th beautiful and ingenious symbolical signs,
amongst which the sun-god always occupies the most prominent position.
But the fire-machine of our primeval ancestors, the holy sacrificial
altar with blazing flames, the holy soma-tree, or tree of life, and the
_rosa mystica_, are also very frequently met with here.

This mystic rose, which occurs very often in the Byzantine sculptures,
and the name of which, as is well known, is employed to designate the
Holy Virgin in the Roman Catholic liturgies, is a very ancient Aryan
symbol, as yet, unfortunately, unexplained. It is very ancient, because
I find it at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, in the strata of the
successors to the Trojans, which must belong to a period about 1,200
years before Christ.

At a depth of 30-1/2 feet, among the yellow ashes of a house destroyed
by fire, I found silver-ware ornaments and also a very pretty gold
ear-ring, which has three lows of stars on both sides; then two bunches
of earrings of various forms, most of which are of silver and terminate
in five leaves.

I now come to the strata of _debris_ at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet,
which are evidently also the remains of a people of the Aryan race, who
took possession of the town built on the ruins of Troy, and who
destroyed it and extirpated the inhabitants; for in these strata of ten
feet thick I find no trace of metal, and the structure of the houses is
entirely different. All the house-walls consist of small stones joined
with clay. In these strata--at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet--not only
are all the stone implements much rougher, but all the terra-cottas are
of a coarser quality. Still, they possess a certain elegance.

A new epoch in the history of Ilium commenced when the accumulation of
_debris_ on this hill had reached a height of 13 feet below its present
surface; for the town was again destroyed, and the inhabitants killed or
driven out by a wretched tribe, which certainly must likewise have
belonged to the Aryan race, for upon the round terra-cottas I still very
frequently find the tree of life, and the simple cross and double cross
with the four nails. In these depths, however, the forms of the whorls
degenerate. Of pottery, however, much less is found, and all of it is
considerably less artistic than that which I have found in the preceding
strata. With the people to whom these strata belonged--from 13 to 6-1/2
feet below the surface--the pre-Hellenic ages end, for henceforth w