Fig. 433 (B) represents two diminutive earthworks which once existed on Bray Down in Dorsetshire: these little Troytowns or variants of the quadrangular delight of Peter may be connoted with the obverse design of the Thorgut talisman found near Appleby and illustrated on [page 675]: the two crescent moons may be connoted with two sickles still remembered in Mona, and the twice-eight crescents surrounding Fig. 434 which is copied from a mosaic pavement found at Gubbio, Italy.
Fig. 435.—From The Word in the Pattern (Watts, Mrs. G.F.).
The Pixie’s Garden illustrated in Fig. 433 (A) obviously consists of four T’s centred to one base and the elaborate svastika, illustrated in Fig. 435, is similarly distinguished by four concentric T’s. The Kymbri or Cynbro customarily introduced the figure of a T into the thatch of their huts, and it is supposed that ty, the Welsh for a house or home, originated from this custom. We have seen that the Druids trained their super sacred oak tree (Hebrew allon) into the form of the T or Tau, which they inscribed Thau (ante, [p. 393]), and as ty in Celtic also meant good, the four T’s surrounding the svastika of Fig. 435 would seem to be an implication of all surrounding beneficence, good luck, or all bien.
The Cynbro are believed to have made use of the T—Ezekiel’s mark of election—as a magic preservative against fire and all other misfortunes, whence it is remarkable to find that even within living memory at Camberwell by Peckham near London, the chi-shaped or ogee-shaped[817] angle irons, occasionally seen in old cottages, were believed to have been inserted “in order to protect the house from fire as well as from falling down”.[818]
Fig. 436.—Celtic Emblem. From Myths of Crete (Mackenzie, D. A.).
Figs. 437 and 438.—Mediæval Papermarks. From Les Filigranes (Briquet, C. M.).
Commenting upon Fig. 435, which is taken from a Celtic cross at Carew in Wales, Mrs. G. F. Watts observes: “This symbol was used by British Christians to signify the labyrinth or maze of life round which was sometimes written the words “God leadeth”.[819] Among the Latin races the Intreccia or Solomon’s Knot, which consists frequently of three strands, is regarded as an emblem of the divine Being existent without beginning and without end—an unbroken Unity: coiled often into the serpentine form of an S it decorates Celtic crosses and not infrequently into the centre of the maze is woven the svastika or Hammer of Thor. The word Svastika is described by oriental scholars as being composed of svasti and ka: according to the Dictionaries svasti means welfare, health, prosperity, blessing, joy, happiness, and bliss: in one sense ka (probably the chi [Greek: ch]) had the same meaning, but ka also meant “The Who,” “The Inexplicable,” “The Unknown,” “The Chief God,” “The Object of Worship,” “The Lord of Creatures,” “Water,” “The Mind or Soul of the Universe”.