Fyffe

Charles Alan, an English historian; born in Black heath, Kent, England, in December, 1845; was graduated at Oxford in 1868; and was called to the bar in 1876, but never practised. As correspondent of the ‘Daily News” during the Franco- Pru ian War he is said to have sent to that journal the first account of the battle of Sedan that appeared in print. On account of a false charge, he became depre ed and committed suicide. His historical works are distinguished by accuracy and a pleasing, perspicuous style. He died Feb. 19, 1892.: Fylfot, this symbol, like the cro of which it is in all probability a modification, is confined to no one religion, but is common to the great majority. In India the well-known sign of the fylfot is the Swastika of the Buddhists;- in Greece we find it as stamped on coins and painted on urns; on the breast of an Etruscan sphinx it a umes a shape like the arms of Man, with a fourth leg added; four different forms of it are found on aS many cimerary urns discovered under a bed of volcanic tufa on the Alban Mount; again we meet with it as the cruciform hammer of Thor, and sculptured on Runic monuments. In some of its forms it resembles the crux ansata of the Egyptians, and it was in use among the early inhabitants of South America. When the fylfot occurs in Asia Minor, Greece, Etruria, or Latium, it is probably connected with some system of phallic worship; but it has not, in all cases, a religious significance.