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this sign on the gate at Alatrium was a kind of amulet to ward off the 

 " dreaded invidia " (the phallus being used for that purpose at a later 

 period), and is perhaps the oldest specimen of the kind. His editor adds 

 that a similar one is to be found on a wall of the Homeric city Antheia. 

 In Persia and Assyria the cross is the abridged form of the feroher, or 

 emblem of the Deity, the outline of which gives the form of a cross. 

 In Scandinavia the cross is the cruciform hammer or battle axe of Thor. 

 The cross is also a distinctive sign on several Mexican hieroglyphs ; and 

 it forms the central ornament of a tablet at the back of an altar at Palen- 

 que. In Dr. Wilson's " Pre-historic Men" mention is made of an ex- 

 ample of Peruvian black pottery brought from Otasco, measuring seven 

 and a half inches high, which is decorated with a row of well-defined 

 Maltese crosses ; these are evidently for pure ornamentation. The se- 

 pulchral galleries in the mound at I^ew Grange take the form of a 

 cross ; but this is merely on the same principle upon which the windows 

 in the palace at Palenque are built in the shape of a cross. 



The crosses found in Latium and Etruria are undoubtedly of 

 Greek origin, as for the most part the arts and civilization of Etruria 

 and Latium were derived from early Greek colonists. On Grecian and 

 Etruscan figures, the cross is as common an ornamental pattern as the 

 zigzag. The painted vases found in Etruria, on the ornamental borders 

 of which many crosses are drawn, are almost all Greek — Greek in their 

 subjects, Greek in their mythology. 



Some further illustrations of crosses are to be found in Eosellini's ; 

 great work on Egypt. One cross is on the breast of a hostile chief, van- 

 quished by one of the kings of Egypt ; the others are on the breast of 

 enemies of the Egyptians. These crosses I should consider to be no- 

 thing more than ornamental patterns on the opening of the vest ; for the 

 dress seems, like the modern shirt, open in front, that it might go over 

 the head. In crosses 1, 2, the line down the centre would seem to 

 show the opening of the vest. In Sir Gardiner Wilkinson's work, the 

 Shari, an Asiatic people, a tribe of IN'orthern Arabia, are represented 

 vfith crosses on their robes. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson remarks that the 

 adoption of the cross was not peculiar to them ; it was also appended 

 to, and figured upon the robes of the Eot-ri-n, and traces of it may be 

 seen in the fancy ornaments of the Eebo, showing that this very simple 

 device was already in use as early as the 15th century before the Chris- 

 tian era. The representative of the nation called by Sir G. Wilkinson the 

 Rebo, whose country was in the vicinity of Mesopotamia, wears a long 

 robe covered with crosses, and other fancy devices; crosses are also 

 tattooed on his legs and arms. A black is also represented in the same 

 work with a band of crosses alternating with circles round his neck ; 

 these are evidently all fancy ornaments. The cross is also found in the 

 hieroglyphic sign for land. It is supposed, according to Gliddon, to re- 

 present bread, betokening civilization. It was a sign used particularly 

 to designate the land of Egypt. It is said that a similar sign is used bv 

 the Africans ; and that African women put the sign of the cross on their 

 large earthenware urns, in which they store their corn, the cross 



