A writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ of January, 1870, hazards the opinion that this was the mark which the prophet was commanded to impress upon the foreheads of the faithful in Judah, as recorded in Ezekiel ix. 4. He gives no reason or authority for this statement, but probably derived it from St. Jerome and others of his time, who said that the letter _tau_ was that which was ordered to be placed on the foreheads of those mourners. Jerome says that the Hebrew letter _tau_ was formerly written like a cross. As to the name of this cross, the popular designation is clearly a mistake, since its origin dates back centuries before the mythology of the north was developed. In India it was known as the swastika of the Buddhists, and served as the monograms of Vishnu and Siva. Such are its associations and uses at the present day, and, no doubt, they have been the same from the very advent of the religions of these respective deities. The enquirer has, however, not even here measured the limit of its antiquity, for in China it was known as the Leo-tsen long before the Sakya-Buddha era, and was portrayed upon the walls of their pagodas and upon the lanterns used to illumine their most sacred precints. It has ever been the symbol of their heaven. In the great temple of Rameses II., at Thebes, it is represented frequently with such associations as conclusively prove that its significance was the same in the land of the Nile as in China. All over the East it is the magic symbol of the Buddhist heaven; the chief ornament on the sceptres and crowns of the Bompa deities of Thibet, who dispute the palm of antiquity with all other divinities; and is beautifully pressed in the Artee, or musical bell, borne by the figure of Balgovina, the herald or messenger of heaven. The universality of the use of this symbol is proved by its prevalence as well in Europe as in Asia and Africa. Among the Etruscans it was used as a religious sign, as is shown by its appearance on urns exhumed from ancient lake-beds situated between Parma and Pacenza. Those taken from the Lacustrine cemeteries are thought to date back to 1000 B.C. On the terra-cotta vases of Alba Longa the same sign is impressed, and served as the symbol of Persephone, the awful queen of the shades, the arbiter of mortal fate; while on the roll of the Roman soldier it was the sign of life. On the old Runic monuments it is ever present. Even in Scotland it is found on sculptured stones of unknown age. The most numerous examples of this form, however, are found in the sculptures of Khorsabad, and in the ivories from Nimroud; here occur almost all the known varieties. It has been observed, too, in Persia; and is used to this day in Northern India to mark the jars of sacred water taken from the Indus and Ganges. It is especially esteemed by the inhabitants of Southern India as the emblem of disembodied Jaina saints. Very remarkable illustrations of it, carved in the most durable