12 
Gabriel  Grustafson. 
[No.  7. 
symbolical  representation  that  might  be  connected  with  it  and  impart 
to  the  article  its  real  significance. 
Any  testimony  for  this  can,  of  course,  not  be  given  so  long 
as  we  do  not  know  more  about  it,  but  the  appearance  of  such 
articles  in  modern  times  entitles  us  to  hope  that  the  matter  may 
on  further  investigation  be  elucidated. 
It  is  true  that  legends  and  stories  may  travel  widely  abroad, 
and  that  games,  e.  g.  chess,  may,  and  have  likewise  passed  from 
people  to  people,  and  finally  may  have  reached  the  North  already 
in  ancient  times.  But  to  me  it  appears  that  such  an  ability 
to  exist  and  spread,  in  such  means  for  the  enjoyment  of  life,  is 
in  a  far  higher  degree  probable,  than  when  it  concerns  the  art  of 
being  able  to  cut  out  a  wooden  block  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
pieces  hang  in  each  other.  Such  an  amusement  seems  to  be  too 
trifling  to  explain  the  connection  between  the  two  apparati.  And, 
besides,  we  have  here  to  do  with  connections  earl  i  er  than  the 
northern  Viking  time,  when  communication  with  foreign  lands  was 
more  lively,  and  personal  information  regarding,  or  the  procuring 
of  an  amusing  thing  in  a  foreign  country  might  be  more  easily 
conceived. 
An  indication  of  a  higher  significance  in  the  "ring-puzzle",  may 
possibly  lie  in  the  circumstance  that  wooden  apparati  possessing 
some  resemblance  to  it  are  used  in  the  Mohammedan  countries  to 
place  the  Koran  up  on.    I  f  there  is  any  connection  here,  we  must, 
Fig.  8.    Koran  desk  from  Mecca. 
