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

MICHAEL WORSHIP IN DON VALLEY 357

have seen that the Cassis in their Sun-worship figured Tas on their sacred seals with the Cross and Goats, and they ploughed and sowed under the sign of the Cross.

Other incidental evidence of the early establishment of Agriculture in the Don Valley by the Cassi-Phcenician Part-olon and his descendants is found in the fact that the Don Valley is one of the relatively few parts of Britain where Bronze sickles have been unearthed ;! and the place where the greatest hoard of these have been found bears the significant name of “ Avre-ton,’’? presumably ‘‘ Town of the Aryans.’ As further local evidence for the TascioMichael cult are the two ancient sacred wells called ‘‘ St. Michael's ” in the parish of the Newton Stone.*

In respect of the above evidence for the Aryan Kassi cult of the Corn Spirit Taxi in the Don Valley, it is interesting to find that Ptolemy in his “ Geography’’ calls the tribe inhabiting the Don Valley at the beginning of the Christian era “ Tezal(oi) ’ and the town “ Taixalon,’’ a name which appears to contain this “ Taxi” Corn cult title. These people probably inhabited, I think, the modern “‘ Dyce,” with its Stone Circle (see map, p. 19), now about four miles up the Don from Aberdeen city, but probably in those days nearer the sea. This ‘‘ Dyce,’’ with its local variants Dauch and Tuach, possibly preserves, I suggest, Ptolemy's ancient Briton name of “ Taixalon,’’* with which may be compared Texel Isle, off Friesland, in the home of the Anglo-Saxons. It is further remarkable that the shield of the city arms of Aberdeen should contain the Cross and three sheaves of Corn.

In view of all this evidence for the local prevalence in the Don Valley of the cult of the Corn Spirit Tascio St. Michael, it is interesting to find that the patron saint of the cathedral

‘Evidence of ancient commerce between Aberdeen and the East is indicated by ancient Grecian coins having been found at Cairnbulg in 1824, These included a gold tetradrachm of Philip of Macedon, 3 Greek silver coins of the same period and a brass coin of the Brutii of Magna Grecia. N.S.S., 4, 292.

* Arreton Down near Newport in the Isle of Wight. EBT, 204, 222=4.

CS pesyay dfx ire

* Ptolemy's work is known to have been based upon the earlier work of Marinus of Tyre, from an ancient Phoenician Atlas, so that his names are presumably older than his own date. The affix alon=the olon or “ Hittite’ title of Part-olon.