The Phœnician origin of Britons, Scots & Anglo-Saxons : discovered by Phœnician & Sumerian inscriptions in Britain, by preroman Briton coins & a mass of new history : with over one hundred illustrations and maps

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. 652).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 Phcenician 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. £9), 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 symboi 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 ?).*

This identification of the ‘‘ Crescent and Sceptre ’’ with the Spear-plough of Tas 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. Popeishy Ma pek iby. cy