Chap. II—B. S.] 
A BOLD THEORY. 
31 
is found on a plain at Caldera, a few leagues from 
the town of David. It is fifteen feet high, nearly 
fifty feet in circumference, and rather flat on the top. 
Every part, especially the eastern side, is covered 
with incised characters about an inch or half an inch 
deep. The first figure on the left-hand side represents 
a radiant sun, followed by a series of heads, or what 
appear to he heads, all with some variation. It is 
these heads, particularly the appendages (perhaps in¬ 
tended for hair ?), which show a certain resemblance 
to one of the most curious characters found on the 
British rocks (fig. ii., £), and calling to mind the so- 
called u Ogham characters.” These u heads ” are 
succeeded by scorpion-like, or branched, and other 
fantastic figures. The top of the stones, and the 
other sides, are covered with a great number of con¬ 
centric rings and ovals, crossed by lines. It is espe¬ 
cially these which bear so striking a resemblance to 
the Northumbrian characters. 
Symmetry being the first aim of barbarous nations 
in their attempt at ornamentation, I have always 
rejected the idea that these figures are intended for 
mere ornament, and have taken them to be symbols 
full of meaning, and recording ideas held to be of 
vital importance to the people who used them, and 
whose very name has become a matter of doubt. 
However, to speculate on their meaning must be 
labour thrown away, until we shall have become ac¬ 
quainted with all the inscriptions, of which those on 
the piedra pintal are specimens. 
At present we can hardly say more than that there 
