On voit qu’il ne peut plus y avoir de doute sur l’emploi de la Croix comme signe religieux, bien longtemps avant le christianisme. Le culte de la Croix, répandu en Gaule avant la conquête, existait déjà dans l’Émilie à l’époque du bronze, plus de mille aus avant Jésus-Christ.
C’est surtout dans les sépultures de Golasecca où ce culte s’est révélé de la manière la plus complète; et là, chose étrange, on a trouvé un vase portant le monogramme ancien du Christ, figure 117 [reproduced in the present paper by Figure 209; the right-hand figure being from the vase, and that on the left the recognized monogram of Christ], dessiné peut-être mille ans avant la venue de Jésus-Christ. La présence isolée de ce monogramme du Christ au milieu de nombreuses Croix est-elle un fait accidentel entièrement fortuit? Des recherches plus complètes peuvent seules permettre de répondre à cette question.
Un autre fait fort curieux, très-intéressant à constater, c’est que ce grand développement du culte de la Croix, avant la venue du Christ, semble toujours coïncider avec l’absence d’idoles et même de toute représentation d’objets vivants. Dès que ces objets se montrent, on dirait que les Croix deviennent plus rares et finissent même par disparaître.
La Croix a donc été, dans la haute antiquité, bien longtemps avant la venue de Jésus-Christ, l’emblème sacré d’une secte religieuse qui repoussait l’idolâtrie!!!
Fig. 209.—Symbols of the cross.
The author, with considerable naiveté, has evidently determined that the form of the cross was significant of a high state of religious culture, and that its being succeeded by effigies, which he calls idols, showed a lapse into idolatry. The fact is simply that, next to one straight line, the combination of two straight lines forming a cross is the easiest figure to draw, and its use before art could attain to the drawing of animal forms, or their representation in plastic material, is merely an evidence of crudeness or imperfection in designing. It is worthy of remark that Dr. Schliemann, in his “Troja,” page 107, presents as Fig. 38 a much more distinct cross than that given by M. Mortillet, with the simple remark that it is “a geometrical ornamentation.” An anecdote told by Dr. Robert Fletcher, U. S. Army, in connection with his exhaustive paper on Tattooing Among Civilized People, published in the Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, Vol. II, page 40, is also in point. Some savants were much excited over the form of the cross found in tattoo marks on an Arab boy, but on inquiry of the mother as to why the cross had been placed there, she simply answered “because it looked pretty.” The present writer will add to the literature on the subject a reference to the cross as shown upon the arm of a Cheyenne in Cloud-Shield’s winter count for the year 1790-’91, page [132], ante. (See also page [173].) This is explained fully by one of the common gestures for the tribal sign, Cheyenne.
“The extended index, palm upward, is drawn across the forefinger of the left hand, palm inward, several times, left hand stationary; right hand is drawn toward the body until the index is drawn clear off; then repeat. Some Cheyennes believe this to have reference to the former custom of cutting the arm as offerings to spirits, while others think that it refers to a more ancient custom, the cutting of the enemy’s fingers for necklaces.” The pictograph is simply a graphic representation of this gesture sign. See also the Moki use of the Maltese cross, page [232], the form of which in a rock-painting appears in x on Plate II, page [35].
There is no doubt that among the Egyptians and several of the peoples of the eastern hemisphere, ancient and modern, the form of the cross was used symbolically, and there is no more doubt that it was employed in a similar manner by many American tribes with reference to the points of the compass, or rather the four winds. It was also used with many differing significations. See in this paper Figure 60, page [158], Figure 143, page [220], Figure 154, page [230], Figure 165, page [238], and Figure 168, page [240]. The ease with which the design was made would tend to its early adoption as a sign, an emblem, or a symbol.