o be the
"sons of the Finnic Ku, the begetter and rain-god," who, having migrated
to India and united with other races, founded a mighty confederacy, the
plan of which is figured in Hewitt's work (p. 220), by "the union of four
triangles, representing the southeastern and northwestern races, ... with
spaces left open for the parent rivers," which flow towards the cardinal
points (see figure 73, _c_).

If we now revert to the first stages of the mental evolution, the outcome
of which we have been reviewing, we cannot but recognize the curious, but
perfectly natural chain of reasoning which led early man to explain
natural phenomena in different ways by the results of his own immediate
observation and experience. He had discovered that the rotation of the
fire-drill generated fire; consequently the rotation of the circumpolar
constellations must generate life-giving heat. The churning or twirling of
liquid in a vessel, by means of the drill, caused an overflow;
consequently the action of the fire-drill also caused an external flow of
life-giving waters, which, after the invention of the oil or grape press,
was compared to the flow of precious oil or wine from the receptacle.

High mountains attracted lightning-clouds and when these collected around
their summits whence rivers constantly flowed, life-giving rain descended;
consequently the tops of cloud-capped mountains must reach to the axle of
the heaven where fire, heat and rain were being generated and distributed
by the rotation of celestial bodies. As Polaris the axle, pivot or fire
socket, was immovable it could most appropriately be figured by a wooden
or stone socket, from which fire and water flowed towards the four
quarters. Such an image would also figure a year, and, by extension, time,
since it marked the four annual positions of circumpolar star-groups. The
adoption of a stone socket as an image of the "revolving heaven" could
thus have long antedated, but have suggested the invention of the wheel,
which was at first a religious and then became a royal symbol.

I venture to express the view that the archaic image of Shamash (fig. 73,
_a_), the homonym of Heaven and the North, which was "an ancient model" at
the time of Nabupaliddin (879-855 B.C.), could only have been invented by
a race of pole-star worshippers who had long been acquainted with the uses
of the fire drill and the oil-press. At the same time I point out how
remarkably the combination of four