rays and four streams in the image of
Shamash (Shame=heaven) coincides with the explanation given by Hewitt (p.
9, vol. II) of the Akkadian eight-rayed star of Anu (heaven), which, he
asserts, is formed by the superposition of the fire-cross and rain cross.
It is a most remarkable and undeniable fact that there is a striking
analogy between the Anu sign as explained by Hewitt and the Shamash image.
The eight-rayed or "spoked wheel" of Ishtar, which figures on the same
tablet, also gains significance for the same reason, and particularly when
collated with the hymn cited in note 1, p. 448, in which she is clearly
designated as the "axis of the heavens," _i. e._ the female Polaris.

Having indicated how the origin of the image of Shamash can be traced to
conceptions arising from the use of the fire-drill and some primitive mode
of extracting oil or of preparing a highly valued drink from seeds and
plants, by centrifugal action, invented by a primitive agricultural
people, I advance the suggestion that the celestial tree of the Norsemen
and Semites, associated with the fountain and the four rivers of life,
appears as a closely related symbol which, however, mainly expressed the
idea of stability. In the Eddas the tree occurs as a complement to the
world axle, the first as the emblem of stability and of a central power
which dispensed shade and life-giving fruits in all directions; the second
as the image of centrifugal power which caused the star-groups to assume
opposite positions and which impartially distributed heat and water. It is
curious to note how readily from the fire-drill and beam of the oil press
as a starting point, not only all forms of tree and pole worship and the
Chinese assignment of element wood to the Middle, but also all symbols of
centrifugal motion, such as the axle, the pivot and the wheel, could have
evolved on closely parallel lines.

Let us now transport ourselves to a land where, to this day, the Indian
women grind maize on a flat stone, by means of a pestle, where the
oil-press and the mill-stone, the pole of the threshing-floor, the
potter's wheel and the cart wheel were unknown before the date of the
Spanish Conquest and rotatory motion was associated with the fire-drill
and spinning whorl only.

NEW WORLD.

The ancient Mexican name for the fire-drill = mamalhuaztli, and that for
spinning-wheel=malacatl, are both derived from the verb malacachoa=to
whirl, turn or drill. At the time of the