inscriptions to Bel invoke "the blessings of of "Resef Mikel " or " Mikel of the Food-Corn.” The foregoing Egyptian abbreviated forms of the name "Michael" as Makh and Makhu, etc., are interesting as having parallels in the Sumerian, Syriac, Sanskrit and Gothic. Even the Hebrew form " Micha-el," which has been adopted as the English form of his name, has been generally regarded as having for its final syllable the Semitic el or "god," which thus gives the proper name as "Micha." In Syriac charms St. Michael, as the protector of the grain crops against damage, is invoked as "Miki, Mki-ki." In the Gothic Eddas he is Miok, Moeg, Mag-na and Mikli, son of Thor. [In the Vedas," Magha-van" or " Winner of Bounty (Magha)," a title of the Sun-god Indra and of some of his devotees; and the Vedic month Magha is the chief Harvest month and the month of great festival. He also seems to be the Mash divinity of the Amorites and Babylonians, who was a "Son of the Sun-god," and the bearer, as we have seen, of the "Mash" or "Mace as the Red Cross.] " This identity of Tas or Tas-Mikal, under these slightly variant spellings, in Egypt, Vedic India, Phoenicia, HittoSumer, and Ancient Britain is absolutely confirmed and established by the essential identity in the representations of this divinity along with the Cross and his Goat (or "Gothic" rebus). He is figured with the Cross and Goat, as we have seen on the Hitto-Sumer seals (Figs. 59) and on Phoenician coins (Figs. 64) and on ancient Briton coins (Figs. 65, etc.), and Early Briton monuments (Figs. 60, etc.). Similarly is he figured in Ancient Egypt (as Resef or Resaph) with the Cross and Goat (Fig. 69) and in India as Daxa (or "the Dextrous Creator") with the Goat's head and field of Food-crops (Fig. 70). His Goat relationship is celebrated in the Sumerian Other Egyptian spellings of his name are Makhi, a seasonal god (B.E.D., 275) and Makhi, god of Fire altar (ib., 286a). " H. Gollancz, Syriac Charms, lxxxii. 3 See Clay, Empire of Amorites, 179. "Mash is an interchangeable title of the reflex solar divinity whose name is usually conjecturally rendered “Ninib” and “Uras” (ib., 179), whose Hittite shrine in Palestine was at "Uras-ilim" or Jerusalem, as we have seen. TAS, TAX OR DIAS IN VEDAS, EGYPT & BRITAIN 353 litanies, where he is hailed as "Divine leader, the HeGoat" (Indara); and as the protector of "the Goatman" (i.e., Goth). The spelling of the name "Tascio" on Briton coins is also parallel in its variations to the variations in the HittoSumerian and Sanskrit and in the Phoenician and GrecoPhoenician coins. Thus in Briton coins the name is spelt Tas, Tasc, Tasci, Tascio, Tascia, Taxci, Tevi, Tascif, Tascf, Tasciovan, Tasciovani, Tigiio, Dias, 10 Deas, Deascio. In Sumerian Taxi, Takhi or Dias, also Ta-xu, 12 Tas, Tuk or Duk. In Hittite 2 9 Elim., C.I.W.A., 2, 55, 31f. and S.H.L., 284, 446; cp. M.D., 271. Hindu Mythology, 309. 8E.C.B., Pl. 10, 7. See Fig. 67. 10 Figs. A and B. C.I.S., 1, 38. E.C.B., 5, 9. See Fig. 62. 9 Ib., 17, 3. 11 Brit. Num. Jour., 1912. P. Curlyon-Britton, 1-7. 12 Br., 4052, and significantly it is written by character for Wing' or Hand+Bird, i.e., "The Winged Michael." A variant Tis-xu (hitherto read Tis-pak) is "The Bird Messenger of God." Tash-ub (or "Tash of Plough "), Teisbas or Dhuspuas in Van inscriptions, and Su-Tax or Su-Takh (or "Tax the Sower"); and he is the Dagon of the Philistines. In Indian Vedas Tvashtr (or Taks") and Daxa or Daksha for solar Creative gods of food and animals, of whom the first fashions the bolt of Indra, creates the Horse, so frequently associated with Tas in the later period, has the food and wine of the gods, and bowl of wealth and confers blessings. On the Phoenician and GrecoPhoenician coins of Cilicia the name is spelt Dioc, Dzs, Dek and Theoys; and in coins of Phoenicia Dioc, Dks, Thios, Tes, Theas and Theac." And significantly the name "Tasc" still survives in the Scottish Task for "Angel or Spirit." And he is presumably the "Thiazi" or Ty giant warrior assistant of Thor in the Gothic Eddas, the Tuisco of Saxons and Germans, who gave his name to Tues-day, the " Tys-day" of the Scots-for which the corresponding French name "Mar-di" seems to preserve his Sumerian synonym of " Maru" (or Mar-duk). The Greek title of "Dionysos" (or properly, Dionusou or Dionusos of Homer) hitherto inexplicable, now seems to be possibly the Sumerian synonym for Tas as "Ana-su" or The Descending God," presumably to denote his angelic messenger function, with divine prefix Di (the Sumerian Di," to shine") and hellenized into "Di-onysos." " As the patron saint of Agriculture, Corn Spirit and Heavenly Husbandman or "Spirit of the Plough," Tas or Taxi, who, we have found, figured with the Plough in the Early Hittite rock-sculptures (Fig. 62, p. 340), bore in the Early Sumerian (or Phoenician) inscriptions the title of "Dasi of the Spear of Ploughshare Produce "—wherein the word for "Spear" (Gir, the old English Gar) is poetic for Plough"; and the word for "Fruit sprout produce" is pictured by a ploughshare, Lam,' which is presumably the Sumerian source of the name of the Scottish Early Harvest festival "Lam-mas." Thus, at this early period, the Aryan 1 See Figs. 64, etc., and H.C.C., lxxxix, cxiv, etc. H.C.P., 214-6; 259, 261, etc.; 164, etc.; 53, etc. 3 J.S.D., 549. " Samian ware. 4 Br., 10834. " " was the name of a celebrated Roman potter of • Da-si lam-gir, hitherto rendered with signs transposed as " Nin-gir-su." 'Br., 309 and cp. B.B.W., 2, p. 8. TAS-MICHAEL AS SPIRIT OF THE PLOUGH 355 founders of Agriculture seem to have "beaten their swords into ploughshares "-the Spear of the Hittite warrior-god "Tash-of-the-Plough," Tash-ub or Dash-ub Mikal, which indeed seems represented in his hand as of plough shape in some of the Ancient Briton coins (see Fig. 65g).1 Now this discovers to us the long-forgotten meaning of a complex symbol found very often on prehistoric monuments in Britain and hitherto called merely descriptively "The Crescent and Sceptre." This symbol of unknown meaning significantly occurs in the neighbourhood of our Phoenician monument of Newton on three prehistoric sculptured stones, removed from a moor bordering the N.E. foot of Mt. Bennachie and the Gady, and now preserved in the adjoining village of Logie (see map, p. 19), whence they are called "The Logie Stones," one of which is figured at p. 20 (Fig. 5B), wherein this complex symbol occupies the middle of the stone above the "Spectacles" and below the circular Ogam inscription at the top. This hitherto inexplicable prehistoric symbol of the Crescent and Sceptre" is now discovered to represent the earth-piercing of Tas, the heavenly husbandman-piercing the earth by his spear-plough and heaving up the soil into ridges for cultivation; and the direction of the piercing it will be noticed is in the Sun-wise lucky direction, towards the west. The lower symbol, the so-called "Spectacles and Sceptre," we have already discovered is the solar swastika in the form of the conjoined Day and "Night" (or "resurrecting") Sun of the Sumerian theory, with the arrows indicating the direction of movement from the East to the West, and thence "returning" underneath to the Eastern sunrise. Another of these prehistoric monuments with the Earth-piercing and solar "Spectacles" is at the adjoining village of Bourtie (or village of Barat ?).2 This identification of the "Crescent and Sceptre" with the Spear-plough of Taś is confirmed and established by the Ogam inscription carved on the top of the stone, around the margin of the Sun's disc; and it has hitherto remained undeciphered, because in the absence of clues there was no 1E.C.B., Pl. 5, 10 and 12. 2 S.S.S., I, Pl. 132, 3. indication where the stroke letters began or ended, so as to make any recognizable sense to Ogam's scholars.1 It reads, I find, in the sunwise direction, B(i)l Tachab Ho R(a), see Fig. 71. FIG. 71.-Logie Stone Ogam Inscription, as now deciphered, This gives the translation: "To Bil (and) Tachab, Ho raised (this)." Here it is noteworthy that this other Briton inscription to the Sun-god Bil has precisely the same ending formula of R(a) or "raised" as in the two of the Cassi-Phoenician Part-olon's adjoining monuments to the same god; and it is presumably of or about the same date as the latter. The name of the erector, Ho, is in series with the Cymric traditional name of "Hu Gadarn" (or Hu the Gad or Phoenician, the Noble or Chief?) for the first traditional Cymric king from the Ægean who arrived in Britain. It is presumably the source of the modern "Hugh." Significantly "Hu'a" was the Cassi name of a royal ambassador of the Cassi emperor of Babylonia to the Egyptian Pharaoh, in the Amarna letters of about 1400 B.C. ;" and "Hu Tishup" also appears as an Aryan Cassi name, and Hu is a common front-name in the personal names of the Cassis of Babylonia and Syria-Cilicia. The erector "Ho" was thus presumably a Cassi Barat in race, like Part-olon; and we 'See B.O.I., 358. 6 5 2 The 5 strokes above the line may be read CH or Q-here CH appears to be the intended value. 3 Welsh Triads, 6 and 7. Hu'a, ambassador of emperor Burna Buriash to Pharaoh Amen-hotep III., A.L.W., 9, 5. |