1879.] J. H. Rivett-Carnac—The Snake Symbol in India. 27 
in the Benares Brass Bazaar of to-day—many hundreds of miles away from 
Ndgptir where these Valentines were drawn. Iam in correspondence with 
Mr. J. W. Neill on the subject, and hope to send some further information 
regarding the meaning of what may certainly be said to be these curious 
pictures of the Cobra. I shall be interested to learn how far their character 
may be considered by those, who are competent to judge on this subject, 
to connect them with the worship of Mahadeo ? 
I have now to state briefly the direction in which I would desire that 
these imperfect notes should be considered to lead. As the Society know, 
T have for some time past been endeavouring to collect information on the 
points of resemblance between the tumuli of India and the well known 
types of Scandinavia, of Brittany and of the British Isles. In my paper 
on the Kumdéon Rock markings, besides noting the resemblance between 
the cup markings of India and of Europe, I hazarded the theory that the 
concentric circles and certain curious markings of what some have called the 
“jews-harp” type, so common in Hurope, are traces of Phallic worship, 
carried there by tribes whose hosts descended into India, pushed forward 
into the remotest corners of Europe and as their traces now seem to 
suggest, found their way on to the American Continent also, 
Whether these markings really ever were intended to represent the 
Phallus and the Yoni, must always remain a matter of opinion. But I 
have no reason to be dissatisfied with the reception with which this, to 
many somewhat unpleasant, theory has met in some of the Antiquarian 
Societies of Europe. ; 
No one who compares the stone Yonis of Benares, sent herewith, 
with the engravings on the first page of the work on the rock mark. 
ings of Northumberland and Argyleshire, published privately by the 
Duke of Northumberland, President of the Newcastle Society of Anti- 
quaries, which is also sent for the inspection of the Society, will deny 
that there is an extraordinary resemblance between the conventional sym- 
bol of Siva worship of to-day and the ancient markings on the rocks, men- 
hirs and cromlechs of Northumberland, of Scotland, of Ireland, of Brittany, 
of Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. 
And a further examination of the forms of the cromlechs and tumuli 
and menhirs will suggest that the tumuli themselves were intended to 
indicate the symbols of the Mahadeo and yoni, conceived in no obscene 
sense, but as representing regeneration, the new life, “life out of death, 
life everlasting,” which those buried in the tumuli, facing towards the sun 
in its meridian, were expected to enjoy in the hereafter. Professor Stephens, 
the well known Scandinavian Antiquary, writing to me recently, speaks of 
these symbols as follows: 
