er of its high-priest the Mikado, next to the
growing ascendancy of Buddhism, supported by the Shogunate. The original
meaning of the Shinto sacred symbols appears to be lost. The mirror,
placed on the altar, usually constituted the only visible sacred emblem.
Another was the sword. It is claimed that the swastika came into Japan
with Buddhism, but this is a point which demands a serious investigation
of competent specialists. The above data, which are absurdly inadequate to
the interest and importance of Japan, the seat of the most intellectual
and progressive culture of Asia, are sufficient to show that in Japan,
where the swastika is found, the quadruplicate state organization and
fundamental plan were also carried out. My full purpose will only be
fulfilled when the present deficient notes shall have stimulated the
enquiry and research of students and Japanese scholars and led to the
publication of all traces extant of the most ancient scheme of
organization, government and calendar, as compared with those of ancient
America.

As it is maintained that the Chinese and other eastern Asiatic people did
not originate, but received their civilization from Babylonia, or another
ancient centre, situated in western Asia, it obviously becomes an
imperative necessity to carry the present investigation across the Asiatic
continent into the heart of the Euphratean valley.

INDIA.

Being one of the ancient centres of civilization from which the Chinese
are said to have derived theirs, India, the country where the swastika
abounds, first arrests our attention. In support of the assertion I have
already advanced, that the primitive symbol is always found accompanied by
a set of ideas almost as ancient as itself, I have pleasure in
transcribing the following detached but instructive and suggestive
extracts from my note-book.

The fair Arya or Aryans, after about 2,000 B.C., penetrated India from the
northwest. Arya means "those who command" or "the venerable." The name
Hindu or Sindu was given to the Indian Aryans. Our knowledge of Hindu art
begins in the third century B.C. and none of the present popular forms of
Hindu religion are presumed to be earlier than the ninth century A.D. "It
is well known that the Brahman system and faith were not developed by the
Hindus till they had conquered the Ganges, Western and Southern India and
there is no trace of this tradition or even of Brahma as a deity in the
Vedas."...

"The suprem