1897.] Anthropology. 257 
Mr. Wilson does not claim to have presented more than a probability. 
But as science asks for demonstration we must wait for assurance of the 
trans Pacific origin of the American Swastika, well pleased with the 
author’s interesting collection of evidence bearing upon the prob- 
lem of the origin of American peoples. 
The curious fact of the similarity in primitive weaving apparatus 
common to the Old and New Worlds is brought out. Small perforated 
discs, generally of earthenware, found in ancient Europe, the western 
United States, Mexico and South America, have been identified as 
whorls or weights for giving momentum to the spindle stick thrust 
through them, when twirled by the spinner over the knee and let go, 
Just as women in remote parts of Germany and France have continued 
to whirl the spindle in recent years. 
à Of several thousands of these whorls unearthed by Schliemann in the 
city layers at Troy (Hissarlik), many were marked with the Swastika 
and some with the cross, while, strange to say, as Mr. Wilson shows, 
certain whorls from Mexico and South America exhibit likewise the 
cross (not Swastika) design. As yet more clearly testifying to the use 
of the cross as a symbol in ancient America upon spindle whorls, 
I take pleasure in illustrating here a whorl found by me while 
the present paper was in prepara- 
tion, among the specimens entrust- 
ed me for classification by the His- 
torical Society of Bucks County, 
Pennsylvania. It was recently ob- 
tained by Mr. J. W. Detweiler, of 
Bethlehem, from one of the an- 
cient graves (probably pre-Colum- 
bian), regarded as of great an- 
tiquity by the modern natives, on 
the Rio Cauca Valley in the Re- 
public of Columbia. It might be 
Per 
mt a spindle whorl marked 
orls found at prehistoric and proto 
forated disc of earthenware, prob- 
toric A = Europe with the cross 
th mall eee n seen between 
Pe arms on larger cross. 
tag the Museum of a Historical So- 
Pe y of Bucks County at Doy erin 
Deal lvania. Obtain ed by Mr. . W. 
tweiler, from ve 
No.112. Actual sizé. 
Indian ae 
ca Valley, Republic of 
held that many of the American 
crosses shown by Mr. Wilson are, 
(like the cross stamp,on an iron gas- 
plate, S. W. corner 7th and Arch 
streets, Philadelphia, that hap 
pened to catch my eye as I stepped 
on it yesterday), decorative inter- 
sections of lines or patterns, rather 
than symbols. In this specimen the 
