Figs. 492 to 502.—Paper-marked Mediæval Emblems, Showing Circle and Serpent “like the intestines”. From Les Filigranes (Briquet, C.M.).
The sixfold marigold or wheel was used not infrequently as an emblem during the Middle Ages: in Fig. 504—a mediæval paper-mark—this design is sanctified by a cross, and the centre of Fig. 486 consists of the circle and Serpent. Figs. 492 to 502 exhibit further varieties of this circle and Serpent design—the symbol of fructifying Life—and some of these examples bear a curious resemblance to the twists and convolutions of the entrails. In Egypt, Apep, the Giant Serpent, was said to have—“resembled the intestines”:[998] the word Apep is apparently related to pepsis, the Greek for digestion, as likewise to our pipe, meaning a long tube.
Fig. 503
Prof. Elliot Smith, who has recently published some lectures entitled The Evolution of the Dragon, sums up his conclusions as follows: “The dragon was originally a concrete expression of the divine powers of life-giving; but with the development of a higher conception of religious ideals it became relegated to a baser rôle, and eventually became the symbol of the powers of evil”.[999] I have elsewhere illustrated a mediæval dragon-mark which was sanctified by a cross, and it is a highly remarkable fact that the papermakers of the Middle Ages were evidently au fait with the ancient meaning of this sign. Several of their multifarious serpent designs are associated with the small circle or pearl, in which connection it is noteworthy that not only had pearls the reputation of being givers of Life, but that margan, the ancient Persian word for pearl, is officially interpreted as meaning mar, “giver,” and gan, “life”. This word, says Prof. Elliot Smith, has been borrowed in all the Turanian languages ranging from Hungary to Kamchatka, also in the non-Turanian speech of Western Asia, thence through Greek and Latin (margarita) to European languages.[1000] The Persian gan, in Zend yan, seeming corresponds to the European John, or Ian; and it is evident that Figs. 486 to 491 might justly be termed marguerites.
One of the most favourite decorations amongst Cretan artists is the eight-limbed octopus, and it is believed that the Mykenian volute or spiral is a variant of this emblem. According to Prof. Elliot Smith the evidence provided by Minoan paintings, and Mykenian decorative art, demonstrates that the spiral as a symbol of life-giving was definitely derived from the octopus.[1001] Other authorities believe that the octopus symbolised “the fertilising watery principle,” and that the svastika is a conventionalised form of this creature. In the light of these considerations it would thus seem highly probable that the knot, maze, Troy Town, or trou town, primarily was emblematic of the Maze or Womb of Life, conceived either physically or etherially in accord with the spirit of the time and people.
There is a certain amount of testimony to the fact that the Druids taught and worshipped within caves, and there is some reason to suppose that the Druids had a knowledge, not only of the lense, telescope, or Speculum of the Pervading Glance, but also of gunpowder, for Lucan, writing of a grove near Marseilles, remarks: “There is a report that the grove is often shaken and strangely moved, and that dreadful sounds are heard from its caverns; and that it is sometimes in a blaze without being consumed”. That abominations were committed in these eerie places I do not doubt: that animals were maintained in them there is good reason to suppose; and in all probability the story of the Cretan Minotaur, to whom Athenian youths were annually sacrificed, was based on a certain amount of fact. The Bull being the symbol of life and fecundity, there would have been peculiar propriety in maintaining a bull or toro, Celtic tarw, within the trou, labyrinth, or maze of life: upon two of the British coins here illustrated the Mithraic Bull appears in combination with an intreccia. The colossal labyrinths built in Egypt to the honour of the sacred toro are well known: in Europe remains of the horse are constantly discovered within caves,[1002] and it is a cognate fact that in Mexico a tapir—the nearest approach Mexico could seemingly show to a horse—was maintained in the subterranean temple of the god Votan.
Figs. 504 to 506.—British. From Akerman.
This Votan of South America is an interesting personality: according to the native traditions of the Chiapenese Indians—there was once a man named Votan, who was the grandson of the man who built the ark to save himself and family from the Deluge. Votan was ordered by the Lord to people America and “He came from the East” bringing with him seven families: Votan, we are further told, was of the race of Chan, and built a city in America named Nachan, after Chan his family name. The name Votan is seemingly a variant of Wotan, the Scandinavian All Father, and also of Wootton, which is a common Kentish family name: Wotan of Wednesday was, it is believed, once widely worshipped in Kent, notably at Woodnesborough, which is particularly associated with the tradition: on Christmas Eve Thanet used to celebrate a festival called Hoodening which consisted of decorating either the skull of a horse, or the wooden figure of a horse’s head, which then was perambulated on a pole by a man hidden beneath a sheet.[1003]