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xvl Introduction
of the hoariest antiquity, and still equally reverenced through-
out the East by Buddhists, and Hindoos, and Mahometans,
as a talisman of the highest auspiciousness and potency. This
symbol had attracted the attention of European antiquarians
lone before the\- beoan to recognise it as a symbol of the
revolving sun. The late Edward Thomas, the most accomo
plished oriental numismatist of our generation, was the first to
point out, in Vol. XX. [1880] of the Numismatic Chronicle,
that in certain ancient coins the Solar Wheel was replaced by
the svastika. It was obvious that the svastika on these coins
was an abbreviated Solar Wheel, with four spokes instead of
twelve, the tyre, and the direction of the revolution of the
wheel, being indicated by the crossbars (or crampions) of the
svastika. But the decisive proof of the fact was the discovery
made by Percy Gardner, and announced in the same volume
of the Numismatic Chrotiicle [see also the Athencettm of
13th August 1892], that the name of the Thracian town of
Mesembria [the Megarean, not the Samothracian Mesembria],
meaning " the (city of the) Mid-day (sun) " is figured on some
of its coins by the syllable Mes, followed b\- the svastika,
as the equivalent of embrta, that is hcmcria.
There is another interesting proof of the svastika being a
symbol of revolving movement, if not of solar revolution, to
be found in Mr Alfred T. Butler's work on The Ancient
Coptic Churches. In Vol. I., ch. iii., Mr Butler describes the
church oiAbu-s Sefain, " Father of the Two-Swords," dating
from the loth century. In the open court behind the man-
darah, or Reception Room, is an enclosed flour mill, the big
cog-wheel of which revolves on a heavy pivot, turning,
above, in a solid beam, on which are deeply carved, side by