but adds nothing to the argument. Now, Maya symbolic art is a difficult and esoteric subject; one has only to look at the glyphs for the day-signs, or the representation of the serpent-bird deity, to see the almost unrecognisable lengths to which formal abstraction of feathers, snakes, birds, weapons, etc., had been carried. A careful study of Mayan artistic conventions and analogies shows that the figures in question are macaws; and it is sadly amateurish to try to interpret them by reference to the religious symbols of Asiatics, whose language, beliefs, and culture were entirely different. Tlaloc, for instance, the Aztec deity ('the Elephant-headed rain-god of America,' Dr Elliot Smith rather airily calls him), in virtue of some superficial resemblance, is said to possess attributes 'identical' with those of the Indian Indra.* It is true that some confusion in the symbolism has to be posited, in order to maintain the identity and thus establish the fact that the American rain-god was transmitted across the Pacific from India via Cambodia.' But the interesting point is the method employed.

One starts with a 'resemblance,' or 'connexion,' between two things. They will, a few sentences later, be brought into close association with each other.' It is now only a matter of time before they become 'identified.' In extreme cases, one becomes a 'surrogate,' or 'homologue,' of the other. The results are as interesting as the phraseology. Thus we read elsewhere that coral is identified with a maiden';† that the figleaves of the Garden of Eden are a surrogate of a magical girdle of cowries; ‡ that the old fable of a dog being used to pull out the mandrake is really identical with the search for 'life-giving' pearls; the latter are represented by the mandrake; the dog, suffering a seachange, becomes the sea-dog,' or shark, who protects the pearl; but by a 'confusion' his rôle is now reversed. §

Mr Perry adds yet another word to the vocabulary. When the corn grain became equated to the Great Mother, on account of its resemblance to the cowrie shell, when trees became equated to the Great Mother

† Ibid, p. 203.

* Evolution of the Dragon,' p. vi.
Ibid, p. 155.

§ Ibid, p. 161.

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because their sap was regarded as milk.'... * Surely some such belief, one feels, underlies our old rhyme

'If all the land was paper,
And all the seas were ink,

And all the trees were bread and cheese,
What should we have to drink?'

Milk and the corn grain, in the shape of bread and
cheese, are here seen to be identified, or equated, with
trees, doubtless because they are all surrogates of the
Great Mother.

Before we leave the New World, Mr Perry's treatment of the Pueblo area, a district which is very important for his thesis, claims our attention. The culture of this region, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Utah and Colorado, is distinguished from that of the so-calledPlains Indians' by the presence of, among other things, villages of sandstone ('pueblos ') and caves reinforced with architecture. It is necessary for Mr Perry to assume that this culture was derived from the archaic civilisation' of Mexico. Unfortunately for his theory, the development and distribution of the pottery-a subject which he has not studied-prove conclusively that this was not the case, for the earlier technique of black on white is found, not in the south of the district, but the north.

His view is that the sites of the settlements follow so closely the course of the rivers and the railways, that the inference is inevitable that they were founded near the sources of 'life-giving' substances, by Children of the Sun who exploited the native proletariat.

'What cause can have led men, all over the wide area, practically universally, to settle in close proximity to water? I suggest that the cause was the search for pearls and pearl-shell.'† Or if not pearls, then gold, quartz, flint. Failing these, obsidian, and finally salt, are added to the list. (The 'Salt Old Woman' of Pueblo legend is to be equated with the Great Mother, and therefore indicates the presence of the Archaic Civilisation.) The remarkable coincidence of the Pueblo settlements with the railways is due to 'identity of purpose.'

* Origin of Magic and Religion,' p. 129.

† 'Children of the Sun,' p. 68.

Members, that is, of both archaic' and modern civilisations were exploiting mineral wealth. On this three points may be noticed. First, the railways and the old settlements do not coincide; the famous Seven Cities of Cibola are forty miles from a railway. Next, if mining activities are to be attributed to the Pueblo Indians, how comes it that no trace of gold or metal tools has been found in any pre-Columbian ruin? Thirdly, Mr Perry does not seem to be aware that the country is largely desert; this being so, it is natural that the settlements should be near the rivers. If these criticisms are just, not much can be said to remain of the theory that these American civilisations had an Egyptian origin.*

In conclusion, let us show briefly the historical method' of the new school as applied to the problems of English archæology. The orthodox position, as stated recently by Mr Crawford, is as follows.† Two main types of prehistoric stone monument are known, with a distinct distribution, overlapping only at a few points such as Salisbury Plain, the Medway Gap, and perhaps Derbyshire, built by people of distinct culture and implements, distinct grave-architecture, distinct racial character. The first of these is the megalithic folk' mentioned above, a long-headed race, neolithic in culture (no metal tools have ever been found in any megalithic tomb in Great Britain), who buried their dead in chambers of huge stones ('dolmens') covered by 'Long Barrows.' They are found mainly in the western districts, from Dorset to the Orkneys, and have affinities with those of Spain and Brittany. The other race is the socalled 'Beaker Folk,' whose affinities are with the Rhine Basin, and who seem to have invaded England from the east and south-east at a time when megalithic tombs had ceased to be built. They are distributed mainly over the central and eastern districts. Probably neolithic at their first arrival, they soon afterwards became copperusers, as is indicated by the finds in their tombs. These latter are known as cists ('kistvaen,' the term employed by Mr Perry, is inaccurate, and is not used by modern

*Based on L. G. C. Clarke, Journal of Egyptian Archæology,' x, 189-191.

+ Edinburgh Review,' 1924, pp. 101 ff.

da

Cli

archæologists), and consist of four small slabs (the average tomb area is two feet by four) crowned by a fifth, the whole covered by a mound or cairn. The earlier cists correspond to the distribution of 'beakers,' a form of pottery characteristic of this people; but the style went on all through the Bronze, and even into the Iron, Age, so that some later cists are found in places, like Dartmoor, well outside the 'beaker' region. These men were round-headed, and typical objects used by them are jet necklaces, stone wrist-guards, conical buttons, and flat-bladed, riveted, or tanged copper knives. None of these objects has ever been found in a megalithic tomb in England, and the point is worth noticing, in view of Mr Perry's statements that the form of dagger in question was characteristic of the Children of the Sun, that it was a sign of royal or noble birth in early Egyptian hieroglyphics (there is no foundation for this), and that its modern descendant is the officer's sword. The cists were often constructed of very small stones, or even of wood, as on Salisbury Plain, and sometimes a pit was dug instead, as in the case of the 'round barrows' on the Wiltshire Downs.

Mr Perry attacks the problem with a very smallscale map of his own construction. It will be best to examine separately this map and the conclusions he draws from it. The map covers Wessex and the Cotswolds, and is intended to show 'the geographical relationship between the distribution of megalithic monuments, Long Barrows, neolithic settlements, and the chalk and lias formations.' It shows no fewer than forty-three 'neolithic villages.' This seems strange, in view of the fact that there is no satisfactory evidence for a single neolithic village in the whole region. The explanation is that Mr Perry has taken the sites marked 'British Village' on the Ordnance Map; but most of these are Romano-British, and in none are there any remains earlier than the Late Bronze or Early Iron Age. 'Long barrows' and 'dolmens' he has marked by different symbols; but in practice they are confused; for instance, near Avebury three dolmens are marked, and no long barrows; whereas there are actually no less than seventeen long barrows (including the ones which he marks as 'dolmens') within a radius of four miles.

く

'Dolmens,' finally, and so-called 'kist-vaens,' are marked by one symbol, as being megalithic monuments belonging to the same culture. This, in view of what has been said above on the distinction between Megalithic and Beaker Folk, which is the fundamental fact of British pre-history, speaks for itself.

Mr Perry's case is that, here as elsewhere, the megalith builders were miners, and settled in mining regions. Also, that they made settlements in places where they found materials for their domestic and industrial implements and utensils, and for their personal adornment. The second part is so sweeping as to be meaningless. The first is entirely disproved by the facts of distribution. The Cotswolds, Derbyshire, South Wales, Bute and Arran, the Orkneys and Hebrides, all contain true 'megalithic' monuments. But none of these possesses gold, copper, tin, or flint-bearing chalk. Conversely, there is gold in Lanarkshire, but not a single megalithic burial, or even a stone cist. There is flint in the whole chalk region between Thames and Humber, but no megalith of any sort, and only three long barrows. It is plain that, once again, a lack of first-hand acquaintance with the material has led Mr Perry into an untenable position.*

Enough has been said to show that the unanimous rejection of these theories by serious archæologists has some justification. They are, in fact, to be classed with the modern crop of superstitions and fancies which will form a curious chapter in any future history of early 20th-century thought. Earnest seekers after truth assure us that the Armistice was foretold by the dimensions of the Great Pyramid. Lyonesse, Atlantis, and Lemuria reappear on the map. Joanna Southcott's box, to be opened in the presence of not less than five bishops, is shortly to reveal the millennium.† Mr Belloc interprets English History, with surprising results, in the light of the Path to, and from, Rome. A book has recently been written to prove that the people of the British Isles are Hittite Phoenicians of Aryan Race.' (This 'Lewis Carrollite compendium of incongruities,' as Dr Macalister

* These criticisms are borrowed from Mr Crawford's article. Cf. also Kendrick, op. cit., pp. 64 ff.

† It has revealed only a pistol and some knick-knacks.