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Upon Plate XXII., facing page 44 of volume III., are three different instances of the crux ansata being attached to the sun as the symbol of the Sun-God. Upon page 46 is another instance of the crux ansata being attached to the solar serpent issuing from the sun's disc. On Plate XXIII., facing page 52, is another illustration of the reception of the crux ansata from the Sun-God.
With the sign of Life? Good," and at her bidding the priests took cold-chisels and hammers and roughly cut upon its surface the symbol of the looped cross the crux ansata. "It is not enough," she said when they had finished. "Holly, lend me that knife of thine, to-morrow I will return it to thee, and of more value."
These exhibit in a series of scenes the dead god lying swathed as a mummy on his bier, then gradually raising himself up higher and higher, until at last he has entirely quitted the bier and is seen erect between the guardian wings of the faithful Isis, who stands behind him, while a male figure holds up before his eyes the crux ansata, the Egyptian symbol of life.
The connection between the crux ansata and the Sun-God in the minds of the inhabitants of the Land of the Nile in pre-Christian days, is very clearly set forth by an illustration of Khuenaten in the act of distributing gifts to his courtiers which faces page 40, volume I., of Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians."
The personage who confronts her wears a conical cap, and is clothed, like the worshipper of the corresponding representation, in a long robe pressed close to the body by a girdle a cordeliere; he has also the crux ansata, and holds in the right hand an object the character and use of which I am unable to conjecture.
In some forms of the dance there is a 'Lord' and a 'Lady, who carry 'Maces' of office; these maces are short staves, with a transverse piece at the top, and a hoop over it. The whole is decorated with ribbons and flowers, and bears a curious resemblance to the Crux Ansata.
The evidence of Hindostan is however outweighed by that obtainable from the antiquities of Western Asia, concerning some of which Sir A. H. Layard wrote: "The crux ansata, the tau or sign of life, is found in the sculptures of Khorsabad, on the ivories of Nimroud which as I have shown are of the same age carried too by an Assyrian King."
Indeed this wanderer was none other than the prince Aziel, nick-named the Ever-living, because of a curious mole upon his shoulder bearing a resemblance to the crux ansata, the symbol of life eternal among the Egyptians. By blood he was a grandson of Solomon, the mighty king of Israel, and born of a royal mother, a princess of Egypt.
Returning however to the matter more particularly in hand, it should be pointed out that the crux ansata mentioned by Layard is not the only kind of cross to be found upon the relics of ancient Babylonia and Assyria. For the cross of four equal arms and the solar wheel are also to be met with.
On it is a crux ansata, with two figures at the sides, both in front and behind, believed to be the four Evangelists. On the exterior of the arms are ten lighted tapers, thought to symbolise the ten churches founded in Africa by SS. Matthew and Mark. Below the medallion in front is a Lamb on a hill, from which the rivers of Paradise flow, and on which is either a vine or a fig-tree.
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