xico a caste-division
was associated with left-handedness and that the expression "left-handed"
was employed as an honorific or distinctive title. It is obvious that
before reaching the point when the left hand would be invested by a
distinctive mark, as in the Santa Lucia bas-reliefs, the above ideas must
have been prevalent for a very long time.

I have already pointed out that a striking similarity of ideas survives
amongst the Zuni Indians of to-day.

As to the native tiger's head (puma or ocelot?) we find that it is the
chief symbol of the central human figure on the great monolithic doorway
of Tiahuanaco, Peru, a fact which testifies to a further community of
thought.

This central figure exhibits two tigers' heads on each shoulder and six
around its head, disposed as rays and interspersed with what resemble
drops of water. The transverse ornament carved on the breast exhibits four
divisions, each of which terminates with a tiger's head. Four similar
heads, looking upwards, are on the central decoration beneath the figure
and the broad band at the base terminates in two large tigers' heads. What
is more, on the fragment of a finely carved hollow stone object, which is
preserved at the British Museum and was found at Tiahuanaco by Mr. Richard
Inwards, there are the finest representations of the swastika which have
as yet been found on the American Continent, and each of its branches
terminates in a tiger's head, resembling those sculptured on the
monolithic doorway. The fragment consists of the half of what seems to me
to have been the top or handle of a staff or sceptre. I am indebted to the
kindness of Mr. C. H. Read of the British Museum, for a rubbing of the
carved fragment and for the permission to reproduce it here (fig. 49). The
central swastika is angular and its form recalls that of the Mexican
Calendar swastika (fig. 9). At each side of it are portions of what
originally were two rounded swastikas, which also terminate in tigers'
heads. These and the size of the fragment seem to justify the inference
that another square swastika was originally sculptured on the opposite
side, making two rounded and two square swastikas in all.

[Illustration.]

Figure 49.

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of this fragment, for
it proves to us that in Tiahuanaco, the swastika was a sacred symbol. Its
association with the puma or ocelot