"Among other remains in these lake-dwellings, pottery has been in many cases found, and these vessels bear, on the bottom, crosses of various forms, as well also curious solid double cones. That which characterises the cemeteries of Golasecca, says M. de Mortillet, and gives them their highest interest, is this:--first, the entire absence of all organic representations; we only found three and they were exceptional, in tombs not belonging to the plateau; secondly, the almost invariable presence of the cross under the vases in the tombs. When we reversed the ossuaries, the saucer-lids, or the accessory vases, we saw almost always, if in good preservation, a cross traced thereon ... the examination of the tombs of Golasecca proves, in a most convincing, positive, and precise manner, that which the _terramares_ of Emilia had only indicated, but which had been confirmed by the cemetery of Villanova; that above a thousand years before Christ, the cross was already a religious emblem of frequent employment."[7] "There is every reason to suppose that the cross was a symbol of more import in the early patriarchal ages than is generally imagined. It was not only the _first letter_, but it was also the emblem, of Taut, the Mercury, the word, the messenger of the gods, the angel, as we may say, of his presence, himself a god among the Egyptians and the Britons, whose god Teutates was analagous both in name and nature; a winged messenger. M. Le Clerc, one of the ablest mythologists who ever wrote, has shown that the Teutates of the Gauls, the Hermes of the Greeks, the Mercury of the Romans, were all one and the same. The Ethiopic letter _Taui_, or _Taw_, says Lowth, still retains the form of a cross, =X=; and the Samaritan =T=, which the Ethiopians are said to have borrowed from the Samaritans, was in the form of a =X= cross. In several Samaritan coins, says Montfaucon, to be found in the collections of medallists, the letter Tau is engraved in the form of a cross, or Greek Chi, and he gives as his authority Origen and Jerome. The Jewish High-priest, we are informed by the Rabbis, was anointed on his investiture, while he who anointed him drew on his forehead with his finger the figure of the Greek letter Chi, =X=."[8] CHAPTER III. _Heathen Ideas of a Trinity--The Magi--Ancient Theologies--The Indian Trinity--The Sculptures of Elephanta--The Sacred Zennar--Temples consecrated to Indian Trinities--The Greek Trident--Attributes of Brahm--The Hindu Meru--Narayana--The Trimurti--Gods of Egypt._