Bread Baked 560 B. C.

1895

The stalest bread on record is an Assyrian loaf which has been discovered by a French explorer, M. Monthon. This loaf is supposed to have been leavened and baked about the year 560 B. C. It is round, not unlike the common bun in shape and in color of a delicate brown. It is, we understand, in perfect condition, having been found, along with the remnants of several similar loaves, wrapped in cloth, in a tightly sealed sarcophagus, the custom being quite common in Assyria, as in Egypt, to inclose food in the tombs of the illustrious dead. M. Monthon has offered this curiosity, we hear, to the British museum authorities. — Invention.

Gems of 1900 B.C. Exhibited in U.S.

1919

ARE BRIGHT AS NEW, THO 3800 YEARS OF AGE.

Were Worn by Egyptian Princess and Found in 1914 by English Scientist.

NEW YORK, N. Y. — Jewelry worn by an Egyptian princess of the twelfth dynasty, nineteen hundred years before the Christian era, was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is declared to be the finest collection of personal adornment ever brought out of Egypt.

When marauders entered the tomb of Princess Sathathoriunut at some odd moment in the last 3,800 years they took away her mummy and even the elaborate funeral trappings, but overlooked a niche containing the wonderfully wrought ornaments she wore when attending the ancient equivalent for a first night at the opera.

Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, head of an English archaeological society, dug the collection out in 1914, and today it looks as bright as if it had just come from the makers.

It consists of a gold necklace inlaid with carnelian lapis lazuli and green feldspar and another pectoral similarly made of King Senusert II., father of the princess.

There is also a gold collar of double lion heads, a girdle of gold with rhombic jeweled heads, a necklace of amethyst with gold lion claw pendants, armlets and bracelets with gold bars and beads of gold, carnelian and turquoise; and parts of the princess' jewel box, made of ebony with gold and carved ivory panels.

The jewels are identified as belonging to the princess by her name and the name of her father in cartouches on the larger pieces. According to custom, the Cairo museum retained the choice of the collection, a diadem.

Since its purchase by the museum the collection has been in a vault in London, stipulation having been made that it should remain there until six months after hostilities closed.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 12.

Where Grammar Came From

1917

Barbarous Macedonian Held Responsible for Invention

The world reached its highest known stage of intelligence before grammar was even invented, much less studied, Ernest C. Moore writes in the Yale Review.

I have had some curiosity to find out where and how so great a blight upon young life first came into being, and why it ever became a school study, and I find that the Greeks knew it not; that their triumphant literature and their matchless oratory came to flower before grammar was dreamed of; that it was not in any sense one of the great arts which they wrought out and with which they armed the human race; that after Greece had declined, a barbarous Macedonian made himself owner of all Egypt, and in order to surround himself with the most spectacular form of ostentation of which his vain mind could conceive, he set to collecting not only all the rare and precious objects and books and manuscripts there were in the world, but he capped it all by making a collection of the living men of the world who had any reputation anywhere for knowing and thinking.

Taking them from their homes where they had some relation to the daily necessities of human beings, and had really been of some use, he shut them up for life in one of his palaces at Alexandria, which the folks were in the habit of calling "the hencoop of the muses;" and out of sheer desperation, since they could do nothing better to amuse themselves, they counted the words in the books which real men had written, and prepared tables of the forms and endings which the users of words employed. The lifeless dregs of books which their distilling left we now call grammar, and study instead of books and even speech itself. In their lowest depth of indifference to the moving, pulsing life of man, not even the Alexandrians sank so low as that.

Relics of the Bronze Age

1905

Many Articles Excavated at Renfrewshire, Scotland

Until recently vestiges of the Bronze Age civilization in Renfrewshire have been rarely met with, though there were, doubtless, many skilled craftsmen and an extensive population in this as in many other parts of Scotland during the period in question, which is thought to have ranged in time from about the sixteenth to the second century before the birth of Christ.

Lately, however, remains undoubtedly of the Bronze Age in Renfrewshire have been brought to light by excavations near the railway station at Newlands. Mr. Ludovic Mann, F. S. A. Scot., who described a few weeks ago the Newlands finds to the Society of Antiquaries, of Scotland, has had the good fortune recently to locate another Bronze Age site. It is situated between Kilmalcolm and Bridge of Weir, and the most important relic found is a beautifully shaped perforated stone axe-hammer, ornamented with knobs and moldings, and in perfect preservation.



Least Known of Animals

Next to the Liberian hippopotamus the Derbian eland of West Africa, which the Mandingoes call "Jinke janko," is to-day the least known of all rare and strange animals. Even though Great Britain, France and Liberia own practically the whole of the Northwest Africa coast, no specimen of the Derbian eland has thus far reached Europe or this country, and next to the okapi it is indeed the least known of all game animals. — Outing.

Old Ways of Keeping Time

1910

Devices That Were Adopted by the Egyptians, Romans and Early English People

As far back as history will take us we find that there was always some crude means of reckoning time. The clock is, of course, a comparatively modern invention, the first mechanical ones that would keep the time even approximately having been made in 1250 A.D.

The early Egyptians divided the day and night each into 12 hours, a custom adopted by the Jews or Greeks probably from the Babylonians.

The day is said to have been first divided into hours in 293 B.C., when a sun dial was erected in the temple of Quirinus at Rome. As early as 158 B.C. the time was called in the streets of Rome by regular public criers.

In the early history of England we are told that the people found a means of measuring time by the use of wax candles. It was reckoned that three inches of candle would last an even hour.

Among most of the nations of the north day began at sunrise, while among the Athenians and Jews it began at sunset. With the ancient Romans it began, as it does with us, at midnight.

Ancient Coin Recalls Old Rome

1919

2,000 Years Old — Surpassing Historic Interest

A coin 2,000 years old, which may have reposed in the treasure box of a Roman senator, passed from hand to hand in the dice games of members of the Roman imperial guard, been tossed to the rubble by a patrician as he passed through the streets on his way to the baths, or thrown to a victorious gladiator by one of the vestal virgins, now is in the possession of Arthur S. Hibler, United States immigrant inspector at New Orleans. On its way to Mexico, where it was obtained by its present owner, the coin may have been carried as a keepsake by one of the Spanish conquerors and exchanged for the gold and jewels of the Aztecs. Two thousand years afford ample time to pass through a few adventures.

The coin is valued by Mr. Hibler, not only for its age, but for the queer history attached to his gaining possession of it. While he claims he is not superstitious, he admits he regards the coin as a good luck talisman. The piece was sold to him by a Mexican, who wished to cross the border at Brownsville, Tex., and had not enough money for his toll. To pay his way across the international bridge he offered the coin with several others to Mr. Hibler, asserting that it had a strange significance and a blessing attached to it. It had been given him, he said, by the mother of a member of Villa's band, who had been murdered in a cafe brawl. As he lay dying, he had begged the man to take a handkerchief, stained with his life blood, to his mother. The Mexican had sworn to fulfill the trust, and delivered the handkerchief to the old woman. She opened the corner of the handkerchief, which was knotted tightly, and took out several coins. Then she retired into an inner room and, returned, placed a small silvery disk in the messenger's hand, saying it was a talisman that would mean much to its possessor.

The coin is small and white, resembling a modern United States dime in size and color. On its front is a relief of a Roman emperor, with the inscription: "Domitian VIII, Imp. Caesar," and several other characters which are indistinguishable. On the reverse side is what seems to be a reproduction of the temple erected in Jerusalem by Solomon. It is worn thin by the touch of the millions of hands in which it must have rested.

"I have no doubt that it is genuine," Mr. Hibler said. "But how did it come into the possession of the Villista bandit? Well — quien sabe?"

Billiards An Old Game

1905

The game of billiards may lay claim to great antiquity, for in "Anthony and Cleopatra" Shakespeare makes Cleopatra say: "Let us to billiards;" and so, unless we accuse the great poet of error in chronology, we have traced the game back to a period before the Christian era. In early times a similar game was played on the grass or turf with stones, and later with balls of lignum vitae and other substances.

How to apply the right "twist" or "English" to the cue ball is one of the most interesting and important elements in the art of good playing. In early times only two balls were used, and each player sought simply to pocket the ball of his opponent. The red ball was introduced as a novelty to keep the game from dying out.

As time has gone on the game has had varied development in different countries. In Spain they play with three balls and five wooden pins are set up in the middle of the table. In Russia they play with five balls, two white and a red, blue and yellow one.

The English game is played quite differently from the American and French games. It is a combination of the American games of both pool and billiards, being played on a table having pockets, as in an ordinary pool table, and the points as scored in both the American games being counted.

The French and American games are played with three balls upon a table without pockets and only "canons" or "caroms" are counted. In America the game of billiards has undergone a rapid development on account of the great skill acquired by American players. Early in the last century the game was commonly played with four balls upon a pool table, more or less like the present English game, for both pocketing the balls and making caroms were counted, but in time this style of playing proved so simple that a table was adopted without any pockets in it — and caroms only were counted. — Outing.

Eating Parrots, Albatross, Weeds, Acorns

1896

Food Can Be Almost Anything

Few of us, or, indeed, of any people, would think of eating parrots, especially if anything else could be gotten, yet the Romans esteemed them for the table, the Boston Traveller writes.

Cranes are sometimes used for food.

The American ostrich, of South America, is eaten, both flesh and eggs. The eggs of the African ostrich are used, and the flesh, when the bird is young.

The albatross, largest and strongest of birds, produces eggs that are edible.

There is a weed in this country, much cursed by all who have to do with the soil and its products, called a vulgar phrase "pussly." No one in this country would think of eating it, yet this foe of farmers and gardeners is used as a salad in Europe and Egypt.

Acorns in this country are put to no use, unless it be for swine; but in Saxon times "mast" was valued not only for herds, but for man. In times of dearth acorns were boiled and eaten by the poor in England and in France, as one species is still in Southern Europe.

Whales are no longer eaten by civilized men, but in the thirteenth century their tongues were held in great esteem in parts of Europe. Whales are now, with seals and walruses, the chief food of many inhabitants of the Arctic regions. Of the narwhal the Greenlanders eat flesh, fat and skin.

Isinglass is a strange food; it is a gelatin prepared from the air bladders of different kinds of fish from large rivers that flow into the North and Caspian Seas.

King of Beasts Sometimes King of Feasts

1896

The Things People Eat

The so-called king of beasts is usually associated with eating rather than being eaten, yet the lion is an article of food among the natives of the countries he inhabits, according to the Boston Traveller.

Several species of monkeys afford food for the natives of their habits. Travelers who have tried them declare them good.

Dogs are eaten by the California Indians in times of distress; they do not use them for this purpose in ordinary times, because they are too valuable to them for other purposes. Marco Polo says the Tartars used dogs for food, as did also the Mexicans the native dog or Alco.

The chase of the horse for the purposes of food was one of the chief occupations of man in Europe in the Neolithic Age. The Tartars eat horses as regular diet, and there are many butcher shops in Paris and Vienna where only horseflesh is sold.

The wild ass is eaten in Abyssinia; and the flesh of the suckling foal is esteemed by the Lasilio a great dainty. The milk of asses is also used in Abyssinia, as is the milk of mares by the Tartars.

The tallest and awkwardest of all creatures, the giraffe, when grown to maturity, is defended from all human teeth by its impenetrable toughness, but when young it is esteemed highly as food.

Pastor Turns Down Raise

1900

There are few people who decline an increase of salary, but the Rev. George C. Lorimer, pastor of the Tremont Temple in Boston, is one of the few. His congregation recently voted him an increase of $1,000 a year, but he has declined the increase, stating that his present salary of $7,000 a year is enough.


And In Other News...

A collection of political curiosities would properly include President Pierce's cabinet, the only one in the history of the country which remained unchanged during the four years of an administration. It is remarkable that the cabinet of Lord Salisbury, which consisted of nineteen members had not suffered a single change in the five years since the summer of 1895, when the present government took office.

A waggish stranger complained to the police of Salina, Kansas, that a resident of that town had fleeced him out of a forty-dollar bill. After the police had spent a day hunting for the rogue, and finally located the suspected man, it suddenly dawned upon the sleuths that there are no forty-dollar bills.

In some grottoes in Algeria French explorers have recently discovered stone implements mingled with the remains of extinct animals belonging to Quaternary times. Further explorations indicate that during the age when grottoes were inhabited the coast of Algeria had a configuration different from that of today. Among the animals associated with the ancient human inhabitants of Algeria were the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and various species of ruminants.

Beginning of Use of Iron

1910

Origin Thought to Have Been in Central Europe

It is commonly believed that the use of iron commenced in either Africa or Asia. The latest investigations prove that it was not worked in Egypt until the ninth century before the Christian era, or in Libya until 450 B. C., that the Semites adopted its use still later, and that it has been known in Uganda only within the last five or six centuries.

In China iron is first mentioned in 400 B. C. Bronze weapons were employed in China until 100 A.D., and in Japan until 700 A.D. According to a Mr. Ridgeway, who has investigated this subject, the metallurgy of iron must have originated in central Europe, especially in Noricum, which approximately represented modern Austria and Bavaria.

Only at Hallstatt and in Bosnia and Transylvania, from which countries the Achaians and Dorians are supposed to have migrated to Greece, are found evidences of a gradual introduction of iron, at first as an ornament applied to the bronze which it ultimately displaced.

Everywhere also iron was introduced suddenly — a fact which implies a foreign origin. He says that meteoric iron was known in Egypt in remote antiquity, but no doubt it was worked as flints are worked, by cutting or chipping, and was not smelted. In other words, it was metallurgy, not the knowledge, of iron that originated in central Europe.

Art of the Etruscans

1907

Mysterious People Who Left Traces of a Remarkable Civilization

Why did the Etruscans devote their whole lives to the incessant making of pottery until it accumulated in such quantities that they were compelled to bury it in order to keep room for themselves in their streets and houses?

Then, again, there is the mystery of the Etruscan inscriptions. These inscriptions are fairly numerous, but hitherto they have proved to be utterly undecipherable. The Etruscan is the only dead language that has defied investigation. Considered as a language, nothing could seem more improbable than the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, but Egyptologists can read them with such ease that almost any given series of hieroglyphics can be read in three or four ways by an equal number of rival Egyptologists. Any language more utterly impossible at first glance than the Assyrian arrowhead language could not well be imagined, but there are many learned men who can read, write and speak arrowhead with facility. And yet no man can make the least sense of the writings left by the Etruscans, although they are written in Roman characters.

All that we know of the Etruscans seems unreasonable and preposterous. Naturally this makes them fascinating to every one who delights in mystery and the solution of puzzles. — Putnam's Magazine.

Poisoning as a Profession

1916

Use of Deadly Gases Recalls Politics of the Dark Age Statemen and Diplomats

It is interesting today, when the opposing armies are "removing" their opponents en bloc by the use of poisonous vapors, to recall the horror evoked by the deeds of poisoners in the past. The names of the Borgias and the Medici are to this day held up to the detestation of mankind. Yet these and their like only poisoned individuals; the fighting forces today are compelled to endeavor to poison entire armies!

Their wholesale methods will doubtless go to enrich the annals of historical poisoning. For poison has played a great part in history. The employment of poison by the ancients is graphically and terribly illustrated in the deaths of Socrates, Demosthenes, Hannibal and Cleopatra, while in the reign of Artaxerxes II. (Memnon), B.C. 405-350, Phrysa poisoned the Queen Statira by cutting food with a knife poisoned on one side.

In the early part of the Christian era numberless professional poisoners arose, and for a long time exercised their trade with impunity. "Poisoning," says a well known authority, "was so much in use as a political engine that Agrippina (A.D. 26) refused to eat of some apples offered her at table by her father-in-law, Tiberius." It is a curious fact that Agrippina, while refusing to partake of these apples from her fear of being poisoned, was herself guilty of the poisoning of Claudius; but poetic justice was meted out to her in the death (by poison) of her son, Britannicus.

It was at this time, too, that the infamous Locusta flourished. She is said to have supplied, with suitable directions, the poison by which Agrippina got rid of Claudius; and she was also the principal agent in the preparation of the poison that was administered to Britannicus by order of his brother Nero.

"It was the custom of the Romans to drink hot water," says Mr. Wynter Blythe, "a draught nauseous enough to us, but, from fashion or habit, considered by them a luxury. And as no two men's tastes are alike, great skill was shown by the slaves in bringing the water to exactly that degree of heat which their respective masters found agreeable.

"A slave brings water to Britannicus; it is too hot; Britannicus refuses it. The slave adds cold water, and it is this cold water that is supposed to have been poisoned. In any case, Britannicus died, and extraordinary lividity spread over the corpse, which they attempted to conceal by painting the face."

There has come down to us a curious document, said to have been drawn out by Charles de Mauvais, King of Navarre, which shows how arsenic was much favored as a political weapon by crowned heads in the fourteenth century. It is a commission of murder given to a certain Wouderton.

"Go thou to Paris. Thou canst do great service if thou wilt. Do what I tell thee. I will reward thee well. Thou shall do thus: There is a thing which is called sublime arsenic. If a man eat a bit the size of a pea he will never survive. Thou wilt find it in Pampeluna, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and in all good towns through which thou will pass, at the apothecaries' shops.

"Take it and powder it; and when thou shalt be in the house of the king, and of Valois, his brother, the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Bourbon, draw near and betake this to the kitchen, to the larder, to the cellar, and in other places where thy point can be best gained. Put the powder in the soups, meats or wines, provided that thou canst do it secretly. Otherwise do it not."

Wouderton, failing to accomplish his task, was detected and executed in 1384.

No better example of this dread in which poisoners were held can be quoted than the fact that at so late a period as the reign of Henry VII extraordinary precautions were thought necessary for preserving the life of the infant heir. It was ordained that no person, of whatsoever rank, except the regular attendants in the nursery, were to approach the cradle, except with an order from the king's hand. Moreover, everything intended for the royal infant was boiled, to prevent all risk of poison as far as possible.

One of the more recent instances of political poisoning is that of the Sultan Abdul-Aziz, who died May 30, 1876. By reason of his advanced ideas he was forced to abdicate the throne, and four days later the unhappy sultan was found dead, it is almost certain by foul play. — From London Answers.

Ancient Gold Mining in Tubal-Cain

1915

From Their Method Originated the Legend of the Golden Fleece

Country Still Rich in Most Valuable Ores

In the legend of the Golden Fleece lies hidden the record of an ancient method of the Tibareni, the sons of Tubal, for the collection of gold.

The north coast of Asia Minor produced large quantities of the precious metals, as well as copper and iron. Gold was found in the gravel, as often happens still in streams draining from copper regions. The gold in copper ores, originally containing insignificant amounts of the precious metals, accumulates in the course of ages, and sometimes forms placers of astonishing richness.

The ancient Tibareni washed the gold-bearing gravel, first by booming, which concentrated the gold into relatively small amounts of sand. This was then collected and washed through sluices having the bottoms lined with sheepskins. The gold would sink into the wool, while the sand would be washed away in the swift current, writes Courtenay de Kalk in the Mining Age. The skins were removed from the sluices, the coarser gold shaken out, and the fleeces, still glittering with the yellow metal, were hung upon boughs to dry so that the rest of the gold might be beaten from them and saved.

The early Greek mariners, witnessing this process, carried home tales of the wonderful riches of a land where a warlike race of miners hung golden fleeces upon the trees in the grove of Ares. After so many millenniums the metalliferous country of Tubal-Cain is once more coming into prominence. The natives still cull the high-grade copper ore, and break it into smalls, which they cover with wood and roast to matte; they still work the matte in forge-like furnaces to black copper, which they ship to Alexandretta and to Euxine ports. They still make the famous carbonized iron that was celebrated as Damascus steel because it was distributed through this mart to the rest of the world after receiving a finish by local Damascene workmen.

These decadent methods, that give a hint of the approved practice of the father of metallurgy, will soon became wholly extinct, for the modern miner is studying the disseminated copper ores of the Black sea coast, and threatening to rekindle on a magnificent scale the smoldering fires of Tubal-Cain.

The Story of the Swastika

1916

The Most Ancient of All Symbols of Good Luck

It Comes Down to Us with Undiminished Reputation

BY GARRETT P. SERVISS

Have you a "swastika" about you, or in your house, as a fetish or symbol of good luck? If so you possess perhaps the oldest of all talismans. Prof. George MacCurdy, the archaeologist, says that the swastika is supposed to date as far back as the neolithic period, or the later stone age, which came just before the age of bronze, which in turn preceded the age of iron.

Modern discoveries are beginning to make us somewhat familiar with the people who lived in those prehistoric ages, and it is interesting to find this thread of superstition running through them from some dim anterior period, when man first conceived the idea of controlling his luck by the aid of a magic figure, cut or drawn on wood or bone or stone. The thing about the swastika that has excited the most comment is the form, which is essentially that of a cross. This has been treated as a great mystery by those who suppose that the cross, as a symbol, was invented by Christians, and that all similar forms in ante-Christian art are prophetic prefigurements. As a matter of fact, the figure of a cross, in its many variations, is immeasurably ancient.

The swastika has been found in every quarter of the world, and among the relics of nearly all early peoples. Its connection with other religious emblems, and the traditions which have everywhere clung to it, lead to the conclusion that from time immemorial the idea of good fortune has been associated with it. Various explanations have been offered of its peculiar form.

It was sometimes called "the gammadion," because it is made up of the outlines of four capital Greek letters, gamma, united at their bases. Some have suggested that it originally represented a sheaf of flames, or a flash of lightning, or the rays of the sun — but these explanations are all as fanciful as the figure itself. There are many appearances in nature, among trees, plants and rocks which might have served for its original.

The interesting thing is that it has endured so long, handed down from generation to generation, and from age to age, retaining substantially the same form, although used for a great variety of ornaments, all of which seem to have had an identical signification. Its universality is well summed up by the Standard Dictionary, which says, "It has been found depicted on tombs at Hissarlik, near ancient Troy, on Buddhistic inscriptions in India, in Etruscan necropolises, on coins of Gaza and Corinth, on rock carvings in Sweden and on Celtic stones in Britain. In America in pre-Columbian times it was in common use by the aborigines."

These striking sentences do not cover by any means all the places where the swastika symbol has been found. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes a fine sepulchral urn found in Norfolk, and now in the British museum which has three bands of cruciform ornaments round it. "The two uppermost of these are plain circles, each of which contains a plain cross, the lowest band is formed of a series of squares, in each of which is a swastika."

Among the beautifully ornamented swords of the bronze age that have been discovered in Europe this strange figure appears. One writer says of it, "What is remarkable is that the swords not only show the design of the cross in the shape of the handle, but also in tracery what is believed to be an imitation of the swastika, that ancient Aryan symbol, which was probably the first to be made with a definite intention and a consecutive meaning."

The perpetuation of this emblem of good luck through thousands of years is, in itself, a most remarkable thing. It shows the immense value of reputation. It reveals the secret of the indestructibility of superstition. Once let any object, or belief, become established in the imagination as superhuman in power or origin, and a flood of disproof cannot wash it away, and failure upon failure will not shake it. Under the cloak of a legend the falsest prophet may flourish like a green bay tree, and laugh at exposes. His dupes are like the obstinate opponents of Galileo, who, rather than admit that there were spots on the sun, refused to look through the telescope.

So the swastika is founded on the rock of untold ages of tradition, and in the most enlightened days that the world has ever known educated people feel safer if they have the antique symbol of human credulity cut on a finger ring or embroidered on a pocket handkerchief. There is one beside me as I write, sewn on a table cover, and its silky red gleam and bent arms make me thoughtful when I reflect upon the thousands of years during which its unchanging form has thrilled and fascinated mankind. What stories of faith, hope, desire, disappointment, despair it might tell — this emblem from the stone age.

—The Lincoln Daily Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, Nov. 12, 1916, p. 7.

Comment: Wow, too bad the Nazis ruined this symbol or sign for us. Of course it'd be impossible for us now to simply associate the swastika with good luck or pleasant feelings of security. One place where I lived there was an old house that had swastikas etched in the rock work on each side, up toward the top of the house. Obviously predated Hitler. I used to wonder what kind of comments they got during the war years, not to mention after. And I've had old postcards that were sent as "A wish for good luck" greetings that had the swastika symbol on them. But we can't go back now!

The Oldest Mystery — The Swastika

1922

The Swastika is the oldest symbol in the world. Also, it is the oldest mystery. You find it engraved on primitive tools, dug up in the mounds of the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi mound-builders, who inhabited America, before the Indians. The Swastika also is found in the most ancient ruins of Alaska, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Babylonia, China, Japan, India, Assyria, Phoenicia, Persia, Tibet, Greece — and nearly every other country in the world, including obscure islands. It is the international symbol for good luck and general welfare — like our horseshoe, the negro's rabbit-foot and the "chung-meng-fui-goi" sign that is painted on the door of nearly every Chinese home.

The Swastika's origin is unknown. But archaeologists, the ditch-diggers of science, have traced it back to the beginning of the Bronze Age, 4500 years ago. For all we know, the Swastika may have been old then. How did it spread over the earth and become known in countries that are supposed to have had no knowledge of each other in ancient times?

The only plausible explanation of the universal use of the Swastika comes from China. The Chinese — who claim that their explorer, Fu-sang, visited America 1060 years before Columbus — believe that civilization travels in an endless wave — up 30,000 years, then down 30,000, so on forever. That's why Chinese mythology tells of "flying men" far back in antiquity.

The earth may be 1,700,000,000 years old, says Prof. William Duane, of Harvard Medical School. He bases his calculation on radioactivity. Regardless of the number of years, queer things are buried back there in the past, as shown by the Swastika, the oldest mystery.

—The La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, Wisconsin, May 27, 1922, p. 3.

Antiquity of Geometry

1907

The Science May Have Existed In India For Long Ages

Did we learn our rule of three and our Euclid from India? Researches have brought to light astronomical tables in India which must have been constructed by the principles of geometry. Some are of the opinion that they have been framed from observations made not less than 3,000 years before the Christian era, and if this opinion be well founded the science of geometry must have been cultivated in India to a considerable extent long before the period assigned to its origin in the west, so that many of the elementary propositions may have been brought from India to Greece.

The Indians have a treatise called the "Surya Sidhanta," which professes to be a revelation from heaven communicated to Meya, a man of great sanctity, about 4,000,000 years ago. This book contains a rational system of trigonometry which differs entirely from the first known in Greece and Arabia. In fact it is founded on a geometrical theorem which was not known to the geometricians of Europe before the time of Victa, about 200 years ago. And it employs methods of demonstration unknown to the Greeks, who used others. The former have been attributed to the Arabs, but it is possible they have received this improvement in trigonometry as well as the numerical characters from India. — Chicago Tribune.